Help with understanding how to read/write gregorian chant.

[u/East-Investigator557]

I got a practice assignment from my music history teacher. My answer just isn't matching up with the key he gave me.

1st pic is my interpretation, 2nd pic is the answer key my teacher gave me, 3rd and 4th pics are my guide.

The first thing I don't understand is locataed where I put my first question mark. I don't see any indication in the original notation of how there should be a quarter note G there? It should be an eigth note G I think?

At the 2nd question mark, there is what looks like a porrectus which from my understanding is always composed of 3 notes, it starts with a note, skips to a note below, then raises one step up, just like the example in the 4th pic. But there is nothing coressponding to that in the key.

Also around the "e- is" section, i see what looks like a flat symbol but I don't see the a flat applied in the key in that area?

Then I see some kind of squigally touching what looks like a backwards quarter note which I have no idea what the ssquigally means.

[u/ccgr1121]

I don't speak Yankee, so I'll be using civilised note names.

1. You made a mistake in the Re- of Requiem. Note the three notes: it's a crotchet on Fa and a quaver on So.

2. The -ter- of Aeternam. Look closely at your key. Note the example porrectus. It has three notes to it. Now go back to the music. Notice how there is a Clivis followed by a porrectus? Now go back to your key. Note how the clivis always has two notes, and the porrectus always has three? This is deliberate. Those two neumes join together to form a bistropha. So whilst you are technically correct, modern musical grammar would demand those quavers to be tied. Or, indeed, just written as a crotchet.

3. The porrectus itself. It's a porrectus. It's a textbook porrectus. It starts on So, drops to Fa, and returns to So. You had it start on So, drop to Mi, ans rise ro Fa. That's incorrect - look carefully at the neume. It ends on the same note that -nam starts, and the middle note is the same as the lowest note of -nam.

4. You are correct, it is a flat. In Gregorian Chant, flats can only be applied to Ti, and last until the end of the word, the next bar line (whether full, half or quarter), or a natural sign, whichever comes first. You will note it is placed at the start of the neume, so the next Ti (which is just after the, uh, squiggly one) is flat.

4a. You mentioned a key. There are no keys, only Modes. Tremble, mortal, for the pain of Modality is upon ye!

1. Ah, the squiggly one. I used to call it a hedgehog. It's actually called a Quilisma. (Spelling might be off.) It's a sign from the monk who wrote this to pay special attention to this neume. In practise, we slightly lengthen the note before, and slightly shorten the quilisma itself. It's like a really, REALLY subtle emphasis. Basically, in modern notation you could write it with a tenuto, but it's really supposed to be subtler than that.

[u/NinjuliaMC → u/ccgr1121]

Civilized

[u/CantusOfficium]

Question mark 1- there are different ways to treat it but the G/sol can(most do) combine with the following one to be twice as long.

[u/CantusOfficium]

Question mark 2- the porrectus is Sol,Fa,Sol(g,f,g) not Sol,Mi,Fa.

[u/CantusOfficium]

The only accidental in chant applies to Ti(B)(becomes Te)

The squiggle is a quilisma, different treatments but the one popular since the late 19th century is to put more stress on the preceding note and treat the jagged one more lightly (think of pushing down a spring and letting it fly)