Considerations on the Necessity of Restoring the Chant of the Church of Rome in All Churches of the Empire

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"produced nothing or almost nothing but from their own foundation. But if one compares the new pieces to the ancient ones...... , how much will they not appear inferior, and how much will they not make them regretted? For lack of studying the ancients, the composers of modern Chant have produced for the most part only unformed works....... The principles of the ancients are so reasonable, their rules so wise, their method so natural, that a thousand times I have been astonished that one could have abandoned them to the point where we have seen it for more than a century.

"But this first defect, although already considerable, is not the only one. Ignorance of the text, that of the rules of composition, the love of novelty, the attachment to one's personal taste, to one's particular usages, the precipitation, the interest perhaps, and the vanity, are also drawbacks that have finished deforming the Chant and corrupting it almost entirely.

"Of all the Churches that have provided new breviaries, some in truth were in more of a hurry..... , others less, to have the Chant composed for them. But each of them aspired to see this work finished at whatever cost....... From there came this crowd of people who offered themselves for the composition of the Chant. Everyone undertook to compose it and believed themselves capable of it. One has seen even schoolmasters who have not feared to enter the lists....... Is it not astonishing that the pieces of such authors have been adopted......

"One therefore chose those whom one believed to be the most skillful....... An enterprise of such long duration required a time that was proportionate to it, and one pressured them.......