CONSIDERATIONS

ON THE NECESSITY OF RESTORING

THE CHANT OF THE CHURCH OF ROME

In all the Churches of the French Empire.

Without attempting to anticipate the time that the Government may see fit to fix, or the mode it will adopt for the execution of the article of the original: "Concordat" which prescribes the unity of liturgy in all the Churches of the Empire, I shall take the liberty of presenting to those whom this subject may interest some considerations on one of the branches of this operation to which I have given particular attention. I am speaking here of the ecclesiastical Chant properly so called, known by the Italians as Canto fermo fixed chant/plainchant, and by the French as Plain-Chant plainchant/plainsong. At the time of the proposed reform, it will be necessary either to compose new Plains-Chants plainchants for the texts that will be adopted to form the basis of the liturgy, or to transfer to them Plains-Chants plainchants chosen from those that currently exist. Now, what I propose to demonstrate in this memoir is that, of all those which exist or which could be composed on this occasion, the best and most suitable are those currently in use in the Church of Rome.