In altering or re-arranging words, or syllables, care should be taken to retain and mark the measure or accent of a melody, and only...

‘I know of no musician today who has any idea what it means to sing on the book. It was an improvised and simultaneous melody [chant]...

The summary below is from Jean-Paul Montagnier, “Le Chant Sur Le Livre Au XVIIIe Siècle: Les Traités de Louis-Joseph Marchand et Henry...

‘... France, where musical taste has always been somewhat backwards, has never abandoned the mania for improvising on plainchant. The...

We understand by [the term] vibrating sounds a certain undulation or trembling of held notes which indicate the emotion of the spirit...

‘At the present day the acquirement of flexibility is not in great esteem, and were it not, perhaps, for the venerable Handel,...

‘Among the old musicians it used to be customary to write a mere outline or suggestion of the voice part. Particularly was this the case...

‘The old masters of the French school, who never employed the head voice, wrote a part in their operas which they called haute-contre...