Viderunt Omnes By Magister Leo

Part I of Essay
When George Gershwin wrote "I Got Rhythm," he knew that, for generations to come, listeners and performers alike would have a good idea of what he meant. After all, there would be recordings and piano rolls of his actual performances of the piece. Not to mention a standa ....

Part II of Essay
.... to view the past through the prism of today, those who eventually set these ancient chants in standardized notation saw them through an equally tainted gaze. The Benedictine monks left most ornamentation out of their chant settings (C. 1900) because they viewed it as an 18th Century tradition.1 This bias, along with a need to have an easily learnable piece of music, tended to simplify, rather than embellish, the standardized arrangement. True, it could be argued that the text has a certain rhythmic lilt (conspectum gentium . . . ); howev ....