Théodore Nisard’s Accompagnement du Plain-Chant from Dictionnaire Liturgique, Historique et Théorique de Plain-Chant et de Musique d’Église Au Moyen Age dans les Temps Modernes (1854): An English Translation

Authors

Gerald W. Holbrook, University of Nebraska - LincolnFollow

Date of this Version

November 2006

Document Type

Article

Comments

A DOCTORAL DOCUMENT Presented to the Faculty of The Graduate College at the University of Nebraska In Partial Fulfillment of Requirements For the Degree of Doctor of Musical Arts. Major: Music. Under the Supervision of Professors Quentin Faulkner and Christopher Marks. Lincoln, Nebraska, December 2006.
Copyright 2006 Gerald W. Holbrook.

Abstract

Joseph Louis d’Ortigue (1802-1866), a music critic in Paris beginning in 1829, succeeded Hector Berlioz as a writer for the Journal des dèbats. He first published writings on opera, but after 1840 because of a fascination with religious music, especially chant, he devoted himself to the study of this genre, eventually undertaking his Dictionnaire Liturgique, Historique et Théorique de Plain-Chant et de Musique d’église au moyen age et dans les temps modernes (1854). For this work he commissioned Théodore Nisard, also known as Abbé Théodule Elzéar Xavier Normand, a Belgian organist and editor, to write a treatise on organ accompaniment of plain-chant. Nisard discusses basic rules of contrapuntal accompaniment of plain-chant according to theorists from earlier periods up to his present day. He includes numerous musical examples that provide much information about different manners and concepts for accompanying chant.
Advisor: Christopher Marks; Co-Chair: Quentin Faulkner