POSTLUDE

The spread and stabilization of the Roman rite through western Europe during the Middle Ages resulted in the creation of a repertory of Gregorian chant that survives to this day. This repertory includes many different types of chant, each with a distinct function within the liturgical celebrations of the Office and the Mass. It also contains many chronological layers, having evolved from early Christian times down to the sixteenth century, when some types of chant (new Offices, liturgical dramas, hymns, and sequences) were still being written. Chants were classified into eight church modes and written down in a notation that gradually evolved as a means of teaching and standardizing performance.

Secular songs also flourished. They were most sophisticated and virtuosic in the cultural centers and courts of the later Middle Ages. These songs, in a variety of strophic forms often including refrains, had many different uses, sometimes involving dance. Some were narrative or dramatic, others lyrical. The body of courtly love songs created by troubadours and trouvères as a monument to the sentiments and ideals of refined and courtly love remains unequaled for its sheer beauty and artfulness.