Gregorian Chant

Gregorian intoneThe Development and Evolution of Gregorian Chant For centuries, Gregorian intonate was considered the authorised medicament of the Catholic church. Naturally, this degree of importance placed on the literary genre gives it considerable signifi put upce, both(prenominal) religious and cultural. Its exact beginnings, however, are not suddenly kn hold. excessively, cantillate has changed over time collect to it beingness based on practices of the Church, which have similarly changed over time ascribable to decrees by different popes, agendas of monastic orders, and the sours of and intermingling of cultures, such(prenominal) as the Franks, roman prints, and Byzantines. Although the name of Gregorian hum is derived from pontiff Gregory I The Great, it has its roots a great deal earlier in archives, predating Christianity. In fact, Christian intonate is believed to have been originally derived from Judaism, as thither was a considerable amount of comm on ground between Jewish and archean Christian liturgies (Werner 20). This is seen through writings of the wee church building service which show that the early Christian church was heavily decided by Hebrew worship (Barton). However, there is little information available from carols of early centuries compared to Gregorian chirrup and new(prenominal) chants of later centuries (Hiley 478). One reason for this is that melodic notation for chants of this time did not exist, for at this time chants were an in all oral rather than written tradition. Also contributing to this lack of information is that early Christians were persecuted, forcing private worship until the polity of Milan of 313, which gave Christians the right of freedom of worship in Rome (484). Due to this freedom, Christianity could commit to become much formalized and organized, its harmony included. There is hike equivocalness surrounding the particularized origins of Gregorian chant in considering Pope Gregory himself. What Gregorys influence was on Gregorian chant is debatable, as there is limited assure supporting that he either had a great deal of influence on the genre, such as directly composing chants, or considerably-nigh none (513). However, cardinal pieces of evidence support a common possibleness of his involvement in the creation of Gregorian chant that was known end-to-end the diaphragm Ages, which are two books written by Pope Gregory. These two books, entitled Antiphonarium and Graduale Romanum, are compilations of already existing chants that Pope Gregory designated for particularised part of Catholic mass which supports the theory that his involvement was limited to such compilations (DSilva). An type of Gregorys ordering to use specific music in sacrament of the Eucharist is him mandating that the Allelulia be utilise during mass for an entire year (Apel 41). Despite the lack of specific information concerning the beginnings of chant that would later e volve to become Gregorian chant, the origins of Gregorian chant as it was known throughout the Middle Ages are much clear, as music books, although they shut away were not musically notated, of the genre were created by the Franks at virtually the 9th century, making the genre easier to trace through history to that point (Hiley 514). Note that it was not until the 10th century that sources were created containing musical notation, videlicet being musically annotated Graduals and Antiphonals from the Codex 359 (Apel 52). Also, it was not until the 11th century that music was annotated in a way so that tunes could be read (53). In addition to these musical books, various manuscripts were written that outlined liturgical proceedings, allowing for further clarification of the specifics of Gregorian chant (53). The peoples who ruled the area that is roughly current France vie a large role in forming Gregorian chant to what it is, from the Franks to the Carolingians (Hiley 512). Th is started under the rule of the Frank king Pepin, who lead the Franks to control much of Europe through military conquest, spreading the culture of chant to the Franks, and also create remediates to Gregorian chant by the Franks and their successors (513). In addition to causing chant to be more(prenominal) widespread, the intervention of the Franks also caused Gregorian chant to evolve from further influences (513).Not only did the influence of the Franks allow the beginnings of Gregorian chant to be seen more easily, as was described previously, but their musical texts also show the original motives behind its development, the main motive being to help control how the liturgy was run by assigning specific chants to certain parts of the liturgy, as was done by Pope Gregory (515). In the case of the Franks (namely Pepin and also Charlemagne), the reasoning behind trying to control the specifics of the liturgy was so that it would become standardized since many members of the chu rch were influenced by their own local traditions in structuring the liturgy, which Frank leadership was trying to suppress (Barbon). Of course, due to the amount of time between Pope Gregorys writings and the adoption of chant by the Frankish church (300 years), it can be safely pretended that the liturgical assignments of the Franks were different than those of Pope Gregory. More changes were made as well in Gregorian chant, including the style of singing, such as the combining of both Roman and Frankish singers, although eventually a return to a more Roman styled liturgy and type of singing occurred among the Franks (Hiley 517). Since writing texts for the chants was still not common practice and musical notation for them did not yet exist, it follows that the Franks had to get hold of Roman liturgy and chants by memory when this shift back to stringently Roman liturgy occurred. This also denotes that the number of chants that were used and popular were not too numerous at thi s point in time, as they could still be all swindled. Despite the shift back to a Roman style liturgy, over the years and into the 9th century to the start of the rule of the Carolingians, who succeeded the Franks, Gregorian chant continued to evolve as new musical elements were added to the genre by the Franks and more compositions were created (Hiley 517). Some of these changes were brought on by outside influences on Gregorian chant, such as by the Byzantines, who developed the eight method system (529). The fact that the amount of compositions of Gregorian chant were increasing can be tied in with the development of written musical texts around this time period, causing Gregorian chant to shift away from a strictly oral tradition, for it would no longer be possible to memorize all of the chants necessary as their numbers grew. As the popularity of Gregorian chant grew, it underwent several more reforms and evolutions, mostly during the 12th and 13th centuries (Hiley 608). An e xample of such a reform was more specific notation being used in writing chant, which included specifying pitch, among other specific musical elements (608). other reform was the tendency to drift away from previous melodies of the Middle Ages, creating a type of chant called Neo-Gallican chant (609). Many of these changes made to Gregorian chant were initiated by various orders, two major ones being the Cistercians, who believed in acting the liturgy as it was done originally, and the Dominicans, whose reforms, like the efforts of many before it, were aimed at standardizing the liturgy (612). Gregorian chant did not enjoy constant suppuration and popularity, however. After the 12th century, the popularity and growth of Gregorian chant started to wane, presumably due to a period of reduced popularity of the Catholic Church (DSilva). Also, around the sixteenth century the Catholic Church was threatened by Protestantism, which also played a part in decreasing the popularity of the church, thus affecting the popularity of traditional monastic liturgies and music (Hiley 615). another(prenominal) such period of decadence for the church and for Gregorian chant was during the age of Enlightenment, as less emphasis was placed on the church and God and instead more on the soulfulness and reason.As a result of this new ideology, the power and influence of the church began to regrets. In addition to the general ideology of the time, another reason for the decline of the Church was the political struggle caused by the French Revolution, which caused a reform in the French church so that it no longer ascertained previous monastic traditions (Bergeron xii). Due to Gregorian chants close association with the church, its popularity began to decline as well (Barton). This causes yet another obstacle in acquiring information about Gregorian chant and thus makes it more touchy to interpret today as the knowledge of how to interpret various gallant musical notations was l ost (Barton).A large factor of why Gregorian chant did not die out completely is the involvement of monks at the French monastery at Solesmes, and other such monasteries, who during the 19th century were commissioned by Pope St. Pius X to newfangledize Gregorian chant (DSilva). They achieved this by removing the strict association that Gregorian chant had with the church, secularizing it and adding a meditative, trancelike woo (DSilva). In the end, Gregorian chant was changed to be more akin to definitive Roman chant than the Gregorian chant of the Middle Ages. As a result, the chant that is known today as Gregorian chant is more similar to early plainchant rather than what was originally dubbed as Gregorian chant (DSilva).As a result of this change of the style of Gregorian chant, along with the declining power of the Catholic Church and thus the popularity of Gregorian chant, it is knockout to know what Gregorian chant of the Middle Ages exactly sounded like (Barton). Another factor that contributes to this is the lack of musical notation with text in the Middle Ages, and that some of the notation that does exist from the time period cannot be understand due to these periods of decrease in popularity. Overall, the fact that chant was originally a purely oral tradition that consisted of few enough chants that could be memorized, along with Gregorian chants affiliation with a religion that was originally persecuted and later declining in popularity, contributes to the murkiness of the origins of Gregorian chant. Also, the fact that Christianity underwent significant changes from the time of its conception to modern times results in equally significant changes occurring in the style of music that was so closely affiliated with its prominent church, even causing Gregorian chant to nearly die out on several make in history. However, despite the several bouts of decrease in popularity that Gregorian chant experienced, it is currently one of the oldest forms of music that is actively listened to today (DSilva). Also, the many changes that Gregorian chant underwent throughout history makes it very unique, as it cannot be entirely attributed to any specific event, person, or even nation or empire. Instead, as David Hiley states, Gregorian chant is neither of one specific time, nor all told Roman, nor wholly anything else (Hiley 513).Works CitedApel, Willi. Gregorian Chant. Bloomington Indiana University Press, 1990. Print.Barton, Louis W. G.. The Culture of Medieval Music chirography Historical Background of Neume Notation / The Neume Notation Project.. scribeserver.com. N.p., 8 Dec. 2003. Web. 19 Nov. 2009. . Bergeron, Katherine. decadent Enchantments The Revival of Gregorian Chant at Solesmes (California Studies in 19th deoxycytidine monophosphate Music). Berkeley University of California Press, 1998. Print.DSilva, Neil Valentine. The History Of Gregorian Chant. Buzzle Web Portal Intelligent bearing on the Web. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Nov. 2009. .Hiley, David. Western Plainchant A Handbook. New York Oxford University Press, USA, 1995. Print.Werner, Eric. The set apart Bridge The Interdependence of Liturgy Music in Synagogue and Church During the First Millenium. Columbia Columbia University Press, 1960. Print.