Yesterday, I posted here an article titled A Modal Mentality for Modal Music. I found it brought new “modal” light on a reality that was already well explained by Dom André Mocquereau in “Le nombre Grégorien” (1904) in his paragraphs about “the reality of rhythmic movement” and “the nature of vocal movement”.

Short excerpts:

REALITY OF RHYTHMIC MOVEMENT
In modern philosophy, to move signifies to ”change place”; whereas in the philosophy of Aristotle, to move meant merely “to change”.(…)
The voice articulates a phrase, declaims a verse, or sings a melody: it moves in its own way and in a sense no less real. (…) Evidently, the movement is no longer local, nor visible, it is sonorous and vocal, but nevertheless real.

NATURE OF VOCAL MOVEMENT
“The human voice is so essentially a part of the vital principle, that it is universally identified with it in every language, or seriously recognized in its intimate analogy. The word is but a breath, but this breath is the spirit, the soul, and the immaterial principle of life itself. Form, palpable and visible, is indeed a condition of humanity, but movement is its very essence, and the voice is movement. Movement is immaterial and the sound of the voice is both immaterial and impalpable. “

Longer excerpt attached (6 pages) :