Scan 777
Groves Dictionary Of Music And Musicians,vol.4, Ed.3, 1908
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1SEQUENCE
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5Another species of sequence is that in which a figure or melody is repeated a tone higher; this has been termed a ROSALIA (q.v.). Another, which is equally characteristic, is a repetition of a figure or passage a semitone higher; an example from the Eroica Symphony is quoted in Vol. III. p. 486 of this Dictionary.
7The device has never been bound to rigid exactness, because it is easy to follow, and slight deviations seasonably introduced are often happy in effect. In fact, its virtue does not consist so much in the exactness of transposition as in the intelligibility of analogous repetitions. If the musical idea is sufficiently interesting to carry the attention with it, the sequence will perform its function adequately even if it be slightly irregular both in its harmonic steps and in its melodic features; and this happens to be the case both in the example from the slow movement of Beethoven's sonata in Bb, and in the passage quoted from Schumann's fantasia. It is not so, however, with the crude harmonic successions which are more commonly met with; for they are like diagrams, and if they are not exact they are good for nothing. C. H. H. P.
9(b) (Lat. Sequentia, Prosa.) A hymn of peculiar structure, which owes its name to its position in the Mass; it appears there as the continuation or sequence of the Gradual and Alleluia. It originally was a long jubilus or melody without words, attached to the a of the Alleluia. (See TROPE.) In the 9th century in France words were adapted to the notes, and these were called a 'Prose,' because they followed the lines of the music and not any scheme of metre. When these compositions had thus won a place for themselves, fresh ones came to be written in regular metre, and the old name Prose being unsuitable gave way to the new name Sequence. From the 12th century to the 15th century such compositions were most popular; and many of the most beautiful specimens we possess were written by the great hymnologists who flourished during these productive periods. Mediaeval Office-Books contain innumerable sequences of striking originality; but at the last revision of the Roman liturgy, by direction of the Council of Trent, the greater number of these were expunged. Five, however, have been retained in the current missal; and these five occupy a very prominent position in the services in which they are incorporated, as well as in the history of ecclesiastical music.
11(1) The sequence appointed for Easter Sunday is Victimae paschali, the oldest now in use, and in reality a Prose, attributed to Wipo in the first half of the 11th century.
13(2) The sequence for Whitsunday, Veni Sancte Spiritus, in rhymed triplets of Trochaic
15Dimeter Catalectic, has been attributed 1 to Innocent III. at the end of the 12th century; it is called by mediæval writers, The Golder Sequence.
17(3) For the festival of Corpus Christi, S. Thomas Aquinas wrote the celebrated sequence, Lauda Sion, which is generally believed to date from about the year 1261.
19(4) To Innocent III. is also attributed the Stabat Mater, sung since 1727 on the Feasts of the Seven Dolours of Our Lady (the Friday in Passion Week, and the third Sunday in September). The authorship, however, has not been certainly ascertained; and many are inclined to attribute it to Jacobus de Benedictis (Jacopone). (See STABAT MATER.)
21(5) Even more celebrated than any of these is the Dies irae written, during the latter half of the 12th century or beginning of the 13th century, by Thomas of Celano, and sung in the Requiem, or Mass for the Dead. In the triple stanzas of this wonderful poem the rhymed Latin of the Middle Ages attained its highest perfection; and, though the Stabat Mater is frequently said to be second only to it in beauty, the distance between the two is very great.
23The plain-chant melodies of sequences differ from hymn melodies in their structure. The ancient jubilus was divided into sections, each of which is sung twice, and consequently a sequence melody properly consists of a series of phrases each of which is repeated. Similarly a sequence is a series of verses each dual in structure and consisting of strophe and antistrophe. They may be represented by the formula aa': bb': cc', etc. In the early rhythmical proses a, b, c, etc., are usually unlike one another; in the later metrical proses for the most part the same scheme runs throughout the words though the music varies. The Dies irae is irregular and does not conform to the usual type, because it was not originally a sequence at all. W. S. R.; revised W. H. F.
25SERAFINO, SANTO (SANCTUS SERAPHIN), and GIORGIO (uncle and nephew), two celebrated violin-makers of Venice. The uncle, as his label informs us ('Sanctus Seraphin Utinensis fecit Venetiis'), was originally of Udine, a town in the Venetian territory towards the mountains of Carinthia, and probably of Jewish extraction. His nephew, if we may judge from the style of his instruments, worked with the uncle many years, and appears to have succeeded him in the business. The instruments of Santo Serafino occupy a middle place between the Italian and the Tyrolese school. As far as external appearance goes, the maker seems to vacillate between the model of Stainer and that of Nicolo Amati. But in the essential particulars of the art, in the selection
271 For attribution to Stephen Langton of Canterbury, see the Table, May 22, 1926.
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