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Gregorian Chants

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The Gregorian Chant History. The Gregorian chant is the oldest musical manifestation of the Occident and it has its roots in the songs of the old synagogues, since Jesus Christ`s times. The first Christians and disciples of Christ, were converted Jewish that, persevering in prayer, continued to sing the psalms and songs of the Old Testament as they were used, although with other sense. As long as the Greek, not Jews and Romans were also becoming Christian, elements of the music and the Greek-French-Roman culture were being included to the Jewish songs. The formation period of the Gregorian chant includes the centuries I to VI, reaching the peak in the centuries IX, X and XI, beginning of the Medium Age; it begins, then, its decadence.

The name is an homage to Pope Gregory I (540-604) that did a collection of pieces, publishing them in two books: Antiphonarium, group or referring melodies at the Canonical Hours, and the Graduale Romanum, containing Santa Mass`s songs. Starting from the initiative talent of D. Gregorian Chant Resources and History. Gregoran chants are a body of chants of the Roman Catholic Church, most of which are part of two liturgical rites, the Mass and the Offices. Origins are traditionally are ascribed to the period of Pope Gregory I 590-604. The sacred music of the Gregorian Chant was also known as plainchant, or plainsong and named after Pope Gregory. This music consisted of a single line of melody with a flexible rhythm sung to Latin words by unaccompanied male voices. Manuscripts date from ninth century and used a system of modes, specific patterns of whole and half steps. This single line of melody, called monophony, characterized music until about 1000 AD.

History of Gregorian Chant Unaccompanied singing has been part of the Christian liturgy since the earliest days of the Church. The Gregorian repertory was systematized for use in the Roman Rite. Scholars debate whether the essentials of the melodies originated in Rome, before the 7th century, or in Francia, in the 8th and early 9th centuries. Gregorian chant (music. Abbaye de Solesmes - Histoire du Chant Grégorien.

Gregorian Chant is a musical repertory made up of chants used in the liturgical services of the Roman Catholic Church. In fact, the liturgical tradition which the Church has given us is a vocal, monophonic music composed in Latin using sacred texts from the Ancient and New Testaments. This is why Gregorian Chant has often been called a "sung Bible". Linked intimately to the liturgy in this way, the goal of the Gregorian melodies is to favor spiritual growth, reveal the gifts of God and the full coherence of the Christian message. What we call Gregorian chant today first appears distinctly in the Roman repertory of the fifth and sixth centuries. Its implimentation and perhaps some of its composition was in the hands of a group of ministers in a service specially dedicated to the Roman basilicas, the schola cantorum.

Gregorian chant also appears to have been an aural music, that is, transmitted by ear and committed to memory - like all other music of the world at the time. Gregorian Chant Home Page. On the World Wide Web "in omnem terram exivit sonus eorum, et in fines orbis terrae verba eorum" Psalmus 18:5 [RSV 19:4] The Return of the Tridentine Mass On July 7, 2007, Pope Benedict XVI issued the Apostolic Letter motu proprio Summorum Pontificum , which permits most priests to celebrate the Roman Missal of 1962 (the last edition of the Tridentine Mass issued before Vatican II) without obtaining special permission.

The pope also made it much easier for lay people to attend such a Mass if they wish. The motu proprio itself was issued in Latin; the text can be found here . The motu proprio is accompanied by a letter from the pope to the Catholic bishops of the world. My own reaction to the document should be published soon; I will provide a link when it is. Editio Nassoviana Cantus Gregoriani Links to other chant research sites on the Web Contact: j e f f e r y @ phoenix.princeton.edu (remove the spaces) | Peter Jeffery's Home Page | Princeton Music Department | Princeton University | Italy.

Gregorian chant. Gregorian chant is the central tradition of Western plainchant, a form of monophonic, unaccompanied sacred song of the western Roman Catholic Church. Gregorian chant developed mainly in western and central Europe during the 9th and 10th centuries, with later additions and redactions. Although popular legend credits Pope St. Gregory the Great with inventing Gregorian chant, scholars believe that it arose from a later Carolingian synthesis of Roman chant and Gallican chant.

History[edit] Development of earlier plainchant[edit] Musical elements that would later be used in the Roman Rite began to appear in the 3rd century. Scholars are still debating how plainchant developed during the 5th through the 9th centuries, as information from this period is scarce. John the Deacon, biographer (c. 872) of Pope Gregory I, modestly claimed that the saint "compiled a patchwork antiphonary",[11] unsurprisingly, given his considerable work with liturgical development. Origins of mature plainchant[edit] Gregorian Chant - "Dies Irae"