" "Return ye, then," (said the Emperor) "to St.
Gregory: he is the fountain, the rivulets are evidently corrupted." The
Emperor was obeyed, and the Gregorian chant was taught, both in France
and Germany, by Italian choristers. The Italian writers of the times
describe the difficulties which they experienced in forming the rough
and almost untuneable voices of their French and German pupils to the
softness of the Gregorian song. They appear to have succeeded better
with the Germans than the French. By these, their lessons were so soon
and so completely forgotten, after the decease of Charlemagne, that
Lewis the Debonnaire, his son, was obliged to request Pope Gregory IV.
to send him from Rome, a new supply of singers to instruct the people.
But music continued to prosper in Germany; it abounded in songs. Some
were amatory, (_muennelier_); some were satirical, (_cantica in
malitiam_); some heroic, (_cantica in honorem,_); some diabolical,
(_cantica diabolica_.) These consisted of incantations, and of
narratives of the feats of evil spirits.
Pages:
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30