What is Gregorian semiology?
Gregorian semiology is the study of adiastemetic neumes (line-less, pitch-less squiggles) found in the earliest intact Gregorian chant manuscripts (9th-11th centuries) to inform melodic reconstruction and performance practice. There are two primary schools: St. Gall and Laon. This underscores the inseparable marriage bond between the neumes and the sacred text. Thus, the sacred text becomes the point of departure for interpretation. Gregorian semiology is practiced and taught throughout Europe (Switzerland, Germany, Italy).
Isn’t the Solesmes Method already successful in America?
The Solesmes Method has been indisputably successful in America, but the arbitrary rhythmic division of the beat into groups of twos and threes distorts the original relationship between text and rhythm.
Isn’t it too difficult to ask an average parish choir to sing the subtle nuances of the neumes?
No. While the degree to which each singer can understand and assimilate new information varies, that proposition assumes and imposes an arbitrary limitation. In my previous appointment, I worked with an amateur Gregorian chant choir for about six months twice a week and many were beginning to grasp the neumatic nuances by the time I left.
I’m not Catholic. Why should I care about Gregorian semiology?
There are transferable lessons to other musical disciplines: composers, choir directors, musicologists, and professors, as well as its relevance in early music and paraliturgical concerts. Among liturgical Protestants, Lutherans and Anglicans would benefit. Others who may be interested in the material include linguists, historians, and librarians.
I am Catholic. Can the average parishioner even notice a difference in the type of interpretation?
Over time, I suspect a difference in interpretation would be discernible, especially where congregational chant is practiced. Rather than singing, “Sanctus”, as is the norm in America, observing the tonic syllable by singing, “Sanctus”, would be noticeable. While listening, repercussions would be an obvious difference.
Isn’t it illicit to use an unofficial edition, like the Graduale Novum, in the Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite?
No. Using an unofficial edition has no bearing on the licety of the Mass, although the 1974 Graduale Romanum is the official edition. (Privately translated Mass Propers into the vernacular would by extension be illicit). The Graduale Novum cites paragraph 117 of Sacrosanctum Concilium as its impetus and Pope Benedict XVI praised the edition. If Rome truly mandated the Graduale Romanum, sanctions against the Pontifical Institute for Sacred Music would have long been enacted, since Gregorian semiology has been taught and fostered there since the 1950’s. Both volumes of the Graduale Novum are the current, default liturgical chant books at PIMS.
Isn’t the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite bound by the directives from the 1961 Missal that stipulate the use of the official edition, the Graduale Romanum from 1908 and the Solesmes Method?
The Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei (now subsumed into the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith) answered the second question in 2018 after 29 dubia regarding the liturgical practices of the Extraordinary Form were submitted. Ecclesia Dei affirmed that other rhythmic methods are acceptable. The former question would be an issue for the CDF. The source can be found here: https://forum.musicasacra.com/forum/discussion/16639/pced-answers-dubia-regarding-ef/p1.