Explanation of the Fluxus-notation            home

 

Cantatorium of Saint Gall (early tenth century; CH-SGs 359)

 

Fluxus (late twentieth century)

 

Fluxus is, along with traditional square notation, Lagal and some other notations, an alternative musical notation for gregorian chant. In Fluxus tenth-century adiastematic neumes from Saint Gall are placed on lines. Therefore all rhythmic (semiological), expressive and ornamental indications from the oldest sources together with the pitches from later times are easy accessible through one single notation.

 

Fluxus was first presented in: Tijdschrift voor Gregoriaans 22 (1997) 67-76. On August 29, 2009 during the 15th meeting of the IMS Study Group CANTUS PLANUS (Dobogókő, Hungary) a paper was presented on the Fluxus notation. In June 2011 at the international symposium Notarum Figura Auxerre (France) the book Scores for Tenth-Century Chant was presented, in which many chants, sometimes difficult to find elsewhere, were issued in Fluxus notation. This book can here be ordered.

 

In the book the question of the notation is linked to a critical alternative for the principle of Dom Prosper Guéranger (1805-1875, founder and first abbot of the monastery of Solesmes). The principle was formulated by Guéranger in his "Institutions Liturgiques" (1840-1851). On the base of this principle the monks of Solesmes collected hundreds of medieval manuscripts and copied the melodies on large "tableaux" which at last resulted in "the gregorian phrase" of the Roman Gradual of 1908. At the congress of April 1904 in Rome, Dom André Mocquereau (1849-1930) speaks about this principle as the fundament of the school of Solesmes. Even today attemps at critical editions of gregorian chant are largely based on this principle (e.g. in the Beiträge zur Gregorianik). The critical alternative to the principle of Solesmes is not based on "most" votes, but on the "best", that are primarily the tenth-century St Gall manuscripts, and second, the early adiastematic manuscripts as a whole, and only thirdly the diastematic manuscripts from South, Central and North Europe.

 

At Angelis suis and In longitudinem you find typical notations from manuscripts and modern editions.

 

Here you find ten responsoria and five offertoria (with verses) in Fluxus-notation.

 

Since the overviews of notations referred to above, especially two important scientific studies have been published (including digital editions):

 

Katherine Eve Helsen, The Great Responsories of the Divine Office, Aspects of Structure and Transmission (Regensburg 2008)

 

Rebecca Maloy, Inside the Offertory, Aspects of Chronology and Transmission (Oxford 2010)

 

Unfortunately the editions accompanying these publications are unusable for performance. Therefore you better consult the so-called "restitutions" from the semiological movement:

 

Dominique Crochu: Responsories at gregofacsimil.free.fr

 

Anton Stingl: Offertories at gregor-und-taube.de

 

 

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