The Christian Church in the First Millennium (Chapter 2)

I. The Diffusion of Christianity

A. Jesus of Nazareth, Jew and subject of Roman Empire
1. apostles traveled, brought Christianity to Near East, Greece, and Italy
2. promise of salvation in afterlife, community and equality between social classes
a. drew many converts
b. women played major role in its growth
3. Roman subjects
a. must worship Roman gods and emperors
b. Christians gather in secret, are persecuted, martyred
B. Emperor Constantine I (r. 310-17), 313 Edict of Milan
1. legalized Christianity
2. allowed church to own property
C. 392 Emperor Theodosius I (r. 374-95)
1. made Christianity the official religion
2. suppressed others, except Judaism
3. Roman empire as model for church organization
4. church patriarchs in Rome, Antioch, Alexandria, Constantinople, and Jerusalem
D. By 600 entire area once controlled by Rome was Christian
II. The Judaic Heritage
A. Elements of Christian observance sprang from Jewish tradition
1. chanting of scripture
2. singing of psalms
B. Temples, place for public worship
1. observance centered around a sacrifice (usually a lamb)
2. performed by priests, assisted by Levites, witnessed by worshipers
a. Levites: members of priestly class, including musicians
3. choir of Levites sang psalms accompanied by harp and psaltery, trumpets and cymbals
C. Synagogue: centers for readings and homilies
1. public reading from scripture performed in chant
2. cantillation: chanting sacred texts based on melodic formulas
3. certain readings assigned to particular days or festivals
D. Parallels between temple rites and Christian Mass
1. symbolic sacrifice
2. singing psalms assigned to certain days
3. gathering in a meeting house to hear Scripture readings
4. Mass commemorates Last Supper, imitates Passover meal
5. Christian melodies may have drawn from Jewish cantillation
III. Music in the Early Church
A. Earliest recorded musical activity, Biblical references
1. Jesus and his followers sang hymns
2. communal meals: sang psalms and hymns
B. 4th century: number of converts grew
1. basilicas for public meetings
a. sung words carried better than spoken word
2. monasteries: devout believers lived in isolation
a. singing psalms central to monastic life
i. pleasures of music discipline the soul
ii. turn the mind to spiritual things
iii. build the Christian community

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 3. Late 4th century: standard format in Christian observance
a. singing was regular feature: Books of Psalms and nonbiblical hymns
b. singing of psalms and hymns codified in rites of medieval church, continue to this day
C. Church fathers interpret Bible, set down principles
1. similar to ancient Greeks
a. value of music: power to influence ethos
b. held to Plato’s principle: beautiful things exist to remind of divine beauty
c. music was servant of religion
2. condemned instrumental music
a. lyres accompanied hymns and psalms at home only
b. entire tradition 1,000 years: unaccompanied singing
c. elaborate singing, large choruses, instruments, dancing: associated with pagan festivals
3. Christian community set off from pagan society
IV. Divisions in the Church and Dialects of Chant
A. 395, Division of Roman Empire
1. Western Empire
a. ruled from Rome or Milan
b. Germanic invasions; 476 decline and collapse
c. bishop of Rome asserted control of western church
d. after 3rd century Latin used in Rome
2. Eastern Empire
a. centered at Constantinople
b. under control of the emperor
c. used Greek language of early Christian apostles
3. 1054 division became permanent
a. Western Church became Roman Catholic Church
b. Eastern Church became Byzantine Church
4. regions evolved rites
a. church calendar
b. liturgy: body of texts, ritual actions
c. repertory of plainchant or chant: unison song
B. Byzantine chant
1. scriptural readings chanted using formulas
2. hymns and psalms sung to fully developed melodies
3. melodies classified into 8 modes (echoi)
a. served as model for Western Church modes
4. hymn melodies more prominent
a. notated from 10th century on
b. still sung in Greek Orthodox services today
C. Western dialects
1. regional rites emerged: own liturgy and chant
2. Ambrosian chant: after St. Ambrose, bishop of Milan (374-397)
a. Milan important center for Western Church
b. close cultural ties to Byzantium
c. liturgy and chant survives to present day
3. 8th century: standardized church services
a. local chant dialects disappeared over time
D. Creation of Gregorian chant
1. Schola Cantorum (School of Singers)
a. established late 7th century
b. sang when Pope officiated

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 2. 752 to 754 Pope Stephen II sojourned in Frankish kingdom with Schola Cantorum
3. Pippin the Short (r. 751-68) king of Franks
a. imported Roman liturgy and chant
b. consolidated diverse kingdom; political and religious
4. Charlemagne (Charles the Great, r. 768-814)
a. expanded territory through conquests
b. continued policy of common liturgy
c. 800 crowned emperor by Pope Leo III; initiated Holy Roman Empire
d. melodies brought from Rome to Frankish lands
i. not written down; not known what melodies were brought
ii. some chants altered by Franks
iii. some drawn from Gallican chant
5. Pope Gregory I (St. Gregory the Great, r. 590-604)
a. development of chant repertory attributed to him; Gregorian chant
b. English revered Gregory as founder of their church
c. attributed liturgy and music to him
d. legend: Holy Spirit dictated chants to Pope Gregory
6. Old Roman chant
a. preserved in 11th and 12th century manuscripts
b. same texts as Gregorian chant
c. melodies resemble Gregorian chant, more ornate melodies
d. both dialects derived from common source; disputed by scholars
V. The Development of Notation
A. Oral transmission
1. chant learned by rote, sung from memory
2. simple chants passed down with little change
3. other chants improvised within strict conventions
a. standard patterns developed, use of formulas
4. variations preserved later through notation
B. Stages of notation
1. notation needed to stabilize chants
2. earliest notation 850, possibly used in Charlemagne’s time
3. strive for and perpetuate uniformity
4. copied in monasteries and Scriptoriums
5. neumes placed above words
a. indicate melodic gesture
b. serve as reminders of melodic shape
c. heightened neumes, 10th and 11th centuries
i. indicate size and direction of intervals
ii. sacrificed subtle performance indications
6. horizontal lines scratched into parchment
a. musical sign that did not represent a sound
b. corresponded to particular note
c. neumes oriented around the line
d. other manuscripts line labeled with letter for note (evolved into clef signs)
7. Guido of Arezzo (ca. 991-after 1033), 11th century monk
a. colored lines: red ink for F, yellow for C
b. letters in margins identify lines
c. scheme widely adopted: neumes reshaped to fit arrangement
d. 4-line system evolved, staff of 4 lines a third apart
e. pitch was still relative

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 8. notation freed music from dependence on oral transmission
a. notation valuable tool for memorization
9. rhythm
a. staff notation with neumes convey pitch, not duration
b. some signs for rhythm, meaning unknown
c. all notes of chant sung with same basic value
d. notes grouped in twos or threes, grouped into larger units
C. Solesmes chant notation
1. 1903 Pope Pius X proclaimed Solesmes official Vatican edition
a. created by Benedictine monks of Solesmes in France
2. modernized form of chant notation
a. 4-line staff, C or F clef designated
b. notes and notegroups called neumes
c. neumes read left to right
i. variants: obilique neumes, quilisma
3. edition includes interpretive signs not in manuscripts
VI. Music Theory and Practice
A. Transmission of Greek music theory
1. Martianus Capella The Marriage of Mercury and Philology, early 5th century
a. 7 liberal arts
i. trivium: grammar, dialectic, rhetoric
ii. quadrivium: geometry, arithmetic, astronomy, and harmonics (music)
b. modified translation of On Music by Aristides Quintilianus
2. Boethius (ca. 480-ca. 524) most revered music authority in Middle Ages
3. Die institutione musica (The Fundamentals of Music) by Boethius
a. widely copied and cited for next thousand years
b. music as science of numbers; numerical ratios and proportions determine intervals, consonances,
scales, and tuning
c. compiled book from Greek sources: treatise by Nicomachus and Ptolemy’s Harmonics
d. original part of book divides music into 3 types
i. music mundana (the music of the universe): movements of stars and planets
ii. musica humana (human music): harmonizes and unifies body and soul
iii. musica instrumentalis (instrumental music): audible music
e. emphasized influence of music on character
i. music education as introduction to advanced philosophical studies
ii. music as object of knowledge
B. Practical theory
1. 9th century treatises: Musica enchiriadis (Music Handbook) and Scolica enchiriadis (Comments on
the Handbook)
a. directed students entering clerical orders
b. emphasized practical matters
c. 8 modes described; exercises for locating semitones in chant
2. Guido of Arezzo’s Micrologus (ca. 1025-28)
a. practical guide to singers
b. covers notes, intervals, scales, modes, melodic composition, improvised polyphony
C. Church modes
1. system completed by 10th century
2. chants classified by modes; 8 modes identified by number
a. final, range, and reciting tone all characterize a mode
3. final: main and last note in melody
4. modes paired, share final

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 a. authentic: odd-numbered modes; step below and octave above final
b. plagal: even numbered modes; 4th or 5th below to 5th or 6th above the final
5. chromatic alteration: B-flat
6. species of fifth or fourth applied (Cleomides)
a. divided modes into two spans
b. modes not octave species, extend to 9th or 10th
7. reciting tone: most frequent or prominent note in chant
a. authentic modes: 5th above final
b. plagal modes: 3rd below
8. modes first codified as means to classify chants
a. tonaries: books grouped chants together by mode
b. not all chant melodies conform to modal theory
i. many existed before theory developed
ii. chants after 10th century have different style
9. 9th century application of Greek names to church modes
a. misread Boethius
b. called lowest mode the highest in Cleomides arrangement
c. moved through names in rising rather than descending order
10. poor fit between modes and Greek system
a. modes based on final, reciting tone, ranges exceeding an octave
b. Greek system based on tetrachords, octave species, and tonai
c. important for medieval scholars to ground work in Greek tradition
D. Solmization
1. facilitated sight-singing
2. introduced by Guido of Arezzo
3. set syllables corresponding to succession of tones
a. notes in first six phrases of the hymn Ut quent laxis
b. initial syllables of each phrase: ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la
c. solmization syllables still used; do for ut, addition of ti
4. syllables helped locate semitones in chant
5. taught pattern of whole and half steps around final of each mode
E. Hexachord system
1. Guido’s followers developed six-step solmization into system of hexachords
a. “natural” beginning on C
b. “hard” beginning on G
c. “soft” beginning on F
d. “round b” and “square b” evolved into our accidentals
i. originally indicated syllable B (mi or fa)
2. basic scale began on G: gamma ut
a. each note named by letter and position within hexachord
3. mutation: process of changing hexachords
a. melodies exceeding 6-note range change hexachords
4. “Guidonian Hand”
a. mnemonic device to locate pitches of system of hexachords
b. joints stood for one of 21 notes
c. other notes “outside the hand”
d. included in medieval and Renaissance textbooks

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