DIVISIONS IN THE CHURCH AND DIALECTS OF CHANT

BYZANTINE CHANT

Byzantine services included Scriptural readings—which were chanted using formulas that reflected the phrasing of the text—and psalms and hymns sung to fully developed melodies. Melodies were classed into eight modes or echoi (sing. echos), each with its own characteristic melodic formulas and scale type, which served as a model for the eight modes of the Western Church (see pp. 36–39).

The most characteristic Byzantine chants were hymns, which became more prominent in the liturgy and more highly developed in Eastern churches than in the West, with many different types. Hymn melodies were notated in books from the tenth century on, and many are still sung in Greek Orthodox services. Byzantine missionaries took their rite north to the Slavs starting in the ninth century, resulting in the establishment of the Russian and other Slavic Orthodox churches. The Greek texts were translated into local languages and the melodies adopted faithfully, but over time the traditions diverged.

WESTERN DIALECTS

After the Western Empire disintegrated, control of western Europe was distributed among several peoples, including Celts, Angles, and Saxons in the British Isles; Franks in Gaul (approximately modern-day France) and western Germany; Visigoths in Spain; and Ostrogoths and Lombards in northern Italy. All eventually converted to Christianity and adopted the doctrines of the Western Church. A number of local and regional rites emerged, each with its own liturgy and body of chant. Besides the tradition of Rome, these included a variety of usages in Gaul, collectively known as Gallican chant; Celtic chant in Ireland and parts of Britain; Mozarabic or Old Hispanic in Spain; Beneventan in southern Italy; and Ambrosian in Milan.

Attempts at standardization From the eighth century through the eleventh century, popes and secular rulers allied with them tried to consolidate their authority by attempting to standardize what was said and sung in church services. In this process liturgy and music were valued not only for their religious functions but also as means of asserting centralized control, in parallel to the unified liturgy and church in the East under the Byzantine emperor. Over time, many of the local chant dialects disappeared or were absorbed into a single practice with authority emanating from Rome, although local variants in liturgy and chant melodies continued into modern times.

THE CREATION OF GREGORIAN CHANT

The codification of liturgy and music under Roman leaders, helped by the Frankish kings, led to the repertory known as Gregorian chant. The Schola Cantorum (School of Singers), the choir that sang when the pope officiated at observances, was established by the late seventh century and may have played a role in standardizing chant texts. By the middle of the eighth century, particular liturgical texts were assigned to services throughout the year in an order that was added to but not essentially changed until the sixteenth century.

Dissemination of the Roman chant to the Franks Between 752 and 754, Pope Stephen II sojourned in the Frankish kingdom with a retinue that may have included the Schola Cantorum. As a result of this visit, Pippin the Short (r. 751–68), who had become king of the Franks with the support of the previous pope, sought to import the Roman liturgy and chant and have them performed throughout his domain. The alliance between pope and king strengthened both, and in seeking to impose a common liturgy and body of music Pippin sought to consolidate his diverse kingdom, serving goals that were as much political as religious. His son Charlemagne (Charles the Great, r. 768–814), whose conquests expanded his territory throughout modern-day France, Belgium, the Netherlands, western Germany, Switzerland, and northern Italy, continued this policy, sending for singers from Rome to teach the chant in the north. Ties between Rome and the Franks were strengthened when Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne emperor in Rome on Christmas 800, initiating what later became known as the Holy Roman Empire. Figure 2.3 shows Charlemagne with the pope, and Figure 2.4 a map of his empire.

We cannot be certain what melodies were brought from Rome to the Frankish lands, since they were not yet written down. Simple chants and melodies later preserved in almost identical form in multiple sources over a wide area may be very ancient. 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. Furthermore, many new melodies were developed in the north after the eighth century.

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. But 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 before the Franks. They revered Gregory as the founder of their church and consequently attributed their liturgy and its music to him. The legend arose that the chants were dictated to Gregory by the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove, as depicted in Figure 2.5. Both the ascription to a revered pope and this legend enhanced the perception of the chant as old, authentic, and divinely inspired, and thus facilitated its adoption. This is a fascinating development: it shows the desire to establish as traditional a repertory that was relatively new in this form and also the use of propaganda to do so.

After Charlemagne and his successors promulgated Gregorian chant throughout their lands, it gradually spread across almost all of western Europe, ultimately serving as the common music of a more unified church despite a great deal of local variation. It became one of the central tasks of monastery and cathedral schools to teach choirboys and future clerics the entire chant repertoire, following a similar curriculum and fostering a shared musical culture from Italy to England and from Poland to Spain. A final push to suppress most regional traditions and impose Gregorian chant throughout the Western Church came from popes in the eleventh century, aided by a new technology: a musical notation that could be read at sight.