Genres: vocal 1s Chant, or the politics of inscription Katherine Bergeron In the study of medieval and Renaissance music, chant is typically regarded as a Kind of Ur-repertory, a practice that both precedes and gives rise to more complex, or “developed” musical types. Within an extended sense of the term ‘repertory’ (referring to those works available for performance), one might also consider chant a musical ‘genre’, distinct in form, content and style from other forms of music issuing from the Middle Ages and Renaissance. Yet such categorization may be problematic, especially if one attempts to look beyond forms and styles, For despite Apparent musical qualities, chant ultimately stands apart from other types of tiedieval musica condition that becomes immediately evident to anyone who has attempted to penetrate the complexities of the ritual practice from which it emerges. Indeed, it may be well to ask from the start whether chant can properly be considered ‘music’ at all. Trwhat is thought to be music in any culture is socially negotiated phenomenon, then it must be recognized that chant occupies a radically different social space from the motet, or the secular song, or the instrumental music performed either solo or in ensembles for the pleasure of listeners. Chant, we could say, refers less to 4 body of compositions (in the conventional sense) than to a set of specialized, or ritualized, vocal habits. Belonging to the sacred liturgy of the most important institution of medieval culture, the Roman Church, it presupposes a large and ‘complex body of sacred words, hierarchically ordered through the principal rituals of Mass and Office, and repeatedly given ‘voice’ — often in a highly stylized and symbolic manner — by means of formulaic tones or elaborate melodies. ‘This melodic aspect may in fact be musical, but it also serves an eminently practical purpose: 10 make ritual words audible, memorable, powerful. Through chant the jiving’ word becomes material, set in motion. It is this special vocalization that gives words their power, the symbolic force that causes them to achieve a desired effect, In this sense a particular chant is hardly different froma spell or incantation, 4 set of specially pronaunced words designed to bring about a certain magical result, Given such conditions, particularly this aspect of ritual efficacy, I think itis safe to say that chant operates at some distance from other so-called genres of vocal or instrumental music to be found before 1600. “The earliest manuscripts that contain chant give some indication of this special status. For the most part the manuscripts reflecta ritual —not a musical — logic, with pieces arranged in separate books according to their function: in one type we find Chants for the Mass the texts for which change from day to day; in another, readings; in another, psalms to be chanted at the Offices; in another, prayers intoned by the priest at Mass; in still another, general rules for the production of rorKatherine Bergeron liturgy or other special ceremonies. The books devoted to chants are but one LPs among a diverse body of texts serving various ends. Indeeditis not much before the trad tenth century (that is, many centuries into'the practice) that we fad consistent ori atvempts within the manuscripts to represent the ‘musica? aspects ofthe chant with som notation — in this case, a yery elemental symbolic system of diacritical marks of G indicating upward and downward vocal inflection. ‘Toi historical fact in itself med Would seem to diminish, if not completely marginalize, the state of such fnanuscripts for performance: in the centuries before writing, cantons obviously learned to chant without the aid of notation, Sel srpese writen documents, however, give some insight into the imp Pee ty, fit £0 represent. It has been suggested thatthe earliest effin to Write down local rituals resulted from politcal pressure in Rome, beginning in the eth century, to codify or standardize Christan worship throughew: ie West. Yet when by'the tenth century such writi i ortance of the individual practices with that power. Certainly, the waitten records fev dee tenth Stony and afer can be read as a response to Roman decree, a demontany : araarPt to Participate in the liturgical reforms, but they also ean be seen as ofince sraphically to empower local centres ~ principally in Gaul, Italy, andthe Teer pemmsula ~ in the face of such standardization. Indeed, as Iweques Atte fen pated, we should view such records as ‘a means of sacial contrl, weaken Politics, regardless of the available technologies... [For] stockpiling memory, Ruining history or time, distributing speech, and manipulating information toe always been an attribute of civil and priestly power (See Atul p87) Through the technology of writing, the manuscripts distibute a unified or ‘normalized’ practice at the same time that they bear witness to the presence of Separate, local traditions. Yet the whole notion of a chant ‘tradition’ ss ear cr} practices maintained through collective memory, is clearly complicated by such Writing: In a largely pre-literate culture an act of writing serves not so mech | ees at cnatain as simply to make the tradition visible, material to make | recogmizable that which is already known, ‘The manuscript thus functions Powerful sign, a graphic representation linking memory, and hence ‘Ire lino: itself, to those who have the power to inscribe it, The political implications of such inscription are just as apparent today, where a Scrtain practice of singing plainchant has been around for as long as most of ca Fle hee, he Benedictine monks of Solesmes, France, were primarily respons- | ipl for the invention ofthis modern chant tradition over a century ago, through jheit daily activities at the Abbey of St Peter: studying, compl ing and, most importantly, singing all those melodies forgotten through centuries of maine¢ but one type ichbefore the nd consistent he chant with tical marks fact in itself atus of such ors obviously wrtance of the est efforts to inning in the ut the West, nore precise ons — these rd writing as 1 technology es that today ing down of Ipt to invest ym the tenth, tnonstrated en as efforts the Iberian S Attali has } astake in ig memory, bation have ‘unified or resence of aS a set of id by such 1 Chant, or the politics of inscription LPs, pristine compact discs) keep alive our memory of their performances ~ of the tradition’ known as the ‘Solesmes method’ that issued from those who had originally laid claim to the technology. ‘This very beautiful, very Romantic, and somehow very French tradition of singing has never ceased to dominate our notion of Gregorian chant, despite whatever else we may know about other repertories of medieval or Renaissance music. Select bibliography \w. apex, Gregorian chant (Bloomington, 1958) J. APTALI, Noite: the politcal economy of music trans. B. Massumi (Minneapolis, 1985) K. BERGERON, ‘Representation, reproduction, and the revival of Gregorian chant at Solesmes’, PhD. diss., Comell, 1089 G. puny and p. aris (eds),A history of private life, Vol. I: Revelations of the medieval world, ‘trans, A. Goldhammer. (Cambridge, MA, and London, 1988) w. one Interfaces of the word: studies in the evolution of consciousness and culture (Ithaca t977) . PAGE, The owl and the nightingale: musical life and ideas in France 1100-1300 (London, 1989) 1. TREITLER, “The early history of music writing in the west, Jounal of the American Musicological Society, xx0xv/2. (1982), PP-237-79 103