ur story begins, as it must, in the middle of things. The act vent of music notation coincided with no specific event. Still less did it mark the origin of music or of any par- ticular musical repertory. Yet sometime overa thousand ‘years ago music stopped being an almost exclusively oral tradition and became a party literate one. The history of written musicin the ‘West begins with the masic forthe services ofthe Roman Catholic ‘Church. What had previously been transmitted from generation to generation through singing and playing came to be partially writ ten down, preserved, and disseminated. This was an enormously Important change. The beginning of music writing gives us access through actual documents to the musical repertories of the past and suddenly raises the curtain, so to speak, on activities that had ‘been going on for many centuries, No matter exactly when, where, ‘and how it happened, we ean from this point become witnesses of a sort abe to trace the evolution of masic over the past millennium through notated sources Masic had, of cours, already existed for many millennia, The problems that we know very litle about what actualy sounded like, Unlike ancient works of visual artand literatare, mach of which survived and exerted enormous influence, music works proved ephemeral and dis- appeared, What abstract knowledge we have about preliterate music, from tens of thousands of years ago, from biblical times, from ancient Greece, and then from the fist millennium of the Common Bra, can be gleaned from various kinds of visual, descriptive, and physical evidence, including some very early instru- ments, In 2009, for example, archacologists in Germany discovered a fivecinger flute made of bone from the Stone Age, at least 35,000 years ago (Fig. I-1).TIMELINE 1200 4c¢ Musical notation Inscribed on a Babylonian nell abet <2 800 sce Homey, od ond Odyssey -€4 580-500 ace Pythagoras "explores harmonic ratios 450-325 nar Socrates, lato, and Aristotle pase inflict deat on music <4 $60 we Pit, Ihe Ruble BF exe Rome becomes en emple = der Augustus ea 2048 Vig Aoeld Fi centory ce lop of sees St Auguste, De muska Divison of he Roman Empire ino Fast and West, Fallat the Roman Empire in the vet 800-10 ost, De inate musca ofthe Franis, Pepin instigating the spread of Roman chant = 800 Pope Lo crowns = Charlemagie as Emperor of the Western Roman Empire = «2,843 Aurelian of Ré6me, ‘Musica ascpina Anthology Vol 1-1 Full CD/Concise CD 1, 1 (CHAPTER € THE FIRST LITERATE REPERTORY IN WESTERN MUSIC: GREGORIAN CHANT ‘There are many surviving ilustrations of ancient music making found in pre historic cave paintings, in Egyptian murals, on Greek pottery, and elsewhere that provide further indications of the instruments that were used, if not of the spe cifle music that was produced. Also abundant are written descriptions. The Bible gives some particularly vivid ones. Psalm 150, the climax ofthe Psalter (Book of Psalms) isin factan account of singing God's praises in the ancient temple, Itreads, inpart: Praise him with fanfares on the trumpet, praise hin upon the lute and harp; praise him with tambourines and dancing, praise him with ute and strings; praise him withthe clash of cymbals, praise him with triamphant cymbals; leteverything that has breath praise the 1080! ‘We will not find such goings-on in any synagogue today. We can read ofthe chanting ‘of psalms and other sacred texts in the synagogue, but no Jewish music was written down exactly until mach more modern times. ‘While some early kinds of musical notation survive to a very limited degree from ancient cultures, the principal challenge has been figuring out how to decode them. Ia the 1970s scholars maneyed to transcribe the notation on a cuneiform tab- {et dating from around 1200 nce that had been unearthed on the site of the ancient Babylonian city of Ugarit, near Ras-Shamra in modern Syria! The tablet contained a hymn to the goddess Nikkal, the wife of the moon god Kushuh (Ex. 1-1). What may be most remarkable is how unremarkable this earliest preserved piece of music ‘now seems when transcribed into modern notation: It consists of intervals recog- nized as consonant in most Western music today, Example 1-1 First phrase of Hurrian hymn from ancient Ugart, transcribed by Anne Draffkorn Kilmer ‘The ancient Greeks later developed a piteh-specific musical notation, A hand- ful of melodies survive, at least partially, indecipherable sources, the earliest being two Delphic hymns, pieces praising the god Apollo, from around 130 ace. Most of ‘what cemains ae relatively late examples, set down long after the era ofthe great phi losophers and playwrights. One complete “composition” is the Epitaph of Seikilos (Bx. 1-2), which probably dates from the first century of the Common Eea and is snow housed at the National Museum in Copenbagen, It appears on a tombstone that was discovered inthe late nineteenth century during the construction of a rail- oad in what is modemn Turkey. The bref piece shows that to the Greeks music was important in remembering the dead. The opening lines engraved on the memorial stone stat its purpose: “Iam a tombstone, an image. Seikilos placed me here as aneverlasting sign of deathless remembrance’ This suggests that Scikilos (whoever he _was) may have written the following short epitaph (Greek for “over a tomb; that is «short memorial poem) and perhaps the melody a well: Aslongas youve, shine Grieve you nor at all Lifes of brief dation ‘Time demands its end. ‘The Grecks used letters and symbols to indicate pitch and rhythm, Example 1-2 shows the original notation over a modern transcription, 2 melody that would be familiar to our ears today Although this is just a vocal melody, contemparane- ousillustrations suggest that sung texts were often accompanied by various kinds of instruments, inciuding the cithara or lyre, plucked string instruments, and the aulos, ‘wind instrument, Example 1-2 The Epitaph of Seikilos ‘Masic played an important role in ancient Greece. Itwas integral to theater, in ‘which the chorus commented on the action ofthe drama and in which dance was ‘one of the elements of the total spectacle, Greek philosophers wrote at consider: able length about music, specifically about its ethical qualities and what ts proper place should be in society. In a famous passage from Plato's Republic (written around 360 cz), Socrates advocated banning most of the musical scales “because ‘more than anything else rhythm and harmony find their way to the inmost soul and take strongest hold upon it” Understandably, the power of music, often as- sociated with bodily and sensual pleasures, has always unsettled those who would seek to contro! human emotions for religious, politica, or cultural reasons. At the 2. B80 Nother Balbulus: Lber: ymnoru 997-1006. Winchester Tropers ea, 1028 Guido of Arezz0, ‘Micrologus a 1054 Schism between Fasiem and Western Christian churches 1066 Norman Conquest 2.1150 Hildegard of Bingen, ‘Symphonia armonle ‘elestium revelotionum Figure 1-1 Fivesfinger fate ‘eared from bite Bone atleast 35,000 years ago and unearthed in a cave in Germany in 2009.same time music has long been praised for its healing properties, spr tual effects, and ability to express emotions. Debates about the dangers and benefits of music continue to this day Theories of Music "The ancient Greeks wrote about music theory as well, which means that something is known concerning their taning systems. According to Greek legend, the sixth-centary scx philosopher Pythagoras one day heard beau- tful sounds coming unexpectedly out ofa blacksmiths shop. Weighing the anvils the smiths were striking, he discovered the harmonic ratios gov. «ming the perfect ("Pythagorean") consonances (Bx. 1-3; Fig. 1-2). Por many centuries to come, when musicians thought theoretically about ‘usic—that is, made systematic generalizations about it—they usually did so in terms ofthe arts of measurement. What was measurable was what was studied: the pitch ratios we call intervals and the durational ratios we «all rhythms, which were eventually organized into meters (another refer- ‘ence to measuring). One of the most influential treatises was De musica (About Music) by St, Augustine (354~430), the greatest of the Fathers of the Christian Church. Completed in 391 ci, the book covers nothing bat Figure 1-2 iustration trom a thirteenth shythmic proportions (quantitative metrics) and contains a famous defl- Century manuscript showing Pythagoras in tion of music as “the art of measuring wel” It ends with a meditation the blacksmith shop, measuring harmonic ‘on the theotogicl significance ofharmonious proportions and the way in Pee which they reflect the essential nature ofthe universe. Example 1-3 Deduction of the diatonic pitch set from the Pythagorean ‘consonances. Pythagorean harmonies (he fou anvil) ‘The most-studied treatise was De insttutione musica (On the Organization of ‘Masic), by the Roman statesman and educational reformer Anicius Manlius Sev. ciaus Boethivs (ca, 480 to ca. $24). It consisted largely of translations from ear- lier Greekcinfluenced writers who had lived in the second century cz in Arabia and Egypt. Although by Boethius's time the actual music practiced by the ancient Greeks had fallen into oblivion, is text became the source of Medieval scholars’ knowledge ‘of Greek music theory. Accordingly, his treatise concerns not practical music but ab- stract musica, pechaps best translated inthis contextas “harmony. Boethius inherited two transcendent ideas from followers of Plato: that musica mirrored the essential harmony of the cosmos and that it therefore had a decisive influence on human health and behavior. This was known asthe doctrine of ethos, from which the word “ethics” is decived. Andible music (musta instrumental, “eausie such as instruments produce’) is thus only a gross metaphor for two higher levels. At the top was thebarmony of the cosmos (musica mudana), and in the intermediate position was the harmony of the buman constitution (musica humana). This scheme can be quite effectively seen in a famous manuscript illumination of the thirteenth century, fully 700 years after Boethius (Fig. 1-3). In ‘each of the three panels of this illumination, the per sonification of musica points toa different level of her ‘manifestation. In the top panel she points to a repre- sentation of the universe, with its four elements: earth, air fre (the sun), and water. The sun and moon further represent the periodic movements of the heavens, an aspect of measurable “harmony” In the middle pane! she points to four men representing the four “hu- ‘mors,’ temperaments, or basic personality types— that is, the four types of “human harmony”: The “choleric” temperament was ruled by bile, the “san- jguine’ by blood, the “phlegmatic” by phlegm, and the melancholic” by black bile. The four humors mirror the four elements; thus, human harmony isa function of the celestial. In the bottom panel we find musica Instrumentals, the music that we actually heas, epre= sented by a fiddle player. Historical Imagination Attempts to decipher some of the notation of antiquity reveal a problem that we will encounter as well in the ‘earliest notated music of the Christian Church. Like the Greek system, it employed what is now often called the diatonic pitch set’ the feld of pitches and pitch re- Jationships reducible to a specific arrangement of tones andseritones (“whole steps" and “halfsteps"), of which the major and minor seales are most familiar today. The Figure 1-3 Frontispiece of a mid-thiteenthvcentury manuscript representing the musical cosmology described by Boethius in Be Insiutione musica ‘arliest Christian notation indicated only the contour of melodies, bt gradually a sys: tem developed that allows us, forthe most par, to decipher the exact pitches and thus ‘the specific melody This early notation, howeves,conveyslitle ernothingabout meter sand rayth, Notation in the Christian world that indicates measured rhytam emerged inthe late twelfth century. For much music ofthe distant past we know almost nothing about crucial elements that make a particular piece of music distinctive for us today: ‘meter and chythm, harmony, tempo, dynamics, instrumentation, and so forth, Part of the story we will tellin this book concerns the continuing refinement of notation in an attempt by composers to retain—or assert—ever-greater control over performance. ‘An interesting consequence is that notation itself came to influence what was com- posed, rather than being only a means of committing compositions to paper ‘Most of the music that survives from the Mididle Ages is sacred, that is, con nected to religion, principally to the Roman Catholic Church, rather than secular,(CHAPTER 1 THE FIRST LITERATE REPERTORY IN WESTERN MUSIC: GREGORIAN CHANT. the music of everyday nonreligious life. The earliest music typically comes down to us as monophonic chant, single unaccompanied lines of pure melody, rather than as polyphonic (multivoiced) pieces or pieces played on instruments. Most of the music was sung in Latin rather than in everyday (vernacular) languages. From these facts it would be easy to draw various false conclusions, to assume that in the West there was sacred music before there was secular music, monophonic before there was polyphonic, vocal before there was instrumental. In fat, the chant connected to the Catholic Church was only one of many musical repertories that coexisted in Eu- rope a thousand years ago. Nonetheless, itis the earliest body of music that, thanks to notation, we can study in detail. In order to appreciate the context of this first great surviving Western reper: tory of music, what is now commonly called Gregorian chant, we need to discuss ‘the organization of religious life, how the days and years and services of the Church worked, We also need to use some historical imagination s0 as to appreciate hove ‘music functioned within religious lf, Itwas meant not to be “performed” for plea sure or entertainment, as is the case for much of the music we will consider, but, rather to be enacted as one element of life devoted to God. For us, Medieval chants have become a form of concert music, which we now experience in new surroundings (concerthalls,ourhomes, our ears, our classrooms) and for new purposes, For example in the mid-1990sa CD of chants sung by an en- semble of Spanish monks unexpectedly rose to the top of the popular music sales charts. Yetif we imagine ourselves hearing these chants with "medieval ers” in the position ofthe chants’ original contemporaries, we may gain some access to mean. ings we might otherwise never experience. Perhaps even more importantly, we may achieve a distanced perspective on our own contemporary world, a form of critical awareness we would otherwise never guin. These are among the most potent rea- ‘sons for studying history. Christian Beginnings, As Far As We Know Them ‘The early notation of the few examples mentioned so far fell out of use and in any case was only deciphered in modern times, The first surviving artifact of actual (Christian service music is a fragment of a Greek hymn to the Holy Trinity, notated oon a papyrus strip during the fourth century ce (Ex. 1-4); some pitches are un- certain. It is the earliest surviving representative, by six or seven centuties, ofthe Greek-texted music ofthe Orthodox Church of the Eastern Roman Empire, known as the Byzantine Empire. (Orthodox in Greek means “correctly believing") Unlike the Western Roman Church, which came to cultivate the traditional prose-poetry of the Psalter as its main sphere of musical creativity, the Eastern Orthodox Church emphasized hymns, nevly composed “songs with praise of God” in metrical verse, a repertory known as Byzantine chant. In addition to this chant repertoire in the East, different ones were associated with other locations: Coptic chant in Egypt, Ambrosian in Milan, Mozarabic in Spain and Gallican in northern Europe, There is ‘considerable range in style and in the quantity of surviving music for each ofthese repertories, and much oft was notated only centuries ater. Our focus will eon the :music of the Roman Church, which has the most extensive written legacy.(Christan Beginnings, As Far As We Know Them Example 1-4 Fourth verse of a proto-Byzantine Hymn to the Trinity, transcribed by E. Péhimann and M. West (opening) Hymne ton a hyemon acters bul om prem Pariah dp-na-mes epi-phe- noun ton a-min 4 = in Aswe hymn the Fathes the Son, and the oly Spit, Letall the powers add Amen Amen, Christianity was initially a persecuted religion that only won broader accep- tance after the Roman Emperor Constantine converted to it in 312 ce, During the centuries that followed, Rome emerged as the most powerful seat of the Christian (Church, although there were other important (and sometimes competing) centers as well as many smaller and simpler communities, known as monasteries, In 753, Pope Stephen Il headed north from Rome, crossed the Alps, and visited the king of the Franks, Pepin IIL to gain support for his struggles against the Lombards, a Ger- ‘manic tribe. Two decades ater, Pepin’s son and successor, Charles I, known as Char- Temagne (Chasles the Great, ca. 742-814), once again intervened to help the pope, ashe would yet again in 800, when he entered Rome in triumph. On Christmas Day 800 Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne as secular ruler ofthe Western Roman Em- pire (with Leo himself maintaining his role as spiritual rule). This date is tradition- ally said to inaugurate what came to be known as the “Tioly Roman Empire,” which lasted —at least in name—for more than a thousand years. The alliance of imperial and papal authority led to a short period of peaceful stability during which there ‘was a resurgence of learning and creativity known as the Carolingian Renaissance. (Carolingian i a Latinized reference to the noble family that traced its lineage back to Prankish ruler Charles Martel.) ‘The exporting of the Roman chant tothe Frankish lands in the north was one ‘of the facets ofthat cultural rebirth (Fig, 1-4). A central figure in the process was ‘an English scholar, Alcuin of York (ca, 735-804), who served as Charlemagne’ tu- tor and later advised him in matters of state. He was a great proponent of literacy and instituted one of the earliest educational systems in Europe, The curriculum for higher education was based on the seven “liberal arts” of the ancients: the three arts ‘of language (grammar, logic, and rhetoric), known asthe trivium; and the four arts ‘of measurement (arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music), known as the qua- ‘ivium. Within the quadrivium, music was conceived in entitely theoretical terms 4s measurement of harmonic ratios (tunings and intervals) and of rhythmic quanti ties (poetic meters). This made it possible to stady music even in the absence ofany form of practical musical notation. Music continued to be studied for centuries in 8 generalized and speculative way, quite unrelated to actual masic making. And yet Alcuin’ zealous emphasis on writing things down became a Carolingian obsession that was eventually extended to practical masic. ‘The principal reason the Roman chant needed to be imported was that the Carolingians wanted to centralize authority. The geographical sweep ofthe CatholicSGM carvers rs einse urrenare nueaxtony in WEsteRW MUSIC: GREGORIAN CHANT aS SE territories was vast, incoxposating peoples speaking ‘many languages and including a lange assortment of local legal systems and religious practices. With the es tablishment ofthe Roman pope as spiritual patron of the Carolingian Empire, the unification of the whole broad realm of religious services according to the Ro ‘man practices became necessary. This meant suppress ing the so-called Callican rite inthe north (as well as the Ambrosizn and Mozarabic, among others) and re- placing them with Roman service texts and tunes. ‘The words ofthe Roman liturgy the prescribed ‘order for the religions service—could be imported easily enough in books; but without a way to write down the melodie, the only means of conveying the ‘asic was to import cantors, that i, ecclesiastical naa satis pees oo ‘singers, from Rome who could teach their chant by la- 2 borious rote to their Frankish counterparts. The fact ee ge that eighth-century Roman liturgical song—cantus MED Ip ght © | im Latin, from which we get the word “chant’~—was singled out for preservation in written form during the Carolingian Renaissance was therefore not because it came fist or because it had some uniquely special ‘musical quality. Rather, there was a need for notation because of the aim ofthe powers in Rome to spread ts liturgy and music elsewhere. Figure 1-4 Europe inthe eighth century, shor belore he eat Pye Legend of St. Gregory est notations of Cristian chant. From around the time of the advent of chant into written history, it was widely asserted that the entire musical legacy of the Roman Church was the inspired ere ation ofa single man, the sainted Pope Gregory I, who had served as pope from $590 until his death in 604, Yet in Gregory's time there was no way to notate melo- ies. His contemporary, St Isidore, Bishop of Seville (ca, $60.-636), putt this way: “Unless sounds are held in the memory by man they perish, because they cannot be written dawn By the ninth century the legend was firmly established that Pope Gregory was the composer of what has ever since been known as Gregorian chant. The legend ‘as propagated not only in literary accounts but also in visual tradition (soe Fig, 1-5). As the story goes, the pope, while dictating to a scribe his commentary on paris ofthe Bible, often paused for along time. Gregory'sslences puzzled the scribe, who was separated fom him by a screen, Peeping through, he beheld the dove of the Holy Spirit hovering around the head of St. Gregory, who resumed his dictation ‘only when the dove moved away. (tis from such zepresentations of divine inspira. tion that we get our expression “A litle bird told me”) The legend was @ propa: ‘ganda ploy developed to persuade the northern churches that the Roman chant was better than theirs. As a divine creation, mediated through an inspired, canonized hhaman vessel, the Roman chant would have the prestige it needed to triumph even- twally overall local opposition. Yet no one person, neither Gregory nor any of his‘contemporaries, actually composed the “Gregorian” Seas _ chants. It was a huge collective enterprise that seems to. St "fave achieved standardization in Rome by the end of the eighth century. ‘But what were its origins? Until very recently it ‘was assusned as a matter of course that the origins of Chistian liturgical music went back, like the rest of ‘Christian practice and belief, to the “sacred bridge” ‘connecting the Christian religion with Judaism. This ‘would seema natural connection between Christ him- self Jew, and the early rise of Christianity. Moreover, the words of Gregorian chants were overwhelmingly ‘psalm verses, and the recitation of psalms, along with ther scriptural readings, is to this day a common ele- _- meat of Jewish and Christian worship. But it does not ‘em now that the Jewish rites were immediately trans- ferred to Christian worship services; that happened to ‘ome extent later and in different circumstances, The ‘origins of Christian psalmody lie not inthe very pub: lic worship of the Jewish temple but, rather, inthe se- cluded services of early Christian ascetics worshiping ‘in monasteries ‘Christian monasticism arose in the fourth century, partyin reaction to the Churchs worldly success follow ing its establishment as the official religion of the late Roman Fmpite (Fig. 1-6). An increasing number of Figure 1-5 This stration, dating fromthe end ofthe ninth cen- Chistian enthusiasts reacted against what they consid- tl ae ofthe earlest representations ot Pope Gregory (Sant ered the oppressive power structure ofthe Church and advocated retreat into a simple, solitary life more akin, in their view, to the original teachings of Christ. The comunities thus established had various profiles, although most centered around an austere life devoted to prayer and meditation orto ascetic communal living de- ‘ied to pious fellowship and productive work. Separate communities were estab- Inthe guise ofa dove. lished for women, which were later called convents or nunneries. ‘The most famous monastery was founded in $29 at Monte Cassino, in cen- tral Ttaly by St. Benedict of Narsia (480-547), He wrote an influential set of rales, his Regula monachorum, that governed daily life in his monastery and that became ‘widely adopted elsewhere as the “Rule of Saint Benedict.” The practices of chanting Psalms that gradually developed into Gregorian chant arose in such a communal context, An important aspect ofthe monastic regimen was staying up at nigh, a dis ipline known asthe vigil To help the monks keep awake and to assist thei meta tioas, they would recite constantly, chiefly from the Bible and particularly ftom the Psalter, in a kind of heightened speech (cantillation). Reciting the complete 150 ‘salimsin a ceaseless cycle, somewhat in the manner ofa mantra, distracted the mind from physical appetites and was thought to lead to higher levels of consciousness. ‘Musical metaphors of community and discipline were symbolized by unac- ‘companied singingin unison. This remained the Gregorian ideal, although the com: ‘munity of worshipers was replaced in the more public services by specially trained choirs, Monophony was thus a choice but not a necessity. While it may seem to Gregory the Great), who is receiving the chant from the Holy SpetUNREAL 0 cmaprams rvs vino rvmnars napserony IN wastsnN ousic; GRBGORIAN CHANT Figure 1-6 Early Christian monas- iceenters, Eglin (termancos Contest Ce), sic? Tater te) a reflect the primitive origins of chant, carly Christian monophony in fact represents the purposeful rejection of earlier, more elaborate practices, both Judaic and pagan. The Development of the Liturgy: The Offices In his book of rules St. Benedict required that the Psalter be recited in a weekly round of services known as the Offices, of which there were eight each day. The greatest single portion went to the Night Office (now called Matins), which ac: Counted for more than half of the weekly round of all 150 psalms. The shorter day Offices began at dawn with one of praise (Laud) and continued with four “minor hours” named after the clock hours according to Roman terminology: Prime (the first hour), Terce (the third hour), Sest (the sixth hour), and None (the ninth hour). The public liturgical day ended with Vespers, which features the poalmlike “Canticle of Mary” (‘mown as the Magnificat, which is its first word). Finally, there was a bedtime service for monks called Compline (completion), at which more elaborate chants were sung, especially in the later Middle Ages, to the Blessed Virgin as a plea for her intercession. (Lauds, Vespers, and Compline are services that contain canticles—texts from the New Testament that are sung in the ‘manner as psalms.) At a minimum an Office service included a psalm, a sexipture zeading, and a hymn, which was a metrical song of praise derived from Greek pa- san practice. Just as the liturgical day was a cycle of services and the monastic week was a cycle of psalms, so the whole Catholic Church ealendar was organized in a yearly cy- cle of commemorations known as feasts. Monks thus lived out their lives accord- ing to these nested cyeles—wheels within wheels within wheels, The basic annualframework commemorated events in the life of Christ, organized in two great eycles surrounding the two biggest feasts, Christmas (the Birth of Christ) and Baster (the Resurrection of Christ). The Christmas cycle, beginning with four solemn weeks of preparation called Advent and ending with the feast of Epiphany on 6 January, uses the Roman pagan calendar and has the fixed date of 25 December. The Easter cycle, beginning with the forty-day fast called Lent and ending on the fiftieth day after Eas- ter Sunday with the feast of Pentecost, derives from the Jewish calendar. The date of aster can therefore vary by well more than a month and falls from 22 March to 25 ‘Apail. The yearly calendar also came to include a cycle of ever-more numerous feasts forthe Virgin Mary and saints’ commemorations and many other occasions, among ‘them special (so-called votive) occasions where prayersand offerings are made, such as weddings, funerals, and memorials. ‘As official occasions were added to the calendar—and they continue to be added and deleted to this day—they had to be provided with appropriate texts and nelodies, Many ofthe words and melodies were sung only once a year, while others ‘were sung every day, The church therefore needed an enormous quantity of music ‘The use of words and music often varied from region to region, even from town to town, The veneration of a local “patron saint” (a go-between to God for a particu- lar place or group) demanded more elaborate music than would be sung in places without this special connection. The words of the Book of Psalms were fixed, but ‘ditional texts, placed before and after psalm, would vary so that the meaning ofa ‘psalm could be amplified and feasts could be differentiated, These added antiphons and responds thus became a site of new musical composition. An antiphon is a short Sentence or verse that is sung before or after a psalm and sometimes between its Individual verses, which were sung in alternation by two halves of the choir. A re- spond isthe first part of reponsorial chant, in which the full choir alternates with a soloist singing verse to follow. The Order of the Mass ‘The most elaborate music ofthe Christian Church is associated with the Mass, the ‘entra public service of worship. The Mass sa reenactment of Christ Last Suppes, the Jewish Passover Seder he held the evening before his crucifixion, when he gath- ‘ered his disciples together. The opening part ofthe service called the synuaxis (‘syn _gogue” after the Greek for “a meeting or assembly”), consists of prayers, chants, and ‘adingsandis open to those whe have not yet completed thei ligious instruction, ‘The often beautiful, elaborate, and awe-inspiring ritual elements—the elegance of the clothes, the allure ofthe smell incense, the sweetness ofthe sounds, the maj- «ty ofthe physical space—were enticing and impressive, This was meant in part to attract new members to the Church ata time when Christianity was competing for prominence with other religions. ‘The second part of the Mass, an esoteric service known as the Eucharist (from the Greek for “thanksgiving”), is dosed to all who have not yet been baptized. It consists of reenactment of the Last Supper in which the congregation mystically ingests the blood and body of Christina form miraculously transformed from wine and bread. As a public service that incorporated a great deal of action, the Mass did not contain fll psalms or hymns, with their many stanzas—that would take ‘wo ong, Instead, it featured short texts st to elaborate msi, including words that The Onder ofthe MassSGUERNL 2 onaprons rie rinst urrenare Ruvenrony rv wesTsRN MUSIC: GREGORIAN CHANT STA AN SEM MARIAM = AR it sentascs Isnt Dtiprebateoe Renan i nam ond nu coun : Auwit’g eg din BP Figure 1.7 Easter Introit, Resumes from 2 soloist’ chant book, prepared a the Swiss monastery of SL. Gall early inthe tenth century. expressed the “proper” identity of each occasion at which Mass was celebrated — feast, Sunday, or saint's day In some sections of the Mass, therefore, the words change from day to days these sections form the Proper of the Mass. In other sections the words remain the same day in and day out, and these parts make up the Ordinary. The tert "Mass Ordinary” eventually came to mean five unchanging texts sung by the choir: Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus; and Agnus Dei. These began to receive significant musical attention in the Carolingian period and centuries later would be set as unified cycles ‘This later development spawned a tradition of Mass composition to which many famous composers ofthe standard concert repertory made contributions, including Bach, Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven. With the standardization of the Ordinary chants, the Franks thus effected a ‘musical consolidation of the Western Mass that established ts form for the next millennium. Theit version was reimported back to Rome in the eleventh century and became standard almost everywhere in Europe and the British Isles. The text and chants ofthe Mass Ordinary developed over centuries, with the Gloria probably being the oldest part and the Agnus Dei the atest addition, Later in this chapter we will go through the individual parts ofthe Mass, both Proper and Ordinary, sang and recited, inthe order they eventually assurned in the service, an assemblage and ‘ordering that likewise took centuries to become standard (Table 1-1). Writing It Down: Neumes On a very superficial level the music associated with the Ofice and Mass services may strike some listeners today asall sounding alike: monophonic melodies chanted in Latin. tsrichness and diversity, however, are extrzordinsry, which should not be surprising given the great span of time and space over which it developed, After we see how the music was eventually written down and leatn the rudi- ments ofhow to ead the notation, we will get a sense of this musical variety by Jooking a diferent musical adornments toa single verse of single psalm. Chant notation evolved through the invention of so-called neumes that tracked the relative rise and fall of the melodies and the placement of notes in relation to text syllables (Fig. 1-7). Btymologically, the word neue, which ‘comes from the Greek word pneuma (“breath suggesting also vital sprit or soul), referred to a characteristic melodic turn such as may be sung on one breath, Today, however, the word more commonly denotes the writen sign that represented such a turn, Some early surviving Liturgical books contain ‘netmes, but not before the end of the ninth century, several generations after ‘he Carolingian: chant reform had been undertaken. This has led to a great deal of scholarly speculation about the actual origins of the neumes and the date of theireariest use. Scholats long assumed that the Carolingian neumes were an outgrowth ‘of “prosodic accents” the signs—acute ("), grave (), circumflex (4), and so forth—that represented the inflection of poetey-recitation in late classical an- tiguity and that stl survive to a certain extentin the writing of modern French and other languages. As originally conceived, the acite accent meant a ras. ing of vocal pitch, the grave a lowering, the circumflex a ralsing_plus-lowering, Paiting such signs over syllables would therefore help remind someone whoWoting I Dow Neumee 13 BREE ‘Table 1-1 Order of the Western Mass ci Pe ea Cai) (can) Proper Ces fos Cole Bad 4. Invot 2.kyie 3 Clr omit ing Lent and Advert 4, Colect Gato PayeD : 5. Epi reding “o,Geadual (replaced betsen Easter ated Petecst by 3 “nhs 4 Nes elaced doa ent and Avent bythe Tac) “8, Sequence (ubiquitous and {uly canonical rom the tenth tothe sateen entries ‘nly four sure he Counter “Beforation) 9 coxpe rssing [semoal ae 10. Credo “11 oterory 12, Offeory prayers 13, secret (Celebrant set rae) 1 Prelace the Sanctus 15, Sanctus 16. Canon Celebrant’ Payer Consecrating wie a read) Ta iors Prayer (congregation) 18, Agnus Di 19, Communion 20, Postcommunion prayet 21. Dismissal (te, mis est, ‘eplaced during Lent and ‘Advent by Benedicarus Domina, "et us bles the Lora”CHAPTER 1 THE FIRST LITERATE REPERTORY IN WESTERN MUSIC: GREGORIAN CHANT a already knew a melody about its general contour (hat is, whether the tune was go- ing up or down), but the signs would not indicate the precise interval. There are other theories about the origin of neumes including one that associates them with a system of punctuation signs—functional equivalents of what we know today as commas, colons, question mazks, and so on—that break up a written text into easily comprehended bits by governing the reader's vocal inflections. "These explanations assume that the neumes were dependent on some earlier sign-system, and yet we have no evidence to rule out the possibility thatthe neumes were invented independently in xesponse tothe immediate musical purpose at hand, ‘After all, there were much eater, pre-Christian schemes for graphically represent ing music that did not reflect melodic contour but were entirely arbitrary written signs that represented melodic formulas by convention, the way alphabet letters represent speech sounds. As we have seen, the ancient Greeks used actual alpha- betic signs as musical notation. A more familiar example of special formuls-signs for music include the so-called Masoretic accents (ta‘amim) of Jewish biblical ean- tillation, which Jewish children are taught to this day in preparation for their rite of passage to adulthood (bar or bat mitzvah), ‘when they are called to the pulpit to read from scripture. ‘The new contour-based Carolingian neumes that are our concern here fol- low an entirely different principle of rep- resentation, ont of which developed the Western notation that is familiar today. Carolingian newmes shared the limitation ofall the early neumatic systems: We can- not actualy read a melody from them un less we already know the tune, To read a previously unknown melody at sight, we ‘need at a minimus a means of precise in- tervalic (or relative-pitch) measurement. twas not until the early eleventh century that aeumes were “heighted or arranged diastematically,on the lines and spaces of staff. Only then was i possible to transmit melodies soundlessly, although the nota- tion sill did not convey many parameters ‘flow the music actually sounded. Guido of Arezzo Accoding to tradition, heighted neumes ‘were the invention of the Italian monk Guido of Arezzo (Fig. 1-8). His Microlo gus (Little Treatise), a manual on the rudi- Figure 1-8 Guido of Arezzo showing his pupil Theodal haw to caiculate the ments of music theory completed around string lengths ofthe scale using a monochord, 1028, and another one of hs texts includedGuidootArcz 15 thecatliest guide to staffaotation. The breakthrough came when neumes were placed on the lines and spaces ofa ruled staff to show precisely their relative piteh location Special colors later replaced by alphabet signs, were used to denote the C and F “key fines—claves in Latin—that have half steps below them; these letters survive as our modern “clef” These innovations made "sight singing” possible. Most of the Medi- eval notation we will consider employed four staf lines, not five as used today. Guido lived from about 990 to about 1033 and specialized for most ofhislife in the training of choirboys. As tool he used a hymn called Ut queant laxis ("So that tongues might loosen”), in which the tune is so constructed that the frst syllable in cach half-ine of text falls one scale degree higher than the one that precedes it, the entire series tracing out exactly the basic six note diatonic segment, or hexachord, from C to A (Bx. 1-5). Associating the text syilables with the appropriate pitches gave a syllable name to each degree in the hexachord (u-re-mi-fa-sol-Ia). Once intemalined, the syllables served a double purpose for ear training. Any interval, ascending or descending, could be demonstrated in terms ofa syllable combina- tion (thus: ut-re, the whole step; ut-mi, the major third; ut-f, the perfect fourth; re-fa, the minor third; etc.). Second, the difference between the whole step and the half step could be mastered by drilling the interval mi~fa. The reason itis so important to know where the half step mi-fa is situated is that this isthe definer ‘of mode quality (the distribution of half steps and whole steps), or what we now think of as scales. Example 1.5 Hymn, Ut queant laxis; words by Paul the Deacon, music possibly by Guido of Arezzo Usfgve-ane bs» seer] vo- ase 6 bo Mi fs geno en] fame ee - ram, ‘That thy servants may freely proclaim the wonders of thy deeds, absolve the sins oftheir unclean lips, © oly John. sheachond ee #1 tk Re Mi > Fh Sol = ta : Many centuries later the syllable sl was added by some singing teachers so that olmization’) syllables. In modern practice, si has been replaced by fi, and ut has been replaced by do. Guido, how- fever, who did not as yet have or need the concept of the major scale, managed to complete the octave by transposing the basie module so that it began on G, the intervals of the hexachord G-E being identical with C~A. In this new placement, the progression mi-fa corresponds with the halfstep B~C. To solmize the fll scale fom C to C, one mutates at some convenient point, either reinterpreting sol as ut a fll major scale could be sung with model (*PORE cuansons rue rinse uiranars norunrony in wstaaw Music CRECORIAN CANT ‘ ox reinterpreting a as reso that the syllables fill an entire octave. Dashes below denote half steps: CDE FGAB -¢ ut re mi — & sol la ute mi — & if | To avo the tone that artes between and later theorists recognized an. | other tansposiion ofthe module, beginning on that woul place the mi-f pai on Aand Bb. The entire range of hexachord transpositions thus achieved, mapping ‘oat the musical pitch space within which Gregorian chant was habitually sung, f Ex. 1-6. nally looked I Example 1-6 The gamut, or full range of pitches represented on the Guidonian hand, together with the seven hexachords that are required for Its solmization ue om fad Seep a ae In order to gain an wat the bottom on-which to begin the frst set of syllables, Guido placed a G below the A that normally marked the lower end of the modal system, discussed later. This extra G was represented by its Greek equivalent, ‘gamma, Its fall name within the array was “Gamma ut” which was shortened to ‘gamut and became the name ofthe artay itself. (The word “gamut,” of course, has entered the common English vocabulary to denote the fll range of anything ) The two versions of B (the one sung as mi over G, corresponding to our B natural, and the one sung as fa over F, corresponding to Bs), The once-widespread use of et sssigned toa single mutable space, whose actual pitch realiza tion would depend on the context. The higher B known asthe hard mnemonic devices is still one (durus), was represented by a square-shaped letter that event | . , ally evolved into the modern natural sign )). The hexachord con- reflected in our daily Lan-aining it was also known as the “hard” hexachord (rexachordum ABCDEPGsbbe def gubba de durum). The lower one, which softened augmented fourths into guage by expressions ene waslonom accordingly asso als) and was repre like “rule of thumb” and sented by 2 rounded letter that eventually evolved into the modern ‘lat sign (}). The hexachord containing B, was known as the “soft” “at one’s fingertips.” hexachord; the original module, derived from the hymn, wascalled the “natural” hexachord I ‘As an aid toward memorization, a device was later adopted = | ‘whereby items to be memorized were mapped inspiral fashion onto the joints of | ‘the left palm (Fig. 1-9). The once-widespread use of such mnemonic devices as | the “Guidonian Hand’ is still reflected in our daily language by expressions like “rule of thamb” and “at one's fingertips” Armed with the internalized gamut, a singer could parse a written melody into its constituent intervals without hearingGuidootacas 17 BESS Figure 1-9 The "Guidonian Hand” as represented in a thirteenth-century Bavarian marscript r playing it. A singer could truly sing at sight, or, as Guido pat it, “sing an un- nown melody"* It took centuries fora more standardized system to develop. In our exploration F carly music we will encounter a notation that inthe late nineteenth century was alled “square” or “quadratic after the shape of the note heads, adapted from a cal graphic-style handwriting that became prevalent in twelfth-century manuscripts, he notation of Example 1-7a is printed exacty as itis found in the Liber responso- lis, a book of Office chants published in 189S by the monks of the Benedictine bby of Solesmes in France. The monks atthe Abbey carried out avast restoration roject in which the corpus of Gregorian chant was edited from its original manu cpt sources. Many of ous examples in this chapter are given in square notation as ney are found in the Liber usual, a large anthology ofthe basic chants for Mass and fice, also issued by the monks of Solesmes. Example 1-7b transcribes part of the ntiphon into modern notation,(CHAPTER 1 THE FIRST LITERATE REPERTORY IN WESTERN MUSIC: GREGORIAN CHANT Example 1-7a Justus ut palma as it appears in the Liber responsoriall, a book of Office chants published in 1895 by the monks of the Benedictine Abbey of Solesmes in France SSS Pp eS] Jenosue palma fo-re-big scene cedmaLicba-ni mubsi-pli-cr-binr, Buona « ‘The righteous shall flourish hike the palm tee: he shall grow ike 3 cedar in Lebanon, Example 1-7 Justus ut polma as antiphon to Psalm 91 Ansighon ‘oe. Chale Joust palemt fo - se > By aeatcad-rar Liberal mul-w - per bier Pe 9 (aneited) ee ation te fee ny —netine — ; 1 be> mam ar conf vt Dom ae 2 Ad ay mu = eanduun mas oe mise = cada wa Bin ke thordopal te iw 1 jue twee pinto oe 1 Phe ed in some Dor mi = a (Bowlog) Ga = = Beit Bk Si = cae 6 ~ mtinpsncpio ot rane mp eS SSS] = — Y1. epuiirerommees Sepa Hare reat erie 2 reine as ce pee ton 2 omens eo © asm. 12, Se cd Lib Som a we 1 ard Deine we ame (Oaigg) «pi eb mem Slnvealasey | - bm ee (Be ee ati 3 (Amriphon da cape) J. isa good thing to give thanks unto the Lord, and to sing praises unto thy name, © most Highs 2.To shew forth thy loving kindness in the morning, and thy futhfulness every night, 3. Upon an instrument often strings, and upon the psaltery; upon the barp witha solemn sound, 12, The righteous shal louis lke the palm tree: be shal grow ike aeedarin Lebanon, 13, Those that be planted inthe house ofthe Lord shall fourth in the courts of our Goa, (Doxology) Glory be tothe Father, the Son, and the Holy Sprit ‘As itwas inthe beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen. As early as the tenth century, neumes were learned from tables in which each shape was given a distinctive name. In Example 1-7 the two-note ascent over pal- for example, was called the pes (or podatus), meaning “foot: Its descending counter- part, over-ma, was called the cvs (meaning"sloped”). The three-note neues werenown respectively as the scandics (from scandere, “to climb), the forculus (‘alittle 1m), and the trigon (‘a toss"). "The motion opposite to the forclus (i.e, first down ad then up) is shown by the porrectus (“stretched”), with its striking oblique stroke: The pes, clivis, torculus, and porrectus were the basic shapes, corresponding nughly to the acute, grave, circumflex, and anticircumflex accents, and they were tained in later notational schemes. Miodal Theory he formula for singing a psalm, called a psalm tone, is melody stripped to its mni- yam functional requirements as a medium forthe exaltation ofa sacred utterance, ight psalm tones are used in the Latin liturgy, plus one called the fonus peregrinus “migrating tone”) because the most prominent pitch of the second half-verse is dif sent from that ofthe first hall In its earliest usages, the term mode is best defined sa fund of shared melodic turns characterizing the chants of a given functional ype. While the concept of mode is still prevalent in the Greek Orthodox Church, ur more recent concept of mode, based on that of a scale and defined mainly in xm ofits final note, fits the Gregorian repertory poorly. Thinking of the modes as fonction of scale and final note was originally the product of music theory of the sath and eleventh centuries, in which an attempt was made to organize the chants fthe Roman Church according to the categories of ancient Greek music theory. In the ninth century there emerged collections of antiphons thet were grouped ccording tothe psalm tones with which they were melodically associated. These col tions, which came to include al kinds of chants, are known as tonaries. These books -tved an eminently practical purpose since in every service newly learned antiphons ad tobe attached appropriately to psalm tones. To achieve thispractical goal lange sty stc generalizations had to be made about the antiphons on the basis of observation, th the compiler comparing the beginnings and endings ofthe antiphons with those fthe psalm tones In effect, a large collection of melodies inherited fom the Roman dition was being compared with, and assimilated to,an abstract classification of me vic turns and functions imported from anather tradition (the eight-mode system fthe Byzantine Church). The result was something neither Roman nor Greek but pocificlly Frankish—and tremendously fertile tsiumph of imaginative synthesis. ‘Antiphons were compared with psalm tones to see how the interval was filled in etween their ending note (fils) and the pitch corresponding tothe psalm tone's citing tone (tenor), normally a ith above. There are four ways thatthe interval of filth can befilledin with four tones (1) oF semitones (S). In the orderofthe tonar- these were (1) TST, (2) STTT, (3) TTTS, and (4) TTST. The ending notes f these four species-defining segments—D, E, F, and G—were named according > their Greek numbers: protus (first), deuterus (second), ritus (third), and tetrardas fourth), respectively. Better correspondence between the chant classification and the preexisting ightfold system of psalm tones was achieved by invoking the category of ambitus "range. Chants ending on each ofthe four final notes were therefore further broken own into two classes. Those with the final note at the bottom of their range were sd to be in “authentic” modes, while those that extended lower than their final otes, so that the final occurred in the middle of their range, were called “plagal.” rhe four final notes, each governing two modes in both authentic and plagal forms, nade fora total of eight, in exact accordance with the configuration ofthe eightfold Modal TheoryRMR 20 cuarruns rap nuns Levunave nepsnrony in WESTBRN MUSIC: GREGORIAN CHANT Table 1-2 Modes and Octave Species ons Protus inal D) Deuterus Final &) “tus na A) Tetrardus nal 6) ‘Authentic Plagal Authentic Plagal Authentic Plagal Authentic Plagal Re MLC uLaiCa eg Li TST rst sr crs 1st system ofppsalm tones. Table 1-2 shows the ayout of basic pentachord a scale of five adjacent notes outlining fifth, and upper and lower tetrachords, outlining the four adjacent notes that complete the octave. In Example 1-8, Table 1-2 is translated into modern staff notation, giving the {ull array of so-called Medieval church modes. They will henceforth be numbered from 1 to 8, as they are in the later Frankish treatises, and they will be given the Greek names that the Frankish theorists borrowed from Bocthius: Dorian, Phry- ‘ian, Lydian, Mixolydian. The Greek prefix hypo, attached to the names of the pla gal scales, is roughly synonymous with the word plagal itself: both mean “lower” Example 1-8 also includes the tenors of the corresponding psalm tones, for these ‘were sometimes claimed by contemporary theorists to pertain to the church modes as well."The tenor of three of the authentic modes lie a fifth above the final note. Example 1-8 The eight Medieval modes wel vereThe tenor oa plagal mode lies a third below that ofits authentic counterpart: Note thatin a psalm tone wherever, according to these rues, the tenor would fall on B, it se changed to C. This was evidently because ofan aversion to xciting onthe lowes rote ofa semitone palt. Note too, that the tenor athe fourth tones A rather than G Byte egulr application ofthe rules tsa third lower than ts adjusted counterpart (Cin place ofB transposes to A in place of G) ‘Hisimportant to bear in mind that Medieval modal scales do not specify actual piteh frequencies, the way they doin our modern practice. Thus we mat ty 19 Poid the common assumption that the Dorian scale represents the piano’ white Joys from D to D, the Phrygian from Fto Band so on. Rathes the “four finals’ and their concomitant scales represent nothing more than the most convenient way of rotating patterns of half steps and whole steps Psalmody in Practic The Office and the Mass I's time now to look closely at some music. We will begin by tracing settings of a single psalm verse through Various liturgical habitats in both the Offices and the ‘Mass, The twelith verse of Psalm 91 was an especially favored one in the liturgy, pethaps owing to its vivid sles, and it invited settings both simple and elaborat. ‘The Latin verse reads: Justus ut palma florebi, ef siut cedrus Liban mltiplcabitar, tranelated in the King James Bible as “The righteous shall flourish ice the palm tre: hie shall growlike a cedar in Lebanon” Example 1-7b i the simplest ofthe setings, indeed barely a melody at all, Sing ing, however minimal, elevates words out of the contest of the everyday. Such « ‘imple kind of chanting is very ancient, Here Psalm 91 i pared with an antiphon Consisting ofits own twelfth vers, the Justus ut palma, used in a service commemo~ tating a martyred sxint to whom the sentiments expressed in the tet are especially petinent. Begining in the ninth century, the refrain sandwiches the entire psalm rather than alternating with every verse Tn Example 1-7b the tone formula is analyzed into its constituent pars, which function very much like punctuation marks. Fisstthereis the intonation, given by 20- Joist to establish the pitch. The intonation formula always ascends to.a repeated pitch, called the reciting tne or tenor (because itis “held fr which the Latin is fener). This h is repeated as often as necessary to accommodate the syllables ofthe text the umber of which can vary considerably fom verse to verse In a long verse there will tbe many repetitions of the tenor, lending the whole the “monotone” quality often as soclated with the idea of chanting, The longest verses (here, verses 2, 4, and S) have a “bend” (flexi) as additional punctuation, ‘The end of the first haf-verse is sung to 2 formula known asthe mediant, which functions as a divider, lke the comma or colon in the text. The second haléverse again begins on the tenos and the whole verse ends ‘with the termination, often called the “cadence” because, again as in a declarative sen- tence itentals apiteis lowering or “ling” (for which the Latins cader). ‘The relationship between the text and the music inthe psalm tone is straig forwardly syllabic: one note to each syllable, the reciting tone accommodating most of them, The antiphon is a moderately neumatic chant, in which nine of the ealeody in Practice: The Office and the Mast Anthology Vol 1-20 Full CD/Concise CD f, 2ama CHAPTER 1 THE BRST LITERATS REPERTORY IN WESTERN MUSIC: GREGORIAN CHANT: Anthology Vol 1-2b Full CD/Concise CD 1, 3 Anthology Vol 1-2 Full CD/Coneise CD 1, 4 twenty-one syllables in the text carry two- or three-note netmes. As we see in Ex: aimples 17a end 1-7b, added tothe end ofthe psalmis the Daxology (ftom the Greek {for “word of praise’), the Christianiing tag invoking the Holy Trinity. Is treated simply as an extra pair of psalm verses In the Liber sualis the Doxology is given asa ‘group of six notas set over the space-saving abbreviation "E wo 1a ¢? which ate the vowel letters in“. secalorum. Amen” Justus ut pala appears in two moze Office services in commemoration of a smartyred saint, At Vespers it functions asa psalm antiphon bat is sung toa differ «ent melody requiring a diferent psalm tone (Bs, 1-9) At the end of None a really ‘minimal setting of the verse Functions as a concluding versile (from the Latin “litle verse"; Ex 1-10). The extreme simplicity ofthis verscle reflects the dicect connec tion between the importance of an occasion and the elaborateness of the music that enhances it. Example 1-9 Justus ut palma as a Vespers antiphon Sweats we pal ~ malonrorbiy we-we ce-dunti- be-all» eiepll sae wee Example 1-10 fustus ut palma as a versicle Ce == a Justes ut palma fo - ce bie: sicut cadrus Libani smu ‘The Justus ut palma text appears not justin Office services but also at least four times in the original Gregorian corpus of Mass Propers, the chants forthe yealy round of feasts. Theie degree of elaborateness varies depending on the occasion and the li ‘urgical function they accompany. Because Justus ut palma is averse about praise, tis Particularly suitable for honoring saints Example I-11 shows the frst part ofthe chant opening the service, the Ini. Being a Mass chant, its considerably more elaborate than ts Office counterparts. There are « few compound newmes, such asthe fest syl lable, whichis st toa seven-note complex. Tis chant possesses the same graceful are like shape we have already observed in microcosm inthe Office psalm tones, Example 1-11 Justus ut palma as Inteoit (opening) f apsassssessssirvesssessssSsssnanesssesionaed SR ee Be seu pla flours = bie ‘Our next example is the opening of the Orfertory on Justus ut palma (Bx. 1-12). ‘This setting is even more ornate than the previous example: There are now many notes assigned to certain single syllables, a style called melismatic, with lengthy me- lismas comprising most of the music.almody in Practice: The Office and the Mast Example 1-12 Justus ut palma as Offertory (opening) in sus Fa pie fo ce bic Settings of the Justus ut palma verse also function as “lesson chants” sung be- tween the scripture readings that cap the first portion of the Mass, at a time when there jslittle or no liturgical action going on, These are the mostflorid of al the Mass chants, because more than any other they are meant as listeners’ music. The lesson chants are responsorial ones with a soloist alternating with the choir. At the begin- ring of the Alleluia verse (Ex. 1-13), the soloist sings up to the asterisk; the choir ‘begins again and continues into the ffty-one-note jubilus, the long melisma on the last syllable of the word “allefuia.” Melismatic singing was held by Chaistian mystics to be the highest form of religious utterance: “It is a certain sound of joy without swords” Si. Augustine wrote of such chanting in the fourth century, “the expression ‘ofa mind poured forth in joy” The same soloist/choir alternation is indicated in the verse (given mainly tothe soloist) by the asterisk before the word multplcabitur. The choral alleluia is repeated after the vers, giving the whole a rounded (ABA) fort, showing an apparent concer for musical shaping that is mirrored on a smaller scale by the internal repetitions (representable as aabb) that make up the internal melisma ‘on the word eds. The repetitions that give the Alleluia settingits striking shape are ‘memorable not just for the listener but also for the singer. Such repeated phiases or formulas served as vital memory aids in an age of oral composition and show the re- lationship between this extraordinarily omate, mystical evocative composition and the simple psalm tone with which our survey of chant genres began (cf. Ex. 1-7). Example 1.13 Justus ut palma as Alleluia Melodic repetitions ofthis type not only link the parts of individual chants, ‘hey link whole chant families aswell. Examples 1-14a and 1-14b contain two Grad- tals, each consisting of a melismatic respond and an even more melismatic verse Anthology Vol 1-2d Full CD/Coneise CD 1, 5 Anthology Vol 1-32 Full CD/Concise CD I, 6SOMME cuawrens run rinsr uivenare asvsntOny in wes RN MUSIC: GREGORIAN CHANT Anthology Vol 1-3b Full CD/Concise CD 1, 7 fora cantor. The respond in the first of thom (Ex. 1-\a) is yet another setting of the Justus ut palma verse. The second (Bx. 1-14b) i the Easter Gradual Hace dies, in ‘which the text consists of two verses from Psalm 117, one functioning as respond, the other as soloist’ verse. Example 1-14a Justus ut palma as Gradual SaaS Juscat ae pal foe Wis ses ue cede 7 on art PET Si ee ‘mal tipli «ea bi-sue ‘ Sa ee Soha eect Gada fabietpsial ESP eal Pa no Example 1-14b Haec dies (Easter Gradual) Hae i = Dorm me treR aay il pea sik i chee ome ine: a aa ge cecsen ts peter W.Conbtewi-ni Do- mine caeleatnent fl quo al-an in ae Thiss the day which the Lord hath made: we will rejoice and be glad init (Psalm 117,24). 0 give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good: because his mercy endureth forever (Psalm 117, 1)‘As the bracketed sections in these examples show the two chants draw heavily ‘ana shared fund of melodic turns, and indeed a whole femily of Graduals, amber gpg more than twenty in all have these formulas in common, The shared formulas ioe found most frequenty a initial and cadential points, and internal repetitions foguley ocurto accommodate lengthier texts. Scholars sed to think that the large vsount of shared material within chant families reflected a “patchwork” process of Tpmpostion, bt more recently some have prefered to consider ita product of an eal composition process in which a body of melodic formulas is flexibly adapted toedifferent texts according to certain rules and customs. The shared formulas seen jn these two Graduals, for example, are found only in Graduals. The use of such ‘andard melodic materia would have aided in the process of oral composition and ‘made the melodies easier to remember. ‘The Layout of the Mass Service ‘Now that we have sampled some ofthe stylistic variety among chants, we can lookat the layout ofthe Mass service as it was eventually codified with its sungand recited pats, the Ordinary sections, which are the same at every servic, and the Proper tones, which change from day to day (cf'Table 1-1). The service begins with a Proper chant, the Introit, which is an antiphon plus verse or two that accompanies the en trance ofthe celebrants at the start ofthe service, The first Ordinary chant follows, the Kyrie eleion, which has a complex and somewhat puzzling history. Its special satus is immediately evident from its language: This is the one Greek survival inthe ‘ther wise Latin Mas. Kyrie eleizon (Greek) means “Lord, have mesey on a which alternates with the words Christe eleson (*Christ, have merey on us"). By the ninth century, when the Prankish musicians were attempting to standardize chant the yr bad been established as a ninefold entreaty:theee times singing Kyrie eleison, three times Christe eleison, and another three times Kyrie eleison. Asin the case ofthe other Ordinary chants, the Kyrie inspired a wide ronge of musical settings, from quite simple to complex. The more artful Kyrie tunes often reflect the shape of the text they adorn, matching its ninefold elaboration of a three-part text with pat ‘ems of repetition like AAA BBB AAA’ or AAA BBB CCC’. (In both cases the last invocation -the A’ or C’ —is uswally rendered more emphatic than the rest, most typically by inserting or repeating a melisma, which provides a sense of closure) “in Anthology Volume 1-4a, the words Kyrie-Christe-Kyre are set to a nonre- ~peating (ABC) pattern, but the word eeson has an aa’b pattern. The retention of the same formula for elison while Kyrie changes to Christe and back seems to bea vestige ofan old congregational refrain. This particlac chant dates from the tenth century andis known as Kyrie IV. The identifying number for this and other Ordinary chants isthe one assigned to it in modern chant books. Melismatic Kyries were sometimes fitted with other words. Although the Church later purged these added texts, the old opening words incipts) ae still used as identification in modern btargical books, as Isthe ease in Anthology Volume I-4b called Kyrie LV, Cunctipotens Genitor Des "The second Ordinary section immediately follows the Kyrie. The Gloria begins swith two verses from the Gospel of St. Lake, quoting the angelic greeting to the shepherds on the night of the Nativity (Ex. 1-15). Next comes a series of praises, then a series of ltanies (petitions), and finally a concluding praise song, While its ealiest use seems to have been congregation, implying a simple, formulaic style, ‘the Glorias proserved in Frankish manuscripts aze usually neumatic chants with rhe Layoutofthe Maus Service 28 ERE Anthology Vol 1-4a Full CD/Concise CD 1, 8 Anthology Vol 1-4b Full CD/Concise CD 1, 9 Anthology Vol 1-4¢ Full CD/Concise CD , 10