In message <[log in to unmask]
bochum.de>, Michael Walter <[log in to unmask]
bochum.de> writes
>The term used with respect to a chant as a whole is "morositas"
>(9th/10th c.). We had this some mails before: there is no difference
>between notes and text (Treitler called the neumes an extension of
>the text) or, respectively, fast singing or fast speaking.
But surely it must be possible to make a clearer distinction than that - if
there is a long melisma on a syllable, the speed of the verbal text is
inevitably slowed down.
>To make
>(coming back to celeriter) things worse: does "celeriter" mean 'sing
>fast' or does it mean 'considered that at this point usually the
>mistake occurs that the chant is slowed down instead of singing
>equal "notes" you must be aware to sing in the correct tempo'? In
>other wors: is it sufficent to simply translate the litterae
>significativae or should we ask for their special meaning in a given
>context? This aside, we really cannot know what 'fast' and 'slow'
>was. (But, admittedly, that's another question.)
I think we can infer from context that "lengthened" neumes in a melisma
were sung at what can loosely be termed "syllabic value", and that other
neumes imply a faster movement. Precisely how much faster or in what
time-relation is impossible to say. I can quite believe, however, that a
"celeriter" might have been present merely to be "emphatic", rather than
to say "even faster than usual".
--
Peter Wilton
The Gregorian Association Web Page:
http://www.beaufort.demon.co.uk/
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