The Transmission of Western Chant in the 8th and 9th Centuries: Evaluating Kenneth Levy's Reading of the Evidence

Abstract

Since the 19th century, scholars have been attempting to discover the origins of Gregorian chant and to establish when musical notation began to be widely used in its redaction. For almost 30 years, Kenneth Levy's scholarship on the subject has been hugely influential. He hypothesizes that Gregorian chant was notated in the time of Charlemagne (742-814), or even Pippin (714-768). There are alternative ways of reading the 8th- and 9th-century evidence, however, and largely oral transmission of the Gregorian melodies until the later 9th century cannot be ruled out.

Mimésis, géstica e as “origens” da escrita neumática gregoriana em Zu einer Theorie der musikalischen Reproduktion de Adorno (breves notas)

“…52 As perguntas enunciadas não podem receber aqui sequer um esboço de resposta -elas surgem (também) por causa das interrogações de Adorno sobre as "origens", sobre o porquê e para quê da criação de sistemas de notação -os problemas da constituição do repertório no contexto do império franco, das suas conexões com a tradição de Roma, os mecanismos de transmissão oral e da sua articulação com a notação, contam-se entre as mais controversas matérias da investigação musicológica, espelhada numa amplíssima literatura, impossível de recensear. Veja-se, entre muitos outros, Corbin, 1952;Treitler 1982Treitler , 1984Levy 1987a;1987b;1990;Hucke 1980;Hughes 1987;Hucke 1988;Bernard 1996;Hornby 2004;Jeffery 1992;Karp 1998;Ferreira 2002;Boynton 2003;Pfisterer 2018;Rankin 2018Rankin . 2000Hiley 1993, 361-373).…”

Untitled

“…In his eyes it fully determines performance. 46 Early music notation fulfilled the needs for which it was created. Also, notation served different purposes in each period making it impossible to deem one form less sufficient than another.…”

Two Assemblages of Cultural Transmission: Musicians, Political Actors and Educational Techniques in the Ottoman Empire and Western Europe

“…21 21 In fact, Levy (1987) suggests that a partly notated –“neumed”– version of the Gregorian repertory might already be in existence in Charlemagne's time. For criticisms and an alternative view, see: Hornby (2004). …”