| A | B |
|---|
| Gregorian Chant | A specific repertory that is the result from the codification of liturgy and music under Roman leaders |
| Schola Cantorum | (School of Singers) The choir that sang when the pope officiated at observances= Founded in late 17th c. and played role in standardizing chant texts in the early 18th c. |
| Chants: Rome and Franks | We cannot be certain what melodies were brought form Rome to the Frankish lands, since they were not yet written down= Some chants were probably altered by the Franks, either to suit northern tastes or to fit them into the system of EIGHT MODES imported from the Byzantine Church= Some melodies that became widely used were probably drawn from Gallican chant= Also, many new melodies were developed in the north after the 8th century |
| The legend of St. Gregory | Books of liturgical texts from this time (which still lacked musical notation) attributed the developing repertory of chant used in Frankish lands to Pope Gregory I (St. Gregory the Great, r 590-604) leading to the name Gregorian chant= However, there is no evidence from his own time that Gregory played any role in composing or standardizing chant= The attribution of the chant repertory to Gregory may have arisen among the English (who adopted the Roman rite shortly after the Franks)= They revered Gregory as the founder of their church and thus attributed their liturgy and its music to him= Legend arose that the chants were dictated to Gregory by the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove= Both tthe ascription to a revered pope and this legend enhanced the perception of the chant as old, authentic, and divinely inspire, and thus facilitated its adoption |
| Adoption of Chant | (continue from above) Its adoption shows the desire to establish as traditional a arepertory that was relatively new in this form and also the use of propaganda to do so |
| Old Roman Chant | Another form of chant from the same time in Rome= uses essentially the same texts as Gregorian chant and thus represents the same liturgical tradition= melodies resemble those of Gregorian chant but are often more ornate, suggesting that both chant dialects derive form a common source |
| Development of the liturgy of the Western Church | We can trace this development because the words were written down= However, the melodies were learned by hearing others sing them (process called ORAL TRANSMISSION)...leaving no written traces |
| Isidore of Sevill | (ca. 560-636) Wrote that "Unless sounds are remembered by man, they perish, for they cannot be written down" |
| Medieval singers composing... | Composed new songs by singing aloud...drawing on existing conventions and formulas...and fixed the melodies in their minds through repetition |
| Learning Chant | Chant was learned by memorization and sung from memory= Chants that were simple (were sung frequently) or were especially distinctive and memorable may have been passed down with little change= Other chants may have been improvised or composed orally within strict conventions |
| pg. 32 | pg. 32 |
| Tract | Were originally performed by a soloist |
| Composition of chants | Since TRACTS were originally performed by a soloist, it seems liekly that over centuries singers developed a standard pattern, consisting of a general melodic contour and a set of formulas to delineate the phrases in each verse, and varied it to fit the syllables and accentuation of the particular text for each verse or chant= When the melodies were written down, these variations were preserved |
| Individual variation | Was not suitable if the chants were to be performed in the same way each time in churches across a wide territory |
| Notation | Way to write down the music= Earliest surviving books of chant with music notation date from the late 19th c.= Whenever notation was actually invented, writing down the melodies was an attempt to assure that from then on each melody would be sung in essentially the same way each time and in each place it was sung= Thus, notation was both result of striving for uniformity and a measn of perpetuating that uniformity |
| Neumes | (Latin "neuma", meaning "gesture") In earliest notations, these signs were placed above the words to indicate the melodic gesture for each syllable, including the number of notes, whether the melody ascended, descended, or repeated a pitch, and perhaps rhythm or manner of performance= Neumes may have derived from signs for inflection and accent, akin to accent marks in modern French= Did NOT denote specific pitches or intervals...served as reminders of the melodic shape but could not be read at sight by someone who did not already know the melody= Melodies STILL had to be learned by ear |
| Heighted/Diastematic Neumes | (From Greek word for "interval") In the 10th and 11th c., scribes placed neumes at varying heights above the text to indicate the relative size/direction of intervals= This approach made pitch contour clearer but was not adopted everywhere because it apparently sacrificed the more subtle performance indications in neumatic notation= The scribe would scratch a horizontal line in the parchment corresponding to a particular note and orient the neumes around that lines= WAS REVOLUTIONARY IDEA: musical sign that did NOT represent a sound, but clarified the meaning of other signs |
| Neumes: Horizontal Lines | In other manuscripts, the line that was drawn would be labeled with a letter for the note it represented (most often F or C because of their position just above the semitones in the diatonic scale)= These letters evolved into our clef signs |
| Guido of Arezzo | (ca. 991-after 1033) 11th c. monk whose work suggested an arrangement of lines/spaces...using a line of red ink for F and of yellow ink for C and scratching other lines into the parchment= Letters in left margin identify each line= From this system evolved a staff of 4 lines a 3rd apart, the ancestor of our modern 5-staff line |
| Notation vs. memory | Notation did not replace memeory but enabled singers to learn many chants more quickly and to reproduce them exactly each time |
| Staff notation with neumes | Conveyed pitch but not durations= One modern practice is to sing chants as if all notes had same basic value; notes were grouped in twos or threes, and these groups were flexibly combined into larger units= Whatever differences in duration there may have been in early practice, chant was relatively free rather than metered in rhythm |
| Solesmes Monks | Prepared modern editions of chant, which pope Pius X proclaimed in 1903 as the official Vatican editions= Intended for use in church, they use a modernized form of chant notation= The staff in chant notation has 4 lines, one of which is dsignated by a clef as either middle C or the F below middle C |
| Chant Notation: Notes & Notegroups | Are called neumes= A neume may carry only 1 syllable of text= Neumes are read left to right, except that when 1 note is below another the lower note is sung first |
| pg. 36, 37, 39 | pg. 36, 37, 39 (Notation info) |
