Gregorian Chant
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Gregorian chant is the central tradition of Western
plainchant Plainsong or plainchant (calque from the French ; ) is a body of chants used in the liturgies of the Western Church. When referring to the term plainsong, it is those sacred pieces that are composed in Latin text. Plainsong was the exclusive for ...
, a form of monophonic, unaccompanied sacred song in
Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...
(and occasionally
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) of the
Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
. Gregorian chant developed mainly in western and central Europe during the 9th and 10th centuries, with later additions and redactions. Although popular legend credits
Pope Gregory I Pope Gregory I (; ; – 12 March 604), commonly known as Saint Gregory the Great (; ), was the 64th Bishop of Rome from 3 September 590 until his death on 12 March 604. He is known for instituting the first recorded large-scale mission from Ro ...
with inventing Gregorian chant, scholars believe that he only ordered a compilation of melodies throughout the whole Christian world, after having instructed his emissaries in the Schola cantorum, where the neumatical notation was perfected, with the result of most of those melodies being a later
Carolingian The Carolingian dynasty ( ; known variously as the Carlovingians, Carolingus, Carolings, Karolinger or Karlings) was a Frankish noble family named after Charles Martel and his grandson Charlemagne, descendants of the Arnulfing and Pippinid c ...
synthesis of the
Old Roman chant Old Roman chant is the liturgical plainchant repertory of the Roman rite of the early Christian Church. It was formerly performed in Rome, and, although it is closely related to Gregorian chant, the two are distinct. Unlike other chant traditions ...
and Gallican chant. Gregorian chants were organized initially into four, then eight, and finally 12 modes. Typical melodic features include a characteristic ambitus, and also characteristic intervallic patterns relative to a referential mode final,
incipit The incipit ( ) of a text is the first few words of the text, employed as an identifying label. In a musical composition, an incipit is an initial sequence of Musical note, notes, having the same purpose. The word ''incipit'' comes from Latin an ...
s and cadences, the use of
reciting tone In chant, a reciting tone (also called a recitation tone) can refer to either a repeated musical pitch or to the entire melodic formula for which that pitch is a structural note. In Gregorian chant, the first is also called tenor, dominant or tu ...
s at a particular distance from the final, around which the other notes of the melody revolve, and a vocabulary of musical motifs woven together through a process called
centonization In music centonization (from Latin ''cento'' or patchwork) is musical composition via the combination of pre-existing motivic units, typically in reference to Christian liturgical chant. A piece created using centonization is known as a "centon ...
to create families of related chants. The scale patterns are organized against a background pattern formed of conjunct and disjunct
tetrachord In music theory, a tetrachord (; ) is a series of four notes separated by three interval (music), intervals. In traditional music theory, a tetrachord always spanned the interval of a perfect fourth, a 4:3 frequency proportion (approx. 498 cent (m ...
s, producing a larger pitch system called the
gamut In color reproduction and colorimetry, a gamut, or color gamut , is a convex set containing the colors that can be accurately represented, i.e. reproduced by an output device (e.g. printer or display) or measured by an input device (e.g. cam ...
. The chants can be sung by using six-
note Note, notes, or NOTE may refer to: Music and entertainment * Musical note, a pitched sound (or a symbol for a sound) in music * ''Notes'' (album), a 1987 album by Paul Bley and Paul Motian * ''Notes'', a common (yet unofficial) shortened versi ...
patterns called
hexachord In music, a hexachord (also hexachordon) is a six- note series, as exhibited in a scale ( hexatonic or hexad) or tone row. The term was adopted in this sense during the Middle Ages and adapted in the 20th century in Milton Babbitt's serial t ...
s. Gregorian melodies are traditionally written using
neume A neume (; sometimes spelled neum) is the basic element of Western and some Eastern systems of musical notation prior to the invention of five-line staff (music), staff notation. The earliest neumes were inflective marks that indicated the gener ...
s, an early form of
musical notation Musical notation is any system used to visually represent music. Systems of notation generally represent the elements of a piece of music that are considered important for its performance in the context of a given musical tradition. The proce ...
from which the modern four-line and five-line staff developed. Multi-voice elaborations of Gregorian chant, known as
organum ''Organum'' () is, in general, a plainchant melody with at least one added voice to enhance the harmony, developed in the Middle Ages. Depending on the mode and form of the chant, a supporting bass line (or '' bourdon'') may be sung on the sam ...
, were an early stage in the development of Western
polyphony Polyphony ( ) is a type of musical texture consisting of two or more simultaneous lines of independent melody, as opposed to a musical texture with just one voice ( monophony) or a texture with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chord ...
. Gregorian chant was traditionally sung by
choir A choir ( ), also known as a chorale or chorus (from Latin ''chorus'', meaning 'a dance in a circle') is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform or in other words ...
s of men and boys in churches, or by women and men of
religious order A religious order is a subgroup within a larger confessional community with a distinctive high-religiosity lifestyle and clear membership. Religious orders often trace their lineage from revered teachers, venerate their Organizational founder, ...
s in their chapels. It is the music of the
Roman Rite The Roman Rite () is the most common ritual family for performing the ecclesiastical services of the Latin Church, the largest of the ''sui iuris'' particular churches that comprise the Catholic Church. The Roman Rite governs Rite (Christianity) ...
, performed in the
Mass Mass is an Intrinsic and extrinsic properties, intrinsic property of a physical body, body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the physical quantity, quantity of matter in a body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physi ...
and the monastic
Office An office is a space where the employees of an organization perform Business administration, administrative Work (human activity), work in order to support and realize the various goals of the organization. The word "office" may also denote a po ...
. Although Gregorian chant supplanted or marginalized the other indigenous plainchant traditions of the Christian West to become the official music of the Christian liturgy,
Ambrosian chant Ambrosian chant (also known as Milanese chant) is the liturgical plainsong, plainchant repertory of the Ambrosian rite of the Roman Catholic Church, distinct from the more widely known Gregorian chant. It is primarily associated with the Roman C ...
still continues in use in Milan, and there are musicologists exploring both that and the Mozarabic chant of Christian Spain. Although Gregorian chant is no longer obligatory, the Roman Catholic Church still officially considers it the music most suitable for worship.The Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, Second Vatican Council
;
Pope Benedict XVI Pope BenedictXVI (born Joseph Alois Ratzinger; 16 April 1927 – 31 December 2022) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 19 April 2005 until his resignation on 28 February 2013. Benedict's election as p ...

Catholic World News 28 June 2006
both accessed 5 July 2006


History


Development of earlier plainchant

Singing has been part of the Christian
liturgy Liturgy is the customary public ritual of worship performed by a religious group. As a religious phenomenon, liturgy represents a communal response to and participation in the sacred through activities reflecting praise, thanksgiving, remembra ...
since the earliest days of the Church. It is widely accepted that the psalmody of ancient Jewish worship significantly influenced and contributed to
early Christian Early Christianity, otherwise called the Early Church or Paleo-Christianity, describes the historical era of the Christian religion up to the First Council of Nicaea in 325. Christianity spread from the Levant, across the Roman Empire, and be ...
ritual and chant. Christians read Scriptures and sang chants, as their Jewish predecessors had done. Although new Christian liturgy was developed, the source of much of this Christian liturgy was Jewish psalmody. The source materials for newly emergent Christian chants were originally transmitted by Jews in sung form. Early Christian rites also incorporated elements of Jewish worship that survived in later chant tradition.
Canonical hours In the practice of Christianity, canonical hours mark the divisions of the day in terms of Fixed prayer times#Christianity, fixed times of prayer at regular intervals. A book of hours, chiefly a breviary, normally contains a version of, or sel ...
have their roots in Jewish prayer hours. " Amen" and "
alleluia ''Hallelujah'' (; , Modern Hebrew, Modern ) is an interjection from the Hebrew language, used as an expression of gratitude to God. The term is used 24 times in the Hebrew Bible, Tanakh (in the book of Psalms), twice in deuterocanonical books, ...
" come from
Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...
, and the threefold "
sanctus The ''Sanctus'' (, "Holy") is a hymn in Christian liturgy. It may also be called the ''epinikios hymnos'' (, "Hymn of Victory") when referring to the Greek rendition and parts of it are sometimes called "Benedictus". ''Tersanctus'' (Latin: "Thr ...
" derives from the threefold "kadosh" of the Kedushah. The
New Testament The New Testament (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus, as well as events relating to Christianity in the 1st century, first-century Christianit ...
mentions singing hymns during the
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: "When they had sung the hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives" (). Other ancient witnesses such as Pope Clement I,
Tertullian Tertullian (; ; 155 – 220 AD) was a prolific Early Christianity, early Christian author from Roman Carthage, Carthage in the Africa (Roman province), Roman province of Africa. He was the first Christian author to produce an extensive co ...
, St. Athanasius, and Egeria confirm the practice, although in poetic or obscure ways that shed little light on how music sounded during this period. Musical elements that would later be used in the Roman Rite began to appear in the 3rd century. The '' Apostolic Tradition'', attributed to the theologian Hippolytus, attests the singing of
Hallel Hallel (, 'Praise') is a Jewish prayer, a verbatim recitation from Psalms which is recited by observant Jews on Jewish holidays as an act of praise and thanksgiving. Types Full Hallel Full Hallel () consists of all six Psalms of the Hallel, in ...
(Jewish) psalms with Alleluia as the refrain in early Christian ''agape'' feasts. Chants of the Office, sung during the canonical hours, have their roots in the early 4th century, when desert monks following St. Anthony introduced the practice of continuous psalmody, singing the complete cycle of 150 psalms each week. Around 375, antiphonal psalmody became popular in the Christian East; in 386, St. Ambrose introduced this practice to the West. In the fifth century, a singing school, the Schola Cantorum, was founded at Rome to provide training in church musicianship. Scholars are still debating how plainchant developed during the 5th through the 9th centuries, as information from this period is scarce. Around 410, St. Augustine described the
responsorial A responsory or respond is a type of chant in western Christian liturgies. Definition The most general definition of a responsory is any psalm, canticle, or other sacred musical work sung responsorially, that is, with a cantor or small group sing ...
singing of a
Gradual The gradual ( or ) is a certain chant or hymn in liturgical Christian worship. It is practiced in the Catholic Mass, Lutheran Divine Service, Anglican service and other traditions. It gets its name from the Latin (meaning "step") because i ...
psalm at Mass. At c. 520,
Benedict of Nursia Benedict of Nursia (; ; 2 March 480 – 21 March 547), often known as Saint Benedict, was a Great Church, Christian monk. He is famed in the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Lutheran Churches, the Anglican Communion, and Old ...
established what is called the rule of St. Benedict, in which the protocol of the Divine Office for monastic use was laid down. Around 678, Roman chant was taught at
York York is a cathedral city in North Yorkshire, England, with Roman Britain, Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers River Ouse, Yorkshire, Ouse and River Foss, Foss. It has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a Yor ...
. Distinctive regional traditions of Western plainchant arose during this period, notably in the British Isles ( Celtic chant), Spain (Mozarabic), Gaul (Gallican), and Italy ( Old Roman, Ambrosian and Beneventan). These traditions may have evolved from a hypothetical year-round repertory of 5th-century plainchant after the western
Roman Empire The Roman Empire ruled the Mediterranean and much of Europe, Western Asia and North Africa. The Roman people, Romans conquered most of this during the Roman Republic, Republic, and it was ruled by emperors following Octavian's assumption of ...
collapsed. John the Deacon, biographer (c. 872) of
Pope Gregory I Pope Gregory I (; ; – 12 March 604), commonly known as Saint Gregory the Great (; ), was the 64th Bishop of Rome from 3 September 590 until his death on 12 March 604. He is known for instituting the first recorded large-scale mission from Ro ...
, modestly claimed that the saint "compiled a patchwork antiphonary", unsurprisingly, given his considerable work with liturgical development. He reorganized the Schola Cantorum and established a more uniform standard in church services, gathering chants from among the regional traditions as widely as he could manage. Of those, he retained what he could, revised where necessary, and assigned particular chants to the various services. According to Donald Jay Grout, his goal was to organize the bodies of chants from diverse traditions into a uniform and orderly whole for use by the entire western region of the Church. His renowned love for music was recorded only 34 years after his death; the epitaph of Honorius testified that comparison to Gregory was already considered the highest praise for a music-loving pope. While later legends magnified his real achievements, these significant steps may account for why his name came to be attached to Gregorian chant.


Origins of mature plainchant

The Gregorian repertory was further systematized for use in the
Roman Rite The Roman Rite () is the most common ritual family for performing the ecclesiastical services of the Latin Church, the largest of the ''sui iuris'' particular churches that comprise the Catholic Church. The Roman Rite governs Rite (Christianity) ...
, and scholars weigh the relative influences of Roman and
Carolingian The Carolingian dynasty ( ; known variously as the Carlovingians, Carolingus, Carolings, Karolinger or Karlings) was a Frankish noble family named after Charles Martel and his grandson Charlemagne, descendants of the Arnulfing and Pippinid c ...
practices upon the development of plainchant. The late 8th century saw a steadily increasing influence of the Carolingian monarchs over the popes. During a visit to Gaul in 752–753, Pope Stephen II celebrated
Mass Mass is an Intrinsic and extrinsic properties, intrinsic property of a physical body, body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the physical quantity, quantity of matter in a body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physi ...
using Roman chant. According to
Charlemagne Charlemagne ( ; 2 April 748 – 28 January 814) was List of Frankish kings, King of the Franks from 768, List of kings of the Lombards, King of the Lombards from 774, and Holy Roman Emperor, Emperor of what is now known as the Carolingian ...
, his father Pepin abolished the local
Gallican Rite The Gallican Rite is a historical form of Christian liturgy and other ritual practices in Western Christianity. It is not a single Ritual family, liturgical rite but rather several Latin liturgical rites that developed within the Latin Church, w ...
s in favor of the Roman use, to strengthen ties with Rome. Thirty years later (785–786), at Charlemagne's request,
Pope Adrian I Pope Adrian I (; 700 – 25 December 795) was the bishop of Rome and ruler of the Papal States from 1 February 772 until his death on 25 December 795. Descended from a family of the military aristocracy of Rome known as ''domini de via Lata'', h ...
sent a papal
sacramentary In the Western Christianity, Western Church of the Early Middle Ages, Early and High Middle Ages, a sacramentary was a book used for Christian liturgy, liturgical services and the Mass (liturgy), mass by a bishop or Priest#Christianity, priest. Sa ...
with Roman chants to the Carolingian court. According to James McKinnon, over a brief period in the 8th century, a project overseen by Chrodegang of Metz in the favorable atmosphere of the Carolingian monarchs, also compiled the core liturgy of the Roman Mass and promoted its use in
Francia The Kingdom of the Franks (), also known as the Frankish Kingdom, or just Francia, was the largest History of the Roman Empire, post-Roman barbarian kingdom in Western Europe. It was ruled by the Franks, Frankish Merovingian dynasty, Merovingi ...
and throughout Gaul. Willi Apel and Robert Snow assert a scholarly consensus that Gregorian chant developed around 750 from a synthesis of Roman and Gallican chants, and was commissioned by the Carolingian rulers in France. Andreas Pfisterer and Peter Jeffery have shown that older melodic essentials from Roman chant are clear in the synthesized chant repertory. There were other developments as well. Chants were modified, influenced by local styles and Gallican chant, and fitted into the theory of the ancient Greek octoechos system of modes in a manner that created what later came to be known as the western system of the eight church modes. The Metz project also invented an innovative
musical notation Musical notation is any system used to visually represent music. Systems of notation generally represent the elements of a piece of music that are considered important for its performance in the context of a given musical tradition. The proce ...
, using freeform
neume A neume (; sometimes spelled neum) is the basic element of Western and some Eastern systems of musical notation prior to the invention of five-line staff (music), staff notation. The earliest neumes were inflective marks that indicated the gener ...
s to show the shape of a remembered melody. This notation was further developed over time, culminating in the introduction of staff lines (attributed to
Guido d'Arezzo Guido of Arezzo (; – after 1033) was an Italian music theorist and pedagogue of High medieval music. A Benedictine monk, he is regarded as the inventor—or by some, developer—of the modern staff notation that had a massive influence on ...
) in the early 11th century, what we know today as plainchant notation. The whole body of Frankish-Roman Carolingian chant, augmented with new chants to complete the liturgical year, coalesced into a single body of chant that was called "Gregorian." The changes made in the new system of chants were so significant that they have led some scholars to speculate that it was named in honor of the contemporary
Pope Gregory II Pope Gregory II (; 669 – 11 February 731) was the Pope, bishop of Rome from 19 May 715 to his death on 11 February 731.Pope Gregory I Pope Gregory I (; ; – 12 March 604), commonly known as Saint Gregory the Great (; ), was the 64th Bishop of Rome from 3 September 590 until his death on 12 March 604. He is known for instituting the first recorded large-scale mission from Ro ...
was sufficient to culminate in his portrayal as the actual author of Gregorian Chant. He was often depicted as receiving the dictation of plainchant from a dove representing the
Holy Spirit The Holy Spirit, otherwise known as the Holy Ghost, is a concept within the Abrahamic religions. In Judaism, the Holy Spirit is understood as the divine quality or force of God manifesting in the world, particularly in acts of prophecy, creati ...
, thus giving Gregorian chant the stamp of being divinely inspired. Scholars agree that the melodic content of much Gregorian Chant did not exist in that form in Gregory I's day. In addition, it is known definitively that the familiar neumatic system for notating plainchant had not been established in his time. Nevertheless, Gregory's authorship is popularly accepted by some as fact to this day.


Dissemination and hegemony

Gregorian chant appeared in a remarkably uniform state across Europe within a short time.
Charlemagne Charlemagne ( ; 2 April 748 – 28 January 814) was List of Frankish kings, King of the Franks from 768, List of kings of the Lombards, King of the Lombards from 774, and Holy Roman Emperor, Emperor of what is now known as the Carolingian ...
, once elevated to
Holy Roman Emperor The Holy Roman Emperor, originally and officially the Emperor of the Romans (disambiguation), Emperor of the Romans (; ) during the Middle Ages, and also known as the Roman-German Emperor since the early modern period (; ), was the ruler and h ...
, aggressively spread Gregorian chant throughout his empire to consolidate religious and secular power. From English and German sources, Gregorian chant spread north to
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,
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and
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. In 885,
Pope Stephen V Pope Stephen V (; died 14 September 891) was the bishop of Rome and ruler of the Papal States from September 885 to his death on 14 September 891. In his dealings with Photius I of Constantinople, as in his relations with the young Slavic Ortho ...
banned the Slavonic liturgy, leading to the ascendancy of Gregorian chant in Eastern Catholic lands including
Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...
,
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and
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. The other plainchant repertories of the Christian West faced severe competition from the new Gregorian chant. Charlemagne continued his father's policy of favoring the Roman Rite over the local Gallican traditions. By the 9th century the Gallican rite and chant had effectively been eliminated, although not without local resistance. The Gregorian chant of the
Sarum Rite The Use of Sarum (or Use of Salisbury, also known as the Sarum Rite) is the Use (liturgy), liturgical use of the Latin liturgical rites, Latin rites developed at Salisbury Cathedral and used from the late eleventh century until the English Refor ...
displaced Celtic chant. Gregorian coexisted with Beneventan chant for over a century before Beneventan chant was abolished by papal decree (1058). Mozarabic chant survived the influx of the
Visigoths The Visigoths (; ) were a Germanic people united under the rule of a king and living within the Roman Empire during late antiquity. The Visigoths first appeared in the Balkans, as a Roman-allied Barbarian kingdoms, barbarian military group unite ...
and
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, but not the Roman-backed prelates newly installed in Spain during the
Reconquista The ''Reconquista'' (Spanish language, Spanish and Portuguese language, Portuguese for ) or the fall of al-Andalus was a series of military and cultural campaigns that European Christian Reconquista#Northern Christian realms, kingdoms waged ag ...
. Restricted to a handful of dedicated chapels, modern Mozarabic chant is highly Gregorianized and bears no musical resemblance to its original form. Ambrosian chant alone survived to the present day, preserved in
Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...
due to the musical reputation and ecclesiastical authority of St. Ambrose. Gregorian chant eventually replaced the local chant tradition of Rome itself, which is now known as Old Roman chant. In the 10th century, virtually no musical manuscripts were being notated in Italy. Instead, Roman Popes imported Gregorian chant from (German) Holy Roman Emperors during the 10th and 11th centuries. For example, the
Credo In Christian liturgy, the credo (; Latin for "I believe") is the portion of the Mass where a creed is recited or sung. The Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed or the Apostles' Creed are the primary creeds used for this purpose. History After the ...
was added to the
Roman Rite The Roman Rite () is the most common ritual family for performing the ecclesiastical services of the Latin Church, the largest of the ''sui iuris'' particular churches that comprise the Catholic Church. The Roman Rite governs Rite (Christianity) ...
at the behest of the Emperor
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in 1014. Reinforced by the legend of Pope Gregory, Gregorian chant was taken to be the authentic, original chant of Rome, a misconception that continues to this day. By the 12th and 13th centuries, Gregorian chant had supplanted or marginalized all the other Western plainchant traditions. Later sources of these other chant traditions show an increasing Gregorian influence, such as occasional efforts to categorize their chants into the Gregorian modes. Similarly, the Gregorian repertory incorporated elements of these lost plainchant traditions, which can be identified by careful stylistic and historical analysis. For example, the '' Improperia'' of
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are believed to be a remnant of the Gallican repertory.


Early sources and later revisions

The first extant sources with musical notation were written around 930 (Graduale Laon). Before this, plainchant had been transmitted orally. Most scholars of Gregorian chant agree that the development of music notation assisted the dissemination of chant across Europe. The earlier notated manuscripts are primarily from
Regensburg Regensburg (historically known in English as Ratisbon) is a city in eastern Bavaria, at the confluence of the rivers Danube, Naab and Regen (river), Regen, Danube's northernmost point. It is the capital of the Upper Palatinate subregion of the ...
in Germany, St. Gall in Switzerland,
Laon Laon () is a city in the Aisne Departments of France, department in Hauts-de-France in northern France. History Early history The Ancient Diocese of Laon, which rises a hundred metres above the otherwise flat Picardy plain, has always held s ...
and St. Martial in France. Gregorian chant has in its long history been subjected to a series of redactions to bring it up to changing contemporary tastes and practice. The more recent redaction undertaken in the Benedictine Abbey of St. Pierre, Solesmes, has turned into a huge undertaking to restore the allegedly corrupted chant to a hypothetical "original" state. Early Gregorian chant was revised to conform to the theoretical structure of the modes. In 1562–63, the
Council of Trent The Council of Trent (), held between 1545 and 1563 in Trent (or Trento), now in northern Italy, was the 19th ecumenical council of the Catholic Church. Prompted by the Protestant Reformation at the time, it has been described as the "most ...
banned most
sequences In mathematics, a sequence is an enumerated collection of objects in which repetitions are allowed and order matters. Like a set, it contains members (also called ''elements'', or ''terms''). The number of elements (possibly infinite) is call ...
. Guidette's ''Directorium chori'', published in 1582, and the ''Editio medicea'', published in 1614, drastically revised what was perceived as corrupt and flawed "barbarism" by making the chants conform to contemporary aesthetic standards. In 1811, the French musicologist Alexandre-Étienne Choron, as part of a conservative backlash following the liberal Catholic orders' inefficacy during the French Revolution, called for returning to the "purer" Gregorian chant of Rome over French corruptions. In the late 19th century, early liturgical and musical manuscripts were unearthed and edited. Earlier, Dom Prosper Guéranger revived the monastic tradition in Solesmes. Re-establishing the Divine Office was among his priorities, but no proper chantbooks existed. Many monks were sent out to libraries throughout Europe to find relevant Chant manuscripts. In 1871, however, the old Medicea edition was reprinted ( Pustet, Regensburg) which
Pope Pius IX Pope Pius IX (; born Giovanni Maria Battista Pietro Pellegrino Isidoro Mastai-Ferretti; 13 May 1792 – 7 February 1878) was head of the Catholic Church from 1846 to 1878. His reign of nearly 32 years is the longest verified of any pope in hist ...
declared the only official version. In their firm belief that they were on the right way, Solesmes increased its efforts. In 1889, after decades of research, the monks of Solesmes released the first book in a planned series, the Paléographie Musicale. The incentive of its publication was to demonstrate the corruption of the 'Medicea' by presenting photographed notations originating from a great variety of manuscripts of one single chant, which Solesmes called forth as witnesses to assert their own reforms. The monks of Solesmes brought in their heaviest artillery in this battle, as indeed the academically sound 'Paleo' was intended to be a war-tank, meant to abolish once and for all the corrupted Pustet edition. On the evidence of congruence throughout various manuscripts (which were duly published in
facsimile A facsimile (from Latin ''fac simile'', "to make alike") is a copy or reproduction of an old book, manuscript, map, art print, or other item of historical value that is as true to the original source as possible. It differs from other forms of r ...
editions with ample editorial introductions) Solesmes was able to work out a practical reconstruction. This reconstructed chant was academically praised, but rejected by Rome until 1903, when
Pope Leo XIII Pope Leo XIII (; born Gioacchino Vincenzo Raffaele Luigi Pecci; 2March 181020July 1903) was head of the Catholic Church from 20 February 1878 until his death in July 1903. He had the fourth-longest reign of any pope, behind those of Peter the Ap ...
died. His successor,
Pope Pius X Pope Pius X (; born Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto; 2 June 1835 – 20 August 1914) was head of the Catholic Church from 4 August 1903 to his death in August 1914. Pius X is known for vigorously opposing Modernism in the Catholic Church, modern ...
, promptly accepted the Solesmes chant – now compiled as the '' Liber usualis'' – as authoritative. In 1904, the Vatican edition of the Solesmes chant was commissioned. Serious academic debates arose, primarily owing to stylistic liberties taken by the Solesmes editors to impose their controversial interpretation of rhythm. The Solesmes editions insert phrasing marks and note-lengthening ''episema'' and ''mora'' marks not found in the original sources. Conversely, they omit significative letters found in the original sources, which give instructions for rhythm and articulation such as speeding up or slowing down. These editorial practices have placed the historical authenticity of the Solesmes interpretation in doubt. Ever since restoration of Chant was taken up in Solesmes, there have been lengthy discussions of exactly what course was to be taken. Some favored a strict academic rigour and wanted to postpone publications, while others concentrated on practical matters and wanted to supplant the corrupted tradition as soon as possible. Roughly a century later, there still exists a breach between a strict musicological approach and the practical needs of church choirs. Thus the performance tradition officially promulgated since the onset of the Solesmes restoration is substantially at odds with musicological evidence. In his
motu proprio In law, (Latin for 'on his own impulse') describes an official act taken without a formal request from another party. Some jurisdictions use the term for the same concept. In Catholic canon law, it refers to a document issued by the pope on h ...
'' Tra le sollecitudini'', Pius X mandated the use of Gregorian chant, encouraging the faithful to sing the
Ordinary of the Mass The ordinary, in Catholic liturgy, Catholic liturgies, refers to the part of the Mass (liturgy), Mass or of the canonical hours that is reasonably constant without regard to the date on which the service is performed. It is contrasted with the ' ...
, although he reserved the singing of the
Propers The proper (Latin: ''proprium'') is a part of the Christian liturgy that varies according to the date, either representing an observance within the liturgical year, or of a particular saint or significant event. The term is used in contrast to the ...
for males. While this custom is maintained in
traditionalist Catholic Traditionalist Catholicism is a movement that emphasizes beliefs, practices, customs, traditions, liturgical forms, devotions and presentations of teaching associated with the Catholic Church before the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965). ...
communities (most of which allow all-female scholas as well, though), the Catholic Church no longer persists with this ban.
Vatican II The Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, commonly known as the or , was the 21st and most recent Catholic ecumenical councils, ecumenical council of the Catholic Church. The council met each autumn from 1962 to 1965 in St. Peter's Basilic ...
officially allowed worshipers to substitute other music, particularly sacred polyphony, in place of Gregorian chant, although it did reaffirm that Gregorian chant was still the official music of the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church, and the music most suitable for worship in the Roman Liturgy.


Musical form


Melodic types

Gregorian chant is, as 'chant' implies, vocal music. The text, the phrases, words and eventually the syllables, can be sung in various ways. The most straightforward is recitation on the same tone, which is called "syllabic" as each syllable is sung to a single tone. Likewise, simple chants are often syllabic throughout with only a few instances where two or more notes are sung on one syllable. "Neumatic" chants are more embellished and ligatures, a connected group of notes, written as a single compound neume, abound in the text. Melismatic chants are the most ornate chants in which elaborate melodies are sung on long sustained vowels as in the Alleluia, ranging from five or six notes per syllable to over sixty in the more prolix melismata. Gregorian chants fall into two broad categories of melody:
recitative Recitative (, also known by its Italian name recitativo () is a style of delivery (much used in operas, oratorios, and cantatas) in which a singer is allowed to adopt the rhythms and delivery of ordinary speech. Recitative does not repeat lines ...
s and free melodies. The simplest kind of melody is the liturgical recitative. Recitative melodies are dominated by a single pitch, called the ''
reciting tone In chant, a reciting tone (also called a recitation tone) can refer to either a repeated musical pitch or to the entire melodic formula for which that pitch is a structural note. In Gregorian chant, the first is also called tenor, dominant or tu ...
''. Other pitches appear in melodic formulae for
incipit The incipit ( ) of a text is the first few words of the text, employed as an identifying label. In a musical composition, an incipit is an initial sequence of Musical note, notes, having the same purpose. The word ''incipit'' comes from Latin an ...
s, partial cadences, and full cadences. These chants are primarily syllabic. For example, the
Collect The collect ( ) is a short general prayer of a particular structure used in Christian liturgy. Collects come up in the liturgies of Catholic, Lutheran, or Anglican churches, among others. Etymology The word is first seen as Latin ''collēcta'' ...
for
Easter Easter, also called Pascha ( Aramaic: פַּסְחָא , ''paskha''; Greek: πάσχα, ''páskha'') or Resurrection Sunday, is a Christian festival and cultural holiday commemorating the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, described in t ...
consists of 127 syllables sung to 131 pitches, with 108 of these pitches being the reciting note A and the other 23 pitches flexing down to G. Liturgical recitatives are commonly found in the accentus chants of the liturgy, such as the intonations of the Collect,
Epistle An epistle (; ) is a writing directed or sent to a person or group of people, usually an elegant and formal didactic letter. The epistle genre of letter-writing was common in ancient Egypt as part of the scribal-school writing curriculum. The ...
, and
Gospel Gospel originally meant the Christianity, Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the second century Anno domino, AD the term (, from which the English word originated as a calque) came to be used also for the books in which the message w ...
during the
Mass Mass is an Intrinsic and extrinsic properties, intrinsic property of a physical body, body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the physical quantity, quantity of matter in a body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physi ...
, and in the direct psalmody of the
Office An office is a space where the employees of an organization perform Business administration, administrative Work (human activity), work in order to support and realize the various goals of the organization. The word "office" may also denote a po ...
. Psalmodic chants, which intone
psalms The Book of Psalms ( , ; ; ; ; , in Islam also called Zabur, ), also known as the Psalter, is the first book of the third section of the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) called ('Writings'), and a book of the Old Testament. The book is an anthology of B ...
, include both recitatives and free melodies. Psalmodic chants include ''direct psalmody'', ''antiphonal chants'', and ''responsorial chants''. In direct psalmody, psalm verses are sung without refrains to simple, formulaic tones. Most psalmodic chants are antiphonal and responsorial, sung to free melodies of varying complexity. Antiphonal chants such as the
Introit The Introit () is part of the opening of the liturgical celebration of the Eucharist for many Christian denominations. In its most complete version, it consists of an antiphon, psalm verse and '' Gloria Patri'', which are spoken or sung at the ...
, and Communion originally referred to chants in which two choirs sang in alternation, one choir singing verses of a psalm, the other singing a refrain called an '' antiphon''. Over time, the verses were reduced in number, usually to just one psalm verse and the
doxology A doxology (Ancient Greek: ''doxologia'', from , ''doxa'' 'glory' and -, -''logia'' 'saying') is a short hymn of praises to God in various forms of Christian worship, often added to the end of canticles, psalms, and hymns. The tradition derives ...
, or even omitted entirely. Antiphonal chants reflect their ancient origins as elaborate recitatives through the reciting tones in their melodies. Ordinary chants, such as the
Kyrie ', a transliteration of Greek , vocative case of ('' Kyrios''), is a common name of an important prayer of Christian liturgy, also called the ( ; ). In the Bible The prayer, , "Lord, have mercy" derives from a Biblical phrase. Greek , ...
and Gloria, are not considered antiphonal chants, although they are often performed in antiphonal style. Responsorial chants such as the
Gradual The gradual ( or ) is a certain chant or hymn in liturgical Christian worship. It is practiced in the Catholic Mass, Lutheran Divine Service, Anglican service and other traditions. It gets its name from the Latin (meaning "step") because i ...
,
Alleluia ''Hallelujah'' (; , Modern Hebrew, Modern ) is an interjection from the Hebrew language, used as an expression of gratitude to God. The term is used 24 times in the Hebrew Bible, Tanakh (in the book of Psalms), twice in deuterocanonical books, ...
, Offertory, and the Office Responsories originally consisted of a refrain called a ''respond'' sung by a choir, alternating with psalm verses sung by a soloist.
Responsorial A responsory or respond is a type of chant in western Christian liturgies. Definition The most general definition of a responsory is any psalm, canticle, or other sacred musical work sung responsorially, that is, with a cantor or small group sing ...
chants are often composed of an amalgamation of various stock musical phrases, pieced together in a practice called ''
centonization In music centonization (from Latin ''cento'' or patchwork) is musical composition via the combination of pre-existing motivic units, typically in reference to Christian liturgical chant. A piece created using centonization is known as a "centon ...
''. Tracts are melismatic settings of psalm verses and use frequent recurring cadences and they are strongly centonized. Gregorian chant evolved to fulfill various functions in the Roman Catholic liturgy. Broadly speaking, liturgical recitatives are used for texts intoned by deacons or priests. Antiphonal chants accompany liturgical actions: the entrance of the officiant, the collection of offerings, and the distribution of the Eucharist. Responsorial chants expand on readings and lessons. The non-psalmodic chants, including the
Ordinary of the Mass The ordinary, in Catholic liturgy, Catholic liturgies, refers to the part of the Mass (liturgy), Mass or of the canonical hours that is reasonably constant without regard to the date on which the service is performed. It is contrasted with the ' ...
,
sequences In mathematics, a sequence is an enumerated collection of objects in which repetitions are allowed and order matters. Like a set, it contains members (also called ''elements'', or ''terms''). The number of elements (possibly infinite) is call ...
, and
hymn A hymn is a type of song, and partially synonymous with devotional song, specifically written for the purpose of adoration or prayer, and typically addressed to a deity or deities, or to a prominent figure or personification. The word ''hymn'' d ...
s, were originally intended for congregational singing. The structure of their texts largely defines their musical style. In sequences, the same melodic phrase is repeated in each couplet. The strophic texts of hymns use the same syllabic melody for each stanza.


Modality

Early plainchant, like much of Western music, is believed to have been distinguished by the use of the
diatonic scale In music theory a diatonic scale is a heptatonic scale, heptatonic (seven-note) scale that includes five whole steps (whole tones) and two half steps (semitones) in each octave, in which the two half steps are separated from each other by eith ...
. Modal theory, which postdates the composition of the core chant repertory, arises from a synthesis of two very different traditions: the speculative tradition of numerical ratios and species inherited from ancient Greece and a second tradition rooted in the practical art of cantus. The earliest writings that deal with both theory and practice include the Enchiriadis group of treatises, which circulated in the late ninth century and possibly have their roots in an earlier, oral tradition. In contrast to the ancient Greek system of tetrachords (a collection of four continuous notes) that descend by two tones and a semitone, the Enchiriadis writings base their tone-system on a tetrachord that corresponds to the four finals of chant, D, E, F, and G. The disjunct tetrachords in the Enchiriadis system have been the subject of much speculation, because they do not correspond to the diatonic framework that became the standard Medieval scale (for example, there is a high F, a note not recognized by later Medieval writers). A diatonic scale with a chromatically alterable b/b-flat was first described by Hucbald, who adopted the tetrachord of the finals (D, E, F, G) and constructed the rest of the system following the model of the Greek Greater and Lesser Perfect Systems. These were the first steps in forging a theoretical tradition that corresponded to chant. Around 1025,
Guido d'Arezzo Guido of Arezzo (; – after 1033) was an Italian music theorist and pedagogue of High medieval music. A Benedictine monk, he is regarded as the inventor—or by some, developer—of the modern staff notation that had a massive influence on ...
revolutionized Western music with the development of the ''gamut'', in which pitches in the singing range were organized into overlapping
hexachord In music, a hexachord (also hexachordon) is a six- note series, as exhibited in a scale ( hexatonic or hexad) or tone row. The term was adopted in this sense during the Middle Ages and adapted in the 20th century in Milton Babbitt's serial t ...
s. Hexachords could be built on C (the natural hexachord, C-D-E^F-G-A), F (the soft hexachord, using a B-flat, F-G-A^B-C-D), or G (the hard hexachord, using a B-natural, G-A-B^C-D-E). The B-flat was an integral part of the system of hexachords rather than an accidental. The use of notes outside of this collection was described as
musica ficta ''Musica ficta'' (from Latin, "false", "feigned", or "fictitious" music) was a term used in European music theory from the late 12th century to about 1600 to describe pitches, whether notated or added at the time of performance, that lie outside ...
. Gregorian chant was categorized into eight modes, influenced by the eightfold division of
Byzantine chant Byzantine music () originally consisted of the songs and hymns composed for the courtly and religious ceremonial of the Byzantine Empire and continued, after the fall of Constantinople in 1453, in the traditions of the sung Byzantine chant of East ...
s called the '' oktoechos''. Each mode is distinguished by its ''final'', ''dominant'', and ''ambitus''. The ''final'' is the ending note, which is usually an important note in the overall structure of the melody. The ''dominant'' is a secondary pitch that usually serves as a
reciting tone In chant, a reciting tone (also called a recitation tone) can refer to either a repeated musical pitch or to the entire melodic formula for which that pitch is a structural note. In Gregorian chant, the first is also called tenor, dominant or tu ...
in the melody. '' Ambitus'' refers to the range of pitches used in the melody. Melodies whose final is in the middle of the ambitus, or which have only a limited ambitus, are categorized as ''plagal'', while melodies whose final is in the lower end of the ambitus and have a range of over five or six notes are categorized as ''authentic''. Although corresponding plagal and authentic modes have the same final, they have different dominants. The existent pseudo-Greek names of the modes, rarely used in medieval times, derive from a misunderstanding of the Ancient Greek modes; the prefix " hypo-" (under, Gr.) indicates a plagal mode, where the melody moves below the final. In contemporary Latin manuscripts the modes are simply called Protus authentus /plagalis, Deuterus, Tritus and Tetrardus: the 1st mode, authentic or plagal, the 2nd mode etc. In the Roman Chantbooks the modes are indicated by Roman numerals. :Modes 1 and 2 are the authentic and plagal modes ending on D, sometimes called Dorian and Hypodorian. :Modes 3 and 4 are the authentic and plagal modes ending on E, sometimes called Phrygian and Hypophrygian. :Modes 5 and 6 are the authentic and plagal modes ending on F, sometimes called Lydian and Hypolydian. :Modes 7 and 8 are the authentic and plagal modes ending on G, sometimes called Mixolydian and Hypomixolydian. Although the modes with melodies ending on A, B, and C are sometimes referred to as Aeolian, Locrian, and Ionian, these are not considered distinct modes and are treated as transpositions of whichever mode uses the same set of hexachords. The actual pitch of the Gregorian chant is not fixed, so the piece can be sung in whichever range is most comfortable. Certain classes of Gregorian chant have a separate musical formula for each mode, allowing one section of the chant to transition smoothly into the next section, such as the psalm verses that are sung between the repetition of antiphons, or the Gloria Patri. Thus we find models for the recitation of psalmverses, Alleluia and Gloria Patri for all eight modes. Not every Gregorian chant fits neatly into Guido's hexachords or into the system of eight modes. For example, there are chants – especially from German sources – whose
neume A neume (; sometimes spelled neum) is the basic element of Western and some Eastern systems of musical notation prior to the invention of five-line staff (music), staff notation. The earliest neumes were inflective marks that indicated the gener ...
s suggest a warbling of pitches between the notes E and F, outside the hexachord system, or in other words, employing a form of
chromaticism Chromaticism is a compositional technique interspersing the primary diatonic scale, diatonic pitch (music), pitches and chord (music), chords with other pitches of the chromatic scale. In simple terms, within each octave, diatonic music uses o ...
. Early Gregorian chant, like Ambrosian and Old Roman chant, whose melodies are most closely related to Gregorian, did not use the modal system. The great need for a system of organizing chants lies in the need to link antiphons with standard tones, as in for example, the psalmody at the Office. Using Psalm Tone i with an antiphon in Mode 1 makes for a smooth transition between the end of the antiphon and the intonation of the tone, and the ending of the tone can then be chosen to provide a smooth transition back to the antiphon. As the modal system gained acceptance, Gregorian chants were edited to conform to the modes, especially during 12th-century
Cistercian The Cistercians (), officially the Order of Cistercians (, abbreviated as OCist or SOCist), are a Catholic religious order of monks and nuns that branched off from the Benedictines and follow the Rule of Saint Benedict, as well as the contri ...
reforms. Finals were altered, melodic ranges reduced, melismata trimmed, B-flats eliminated, and repeated words removed. Despite these attempts to impose modal consistency, some chants – notably Communions – defy simple modal assignment. For example, in four medieval manuscripts, the Communion ''Circuibo'' was transcribed using a different mode in each.


Musical idiom

Several features besides modality contribute to the musical idiom of Gregorian chant, giving it a distinctive musical flavor. Melodic motion is primarily stepwise. Skips of a third are common, and larger skips far more common than in other plainchant repertories such as Ambrosian chant or Beneventan chant. Gregorian melodies are more likely to traverse a seventh than a full octave, so that melodies rarely travel from D up to the D an octave higher, but often travel from D to the C a seventh higher, using such patterns as D-F-G-A-C.> Gregorian melodies often explore chains of pitches, such as F-A-C, around which the other notes of the chant gravitate. Within each mode, certain incipits and cadences are preferred, which the modal theory alone does not explain. Chants often display complex internal structures that combine and repeat musical subphrases. This occurs notably in the Offertories; in chants with shorter, repeating texts such as the
Kyrie ', a transliteration of Greek , vocative case of ('' Kyrios''), is a common name of an important prayer of Christian liturgy, also called the ( ; ). In the Bible The prayer, , "Lord, have mercy" derives from a Biblical phrase. Greek , ...
and Agnus Dei; and in longer chants with clear textual divisions such as the Great Responsories, the Gloria, and the
Credo In Christian liturgy, the credo (; Latin for "I believe") is the portion of the Mass where a creed is recited or sung. The Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed or the Apostles' Creed are the primary creeds used for this purpose. History After the ...
. Chants sometimes fall into melodically related groups. The musical phrases centonized to create
Gradual The gradual ( or ) is a certain chant or hymn in liturgical Christian worship. It is practiced in the Catholic Mass, Lutheran Divine Service, Anglican service and other traditions. It gets its name from the Latin (meaning "step") because i ...
s and Tracts follow a musical "grammar" of sorts. Certain phrases are used only at the beginnings of chants, or only at the end, or only in certain combinations, creating musical families of chants such as the '' Iustus ut palma'' family of Graduals. Several
Introit The Introit () is part of the opening of the liturgical celebration of the Eucharist for many Christian denominations. In its most complete version, it consists of an antiphon, psalm verse and '' Gloria Patri'', which are spoken or sung at the ...
s in mode 3, including ''Loquetur Dominus'' above, exhibit melodic similarities. Mode III (E authentic) chants have C as a dominant, so C is the expected reciting tone. These mode III Introits, however, use both G and C as reciting tones, and often begin with a decorated leap from G to C to establish this tonality. Similar examples exist throughout the repertory.


Notation

The earliest notated sources of Gregorian chant (written ) used symbols called ''
neume A neume (; sometimes spelled neum) is the basic element of Western and some Eastern systems of musical notation prior to the invention of five-line staff (music), staff notation. The earliest neumes were inflective marks that indicated the gener ...
s'' (Gr. sign, of the hand) to indicate tone-movements and relative duration within each syllable. A sort of musical stenography that seems to focus on gestures and tone-movements but not the specific pitches of individual notes, nor the relative starting pitches of each neume. Given the fact that Chant was learned in an oral tradition in which the texts and melodies were sung from memory, this was obviously not necessary. The neumatic manuscripts display great sophistication and precision in notation and a wealth of graphic signs to indicate the musical gesture and proper pronunciation of the text. Scholars postulate that this practice may have been derived from cheironomic hand-gestures, the ekphonetic notation of
Byzantine chant Byzantine music () originally consisted of the songs and hymns composed for the courtly and religious ceremonial of the Byzantine Empire and continued, after the fall of Constantinople in 1453, in the traditions of the sung Byzantine chant of East ...
, punctuation marks, or diacritical accents. Later adaptations and innovations included the use of a dry-scratched line or an inked line or two lines, marked C or F showing the relative pitches between neumes. Consistent relative heightening first developed in the Aquitaine region, particularly at St. Martial de Limoges, in the first half of the eleventh century. Many German-speaking areas, however, continued to use unpitched neumes into the twelfth century. Additional symbols developed, such as the ''custos'', placed at the end of a system to show the next pitch. Other symbols indicated changes in articulation, duration, or tempo, such as a letter "t" to indicate a
tenuto In musical notation, ''tenuto'' ( Italian, past participle of ''tenere'', "to hold"), written as a horizontal bar above or below a note, is a direction for the performer to hold or sustain a note for its full length. Its precise interpretation ...
. Another form of early notation used a system of letters corresponding to different pitches, much as Shaker music is notated. By the 13th century, the neumes of Gregorian chant were usually written in ''square notation'' on a four-line staff with a clef, as in the ''Graduale Aboense'' pictured above. In square notation, small groups of ascending notes on a syllable are shown as stacked squares, read from bottom to top, while descending notes are written with diamonds read from left to right. When a syllable has a large number of notes, a series of smaller such groups of neumes are written in succession, read from left to right. The oriscus, quilisma, and liquescent neumes indicate special vocal treatments, that have been largely neglected due to uncertainty as to how to sing them. Since the 1970s, with the influential insights of Dom (see below under 'rhythm'), ornamental neumes have received more attention from both researchers and performers. B-flat is indicated by a "b-mollum" (Lat. soft), a rounded undercaste 'b' placed to the left of the entire neume in which the note occurs, as shown in the "Kyrie" to the right. When necessary, a "b-durum" (Lat. hard), written squarely, indicates B-natural and serves to cancel the b-mollum. This system of square notation is standard in modern chantbooks.


Performance


Texture

Gregorian chant was originally used for singing the
Office An office is a space where the employees of an organization perform Business administration, administrative Work (human activity), work in order to support and realize the various goals of the organization. The word "office" may also denote a po ...
(by male and female religious) and for singing the parts of the
Mass Mass is an Intrinsic and extrinsic properties, intrinsic property of a physical body, body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the physical quantity, quantity of matter in a body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physi ...
pertaining to the lay faithful (male and female), the celebrant (priest, always male) and the choir (composed of male ordained clergy, except in convents). Outside the larger cities, the number of available clergy dropped, and lay men started singing these parts. The choir was considered an official liturgical duty reserved to clergy, so women were not allowed to sing in the '' Schola Cantorum'' or other choirs except in
convent A convent is an enclosed community of monks, nuns, friars or religious sisters. Alternatively, ''convent'' means the building used by the community. The term is particularly used in the Catholic Church, Lutheran churches, and the Anglican ...
s where women were permitted to sing the Office and the parts of the Mass pertaining to the choir as a function of their consecrated life. Chant was normally sung in unison. Later innovations included '' tropes'', which is a new text sung to the same melodic phrases in a melismatic chant (repeating an entire Alleluia-melody on a new text for instance, or repeating a full phrase with a new text that comments on the previously sung text) and various forms of ''
organum ''Organum'' () is, in general, a plainchant melody with at least one added voice to enhance the harmony, developed in the Middle Ages. Depending on the mode and form of the chant, a supporting bass line (or '' bourdon'') may be sung on the sam ...
'', (improvised) harmonic embellishment of chant melodies focusing on octaves, fifths, fourths, and, later, thirds. Neither tropes nor organum, however, belong to the chant repertory proper. The main exception to this is the sequence, whose origins lay in troping the extended melisma of
Alleluia ''Hallelujah'' (; , Modern Hebrew, Modern ) is an interjection from the Hebrew language, used as an expression of gratitude to God. The term is used 24 times in the Hebrew Bible, Tanakh (in the book of Psalms), twice in deuterocanonical books, ...
chants known as the jubilus, but the sequences, like the tropes, were later officially suppressed. The
Council of Trent The Council of Trent (), held between 1545 and 1563 in Trent (or Trento), now in northern Italy, was the 19th ecumenical council of the Catholic Church. Prompted by the Protestant Reformation at the time, it has been described as the "most ...
struck sequences from the Gregorian corpus, except those for
Easter Easter, also called Pascha ( Aramaic: פַּסְחָא , ''paskha''; Greek: πάσχα, ''páskha'') or Resurrection Sunday, is a Christian festival and cultural holiday commemorating the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, described in t ...
,
Pentecost Pentecost (also called Whit Sunday, Whitsunday or Whitsun) is a Christianity, Christian holiday which takes place on the 49th day (50th day when inclusive counting is used) after Easter Day, Easter. It commemorates the descent of the Holy Spiri ...
, Corpus Christi and All Souls' Day. Not much is known about the particular vocal stylings or performance practices used for Gregorian chant in the Middle Ages. On occasion, the clergy was urged to have their singers perform with more restraint and piety. This suggests that virtuosic performances occurred, contrary to the modern stereotype of Gregorian chant as slow-moving mood music. This tension between musicality and piety goes far back;
Gregory the Great Pope Gregory I (; ; – 12 March 604), commonly known as Saint Gregory the Great (; ), was the 64th Bishop of Rome from 3 September 590 until his death on 12 March 604. He is known for instituting the first recorded large-scale mission from Rom ...
himself criticized the practice of promoting clerics based on their charming singing rather than their preaching. However, Odo of Cluny, a renowned monastic reformer, praised the intellectual and musical virtuosity to be found in chant: True antiphonal performance by two alternating choruses still occurs, as in certain German monasteries. However, antiphonal chants are generally performed in responsorial style by a solo cantor alternating with a chorus. This practice appears to have begun in the Middle Ages. Another medieval innovation had the solo cantor sing the opening words of responsorial chants, with the full chorus finishing the end of the opening phrase. This innovation allowed the soloist to fix the pitch of the chant for the chorus and to cue the choral entrance.


Rhythm

Given the oral teaching tradition of Gregorian chant, modern reconstruction of intended rhythm from the written notation of Gregorian chant has always been a source of debate among modern scholars. To complicate matters further, many ornamental neumes used in the earliest manuscripts pose difficulties on the interpretation of rhythm. Certain neumes such as the ''pressus'', pes quassus, strophic neumes may indicate repeated notes, lengthening by repercussion, in some cases with added ornaments. By the 13th century, with the widespread use of square notation, most chant was sung with an approximately equal duration allotted to each note, although Jerome of Moravia cites exceptions in which certain notes, such as the final notes of a chant, are lengthened. While the standard repertory of Gregorian Chant was partly being supplanted by new forms of polyphony, the earlier melo-rhythmic refinements of monophonic chant seem to have fallen into disuse. Later redactions such as the ''Editio medicaea'' of 1614 rewrote chant so that melismata, with their melodic accent, fell on accented syllables. This aesthetic held sway until the re-examination of chant in the late 19th century by such scholars as , Pothier, and Mocquereau, who fell into two camps. One school of thought, including Wagner, Jammers, and Lipphardt, advocated imposing rhythmic meters on chants, although they disagreed on how that should be done. An opposing interpretation, represented by Pothier and Mocquereau, supported a free rhythm of equal note values, although some notes are lengthened for textual emphasis or musical effect. The modern Solesmes editions of Gregorian chant follow this interpretation. Mocquereau divided melodies into two- and three-note phrases, each beginning with an ''ictus'', akin to a beat, notated in chantbooks as a small vertical mark. These basic melodic units combined into larger phrases through a complex system expressed by cheironomic hand-gestures. This approach prevailed during the twentieth century, propagated by Justine Ward's program of music education for children, until the liturgical role of chant was diminished after the liturgical reforms of
Pope Paul VI Pope Paul VI (born Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini; 26 September 18976 August 1978) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 21 June 1963 until his death on 6 August 1978. Succeeding John XXII ...
, and new scholarship "essentially discredited" Mocquereau's rhythmic theories. Common modern practice favors performing Gregorian chant with no beat or regular metric accent, largely for aesthetic reasons. The text determines the accent while the melodic contour determines the phrasing. The note lengthenings recommended by the Solesmes school remain influential, though not prescriptive. Dom (1905–1988), a monk from Solesmes, published his 'Semiologie Gregorienne' in 1970 in which he clearly explains the musical significance of the neumes of the early chant manuscripts. Cardine shows the great diversity of neumes and graphic variations of the basic shape of a particular neume, which can not be expressed in the square notation. This variety in notation must have served a practical purpose and therefore a musical significance. Nine years later, the ''Graduale Triplex'' was published, in which the Roman Gradual, containing all the chants for Mass in a Year's cycle, appeared with the neumes of the two most important manuscripts copied under and over the 4-line staff of the square notation. The ''Graduale Triplex'' made widely accessible the original notation of Sankt Gallen and Laon (compiled after 930 AD) in a single chantbook and was a huge step forward. Dom Cardine had many students who have each in their own way continued their semiological studies, some of whom also started experimenting in applying the newly understood principles in performance practice. The studies of Cardine and his students (Godehard Joppich, Luigi Augustoni, Johannes B. Göschl, Marie-Noël Colette, Rupert Fischer, Marie-Claire Billecocq, Alexander M. Schweitzer to name a few) have clearly demonstrated that rhythm in Gregorian chant as notated in the 10th century rhythmic manuscripts (notably Sankt Gallen and Laon) manifest such rhythmic diversity and melodic – rhythmic ornamentations for which there is hardly a living performance tradition in the Western world. Contemporary groups that endeavour to sing according to the manuscript traditions have evolved after 1975. Some practising researchers favour a closer look at non-Western (liturgical) traditions, in such cultures where the tradition of modal monophony was never abandoned. Another group with different views are the mensuralists or the proportionalists, who maintain that rhythm has to be interpreted proportionately, where shorts are exactly half the longs. This school of interpretation claims the support of historical authorities such as St Augustine, Remigius, Guido and Aribo. This view is advocated by John Blackley and his 'Schola Antiqua New York'. Recent research in the Netherlands by Dr. Dirk van Kampen has indicated that the authentic rhythm of Gregorian chant in the 10th century includes both proportional elements and elements that are in agreement with semiology. Starting with the expectation that the rhythm of Gregorian chant (and thus the duration of the individual notes) anyway adds to the expressivity of the sacred Latin texts, several word-related variables were studied for their relationship with several neume-related variables, exploring these relationships in a sample of introit chants using such statistical methods as correlational analysis and multiple regression analysis. Beside the length of the syllables (measured in tenths of seconds), each text syllable was evaluated in terms of its position within the word to which it belongs, defining such variables as "the syllable has or has not the main accent", "the syllable is or is not at the end of a word", etc., and in terms of the particular sounds produced (for instance, the syllable contains the vowel "i"). The various neume elements were evaluated by attaching different duration values to them, both in terms of semiological propositions (nuanced durations according to the manner of neume writing in Chris Hakkennes' ''Graduale Lagal''), and in terms of fixed duration values that were based on mensuralistic notions, however with ratios between short and long notes ranging from 1 : 1, via 1 : 1.2, 1 : 1.4, etc. to 1 : 3. To distinguish short and long notes, tables were consulted that were established by Van Kampen in an unpublished comparative study regarding the neume notations according to Sankt Gallen and Laon codices. With some exceptions, these tables confirm the short vs. long distinctions in Cardine's 'Semiologie Gregorienne'. The lengths of the neumes were given values by adding up the duration values for the separate neume elements, each time following a particular hypothesis concerning the rhythm of Gregoriant chant. Both the syllable lengths and the neume lengths were also expressed in relation to the total duration of the syllables, resp. neumes for a word (contextual variables). Correlating the various word and neume variables, substantial correlations were found for the word variables 'accented syllable' and 'contextual syllable duration'. Moreover, it could be established that the multiple correlation (''R'') between the two types of variables reaches its maximum (''R'' is about 0.80) if the neumatic elements are evaluated according to the following rules of duration: (a) neume elements that represent short notes in neumes consisting of at least two notes have duration values of 1 time; (b) neume elements that represent long notes in neumes consisting of at least two notes have duration values of 2 times; (c) neumes consisting of only one note are characterized by flexible duration values (with an average value of 2 times), which take over the duration values of the syllables to match. The distinction between the first two rules and the latter rule can also be found in early treatises on music, introducing the terms ''metrum'' and ''rhythmus''. As it could also be demonstrated by Van Kampen that melodic peaks often coincide with the word accent (see also), the conclusion seems warranted that the Gregorian melodies enhance the expressiveness of the Latin words by mimicking to some extent both the accentuation of the sacred words (pitch differences between neumes) and the relative duration of the word syllables (by paying attention to well-defined length differences between the individual notes of a neume). During the seventeenth through nineteenth centuries in France, the system of rhythmic notation became standardized, with printers and editors of chant books employing only four rhythmic values. Recent research by Christopher Holman indicates that chants whose texts are in a regular meter could even be altered to be performed in
time signature A time signature (also known as meter signature, metre signature, and measure signature) is an indication in music notation that specifies how many note values of a particular type fit into each measure ( bar). The time signature indicates th ...
s.


Melodic restitution

Recent developments involve an intensifying of the semiological approach according to Dom Cardine, which also gave a new impetus to the research into melodic variants in various manuscripts of chant. On the basis of this ongoing research it has become obvious that the Graduale and other chantbooks contain many melodic errors, some very consistently, (the mis-interpretation of third and eighth mode) necessitating a new edition of the Graduale according to state-of-the-art melodic restitutions. Since the 1970 a melodic restitution group of AISCGre (International Society for the Study of Gregorian Chant) has worked on an "editio magis critica" as requested by the 2. Vatican Council Constitution "Sacrosanctum Concilium". As a response to this need and following the Holy See's invitation to edit a more critical edition, in 2011 the first volume "De Dominicis et Festis" of the ''Graduale Novum Editio Magis Critica Iuxta SC 117'' was published by Libreria Editrice Vatican and ConBrio Verlagsgesellschaft, Regensburg. In this approach the so-called earlier 'rhythmic' manuscripts of unheightened neumes that carry a wealth of melo-rhythmic information but not of exact pitches, are compared in large tables of comparison with relevant later 'melodic' manuscripts' that are written on lines or use double alphabetic and neumes notation over the text, but as a rule have less rhythmic refinement compared to the earlier group. However, the comparison between the two groups has made it possible to correct what are obvious mistakes. In other instances it is not so easy to find a consensus. In 1984 Chris Hakkennes published his own transcription of the ''Graduale Triplex''. He devised a new graphic adaptation of square notation 'simplex' in which he integrated the rhythmic indications of the two most relevant sources, that of Laon and Sankt Gallen. Referring to these manuscripts, he called his own transcription Gradual Lagal. Furthermore, while making the transcription, he cross-checked with the melodic manuscripts to correct modal errors or other melodic errors found in the Graduale Romanum. His intention was to provide a corrected melody in rhythmic notation but above all – he was also a choirmaster – suited for practical use, therefore a simplex, integrated notation. Although fully admitting the importance of Hakkennes' melodic revisions, the rhythmical solution suggested in the ''Graduale Lagal'' was actually found by Van Kampen (see above) to be rather modestly related to the text of the chant.


Liturgical functions

Gregorian chant is sung in the Office during the
canonical hours In the practice of Christianity, canonical hours mark the divisions of the day in terms of Fixed prayer times#Christianity, fixed times of prayer at regular intervals. A book of hours, chiefly a breviary, normally contains a version of, or sel ...
and in the liturgy of the
Mass Mass is an Intrinsic and extrinsic properties, intrinsic property of a physical body, body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the physical quantity, quantity of matter in a body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physi ...
. Texts known as '' accentus'' are intoned by bishops, priests, and deacons, mostly on a single
reciting tone In chant, a reciting tone (also called a recitation tone) can refer to either a repeated musical pitch or to the entire melodic formula for which that pitch is a structural note. In Gregorian chant, the first is also called tenor, dominant or tu ...
with simple melodic formulae at certain places in each sentence. More complex chants are sung by trained soloists and choirs. The
Graduale Romanum The ''Roman Gradual'' (Latin: ''Graduale Romanum'') is an official liturgical book of the Roman Rite of the Roman Catholic Church containing chants, including the proper and many more, for use in Mass. The '' editio typica'' dates from 1908. T ...
contains the proper chants of the Mass (i.e., Introit, Gradual, Alleluia, Tract, Offertory, Communion) and the complete Kyriale (the collection of Mass Ordinary settings). The '' Liber usualis'' contains the chants for the
Graduale Romanum The ''Roman Gradual'' (Latin: ''Graduale Romanum'') is an official liturgical book of the Roman Rite of the Roman Catholic Church containing chants, including the proper and many more, for use in Mass. The '' editio typica'' dates from 1908. T ...
and the most commonly used Office chants.


Proper chants of the Mass

The Introit, Gradual, Alleluia, Tract, Sequence, Offertory and Communion chants are part of the Proper of the Mass. "Proprium Missae" in Latin refers to the chants of the Mass that have their proper individual texts for each Sunday throughout the annual cycle, as opposed to 'Ordinarium Missae' which have fixed texts (but various melodies) (Kyrie, Sanctus, Benedictus, Agnus Dei).
Introit The Introit () is part of the opening of the liturgical celebration of the Eucharist for many Christian denominations. In its most complete version, it consists of an antiphon, psalm verse and '' Gloria Patri'', which are spoken or sung at the ...
s cover the procession of the officiants. Introits are antiphonal chants, typically consisting of an antiphon, a psalm verse, a repeat of the antiphon, an intonation of the Gloria Patri
Doxology A doxology (Ancient Greek: ''doxologia'', from , ''doxa'' 'glory' and -, -''logia'' 'saying') is a short hymn of praises to God in various forms of Christian worship, often added to the end of canticles, psalms, and hymns. The tradition derives ...
, and a final repeat of the antiphon.
Reciting tone In chant, a reciting tone (also called a recitation tone) can refer to either a repeated musical pitch or to the entire melodic formula for which that pitch is a structural note. In Gregorian chant, the first is also called tenor, dominant or tu ...
s often dominate their melodic structures.
Gradual The gradual ( or ) is a certain chant or hymn in liturgical Christian worship. It is practiced in the Catholic Mass, Lutheran Divine Service, Anglican service and other traditions. It gets its name from the Latin (meaning "step") because i ...
s are responsorial chants that follow the reading of the
Epistle An epistle (; ) is a writing directed or sent to a person or group of people, usually an elegant and formal didactic letter. The epistle genre of letter-writing was common in ancient Egypt as part of the scribal-school writing curriculum. The ...
. Graduals usually result from ''
centonization In music centonization (from Latin ''cento'' or patchwork) is musical composition via the combination of pre-existing motivic units, typically in reference to Christian liturgical chant. A piece created using centonization is known as a "centon ...
''; stock musical phrases are assembled like a patchwork to create the full melody of the chant, creating families of musically related melodies. Graduals are accompanied by an elaborate Verse, so that it actually consists in two different parts, A B. Often the first part is sung again, creating a 'rondeau' A B A. At least the verse, if not the complete gradual, is for the solo cantor and are in elaborate, ornate style with long, wide-ranged melismata. The
Alleluia ''Hallelujah'' (; , Modern Hebrew, Modern ) is an interjection from the Hebrew language, used as an expression of gratitude to God. The term is used 24 times in the Hebrew Bible, Tanakh (in the book of Psalms), twice in deuterocanonical books, ...
is known for the '' jubilus'', an extended joyful melisma on the last vowel of 'Alleluia'. The Alleluia is also in two parts, the alleluia proper and the psalmverse, by which the Alleluia is identified (Alleluia V. Pascha nostrum). The last melisma of the verse is the same as the jubilus attached to the Alleluia. Alleluias are not sung during penitential times, such as
Lent Lent (, 'Fortieth') is the solemn Christianity, Christian religious moveable feast#Lent, observance in the liturgical year in preparation for Easter. It echoes the 40 days Jesus spent fasting in the desert and enduring Temptation of Christ, t ...
. Instead, a Tract is chanted, usually with texts from the Psalms.
Sequences In mathematics, a sequence is an enumerated collection of objects in which repetitions are allowed and order matters. Like a set, it contains members (also called ''elements'', or ''terms''). The number of elements (possibly infinite) is call ...
are sung poems based on couplets. Although many sequences are not part of the liturgy and thus not part of the Gregorian repertory proper, Gregorian sequences include such well-known chants as ''
Victimae paschali laudes "Victimae paschali laudes" is a sequence prescribed for the Catholic Mass, Anglican and Lutheran Eucharistic services on Easter Sunday. It is usually attributed to the 11th-century Wipo of Burgundy, chaplain to Holy Roman Emperor Conrad II, but h ...
'' and '' Veni Sancte Spiritus''. According to Notker Balbulus, an early sequence writer, their origins lie in the addition of words to the long melismata of the jubilus of Alleluia chants.


Ordinary chants of the Mass

The Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Benedictus and Agnus Dei use the same text in every service of the Mass. Because they follow the regular invariable "order" of the Mass, these chants are called " Ordinary". The
Kyrie ', a transliteration of Greek , vocative case of ('' Kyrios''), is a common name of an important prayer of Christian liturgy, also called the ( ; ). In the Bible The prayer, , "Lord, have mercy" derives from a Biblical phrase. Greek , ...
consists of a threefold repetition of "Kyrie eleison" ("Lord, have mercy"), a threefold repetition of "Christe eleison" ("Christ have mercy"), followed by another threefold repetition of "Kyrie eleison." In older chants, "Kyrie eleison imas" ("Lord, have mercy on us") can be found. The Kyrie is distinguished by its use of the
Greek language Greek (, ; , ) is an Indo-European languages, Indo-European language, constituting an independent Hellenic languages, Hellenic branch within the Indo-European language family. It is native to Greece, Cyprus, Italy (in Calabria and Salento), south ...
instead of Latin. Because of the textual repetition, various musical repeat structures occur in these chants. The following, Kyrie ad. lib. VI as transmitted in a Cambrai manuscript, uses the form ABA CDC EFE', with shifts in
tessitura In music, tessitura ( , , ; ; ) is the most acceptable and comfortable vocal range for a given singer (or, less frequently, musical instrument). It is the range in which a given type of voice presents its best-sounding (or characteristic) tim ...
between sections. The E' section, on the final "Kyrie eleison", itself has an aa'b structure, contributing to the sense of climax. The Gloria recites the Greater
Doxology A doxology (Ancient Greek: ''doxologia'', from , ''doxa'' 'glory' and -, -''logia'' 'saying') is a short hymn of praises to God in various forms of Christian worship, often added to the end of canticles, psalms, and hymns. The tradition derives ...
, and the
Credo In Christian liturgy, the credo (; Latin for "I believe") is the portion of the Mass where a creed is recited or sung. The Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed or the Apostles' Creed are the primary creeds used for this purpose. History After the ...
intones the
Nicene Creed The Nicene Creed, also called the Creed of Constantinople, is the defining statement of belief of Nicene Christianity and in those Christian denominations that adhere to it. The original Nicene Creed was first adopted at the First Council of N ...
. Because of the length of these texts, these chants often break into musical subsections corresponding with textual breaks. Because the Credo was the last Ordinary chant to be added to the Mass, there are relatively few Credo melodies in the Gregorian corpus. The
Sanctus The ''Sanctus'' (, "Holy") is a hymn in Christian liturgy. It may also be called the ''epinikios hymnos'' (, "Hymn of Victory") when referring to the Greek rendition and parts of it are sometimes called "Benedictus". ''Tersanctus'' (Latin: "Thr ...
and the Agnus Dei, like the Kyrie, also contain repeated texts, which their musical structures often exploit. Technically, the Ite missa est and the Benedicamus Domino, which conclude the Mass, belong to the Ordinary. They have their own Gregorian melodies, but because they are short and simple, and have rarely been the subject of later musical composition, they are often omitted in discussion.


Chants of the Office

Gregorian chant is sung in the
canonical hours In the practice of Christianity, canonical hours mark the divisions of the day in terms of Fixed prayer times#Christianity, fixed times of prayer at regular intervals. A book of hours, chiefly a breviary, normally contains a version of, or sel ...
of the
monastic Monasticism (; ), also called monachism or monkhood, is a religious way of life in which one renounces worldly pursuits to devote oneself fully to spiritual activities. Monastic life plays an important role in many Christian churches, especially ...
Office, primarily in antiphons used to sing the
Psalms The Book of Psalms ( , ; ; ; ; , in Islam also called Zabur, ), also known as the Psalter, is the first book of the third section of the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) called ('Writings'), and a book of the Old Testament. The book is an anthology of B ...
, in the Great Responsories of Matins, and the Short Responsories of the Lesser Hours and
Compline Compline ( ), also known as Complin, Night Prayer, or the Prayers at the End of the Day, is the final prayer liturgy (or office) of the day in the Christian tradition of canonical hours, which are prayed at fixed prayer times. The English wor ...
. The psalm antiphons of the Office tend to be short and simple, especially compared to the complex Great Responsories. At the close of the Office, one of four '' Marian antiphons'' is sung. These songs, ''Alma Redemptoris Mater'' (see top of article), ''Ave Regina caelorum'', ''Regina caeli laetare'', and ''Salve, Regina'', are relatively late chants, dating to the 11th century, and considerably more complex than most Office antiphons. Willi Apel has described these four songs as "among the most beautiful creations of the late Middle Ages".


Influence


Medieval and Renaissance music

Gregorian chant had a significant impact on the development of
medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...
and
Renaissance music Renaissance music is traditionally understood to cover European music of the 15th and 16th centuries, later than the Renaissance era as it is understood in other disciplines. Rather than starting from the early 14th-century ''ars nova'', the mus ...
. Modern staff notation developed directly from Gregorian neumes. The square notation that had been devised for plainchant was borrowed and adapted for other kinds of music. Certain groupings of neumes were used to indicate repeating rhythms called
rhythmic mode In medieval music, the rhythmic modes were set patterns of long and short duration (music), durations (or rhythms). The value of each musical notation, note is not determined by the form of the written note (as is the case with more recent Europea ...
s. Rounded noteheads increasingly replaced the older squares and lozenges in the 15th and 16th centuries, although chantbooks conservatively maintained the square notation. By the 16th century, the fifth line added to the musical staff had become standard. The
bass clef A clef (from French: 'key') is a musical symbol used to indicate which notes are represented by the lines and spaces on a musical staff. Placing a clef on a staff assigns a particular pitch to one of the five lines or four spaces, whi ...
and the flat,
natural Nature is an inherent character or constitution, particularly of the ecosphere or the universe as a whole. In this general sense nature refers to the laws, elements and phenomena of the physical world, including life. Although humans are part ...
, and sharp accidentals derived directly from Gregorian notation. Gregorian melodies provided musical material and served as models for tropes and
liturgical drama Liturgical drama refers to medieval forms of dramatic performance that use stories from the Bible or Christian hagiography. The term has developed historically and is no longer used by most researchers. It was widely disseminated by well-known the ...
s. Vernacular hymns such as " Christ ist erstanden" and " Nun bitten wir den Heiligen Geist" adapted original Gregorian melodies to translated texts. Secular tunes such as the popular Renaissance "
In Nomine In Nomine is a title given to a large number of pieces of English polyphonic, predominantly instrumental music, first composed during the 16th century. History This "most conspicuous single form in the early development of English consort mus ...
" were based on Gregorian melodies. Beginning with the improvised harmonizations of Gregorian chant known as
organum ''Organum'' () is, in general, a plainchant melody with at least one added voice to enhance the harmony, developed in the Middle Ages. Depending on the mode and form of the chant, a supporting bass line (or '' bourdon'') may be sung on the sam ...
, Gregorian chants became a driving force in medieval and Renaissance
polyphony Polyphony ( ) is a type of musical texture consisting of two or more simultaneous lines of independent melody, as opposed to a musical texture with just one voice ( monophony) or a texture with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chord ...
. Often, a Gregorian chant (sometimes in modified form) would be used as a ''
cantus firmus In music, a ''cantus firmus'' ("fixed melody") is a pre-existing melody forming the basis of a polyphonic composition. The plural of this Latin term is , although the corrupt form ''canti firmi'' (resulting from the grammatically incorrect trea ...
'', so that the consecutive notes of the chant determined the harmonic progression. The Marian antiphons, especially ''Alma Redemptoris Mater'', were frequently arranged by Renaissance composers. The use of chant as a cantus firmus was the predominant practice until the
Baroque The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...
period, when the stronger harmonic progressions made possible by an independent bass line became standard. The Catholic Church later allowed polyphonic arrangements to replace the Gregorian chant of the Ordinary of the Mass. This is why the Mass as a compositional form, as set by composers like
Palestrina Palestrina (ancient ''Praeneste''; , ''Prainestos'') is a modern Italian city and ''comune'' (municipality) with a population of about 22,000, in Lazio, about east of Rome. It is connected to the latter by the Via Prenestina. It is built upon ...
or
Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 1756 – 5 December 1791) was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition and proficiency from an early age ...
, features a Kyrie but not an Introit. The Propers may also be replaced by choral settings on certain solemn occasions. Among the composers who most frequently wrote polyphonic settings of the Propers were
William Byrd William Byrd (; 4 July 1623) was an English Renaissance composer. Considered among the greatest composers of the Renaissance, he had a profound influence on composers both from his native country and on the Continental Europe, Continent. He i ...
and
Tomás Luis de Victoria Tomás Luis de Victoria (sometimes Italianised as ''da Vittoria''; ) was the most famous Spanish composer of the Renaissance. He stands with Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina and Orlande de Lassus as among the principal composers of the late Re ...
. These polyphonic arrangements usually incorporate elements of the original chant.


See also

* Alternatim *
Anglican chant Anglican chant, also known as English chant, is a way to singing, sing Meter (poetry), unmetrical texts, including psalms and canticles from the Bible, by matching the natural Prosody (linguistics), speech-rhythm of the words to the notes of a s ...
* Cecilian Movement * Damien Poisblaud * Paul Jausions * Proportionalism (Gregorian chant) * Schola Antiqua * Semiology (Gregorian chant)


Notes


References

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *


Further reading

* ''Graduale Triplex'' (1979). Tournai: Desclée & Socii. * ''Graduale Novum'', Libreria Editrice Vaticana 2011 * ''Graduale Lagal'' (1984 / 1990) Chris Hakkennes, Stichting Lagal Utrecht * '' Graduale simplex in usum minorum ecclesiarum'', 2nd edition, Libreria editrice Vaticana, Vatican 1975, 515 p. * '' Liber usualis'' (1953). Tournai: Desclée & Socii.
''Liber usualis'' (1961)
PDF (115 MB) musicasacra.com
also here
at
Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...
* * * * * *
Reprint
at MusicaSacra.com website (accessed 20 January 2014).


External links

* * – A collection of Gregorian chants, hymns and psalms (Spain, 1575–1625) from the University of British Columbia Library Digital Collections * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gregorian Chant Catholic liturgical music Christian chants Order of Mass Tridentine Mass Western plainchant Pope Gregory I Medieval music genres Choral music genres