Une Tradition en chantier : les méthodes de plain-chant "nouvelles et faciles" sous l'Ancien Régime

Xavier Bisaro (1)

1 CESR - Centre d'études supérieures de la Renaissance UMR 7323

During the 17th and 18th centuries, French ecclesiastical authors described chant as a symbol of stability of the Church. Despite this, numerous methods aimed to teach plainsong easily, briefly or newly, in other words differently compared to traditional learning. This paper goes further into this apparent contradiction by examining the context and the contents of these methods, from the Jacques Cossard’s Methodes pour apprendre a lire, a escripre, chanter le plain-chant, et compter (1633) up to the Pierre-Nicolas Poisson’s Nouvelle Méthode pour apprendre le plain-chant (1789). This study shows that chant notation and theory was pragmatically considered rather than ideologically, and that pedagogical innovation depended on pastoral needs during the Catholic Reform.

Mots clés: plain-chant; enseignement; théorie; Ancien Régime; France

Domaines: Musique, musicologie et arts de la scène

Xavier Bisaro. Une Tradition en chantier : les méthodes de plain-chant "nouvelles et faciles" sous l'Ancien Régime. Acta Musicologica, 2015, LXXXVII (1), pp.1-29. ⟨halshs-01166210⟩