Prose or Sequence

From the Catholic Encyclopedia

I. DEFINITION AND GENERAL DESCRIPTION

The Sequence (Sequentia)-or, more accurately as will be seen further on, the Prose (Prosa)-is the liturgical hymn of the Mass, in which it occurs on festivals between the Gradual and the Gospel, while the hymn, properly so called, belongs to the Breviary. The Sequence differs also in structure and melody from the hymn; for whilst all the strophes of a hymn are always constructed according to the same metre and rhythm and are sung to the same melody as the first strophe, it is the peculiarity of the Sequence, due to its origin, that (at least in those of the first epoch) each strophe or pair of strophes is constructed on a different plan. A sequence usually begins with an independent introductory sentence or an Alleluia (an intonation with its own melody); then follow several pairs of strophes, each pair with its own melody; in the earlier periods the conclusion is uniformly an independent sentence of shorter or longer form. Each pair of strophes is composed of strophe and antistrophe, which exactly 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 hymn, the Sequence shows manifold diversity in outward 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, AND CLASSIFICATION

That the Sequence started from the Alleluia is generally 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 immediate predecessors of the Sequence), are still shrouded in obscurity and cannot now be determined with certainty, as the oldest documents are not contemporary, and from those which we possess no sufficiently definite conclusions can be drawn. With the aid of the "Analecta hymnica medii ævi"-especially the material of the last volume (LIII) edited by the Rev. H. M. Bannister and the writer of the present article-and with the assistance of the material gathered by Bannister for his forthcoming work on the Sequence 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 Alleluia with its melisma (i. e. a more or less long melodious succession of notes on its concluding a); in other words, the Alleluia which precedes the versus alleluiaticus. This succession of notes was called sequentia (or sequela, "that which follows"); synonymous terms are jubilus, jubilatio, neuma, melodia, as was later explained by Abbot Gerbert of Saint-Blasien: "Nomen sequentiarum antea jubilationibus ejusmodi proprium fuit, haud dubie, quia soni illi ultimam verbi syllabam seu vocalem sequebantur. 'Sequitur jubilatio', ut habetur in Ordine Romano II, 'quam sequentiam vocant'…. In citatis his locis agitur de Alleluia, in cujus ultima syllaba hujusmodi neumæ haud raro satis longe comparent in veteribus codicibus…. Ipsa illa repetitio a a a cum modulatione sequentia dicebatur. 'Post Alleluia quædam melodia neumatum cantatur, quod sequentiam quidam appellant', ait S. Udalricus lib. I consuet. Cluniac. cap. II. Belethus idem affirmat: 'Moris enim fuit, ut post Alleluia cantaretur neuma; nominatur autem neuma cantus qui sequebatur Alleluia.' Quod tamen ita intelligi debet, ut ipsi ultimæ vocali A conjungeretur" (Gerbertus, "De cantu et musica sacra", Typis St. Blasianis, I, 1774, pp. 338 sq.; cf. "Analecta hymnica", XLVII, 11 sqq.; XLIX, 266 sqq.). Hence sequentia is originally only a musical term; etymologically it is the same as the Greek 'akolouthía, although the latter word actually means something else (cf. Christ and Paranikas, "Anthologia græca", Leipzig, 1871, p. lvii). How far, however, we are justified in supposing Græco-Oriental influence from the similarity of the terms sequentia and 'akolouthía must be left undecided, especially as the Hymn too, though borrowed from the Greek 'úmnos, must be regarded as a genuine Western product without traces of anything essentially Eastern.

(2) It was the length of the melisma or jubilus over the ending a (when and how this length arose is not here in question) which probably led to its being divided into several parts (incisa, musical phrases). Each division was then called sequentia, and the whole, as comprising several such divisions, sequentiæ. 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 sequentiæ) sung by alternate choirs, each musical phrase being sung twice; exception was made in the case of a few jubili, apparently 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 divisions 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 divisions of the melody or sequentiæ-for it did not as yet apply to all of them-were provided with a text; this text, consisting of short versicles, was appropriately termed in the "Proœ;mium" of Notker "versus ad aliquot sequentias" (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 historical 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 we may give the first paragraphs of the jubilus "Fulgens præclara" from the Winchester Troper:

[IMAGE OMITTED]

The first three divisions of the jubilus are here without any text; they are pure melody sung to the vowel a; a text is then provided for the fifth division and its repeat; this is again followed by a on which the melody was sung; a text has been composed for the eighth and twelfth divisions as for the fifth; the ending is three divisions of the melody without any text.

(4) From these "versus ad sequentias" to the real Sequence was no great step; a text was now set to all the sequentiæ or divisions of the melody without exception, and we thus have what we call a sequence. The proper and natural title of such a melody with its text (a text which has neither rhythm, metre, nor rhyme) is doubtless "sequentia cum prosa" (melody with its text), a title found in old French sources. As this text (prosa) gradually became more prominent, and as it had to be marked before the melody, the use of the term "Prosa" for both melody 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 meaning of sequentia was lost, or from opposition to France which is frequently evinced in the language of the sequences, or from whatever other reason, employed almost exclusively the title Sequentia. In this connexion it is interesting to quote the remark of William of Hirschau in his "Consuetudines": "…pro signo prosæ, quam quidam sequentiam vocant". From the single title "Sequentia cum prosa" developed the two titles, "Prosa" and "Sequentia" (Prose and Sequence), which are now used promiscuously; the first is the older and more accurate, the second the more usual. (As a matter of curiosity we may mention that there have been people who took in earnest the interpretation of prosa as = pro sã, i. e. pro sequentia.)

This sketch of the development of the Prose or Sequence explains many peculiarities in the oldest sequences. Originally the text was adapted to a melody which already existed; as the divisions of theis melody (clausulæ), with the exception of the introductory and closing ones, were usually repeated by alternative choirs (cf. above II, 2), there arose double strophes of the same length and sung to the same melody-in other words, symmetrically constructed parallel strophes. These somewhat long pieces of melody (a musical division corresponding to the strophe of the text) were further subdivided into smaller divisions, shorter musical phrases with short half-pauses, so that the whole of the melody was divided into a number of short musical phrases of different lengths. Under these circumstances it was natural that at the beginning neither rhythm nor metre (still less rhyme, which is of relatively late origin) was taken into practical account, and the whole presented an appearance and form very different from what we usually understand by a poem. On the whole then the Prosa was true to its name in being prose, except that the fact that the antistrophe had to be as long as the strophe and that the end of the verse had, so far as possible, to correspond with the end of the word imposed a certain restraint. Moreover, as it seems, the first writers of sequences felt themselves especially bound by another law (frequently observed also in later times), which, it is important to note, prevailed without exception in the versus ad sequentias, the predecessors of the Sequence, and which, therefore, may not be considered the product of a later date; the jubilus of the Alleluia was built on its concluding a, and is thus the melody of the a. This a, the original text of the jubilus, ought therefore naturally to be prominent in the text which was introduced to replace it. As a matter of fact, in all versus ad sequentias and in many old sequences (especially the earliest), not only the strophes but often all the verses end in a. But we must not overlook the fact that in those of German origin this law is seldom observed or, more properly speaking, is still only occasionally used (cf. Analecta Hymnica, LIII, nn. 150, 160, 161, 185, 186), and even then it is not the verses but only the strophes which end in a. As an example of these peculiarities we may quote the first strophes of the sequence "Eia recolamus" (Anal. Hymn., LIII, 16), once a favourite Christmas sequence in all countries:-

[TABLE TEMPORARILY OMITTED]