Accent and Gregorian Melody
The idea of the tonic accent in Gregorian melody runs through the entire Solesmes tradition from Gontier to Pothier to Mocquereau to the present.
Old Solesmes Method
“Momentous Release!” • Freakishly Rare Gradual & Vesperal Published by Pothier’s Protégé (1,638 pages!)
He screamed into the telephone: “There’s no such thing as Gregorian Chant!”
“Solesmes Ictus” • Can It Be Justified? (Examples)
“If you begin by telling a man that in a word like 𝐷𝑒𝑢𝑠 the first syllable corresponds to the weak beat, the second to the strong beat of a modern bar, the only thing accomplished will be to bewilder him thoroughly.” —Father Bewerunge
“Solesmes Method” • Where was it developed?
Father Ralph March wrote: “If any single man could deserve the title father of the renewed chant it would be Dom Joseph Pothier.”