Gregorian Chant
The Origins of Written Music
The History of Gregorian
Chant
• Pope St. Gregory the Great (590604).
• Antiphonary (written music).
• - oldest surviving form of written
music.
What does Gregorian Chant
look like?
Gregorian Chant uses a
four line staff
Guido D’Arezzo - believed to have
created this staff, although there is
some debate over whether or not
he actually did it.
Gregorian Chant
• free rhythm, without meter or time
signature.
• Liturgy - sung almost entirely (with
polyphony saved for special
occasions).
What language are they singing
in?
Latin
• Gregorian Chant is completely
based in religion (Christianity).
Stages of Gregorian Chant
• Two liturgical rites
• MASS and OFFICES.
First Stage – The Mass
Two principal groups of pieces exist:
a. The Ordinary – composed by texts that are
repeated in all the Masses.
First Stage – The Mass
b. The Proprium – sung according to the
liturgical time or according to the feast that is
celebrated.
c. Cantillatio – prayers, the readings, the
preface and the Eucharistic prayer, Our
Father.
Second Stage – The Divine
Office
Second Stage – The Divine
Office
• MATINS – watching in the night.
• LAUDS – celebrated at daybreak.
• TERCE – Mid-morning (9am).
-Acts of the Apostles.
Second Stage – The Divine
Office
• SEXT – 12 M. - resist temptation.
• NONE – 3 PM. – pray for
perseverance
Second Stage – The Divine
Office
• VESPERS – 6 PM.
• COMPLINES – ( Latin word means
“complete”). It is the last common prayer.
Characteristics of Gregorian
Chant
• It is monophonic
There is only one voice
There is no harmony.
The voices of the singers sing the same
words at the same time with the same
melody.
The many voices are united into one.
Characteristics of Gregorian
Chant
• It has free rhythm.
There is a regular repeating rhythm.
• Chant has rhythm, but it is that of the
natural rhythm of prose speech that is
different from what we are used to hearing
in most other forms of music.
Characteristics of Gregorian
Chant
• It is a cappella.
• It is a sung prayer.
Why are there only men singing?
Women were not allowed to
participate in any part of a
religious ceremony in 10th
Century Europe.
Troubadour Music
• Lyric poet of Southern France, Northern Spain and
Northern Italy, writing in the language d’oc of
Provence.
• French form “to find,” “to invent.”
• Troubadour was thus one who invented new
poems, finding new verse for his elaborate love
lyrics.
• Troubadours were French musicians who traveled
across Europe during the 11th and 13th centuries.
• They sang mostly love songs.
• They accompanied their love songs with
instruments, unlike the church.
Troubadour Music
• Chansonniers (manuscripts) – Songbooks
• Canso – verse form they used most
frequently ( 5 to 6 stanzas)
• Dansa or Balada – a dance song with a
refrain.
Troubadour Music
• Pastorela – telling the tale of the love request by a
night to a shepheredness.
• Jeu parti or debat – a debate on love between two
poets.
• Alba – a morning song, in which lovers are
warned by a night watchman that day approaches
and that the jealous husband may at any time
surprise them.
Adam de la Halle
(1237-1286)
• The most famous troubadour ever
• Inventor of the Motet
Motet - a piece of music where two
or more different verses are fit together
simultaneously,
without
regard
to
harmony
• Jeu de Robin et Marion - first ever
musical theater piece