The eight gregorian modes on the Cluny capitals. #2 Photograph by RicardMN Photography

The eight gregorian modes on the Cluny capitals. #2

by RicardMN Photography

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Title

The eight gregorian modes on the Cluny capitals. #2

Artist

RicardMN Photography

Medium

Photograph

Description

Capital of the ancient abbey church at Cluny, France. A woman, in dancing movement, holding two bell-shaped instruments.

Among the sculptural remains of the ancient abbey church at Cluny, finished around 1100, there are two capitals with representations of the eight scales—or modes, or tones—of the Gregorian chant. Preserved are four figures on one capital, and one figure only on the second capital. These are: 1st mode—a man, seated, plucking the strings of a lute-like instrument; 2nd mode—a woman, in dancing movement, holding two bell-shaped instruments; 3rd mode—a man, seated on a chair, his head inclined toward a stringed instrument which rests on his left knee; 4th mode—a man, in dancing position, with a carillon; 5th mode—destroyed; 6th mode—a man, seated, with a stringed instrument before him on a table or board; 7th mode—of the upper part of the body, only one bent arm is recognizable; 8th mode—destroyed.

This one is the 2nd mode.

We can identify the order of the modes from the inscriptions. The figures of the first capital, representing modes one to four, are surrounded by inscriptions placed on mandorlas. On the second capital, representing modes five to eight, the inscriptions, all of which are preserved, form a band encircling the middle of the capital. These tituli read:

Ist mode: Hic tonus orditur modulamina musica primus.
2nd mode: Subsequor ptongus numero vel lege secundus.
3rd mode: Tertius impingit Christumque resurgere pingit.
4th mode: Succedit quartus simulans in carmine planctus.
5th mode: Ostendit quintus quam sit quisquis tumet imus.
6th mode: Si cupis affectum pietatis respice sextum.
7th mode: Insinuat flatum cum donis septimus almum.
8th mode: Octavus sanctos omnes docet esse beatos.

There seems no doubt, then, that each figure was to represent one of the eight Church or Gregorian modes. But the explanation of the figures and of the meaning of the mottoes is problematic.

Several scholars have tried to identify the significance of the figures with the meaning of the mottoes, and at the same time to find a common denominator for this meaning and the emotional character of each scale. (Description from moodle.f.bg.ac.rs).