Tonary

Function and form

Tonaries were particularly important as part of the written transmission of plainchant, although they already changed the oral chant transmission of Frankish cantors entirely before musical notation was used systematically in fully notated chant books. Since the Carolingian reform the ordering according to the Octoechos assisted the memorization of chant. The exact order was related to the elements of the "tetrachord of the finales" (D—E—F—G) which were called "Protus, Deuterus, Tritus", and "Tetrardus". Each of them served as the finalis of two toni—the "authentic" (ascending into the higher octave) and the "plagal" one (descending into the lower fourth). The eight tones were ordered in these pairs: "Autentus protus, Plagi Proti, Autentus Deuterus" etc. Since Hucbald of Saint-Amand the eight tones were simply numbered according to this order: Tonus I-VIII. Aquitanian cantors usually used both names for each section.

The earliest tonaries, written during the 8th century, were very short and simple without any visible reference to psalmody. Tonaries of the 9th century already ordered a huge repertoire of psalmodic chant into sections of psalmtone endings, even if their melody was not indicated or indicated by later added neumes. Most of the tonaries which have survived until now can be dated back to the 11th and 12th centuries, while some were written during later centuries, especially in Germany.

The treatise form usually served as a bridge between the Octoechos theory and the daily practice of prayer: memorizing and performing the liturgy as chant and reciting the psalms. This can be studied at a 10th-century treatise called Commemoratio brevis de tonis et psalmis modulandis, which used the Dasia-signs of the Musica enchiriadis treatise (9th century) in order to transcribe the melodic endings or terminations of psalmody. 11th-century theorists like Guido of Arezzo (Regulae rhythmicae) or Hermann of Reichenau (Musica) refused the Dasia tone system, because it displayed tetraphonic tone system and not the systema teleion (corresponding to the white keys of the keyboard) which had all the pitches needed for the "melos of the echoi" (ex sonorum copulatione in "Musica enchiriadis", emmelis sonorum in the compilation "alia musica"). Nevertheless, the first example of the eighth chapter in Musica enchiriadis, called "Quomodo ex quatuor Sonorum vi omnes toni producantur", already used the fifth of the Protus (D—a) for an illustration, how alleluia melodies are developed by the use of the intonation formula for the "Autentus protus".

The different forms of a tonary

Tonaries can differ substantially in length and shape:

The tonary's function in chant transmission

During the Carolingian reform the tonary played a key role in the organization and the transfer of Roman chant, which had to be sung by Frankish cantors according to Charlemagne's admonitio generalis after it was decreed in 789. The historical background was the Second Council of Nicaea in 787 during which Pope Adrian I accepted the Eastern Octoechos reform also for the Roman church. Fully notated neume manuscripts like the gradual and the antiphonary were written much later during the last decades of the 10th century, and the oral transmission of Gregorian chant is only testified by additions of neumes in sacramentaries. In the tonary the whole repertory of "Gregorian chant" was ordered according to its modal classification of the Octoechos.

Michel Huglo developed in his dissertation the hypothesis about an original tonary which preceded the Metz tonary and the tonary of St. Riquier. It was probably a coincidence, that Pope Adrian I supported the Eastern Octoechos reform, but it is also evident that Carolingian diplomates present at the synode did not get interest in the communication of the modes by intonations called enechemata for the first time. Nevertheless, it was the difference between Greek and Latin chant sources and especially the particular function of the tonary in chant transmission, which led Peter Jeffery to the conclusion, that the huge repertoire of Roman chant was classified according to the Octoechos a posteriori. While early manuscripts of Greek chant always used modal signatures (even before neume notation was used), the fully notated graduals and antiphonaries of the first generation (10th century), written by Frankish cantors, report a lot of details about accentuation and ornamentation, but the melodic structure was remembered orally by tropes. Sometimes a tonary was attached to these manuscripts, and the cantors could use it by looking for the incipit of an antiphon in question (e.g. an introit ot communio), in order to find the right psalmody according to the mode and the melodic ending of the antiphon, which was sung as a refrain during the recitation of the psalm. A Greek psaltes would sing a completely different melody according to the echos indicated by the modal signature, while Frankish cantors had to remember the melody of a certain Roman chant, before they communicated their idea of its mode and its psalmody in a tonary—for all the cantors who will follow them. In this complex process of chant transmission, which followed Charlemagne's reform, the so-called "Gregorian chant" or Franco-Roman chant, as it was written down about 150 years after the reform, was born.

The tonary's function within chant transmission explains, why local schools of Latin chant can be studied by their tonary. Hence, the tonary was still substantial for every chant reform between the 10th and the 12th centuries, like the reform of the Cluniac Monastic Association (tonaries of Aquitania, Paris, and Fleury, but also in Northern Spain), the reform of a monastic orders like the one around Bernard of Clairvaux for the Cistercians (Tonale Sci Bernardi), a papal reform, like Abbot Desiderius realized at the Abbey Montecassino (Tonary of Montecassino), or the reform of some monasteries of a certain region, as Abbot William of Volpiano did for certain Abbeys in Burgundy and Normandy (William of Volpiano's Toner-Gradual and Antiphonary).

The Carolingian names or "Byzantine" intonations for the 8 tones

In Carolingian times each of the eight sections was opened by an intonation formula using the names like "Nonannoeane" for the authentic and "Noeagis" or "Noeais" for the plagal tones. In the living traditions of Orthodox chant, these formulas were called "enechemata" and they were used by a protopsaltes to communicate the basis tone for the ison-singers (a kind of bordun) as well as the first note of the chant for the other singers.

In his theoretical tonary "Musica disciplina", Aurelian of Réôme asked a Greek about the meaning of the intonation syllables used in Latin tonaries:

My mind was usually moved by some of the names, which were inscribed for the tones, as "Nonan[no]eane" for the protus, and "Noeane" for the deuterus. Did they have any significance? So I asked a Greek, how these could be translated into Latin. He answered that they did not mean anything, but they were rather expressions of joy. And the greater the harmony of the voice, the more syllables were inscribed to the tone: as in the "authentus protus" which was the first, they used six syllables as "No[neno]eane" or "Nonannoeane"; for "authentus tritus", which was smaller in measure [not so much worth], five syllables as "Noioeane" were inscribed. In plagal tones the letters were similar to "Noeane", as "Noeacis" according to them. When I asked him, if there might be something similar in our language, the Greek added, that I should rather think of something expressed by charioteers or ploughing peasants, when their voice had nothing else than this joy. The same contained the modulation of the tones [during their intonation].

The practice of using abstract syllables for the intonation, as it was common for the use of enechemata among Byzantine psaltes, was obviously not familiar to Aurelian of Réôme. It was probably imported by a Byzantine legacy, when they introduced the Greek Octoechos by a series of procession antiphons used for the feast of Epiphany. Although the Latin names were not identical, there is some resemblance between the intonation formula of the echos plagios tetartos νὲ ἅγιε and the Latin name "Noeagis", used as a general name for all four plagal tones. But there are some more obvious cases as particular names like "Aianeoeane" (enechema of the Mesos Tetartos) or "Aannes" (enechema of the echos varys) which can be found in very few tonaries between Liège, Paris, Fleury, and Chartres. Two of these tonaries have treatises and use a lot of Greek terms taken from Ancient Greek theory.

The later practice of the intonation verses

The oldest tonaries, especially the Carolingian like those of St. Riquier, Metz, Reichenau and the earliest tonary in a troper of Limoges (F-Pn lat. 1240), only used the so-called "Byzantine" intonation formulas, as they were discussed by Aurelian of Réôme (Musica disciplina), Regino of Prüm (Tonarius), and Berno of Reichenau (Tonarium). But since the 10th century, also biblical verses were used. They were composed together in one antiphon with each verse changing the tone and referring to the number of the tonus according to the system of Hucbald (Tonus primus, secundus, terius etc.), similar to Guido of Arezzo's use of the solmization hymn "Ut queant laxis". They were several different antiphons as they can be found in the Hartker-Antiphonary or the treatise collection of Montecassino (Ms. Q318, p. 122-125), but no one became so popular than a compilation of verses taken from the New Testament which started with "Primum querite regnum dei". Usually each verse is finished by a long melisma or neuma which clearly show its potential to become a tool of improvisation and composition as well. The origin of these verses is unknown. In some tonaries, they replaced the Carolingian intonations as in the tonary by Berno of Reichenau, but more often they were written under them or alternated with them in the subsections like in a certain group which Michel Huglo (1971) called the "Toulouse tonaries" (F-Pn lat. 776, 1118, GB-Lbl Ms. Harley 4951), but also in the tonary of Montecassino. Concerning the earliest fully notated chant manuscripts, it seems that the practice of singing the intonation formulas was soon replaced by another practice, that a soloist intoned the beginning of an antiphon, responsorium, or alleluia, and after this "incipit" of the soloist the choir continued. These changes between precantor and choir were usually indicated by an asterisk or by the use of maiuscula at the beginning the chant text. The psalmody could be indicated by an incipit of the required psalm and the differentia notated over the syllables EVOVAE after the communio or introit antiphon.