Abbot Helisachar's Antiphoner

Helisachar (Elisagarus), archchancellor to Louis the Pious, writes ca. 820 to his friend Nidibrius, archbishop of Narbonne, concerning an antiphoner that he and his palace musicians at Aachen have been revising. His remarks bear on the nature of the Gregorian melos and the manner of its transmission, three quarters of a century before the first preserved antiphoners with neumes. Helisachar9s language indicates that musical substances were fixed in detail and precisely memorized. It also suggests that his antiphoner was, as a matter of course, provided with music notation. An eventual critical edition of the Gregorian proper melodies will want to take that into account.