Gregorian chant

Gregorian chant is also known as plainchant or plainsong, and is a form of monophonic, unaccompanied singing, which was developed in the Catholic church, mainly during the period 800-1000. It takes its name from Pope St. Gregory the Great, who is believed to have brought it to the West based on Eastern models of Byzantine chant.

The music and its performers

In most Western music since the Renaissance there are two modes: Major and minor. The Major scale is built upon the Do and the minor scale the La. The various keys that are used affect only the range of the notes, or the pitch. Essentially the scale is the same, only transposed, or moved, to a different range.

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Many hear Gregorian chant and think of it as a very simplified version of modern music . While it is simple in its lack of harmony, the modal system involved is quite complex, and is directly descended from the octoechos system of eight modes used by the medieval Byzantines, and the Greater Perfect System of the ancient Greeks.

Related Topics:
Octoechos - Greater Perfect System

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The Greater Perfect System was comprised of tetrachords with the interval pattern half step, whole step, whole step (e.g., B^C-D-E). Two of these tetrachords end to end produce our modern diatonic scale (B^C-D-E^F-G-A, the E being common to both tetrachords). This is the same as the white keys of the keyboard, the raw material of our C major and A natural minor scales. For modern purposes, chant can be seen as inhabiting this 8 note scale plus the B-flat.

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This is not the typical medieval understanding, however. They would have seen any given octave span as the result of overlapping hexachords. Our 7-note "do re mi fa sol la ti (do)" scale is an extension of the 6-note medieval hexachord "ut re mi fa sol la" that Guido of Arezzo derived from the hymn "Ut queant laxis." 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^Bb-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, and not an accidental. The use of any note outside of this collection (e.g. as a result of hexachords on nonstandard pitches) was described as musica ficta. Gregorian chant was seen to occupy the standard pitches of the medieval hexachord system.

Related Topics:
Hexachords - Guido of Arezzo - Musica ficta

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The Gregorian system uses the theoretical system of 8 modes. While some pieces fall outside these modes, most obey the theory. The actual theory behind modality is quite complicated, but essentially each mode is a unique scale system, in addition to our Major and minor scales. In this manner Plainsong is much richer than the simplified bimodal modern system, but this makes some of the sounds of Gregorian Chant unusual to ears attuned to modern scalar modes.

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Unlike modern music there is no beat or regular accent to Gregorian Chant. In fact the time is free, allowing the accenting of the text, which often includes sections of unequal length and importance.

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The actual pitch of the Gregorian chant is not fixed, so the piece can be sung at any range, so long as the intervals are respected.

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Chant is commonly written on a staff similar to the modern 5-line-4-space staff, but the Gregorian staff has 4 lines and 3 spaces. The notes, called neumes, are somewhat similar to modern notes, but often do not include stems and can be stacked, not to create harmonic chords, but to indicate the sequence.

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Traditionally chant would be sung only by men, as it was originally simply the music sung by all the clergy (all male) during the Mass and Office (prayer sessions scheduled 7 times throughout the day). As the Church expanded away from the larger cities, the number of clergy at each Church dropped and lay men started singing these parts. In Convents women were permitted to sing the Mass and Office as a function of their consecrated life, but the choir was still considered an official liturgical duty reserved to clergy, so lay women were not allowed to sing in the Gregorian Schola or chant choir.

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As harmony began to develop in the middle ages and into the Renaissance younger boys and castrati would sing the high parts. As these numbers dwindled and the music became popular away from the major cities women gradually were permitted to sing the polyphonic parts.

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Eventually Popes, especially Pope St. Pius X encouraged the faithful to sing the Ordinary of the Mass. In his motu proprio Tra le sollicitudine, Pius X reserved the singing of the propers for males. While this custom is maintained in some communities, the Catholic Church no longer exercises this ban.

Related Topics:
Pope St. Pius X - Tra le sollicitudine

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