PROSE
482
PROSE
the conclusion is uniformly an independent sentence
of shorter or longer form. Each pair of strophes
is composed of strophe and antistrophe, which ex-
actly agree in their length and the number of their
syllables (later also in rhythm and rhyme). The
execution was entrusted to two choirs (usually of men
and boys, respectively), the strophe being sung by
one and the antistrophe by the other to the same
melody. Thus, in contrast with the monotony of the
hj-mn, the Sequence shows manifold diversity in out-
ward construction, in melody, and in method of
execution. The various transformations which this
original plan underwent in the course of the centuries,
and according to which we divide sequences into those
of the first, the transitional, and the second periods,
will be considered in the next paragraph.
II. Origin, Development, .\nd Cl.\ssific.\tion. • — That the Sequence started from the Alleluia is gen- erally admitted, and may be considered as certain; but the manner of its origin and the various phases of its development before we get to what are termed the "versus ad sequentias" (which are the imme- diate predecessors of the Sequence), are still shrouded in obscurity and cannot now be determined with certainty, as the oldest documents are not contempo- rary-, and from those which we possess no sufficiently definite conclusions can be drawn. With the aid of the "Analecta hymnica medii sevi" — especially the material of the last volume (LIII) edited by the Rev. H. I\I. Bannister and the writer of the present article — and with the assistance of the material gathered by Bannister for his forthcoming work on the Se- quence melodies of all Western countries, we may trace the most probable development of the Sequence as below:
(1) The starting-point of the Sequence is the Alle- luia with its melisma (i. e. a more or less long melo- dious succession of notes on its concluding a); in other words, the Alleluia which precedes the versus alkluiaticus. This succession of notes was called sequentia (or sequela, "that which follows")! synonymous terms are jubilus, jiibilatio, neuma, melodia, as was later explained by Abbot Gerbert of Saint-Blasien: "Nomen sequentiarum antea jubila- tionibus ejusmodi proprium fuit, hand dubie, quia soni illi ultimam verbi syllabam seu vocalem se- quebantur. 'Sequitur jubilatio', ut habetur in Or- dine Romano II, 'quam sequentiam vocant'. . . . In citatis his loeis agitur de Alleluia, in cujus ultima syllaba hujusmodi neumae haud raro satis longa- corn- parent in veteribus codicibus. . . . Ipsa ilia repetitio a a a cum modulatione sequentia dicebatur. 'Post Alleluia quxdam melodia neumatum cant at ur, quod sequentiam quidam appellant', ait S. Udalricus lib. I con.suet. Cluniac. cap. II. Belethus idem affirmat: 'Moris enim fuit, ut post Alleluia cantaretur neuma; nominatur autem neuma cantus qui sequebatur .Alle- luia.' Quod tamen ita intelligi debet, ut ipsi ultimse vocali A conjungcretur" (Gerbertus, "De cantu et musica sacra ",Typis St. Blasianis, I, 1774, pp. 338 sq.; cf. "Analecta h>Tiinica", XLVII, 11 sqq.; XLIX, 266 sqq.). Hence sequentia is originally only a musical term: etymologically it is the same as the Greek iKoXoveia, although the latter word actually means something else (cf. Christ and Paranikas, ".\nthologia gra^ca", Leipzig, 1871, p. Ivii). How- far, however, we are justified in supposing Gra-co- Oriental influence from the similarity of the terms sequentia and iKo\ov8la must be left undecided, es- pecially as the H>-mn too, though borrowed from the Greek i/ivo!, must be regarded as a genuine West- em product without traces of anj-thing essentially Eastern.
(2) It was the length of the melisma or jubilus ever the ending a (when and how this length arose is not here in question) which probably led to ita being divided into several parts {incisa, musical
phrases). Each di\-ision was then called sequentia,
and the whole, as comprising several such divisions,
sequentia'. The reason for this division was a purely
practical one, viz. to allow the singers time to take
breath, and to effect this the more easily the practice
was introduced, so it would seem, of having these
divisions of the melody (or sequentia') sung by alter-
nate choirs, each musical phrase being sung t\\-ice;
exception was made in the case of a few jubili, appar-
ently the shorter ones, which have no such repetition.
This is the origin of the alternate choirs, and of the
consequent repetition of all or nearly all the di\-isions
of the melody. In the old musical manuscripts the
repetition is indicated by a d (=denuo or dupplex or
dis for bis; cf. discantus for biscantus).
(3) A much more important advance was made when some of the di\-isions of the melody or se- quentict — for it did not as yet apply to all of them — ■ were provided with a text; this text, consisting of short versicles, w-as appropriately termed in the "Proccmium" of Notker "versus ad aliquot se- quentias" (i. e. the verses or text to some of the divisions of the melody), in which expression the proper meaning of sequentia is preserved. When we reach these versus ad sequentias we are on safer his- torical ground. In the "Analecta hymnica", XLIX, nn. 515-30, we have examples of them preserved in some old French and English tropers; not a single example comes from Germany. For the purpose of illustration w-e may give the first paragraphs of the jubilus "Fulgens priEclara" from the Winchester Troper:
"FuIgEns praeclara*
The first three div-isions of the jubilus are here
without any tex-t; they are pure melody sung to the
vowel a: a text is then pro^-ided for the fifth division
and its repeat; this is again followed by a on which
the melodv was sung: a text has been composed for the
eighth and twelfth di\-isions as for the fifth; the end-
ing is three divisions of the melody without any tex-t.
(4) From these "versus ad sequentias" to the real Sequence was no great step; a tex-t was now set to all the sequentioe or di\-isions of the melody ^\-ith- out exception, and we thus have w-hat we call a sequence. The proper and natural title of such a melndv with its te\-t (a tex-t which has neither rhythm, metre.' nor rhvme) is doubtless "sequentia cum prosa" (melodv v.'ith its tex-t), a title found in old French sources. As this text (prosa) gradually be- came more prominent, and as it had to be marked before the melodv, the use of the term "Prosa" for both melodv and verse was only natural. France adopted and retained this term; on the other hand, Germany, whether from imperfect knowledge of the development or because the original meanmg of sequentia w.os lost, or from opposition to France which is frequently e^^nced in the language of the sequences, or from whatever other reason, em- ployed almost exclusively the title Seqmntia. In
