Gregorian Chant Details. Gregorian Chant Definition What is chant, and we do we call it "Gregorian?
" The following excerpt from Willi Apel’s classic work on the subject, Gregorian Chant, addresses both questions: You should also be aware that you will hear this music called by other terms, such as Roman chant, plain-chant or plain song. History The history of Gregorian chant is as fascinating as the music itself. We’ll start our exploration with an overview, provided courtesy of the monks of Solesmes. There is a wonderful audio version of this material that can be purchased through Paraclete Press. If that whet your appetite and you are dying to find out more, here are some sources to consider: Medieval Society and Monasticism Medieval monasticism, that is, the monks' way of life, was in a certain sense a fusion of feudalism and religious life.
"Monasticism played a vital role in the creation, preservation, and transmission of culture in the Middle Ages. Characteristics General Characteristics Specific Characteristics. History of Chant - The Monastery. Gregorian chant takes it name from Pope St.
Gregory the Great. Although the tradition proclaims him as the composer of chant, historical scholarship shows rather that he served as the great link between the early Church and the Middle Ages. As such, he symbolizes the chant of the churches in Rome, which spread to England and to Gaul in the seventh and eighth centuries. With the impetus of Charlemagne (768-814) and his Carolingian renaissance, musicians created new and more elaborate chants.
The early development is difficult to trace because all the music was handed on as an oral tradition; nothing was written down even though the repertoire for the Mass and the Divine Office comprised well over 2,000 pieces. Types of Chant This music can be divided into three types, marked by the degree of difficulty. More complex are the antiphons for lauds and vespers. Finally, solo cantors or small groups of trained musicians would sing the complex or melismatic chants for the propers of the Mass. The Gregorian Chant History. The Gregorian chant is the oldest musical manifestation of the Occident and it has its roots in the songs of the old synagogues, since Jesus Christ`s times.
The first Christians and disciples of Christ, were converted Jewish that, persevering in prayer, continued to sing the psalms and songs of the Old Testament as they were used, although with other sense. As long as the Greek, not Jews and Romans were also becoming Christian, elements of the music and the Greek-French-Roman culture were being included to the Jewish songs. The formation period of the Gregorian chant includes the centuries I to VI, reaching the peak in the centuries IX, X and XI, beginning of the Medium Age; it begins, then, its decadence. The name is an homage to Pope Gregory I (540-604) that did a collection of pieces, publishing them in two books: Antiphonarium, group or referring melodies at the Canonical Hours, and the Graduale Romanum, containing Santa Mass`s songs. Starting from the initiative talent of D. Gregorian chant. Gregorian chant is the central tradition of Western plainchant, a form of monophonic, unaccompanied sacred song of the western Roman Catholic Church.
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 St. Gregory the Great with inventing Gregorian chant, scholars believe that it arose from a later Carolingian synthesis of Roman chant and Gallican chant. History[edit] Development of earlier plainchant[edit] Musical elements that would later be used in the Roman Rite began to appear in the 3rd century. Scholars are still debating how plainchant developed during the 5th through the 9th centuries, as information from this period is scarce. John the Deacon, biographer (c. 872) of Pope Gregory I, modestly claimed that the saint "compiled a patchwork antiphonary",[11] unsurprisingly, given his considerable work with liturgical development.
Origins of mature plainchant[edit]