ACCENTO CANTORALE. — Included under this designation are: a) the elements that formed primitive musical notation; b) the signs employed in the reading or simple chanting of liturgical recitatives, especially lessons; c) the distribution of syllables in the cadence.
Of all the hypotheses concerning the origin of the musical notation
of the Latin Church, the principle establishing its origin in the graphic representation of the tonic accent of the text remains demonstrated; the Latin musical repertory took its inspiration and rule from this. The graphic sign of the tonic a. (rising), corresponding to the upward gesture of the classical orator or of the director of ancient dance, was adopted to indicate the relatively high note; hence the sign called virgo. It should be noted that this was drawn from the lower left to the upper right. The grave a., on the other hand, was drawn from the upper right to the lower left, later becoming stylized as the punctum, more or less round or horizontal. From the combination of these two elements (virgo and punctum) the whole of the ancient musical notation was formed, known as “open-field” notation, without a staff, in which the entire sign, and not merely its extremities, has an integral meaning, unlike the present-day signs indicating the note.
The use of tonic a. (acute accents only) in liturgical recitatives was not consistent in the choral books. Sometimes no a. is found; sometimes only trisyllabic words are graphically accented; sometimes all words, except monosyllables, are accented, and so forth.
Since Gregorian cadences may have one or two a., the signs of the a. were employed in certain cantorals (Epistolaries, Evangeliaries, Office Lectionaries) to facilitate the adaptation subsequently to be made by readers to the prefixed musical formulas.
Giorgio M. Suñol