Around the mid-800s Frankish musical aspirations crystallized into several large, impressive forms. Perhaps the most impressive is the form called either sequence or prose (the reason for the double name will soon be clear). The sequence, or prose, has sometimes been made difficult to understand because of the undue stress laid upon its prehistory—where it came from, rather than what it was. Basically the sequence, or prose, was a big, new, independent type of piece created around 850 by Frankish composers out of a wide variety of ingredients. The prehistory of the prose is briefly this. In their enthusiasm for adding melismas, Frankish musicians around 800 sometimes replaced the repeat of the alleluia after the verse (not the rounding of the verse itself with a melisma similar to the jubilus) with an even more extended melisma called a sequentia (sequence), probably because it followed or continued the alleluia. Like other supplementary melismas, this sequence was occasionally texted; that is, a text was added syllabically to the preexisting melisma. Then, around 850, the sequence was drastically revised in structure and increased in size, becoming sometimes ten times as long as a normal alleluia and jubilus. At this point it was ridiculous to think of the new sequence as a mere extension of the alleluia melisma. This new sequence became an independent entity, even though when notated as a melisma it was still called sequentia, and still began with the word alleluia. This new, larger type of sequence came equipped with a special type of text called a prosa (prose), which was not a mere texting of a preexisting melisma, but rather a text created along with its melody—not just shaped according to that melody but shaping it in turn. Like Kyrie, this new musical form was for a while written down in two ways. When written as a melisma it was called sequence, and when written with its syllabic text it was called prose. But sequence and prose, tune and text, were now essential to each other, partners in a new artistic creation. The new sequence, with its prose, was radically different from the old sequence in structure and style. The new complex of sequence and prose matched up melisma and acclamation in a synthesis that included previous Frankish achievements but went far beyond them. The sequenceprose was the first Frankish musical form that rivaled the Gregorian gradual—from which it was totally different in style. With justifiable pride the Franks maintained their new creation in its liturgical place next to the gradual and alleluia at the musical high point of the mass. As often happens with important musical forms, the prose (the term used by the Franks for the combination of text and tune) did not grow straight out of any single line of development, but gathered up various stylistic elements. From the old sequence had come a name, a liturgical position, and the beginning word alleluia (when it was used) —but little else. The prose also included elements of the acclamations, both the abrupt, ejaculatory style of the laudes and the more flowery language of the tropes for introit.
Franks and Origins of Western Music
