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An Inspiration from Heaven

Enduring, eloquent and enriching, the Gregorian chant has been the mesmerizing accompaniment to the Catholic liturgy. Drawing even the common man with a powerful and compelling quality, the Gregorian chant has stemmed from the early Middle Ages. Through the medieval years, the Gregorian chant went through a solitary ascent of a mystic expression. Its religious significance was reflected through its monastic origins as being part of a religious ritual. Sung through the ages, the chant developed a melodious repertoire that showcased history, tradition and a spiritual culture.

Changing over years, the Gregorian chant has been popularly attributed to Pope Gregory I in the year 590. Legends and tales surround Pope Gregory with a spiritual aura with paintings showing a bird singing chants into his ear. Though the politics of the church enveloped the atmosphere, Gregory established and trained the first singing school (Schola Cantorum) in Rome for the church and organized the church's annual cycle of liturgical readings. Besides sending missionaries to find new music, Gregory I has also been portrayed as having been responsible for writing, collecting and putting together the main structure of the plainchant that was being used at that time.

As the chant traversed the years, now known as the Old Roman, Emperor Charlemagne decided to send for liturgical books, singing instructors and chants from Rome to teach the Franks. What evolved was that the Franks adapted the chant according to their style and taste and its nomenclature eventually changed from the Carolingian chant to the plainchant. But after the death of Saint Benedict, the chant was known in the traditional style in liturgical music as the Gregorian chant. Transforming over three centuries, the Gregorian chant was also known as the plainsong that was melodious with free rhythm without any harmonic tints. The Gregorian chant has taken on a rich sheen with a huge contribution from the monks of the Abbey of Solesmes in France. After a detailed study of original manuscripts and authentic sources, the Gregorian chant is available today in a wide and enriching selection.

Music for the Soul

Rendered from the plainchant as monophonic and unaccompanied by instruments, the Gregorian chant was modified by the Franks in the 9th and 10th centuries. Though Pope Saint Gregory the Great is believed to have developed the chant, modern theory has it that it stemmed from a later version of the Carolingian synthesis of Roman and Gallican chant. The Gregorian chants have eight scalar modes with melodic frames comprising of incipits and cadences. The reciting features of the chant revolve around a pattern called centonization that renders a series of synchronized chants. With hexachords or six-note patterns woven to hold these modes together, the diatonic scale is used which is now known as B-flat. The chants were transcribed using neumes or the early form of notations from which the five-line staff was derived in the 16th century. The Gregorian chant structured polyphony that could be sung by groups. As a tradition of the Roman Rite, Gregorian chants were sung by choirs of men and boys in churches. It was also sung by women and men according to the religious orders in their chapels. Nevertheless, the Gregorian chant was the music used during Mass decreed by the monastic Office. The 20th century saw a revival of the chant as being a harmonious and suitable accompaniment for worship.

Interestingly enough, as the Gregorian chants evolved over the years, they were divided into recitatives and melodies. The recitative tone has a single pitch, whilst the melodies have partial and full cadences. The unusual Psalmodic chants consist of both recitatives and free melodies including in its spectrum direct psalmody, antiphonal chants, and responsorial chants. Using harmony, the Antiphonal chants like the Introit, Offertory, and Communion were sung by two choirs in alternation. While one choir sang the verses of a psalm, the other sang a refrain or chorus called an antiphon. These chants were shortened over a period of time to a Doxology or one psalm verse. The Gradual, Tract, Alleluia, and the Office Responsories were characterized by the Responsorial chants. Woven with the pattern of centonization, these chants comprised of different stock musical phrases. Chants that have shorter repetitive texts like the Offertories, Kyrie and Agnus Dei have a series of interwoven structures and repeat musical phrases that are short. The chants that make up the Great Responsories, the Gloria and the Credo have longer repeat musical phrases with closely knitted modes.

As the smooth melodic influence of the Gregorian chant spread in a harmonic wave across Europe, Charlemagne became the Holy Roman Emperor. In an effort to merge together religious and secular powers, Charlemagne with a powerful sweep ordered the clergy to infuse the Gregorian chant into their ritual. Subdued with imperious pressure, the chant became the order of the day. Soon from English and German sources, Gregorian chant spread north to Scandinavia, Iceland and Finland. In 885, Pope Stephen V banned the Slavonic liturgy, leading to the ascendancy of Gregorian chant in Eastern Catholic lands including Poland, Moravia, Slovakia, and Austria. The Christian West now faced a change in their versions of the plainchant. Charlemagne planted the foundation for the chant. This saw the Gregorian chant of the Sarum Rite displacing the Celtic chant. The Gregorian chant was merged with the Beneventan chant for over a century, before the Beneventan chant was abolished by Papal decree. Even the Mozarabic chant soon resembld the Gregorian chant. But the Ambrosian chant preserves its identity today in Milan because of the popularity of Saint Ambrose.

A Distinct Musical Formula

The Gregorian chant miraculously soon took over even the local chant tradition of Rome. With no notations scored in Italy, the Roman Popes during the 10th and 11th centuries brought in the Gregorian chants from the German Holy Roman Emperors. And all too soon, the Gregorian chant wiped out all other Western plainchant traditions. These plainchant traditions also showcased a basic chant pattern called Gregorian modes. This was identified as Dorian, Hypodorian Phrygian, Hypophrygian, Lydian, Hypolydian, Mixolydian and Hypomixolydian as authentic and plagal modes ending on different notes. Modes such as Aeolian, Locrian, and Ionian were treated as transpositions using the same set of hexachords. The pitch of the Gregorian chant was not fixed and could be sung in any convenient range. With a distinct musical formula for each mode, the different variations of the Gregorian chant allowed a smooth transition into the next verse or section. The ealy Gregorian chant did not use the modal system like the Ambrosian and the Old Roman chants. The modal systems changed during the 12th century as Cistercian reforms that came in were noticed especially in the chant used for the Communion. The Gregorian chant with its unusual origins and distinctive style wove the elements of the old almost lost plainchant traditions. This is evident in the Improperia of Good Friday that was derived from what was left of the Gallican repertory.

The French musicologist Alexandre-Étienne Choron during the French Revolution, advocated the return of the original Gregorian chant of Rome against the adulterated versions. During the late 19th century, the ancient liturgical and musical manuscripts were discovered and edited. Pope Pius IX decreed the reprinted 1871 Medicean edition of the Gregorian chant as the official and recognized version. With a series of ups and downs, the the Solesmes monks came out with the Paléographie musicale revealing medieval melodies. This was praised as an academic work but rejected by Rome till the year 1903 when Pope Leo XIII died. Then his successor, Pope Pius X accepted the Solesmes chant as the Liber usualis and in 1904 was commissioned as the Vatican edition. But at the end of all the controversies, in spite of the fact that modern music in the vernacular could be used, the usage of the Gregorian chant was still the reigning worship music of the Catholic Church.

A Versatile Mode

With a unique flow, rhythm and melody all its own, the Gregorian chant wielded its influence over Medieval and Renaissance music. As the years flowed by with the melody of the Gregorian chant echoing with the winds of change, the early Gregorian music of the 19th century cast its influence on the music of the 20th century. The indelible imprint of the Gregorian chant was seen in classical music like the choral structure of the four chants in "Quatre motets sur des thèmes Grégoriens" by Maurice Duruflé, the carols of Peter Maxwell Davies and the choral work of Arvo Pärt. With a versatile air, the Gregorian chant has been infused in other genres of music like, Enigma's "Sadeness (Part I)", the chant interpretation of pop and rock by the German band Gregorian, the techno project E Nomine, and the work of the black metal band, Deathspell Omega. The Norwegian black metal bands used the Gregorian style chants to denote a distinct vocal rendition. The modal elements of the chant were used to render a unique sound with a smooth infusion into modern scales.

With an immortal character, the Gregorian chant slipped effortlessly into New Age music and world music movements during the 1980s and '90s. The singular rendition of the album ‘Chant’ by the Benedictine Monks of Santo Domingo de Silos was released as inspiring music. Commented on for the monotony of the chant in the rendition of the flagellant monks in Monty Python and the Holy Grail intoning “Pie Jesu Domine” and “The Languid and Bittersweet 'Gregorian Chant No. 5” in the Mystery Science Theatre 3000 episode Pod People, the Gregorian Chant has come a long way but still remains more than a part and parcel of religious, secular and modern music. The popularity of the Gregorian chant resounded through the world as it not only increased the production of beta waves in the brain, but was known as a peaceful, tranquil and calm music to soothe the mind and the soul.