GREGORIAN CHANT AS A COMPOSITIONAL ELEMENT
Paul Ayick
04/20/2007
Survey In Historical Styles MUH 6688
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Table Of Contents
Pp. 1-5
Introduction
Pp. 6-9
Early Polyphony
Pp. 10-14
J.S.Bach
Pp. 15-16
Dies Irae
Pp. 17-19
Erik Satie
Pp. 20-25
Charles Ives
Pp. 26-28
The Future of Chant
i – ii
Sources Cited
iii
Illustrations.
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Chant, Our Link To Tradition
The 20th century was unique in that advancements in all things technological were
occurring at an unprecedented rate. Think of it in these terms. My father lived from 1914
until 2004 and in his lifetime he saw the evolution of the automobile, air travel, space
travel, widespread use of electricity, air conditioning, TV, radio, two world wars, the
Depression, Korea, Viet Nam, the Iraq War, psychoanalysis, relativity, organ transplants;
etc. Such rapid advancements literally changed the way humans see and react to the
world in which they reside. It is only natural then that these new perceptions and beliefs
be reflected in that which is so special to us as a species, our art. Music changed more
between the years 1880 through 1920 then it had in any other time. This change was most
apparent in the tonal organization of music, new forms of harmony and the subsequent
melodies derived from it. No longer satisfied with the traditional system of major/minor
employed for the previous 400 years composers began looking for new ways to extract
unusual timbres when combining the 12 notes of the chromatic scale. Debussy found new
tonal relationships in the 4 and 5 note scales of Balinese and Javanese music or gamelan,
whole tone scales, and parallel voice leading. These harmonic/melodic elements
combined with his own unique methods of using the instruments in the orchestra resulted
in a mode of expression that was a radical departure from the classical and romantic
methods employed by the composers that preceded him. Perhaps the first of the modern
composers, Debussy’s works were revolutionary and his influence on other 20th century
composers profound, but his approach was not shared by all the subsequent composers of
the time. Darius Milhaud 1892-1974 explored the possibilities inherent in a polytonal
approach to composition. Meanwhile Alexander Scriabin 1874-1915 experimented with
voicing chords in fourths and in general was experimenting with non-triad based
harmony, a practice that tends to make any feeling of key nebulous at best. Perhaps the
most radical approach to harmony/melody was that musical system developed and
practiced by Arnold Schöenberg 1874-1951,along with his students Berg and Webern.
Schöenberg developed a school of 12-tone composition that conceived all notes of the
chromatic scale as being equal. Not all composers agreed with this approach however and
one of the most adamant detractors was Paul Hindemith;
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“Anyone to whom a tone is more than a note on paper or a key pressed
down, anyone who has ever experienced the intervals in singing, especially with
others, as manifestations of bodily tension, anyone who has ever tasted the
delights of pure intonation by the continual displacement of the comma in stringquartet playing; must come to the conclusion that there can be no such thing as
atonal music, in which the existence of tone-relationships is denied.” (Hindemith.
1937. 155)
Hindemith, while using a totally different again system of organizing and
perceiving the 12 notes, did so in a manner that did not negate the innate gravity and
natural physical tendencies of tones. His was a more traditional but nonetheless daring
approach to tonal organization. In his system the Roman numerals I through VI are used
to label chords but not as to degree of the scale rather as to overall density and
dissonance. “A” chords of the I, II and V category contain no tritones while the II, IV
and VI chords do. A I chord being a consonant grouping of triads without 2nds or 7ths, a
II with those intervals and a V any other grouping that does not include the tritone. “B”
chords can contain tritones, II’s contain no minor 2nds or major 7ths, IV chords may
contain those intervals and in a VI virtually anything goes. So you can see this is a tonal
method of organization but with different parameters then the old major/minor system.
As 20th century composers explored every possible avenue and “ism” in their search for a
new mode of musical expression one constant has endured which has been the very
cornerstone of all Western music, I am speaking of Gregorian chant. The earliest forms of
polyphonic music were chant-based and to this day composers look to chant as a viable
musical source. I speculate that perhaps with all the experimenting and searching for a
new means of tonal expression that is the earmark of the 20th century music, perhaps all
the “new” sounds we might desire could be extracted from these most ancient melodies
and that the vast array of harmonic implication that lie within the modes on which they
are based. Rather then constructing tone rows “willy-nilly” from the chromatic scale why
not view the ancient chants as rows if you will? I think there are some substantial
reasons why the chants are a viable resource that can be applied to modern music.
My primary reason for offering this is because of the concept of always drawing
from tradition and roots. I think it is from a healthy respect and understanding of the past
that new art forms emerge. Bach for instance drew inspiration from familiarizing himself
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with earlier vocal and French instrumental music at his disposal at Lüneburg where he is
said to have first become an organist as a very young man. There were vast libraries of
older works there, especially at the St. Michaels School and is speculated Bach would
most certainly have been exposed to and studied these earlier works.
“The breadth of the Lüneburg-St.Michaels
repertory is amazing. It extends from pieces in three and
four parts with basso-continuo to pieces in twenty-two and
twenty-four parts with full orchestra, from pure choral
music to vocal concertos with solo voices, choruses and
instrumental ensembles.” (Blume, Newcomb. 1968. 9)
Secondly the chordal relationships that exist within the modes offer a wide variety of
non-diatonic possibilities; progressions somewhat alien to our ears that are so used to the
dominant-tonic dogma of our major minor system of tonal organization. A good case in
point being the locrian mode in which the I or tonic is a diminished triad or half
diminished seventh. In this mode the II7-V7-I progression would sound quite unusual to
our ears for instead of it being minor 7th (iimin7) – dominate 7th (V7) to major or minor tonic I
or i, it would become in that mode; major 7th (IIMAJ7) – major 7th (VMAJ7) – diminished tonic
(idim7)
. This sort of cadence is both alien and interesting. Notice also that the root
progression from V-I is now a tritone! So then the modes provide us with some
interesting harmonic movement and this of course has huge melodic implications.
Additionally, the ancient Greeks believed that each mode could affect the listener
in very direct ways. It was thought that there was an innate power in music that would
directly react with the listener, a sort of manifestation of some higher order that interacts
in a human sense. In a discussion of a form of ancient Greek composition known as
Melos, which is what the Greeks called music when perceived as a performing art, we
find this:
“In addition the three broad classes of melic composition
may contain may contain various sub-classes, such as erotic,
comic, and panegyric.” (festive) By these classifications, Aristedes
Quintilianus would seem to be referring to music written in the
honor of Dyanisus or Apollo or for the tragedy. Any piece of music
might be elevating, depressing, or relaxing as appropriate.”
(Mathiesen. 1999. 26)
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This perception of the power of music was such that the ancient Greeks thought the study
of music was as important as knowing mathematics and science, a far cry from our
“music as entertainment only” mindset of this 21st century.
“Pythagoras reasoned analogously from his
example of numerical regularity to everything else and he
thought harmony was the clue to the explanation of the
world. Human life, to be properly healthy and ordered,
should be harmonious. The relations of elements in life,
both internal and external to the individual, must make a
“healthful music” as Hamlet says. For the soul, if it is
healthful, is attuned to the “harmony of the spheres” which
does not, as is popularly supposed, denote the music made
by the motion of all the heavenly bodies in concert. This is
a much later development than Pythagoras. The earlier
astronomy permitted only a crude, limited conception of the
heavens (for example, the sun and moon were not thought
to be “spheres”,” but circles) and the harmony of the
spheres is rather a condition of the soul, so that it vibrates
sympathetically with the forth, fifth and octave given out by
the heavenly circles in motion.” (Harap. 1983 154)
What comes to my mind when I read about how the ancients perceived music, the
directness of it’s effect on us I think immediately to the sounds they listened to, I think
about the modes. Is it possible that the ancients had an insight, a perception long clouded
by industrialization, technology and modern life that we can no longer tune to? Is it
possible they understood things we just plain miss? Speaking form personal experience
solely I can attest to the direct way in which the music from the 10th, 11th, and 12th
centuries especially effects me, it seems to find a spot deep within myself in a way that
most more modern music misses. Not necessarily stronger but certainly different is the
response. This directness of communication is the very attribute lacking in much of the
music from the 20th and even this 21st century. In their attempts to be creative, to
formulate new systems of tonal organization that will yield unique and interesting
musical directions, it is somewhat apparent to this writer at least that often times this is
accomplished at the mercy of the poor listener. Music for musicians does not a concert
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hall fill and even many of my fellow artists tend to feel alienated much of the time by
some of the music composed in the 20th century. Very revealing is this demographic from
a study done in October of 2002. It found that the classical music consumer could be
identified as;
• Highest percentage female (58 percent)
• Oldest average age of any segment — 52 years
• 31 percent are retired
• 87 percent white
• 30 percent report household incomes over $75,000; 72 percent report a college
degree or post-graduate studies
(Study: Audience Insight LLC)
What a demographic such as this suggests is not very encouraging in so far as the future
of our symphony orchestras is concerned. I feel musicians; composers specifically are at
least partially responsible for this current state of affairs. The listener wants to be moved
emotionally and weather or not you are using the latest musical “ism” has little or no
interest to him. I suggest that our diatonic system of major and minor tonalities is just one
of countless many ways in which the musical language of the modes could have been
applied. The chants themselves, which of course are all modal in design, are another. It is
in the best interest of the evolution of Western music that we not stray too far from the
seeds of our musical traditions I think. Does this preclude any interests in new methods,
non-Western forms, electronics, and the like? No, certainly not, but just as any jazzman
worth his or her salt can “play the blues”, I think composers in the tradition of Western
art music have a respect for the source from which it emanates. As we will know see this
is hardly a new concept.
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Early Polyphonic Music
One of the earliest forms of orchestrated or arranged music in the West was
organum. Organum was the harmonization of Gregorian chant or plainsong as it is also
called. These earliest attempts or Parallel Organum was a very simple technique which
called for doubling of the chant or melody in the fifth or fourth as well as often in
octaves. By the tenth century this very simple type of harmonization of chant began to
evolve to a point where there were more varied note intervals being employed in these
works. Typically the plainsong or chant would begin in unison, slowly expand to a fifth
and then as the chant was ending the intervals decreased in size until the final note or two
were again on the unison. The important thing here I think is that these earliest of
compositions were indeed chant based, modal works.
Fig.1
6
7
In the included example (fig. 1) notice how the chant Haec dies occurs in the lowest
(tenor) voice of the polyphonic arrangement. This is the beginning of our tradition of
arranged, orchestrated music in the West. By the ninth to thirteenth centuries new
melodies in the style of Gregorian chant had been written to amplify the existing works,
these were called tropes. In arranging these new tropes and the already existing chants a
newer, more relaxed form of polyphony emerged we call now call Free Organum. The
new tropes were still modal in nature however but the methods of producing the desired
polyphony became more complex. We now find contrary motion in the voices, and a
freer use of thirds, which at that time was considered a dissonant tonality. A third early
polyphonic form is known as Melismatic Organum. Having evolved in the early to midtwelfth century it was a type of polyphony that employed the use of, what for lack of a
better term, came to be called an elongated chant in the bass. The first really
sophisticated (from a compositional standpoint) attempts at polyphonic composition
occurred in the late twelfth to mid-thirteenth centuries at Notre Dame by Léonin (11631190) and Pérotin (1180-1225). We now find voices in four parts, wider use of
disonance, more varied rhythms, independently moving lines; all earmarks of music as
we now conceive it in the 21st century. However, and this is the qualifier, for all it’s
breakthroughs the music from Notre Dame in this period was still essentially still a chant
derived form, at the very least it can be considered “chant-based.”
The fourteenth century ushers in what is known as the Ars nova (new art) school
probably best exemplified by the French composer Guillaume de Machaut. All of the
innovations of Léonin and Pérotin were still further expanded and expounded upon and
we find a still increased use of dissonance, irregular rhythm, and more complex melodies,
no longer stricly chant like in nature, Machaut and his compositions usher in the first real
break from a 1300 year old tradition of chant based music. The chant or plainsong that
did occur in Machaut’s compositions usually appears in the motets and then in the form
of a sort of bass line or what has become known as plainsong tenor. This music has a
modern sound to this day;
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“Modal rhythm disappears, the counterpoint employed is
much freer and the melodic lines more flowing. The harmonies
make more frequent use of the third as a consonance, resulting in
an effect more pleasing to modern ears,though there is sometimes a
rather fair amount of rather violent, and according to later
standards, arbitrary dissonance.” (Parrish. Ohl. 1951.36)
Machaut’s music is still however strongly linked to all that came before and while it is
certainly somewhat radical when put in a time frame, there is still a distincly chant-like
modal quality to it especially when each part is taken individually. I find it so interesting
that from the very beginning of Western art musical for a period of some 1300+ years,
chant or modal based melody was the norm. Put in other terms, nearly twice the amount
time passed while modal chant was the status quo then has passsed since the diatonic
harmony of the Baroque and Classical periods, chromatic harmony associated with
Romantic music, and then the 20th Century harmonic practices emerged. Again we can
clearly see how chant is the tradition from which Western music emerged, it is its roots
and it is the tradition that spawned much of the music in this hemisphere.
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J.S. Bach
When thinking of the music of J.S. Bach one generally tends to conjure images of
dense, busy, ornate polyphonic works; the fugues, two part inventions, and Brandenburg
concerti. This is Baroque art in all its ornate beauty and no composer more skillfully
captured the complexity inherent to the idiom better than J.S. Bach. Drawing any
parallels or connections to chant would seem difficult, the simplicity of chant or
plainsong seems to be nowhere in evidence but the truth is that Bach was very much
involved with and influenced by it. Bach’s harmonic approach to music is defined in the
chorales and as we will see in this section often times plainsong was the melodic source
for these incredibly harmonically rich works. On a personal note, I routinely tell students
that want to learn harmony that most everything they would need to know about diatonic
harmony can be learned from playing and analyzing Bach chorales. How did the man
know which 3 or 4 notes played in unison could make an ordinary piano sound like an 60
piece orchestra? The book written by, Sister M. John Bosco Connor is excellent beyond
words, it was part of her doctoral thesis.
To expound upon the greatness of J. S. Bach would be both redundant and
pointless, with that as a given let us explore where he found his inspiration and direction.
“He did not consider beneath his dignity the adoption of
chorale tunes which lesser musicians had composed or adapted.
From them he drew the inspiration for many of his greater works.”
(Connor. 1957. 8)
But from where did these borrowed melodies have their musical roots? According to
Connor these borrowed musical phrases and melodies have as a original source drawn
from Jewish chant, Gregorian chant, medieval hymns, troupes and other chant or chant
based forms like oraganum.
“A large number of vocal and instrumental forms are
represented among the works of Bach. Through copying the works
of that master who preceded him, Bach attained mastery of the
forms which evolved in their compositions. (Bach was known to
transcribe the works of other composers) He created no new
forms, but bought the existing ones to a point of perfection which
could not be surpassed.” (Connor. 1957. 25)
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Fig.2
11
12
Many of the compositions that Bach wrote for church use were based on the traditional
chorales of his Lutheran church many of which were derived from chant or ancient hymn
tunes. He himself harmonized some 400 chorales, in effect then what Bach was doing
was bring then accepted harmonic practice to the chants of antiquity which in their time
were sung without harmonization, a kind of blending of what was then modern with the
traditional. This infusion of the ancient with the then contemporary was not limited to
harmonization of chorales, it can be found in many of Bach’s works. These same chorale
melodies are to be found in his cantatas, Masses, and other of his works.
“At least thirty-one plainchant melodies are discernable in
the compositions of J. S. Bach.” (Connor. 1957. 37.)
In a very real sense then Bach used these wonderful melodies of antiquity as a
compositional element, much in the same way that more modern composers find
inspiration in exotic scales, tone rows, and folk music. It is my opinion that chant can still
be a viable source of musical materials for the 21st century composer as well. Whereas
Bach saw fit to harmonize these wonderful old melodies and use them or materials
inspired by them in his bigger works so can the composer of today. There is a charm and
grace about these chants, they often times encompass no more then the range of less then
a complete octave but somehow they linger in the mind and have a sense of perfection
about them. They can be harmonized in as many different ways as there are composers.
Additionally I speculate that since the earliest chants were totally language based as seen
in the earliest neumes, that this in itself establishes a very direct communicative link of
this earliest of Western music to us in the 21st century. I like to think of chant as the
alphabet of all Western music. We will see that Bach was certainly not the last composer
to utilize this vast resource of musical inspiration. But back to Bach. (no pun) His
borrowing from chant was not always literal or exact, he took liberties rhythmically,
melodically and in far as cadence is concerned. However whatever liberties he did take,
the essence of the original chant tune was always in tact and identifiable. According to
Sister Connor thirty-two of these chant melodies are discernable in the work of Bach.
These chants are taken from the Ordinary of the Mass; (that part of the Mass that doesn’t
change), the Proper of the Mass; (those parts that change over the course of the year), and
the rest from the Divine part; (a division of the day for various prayers). Also discernable
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are twenty-two pre-Reformation hymns, and at least a half dozen chant like melodies that
have not been identified as to source. Almost half of his organ preludes are derived from
chant and early hymns as do a fifth of his 400 chorales. Of the larger works in which
these types of melodies appear are; 33 cantatas, 2 Passions, 2 masses, a violin sonata, an
oratorio, a Magnifcat, and a passacaligia. (Connor. 1957. 95.) This is an amazing amount
of Bach’s work and of course the obvious implication being his influence on al
composers of the subsequent 250 years. Perhaps our “modern” music is not as divorced
form the music of antiquity, these ancient chants as we somehow like to perceive.
“The vast treasury of Gregorian chant,
which furnished both religious and musical
inspiration to the writers of popular medieval
hymns and sacred polyphony,was also a fecund
source of melodies for Protestant composers,
whether they borrowed directly (as did Luther and
Walther) or indirectly (as did the later ones, like
Bach) ; and their adaptions and compositions based
on the chants from the beginning of the Christian
era, and in fact, reaching back into the Jewish
tradition, and persisiting even unto the present
time.” (Connor. 1957. 97.)
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Dies Irae
Perhaps one of the most widely used, most recognizable plainsong or chant
melodies from antiquity is the one employed in the Dies Irae, or the Mass of the dead. It
is thought to have been composed by one Thomas of Celano in approximately 1250 it is a
hymn about the final days and Last Judgment on earth. The plainsong melody is in the
Dorian mode.
Fig.3
“One of the oldest and most frequently borrowed of all
melodies is the ecclesiastical plainsong to the sequence “Dies
Irae.” The theme, one of great somber beauty, has exercised its
attraction partly, at least, by virtue of its intrinsic merit, but its use
must often have been suggested by its liturgical associations.”
(Robin. 1953. 133.)
So popular is this enchanting little melody that composers since the early days of
polyphony right up to notables of the 20th century such as Stravinsky and Vaughn
Williams have seen fit to use it as a compositional element in their work. I think it a
testament of sorts to the strength of the melody itself that it is able to endure so many
different applications employing so many different stylistic treatments.
“Since the time when the melody of “Dies Irae” became, as
it were, common property, composers have used it in two ways;
first as an integral part of their settings of the Requim Mass in its
proper context; secondly, and here often in a debased form, to help
create the appropriate atmosphere in works dealing with: the
supernatural, with wicked powers, with witches, madness, bad
dreams, and the lower elements of darkness”, the type of subject
which came into favour as the Romantic movement got under
way.” (Robin. 1953. 134.)
One of the most effective uses for me has to be in the Symphony Fantastique by Hector
Berlioz. He uses the Dies Irae to depict the in the “dream of the witches Sabbath” an
almost surreal tapestry of sound to depict the inane world of ghosts and goblins that
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inhabit this dream. Through repetition in various instrumentations and tempos, he uses it
to great effect. The overall effect can best be described as wild and when I first this work
as a young music student it was for me then like nothing I had ever heard before. We find
it again being used to illustrate musically a similar scenario in Liszt’s Dante Symphony.
Dies Irae is heard in the first movement. When this piece was heard by the great Russian
composer Mussorgsky he wrote;
“That mystical music picture, the “Danse
Macabre”, in the form of variations on the theme Dies Irae
could only have come from the brain of a daring European
like Liszt—in it he has shown the true artistic relations
between the orchestra and the piano.” (Robin. 1953. 136.)
What an interesting concept, using ancient modal plainsong to create something modern
and fresh said the author of this paper tongue planted firmly in cheek.
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Erik Satie
Erik Satie, what could the work of this, one of the most progressive composers of
the late 19th and 20th centuries, this champion of the French Avant-Garde possibly have to
do with chant? Well according to Hungarian musicologist András Wilheim perhaps more
then may at first seem apparent.
Surprising as the parallel may seem, there has been
wide discussion in print of a supposed relationship between
Satie’s music and Gregorian chant or plainsong. In one
study a Gregorian influence is seem primarily in the
prosody of the vocal works, since it traces his modal
harmonies to Gregorian. (András. 1983. 231)
How strong are the forces of these ancient chants then that they have made their presence
felt all the way into this, the age representing the beginnings of modern music as we
recognize it today? While perhaps not thought of as being as important as let us say a
Debussy or a Ravel, it is no overstatement to say that Satie’s influence was in no way
unimportant for his works have endured, stood the test of time. Wilheim makes the
distinction between neoclassicism and a mere influence, the former being more direct and
purposeful in nature. He points to three relatively early Satie works Trois Sarabandes,
Gnossiennes and the Trois Gymnopédies as exhibiting neoclassical tendencies in the
tradition of music from ancient Greece as illustrated by the titles of the last two would
indicate. According to Wilheim the Gregorian influence in Satie’s music is clear but from
what source did Satie receive the inspiration to the point that it becomes incorporated into
his own music?
“We know that Satie, like Debussy, visited the
Abbey of Solesmes, where he heard Gregorian chant that
accorded with the local reforms. But considering the period
in question, this answer is unsatisfactory; certainly an
earlier influence must be presumed, and we think we have
found this is the singular Gregorian practice current in mid
19th-century France, since a direct connection between Erik
Satie and this practice cannot be proved satisfactorily.”
(András. 1983. 231)
What he discovered was extremely interesting and it is that Satie had as his first piano
teacher one Vinot. Mr. Vinto had studied in turn with a Louis Niedermeyer. Niedermeyer
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had devised a chant-based pedagogy, a system that was entirely based on ancient plainsong. I was both pleased and dismayed upon learning this for I have been mulling the
same possibility and planned on presenting it as something I thought “unique.” How silly
of me to be that naive! Niedermeyer’s methods include re-harmonizing note for note the
chants of the entire mass.
Although Niedermeyer knew that Gregorian chant
was essentially a melodic system, he professed, like Abbot
Petit, that to provide it with a chordal accompaniment was
“one of the finest discoveries of modern times”. (András.
1983. 231)
He authored a theory book that dealt precise with this issue in 1857 and set out to
harmonize all the chants he could find but all he actually finished were the graduals. The
preface to this is interesting in that he says, “harmonization of Gregorian that follows the
natural development of its melodic laws” seeming to indicate a suggestion of some
deeper underlying melodic power of chant. Wilheim upon comparing Satie’s harmonizations with those of Niedermeyer asserts that there is certainly evidence that Satie was
indeed thinking in terms of chant when for instance he wrote the Kyrie movement in his
Messe des pauvres.
“one encounters in it’s full abundance a forming
principle that could scarcely had come about had the
composer not had a knowledge of Gregorian: short melodic
sections are repeated in a somewhat irregular series (one
hears altogether ten different lines in various transpositions), and with a single exception there is no
symmetrical division into periods within these lines. Indeed
the composer almost seems to parade his flexibility ………”
(András. 1983. 235)
The benefit to Satie in borrowing from chant according to Wilheim is that, as I have been
suggesting throughout this paper, it increased his pallet choices so to speak. This ancient
style, homophonic and modal allows total freedom in harmonization. These chants are so
strong melodically but they are of irregular shape and lend themselves so well to
innovative harmonic processing. They are not symmetrical in the way that we have
become accustomed to hearing music and therefore I feel that is a encouragement of sorts
to let the imagination run wild, there are endless possibilities in the treatment of these
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wonderful melodies and they are so strong in their utter simplicity that they somehow
always retain their character regardless of the harmonic or rhythmic treatments applied to
them. It has been pretty well established that Satie was well versed in Niedermeyer’s
methods and concepts and that he probably applied some of these concepts in his own
works, Through this application of chant to his compositions he was able to effect a
sound and style that is recognizable as “Satie.” When considering plainsong as a model
for modern application Benjamin Rajeczky states in his treatise on chant, “it delivered
fresh energies to a new music realm based on historical tradition.” (Rajeczky. 1981.
156)
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Charles Ives
When one thinks of Charles Ives one would I think usually conjure up musical
images of dissonance, polytonality, and extreme 20th century modernism, a far cry from
ancient chant. However there is a strong link to the traditions of the past even in the
works of this great 20th century American composer. We know that Ives borrowed from
the wealth of American folksong but there is also evidence to suggest that his musical
interests and influences even extend further back then that. What, you may ask, can
possibly be drawn from the music of Ives that in any way shows a relationship to
plainsong? Well, the answer is twofold. Before we explore the specifics let me just say
that influences can be implied as well as overt. For instance, we may not find an exact
quotation of Gregorian chant in Ives’ music but does that mean that the influence don’t
exist, perhaps not. The influences of many of the great European romantic and classical
composers is a given in Ives’ music. Associations have been made to Dvořák, Brahms,
and Tchaikovsky, and he has used direct quotes from Beethoven, Bach, and Wagner in
his various works. In her article, Medieval and Renaissance Techniques in the Music of
Charles Ives: Horatio at the Bridge? The author Ann Besser Scott suggests that Ives in
fact was heavily influenced in his actual compositional techniques by the early Medieval
and Renaissance composers who as we know were essentially still working with chant
and chant-based melody. These influences were she says inspired in Ives when as a
student at Yale he attended lectures on early polyphonic music given by Horatio Parker.
“…various sorts of stratified or layered textures
often found in Ives’s music. The effect of layering results
from a variety of means, including polytonality (as in the
“Variations on America”); the superposition of markedly
contrasting harmonic, melodic, and rhythmic styles (as in
“The Unanswered Question”); and hierarchal orderings of
multiple diverse elements, ranging from ostinato
backgrounds to sharply profiled foreground themes (as in
“Central Park In The Dark”). But we associate one
technique in particular with Ives; the contrapuntal
combination of different melodies (as in “Putnam’s
Camp”). This kind of layered texture, created by the
stacking of equal but heterogeneous elements into an
aggregate, is closely related to that found in the thirteenth
century motet, a genre featuring the successive addition of
20
one or more melodies to a preexistent tenor.” (Scott. 1999.
448-489)
Herein then lies the first of the two ways in which Ives pays tribute to ancient music, in
his handling of various voices using a kind of layering approach. One sees this approach
in all of the earliest polyphonic music. The works of Léonin and Pérotin immediately
come to mind as well as that of Tallis. Long before reading Scott’s article I had often
speculated on how there are striking similarities in the way music was arranged and
composed in the 11-14th centuries, this layering of independent voices (chants or chant
derived), and the way music is now composed using sequencing programs and computers. Over and over we see the past becoming the future. Of course this is not a direct
link to chant per se but in these earliest days of polyphonic music chant was still very
much the “stuff” of which these compositions is comprised. She goes on to illustrate how
Ives’s orchestrating techniques parallel earlier polyphonic efforts giving numerous
musical examples she then make this rather interesting observation:
“Again, medieval and Renaissance music provides a
precedent: the use of secular tunes as the structural foundation for
sacred motets and masses. Is Ives’s use of, say, “Camptown
Races” to generate much of the Second Symphony’s final
movement any more stylistically irreverent than Dufay’s use of Se
la face ay pale or L’homme armé as the structural basis of a mass
setting?” (Scott. 1999. 454)
This I think is a rather interesting observation, perhaps there is not much different
between the composers of then and those that engage the craft today? Ives was fond of
voicing chords in fourths and open fifths; again this is a sonority we associate with the
early polyphonic chant arrangements or organum. It seems reasonable to suspect Ives’s
interest in early music may very well have been piqued by the lectures by Parker that he
attended. Luckily the notes from these lectures exist in tact today and from them we can
make some substantial deductions.
“ he (Parker) actually devoted fully half of the year
to music up to the time of Palestrina. Beginning with a
discussion of ancient and non-western musics, Parker
moved on to Greek and church modes; the work of such
medieval theorists as Hucbald, Guido d’Arezzo, Marchetto
and Franco of Cologne; music of the troubadors and
21
Minnesingers; the so-called Netherlands school, including
Dufay, Ockegham, Josquin, and Willaert; and late sixteenth
composers, such as Palestrina, Lasso, and Byrd. (Scott.
1999. 459)
I personally am not at all surprised that Ives’s had been exposed to this sort of knowledge
but it is an interesting fact that we can indeed document that he did study this early
music. In fact I’d venture to guess that probably most or not al of the important composers while perhaps not consciously aware of the influence that the first 10 centuries of
Western music had on their work that on some level it certainly is present. The Parker
notes also illustrate that he in fact used chants, organum, and the music of Josquin and
others as actual musical examples in the teaching of this course. The most interesting
snippet from these notes from Parker’s lectures, at least in-so- far as this paper is
concerned, has to be this one:
“Parker acknowledges that “Gregorian chant is the
central point from which all the older compositions of the
Catholic Church proceeded and upon which they were
founded. The classic forms of the old masses, motets, etc.
including the works of Palestrina and his school, sprang
from the Gregorian chant and owed their very existence to
it.” (Scott. 1999. 465)
I couldn’t have found a more supportive paragraph for the premise of this paper had I
bought and paid for it! There in black and white for all to read this one concise paragraph
sums up the totality of my thoughts and suppositions since my initial involvement with
this study some 8 months or so ago. If he can extend this train of influence to Palestrina
well then it is accepted knowledge that from Palestrina comes Baroque music and beyond
I think we can without worry extend that lineage to the present time for the continuum is
there, it is all part of one central thread that thread being the ancient chant. In a very real
sense all music from ancient Greece where the basic musical system was invented, to
Ives is one continuous flow or one tradition from which all the various styles emanate.
Scott shows us quite clearly how some of unconventional (for the time) techniques can be
traced to early music of the Middle Ages and Renaissance and how he probably
discovered these techniques as a result of the lectures he attended in Parker’s classroom.
22
Earlier I mentioned that there was two ways in which Ives’s works may have been
influenced by early Western forms; let’s look at the second now.
We’ve already examined how Bach used plainsong as the basis for his
harmonized chorales, well Scott raises the point that since Ives was indeed employed as a
church organist at various times in his life, (actually the only time he actually made a
living in music was as a young man playing the organ in various churches), these
experience as a church organist were indeed an influence on his music writing. Peter J.
Burkholder wrote an entire article on this very topic which he titled; The Organist in Ives.
From that article we find this interesting paragraph:
The effects on Ives’s music of his long experience with the
organ were profound and wide-ranging. An examination of music
he played, music he composed for or with the organ, and pieces he
adapted from his own organ works demonstrates that he was
deeply influenced both by his practical knowledge as an organist
and by the repertory he performed. This influence worked through
habits and ways of thinking native to church organists of his time
and through individual traits of particular pieces he played. It is
revealed in turn through a surprising variety of features
characteristic of his music, including its relation to improvisation,
difficulty of execution, employment of novel sounds to represent
extramusical events, approach to orchestration, prominent textural
and dynamic contrasts, spatial effects, innovative harmonies,
mixture of classical and vernacular traditions, polytonality, use of
fugue and pedal point, frequent borrowing of hymn tunes, and use
of cumulative form. Although these features may see to have little
in common, in each Ives extends elements from the tradition of
organ music. Even what seems most radically new has roots.”
(Burkholder. 2002. 254.)
So Ives’s familiarity and time spent with the organ as a working organist influenced his
writing but is this really supportive of the premise that chant was a major influence as
23
well? I speculate that yes it does indeed imply that very thing due to the strong influence
that chant had on that champion composer of music for organ, J.S. Bach. This has already
been shown in the earlier section on Bach in this paper.
Ives was a skillful organist even in his teens, as shown by
his practice regimen, repertory, and youthful success. A childhood
acquaintance later recalled that he was “a kind of boy prodigy” as
an organist. By age thirteen, he was studying Bach’s Tocatta,
Adagio, and fugue in C Major, BWV 564, renowned for it’s long
and difficult passages for pedals.” (Burkholder. 2002. 264.)
Still is there any concrete evidence that at any time Ives was a student of Bach’s chorales
for these indeed are the pieces we know to have a direct connection to chant.
“ He (Ives) was influenced by characteristics in the music
he played that go beyond the organ as an instrument and relate to
it’s literature: fugue, pedal point, and elaboration of hymns (often
chant derived.) These standard elements of the organ repertory led
Ives in new directions, including the mixture of classical and
vernacular traditions, polytonality, harmonic experimentation, and
formal innovation.” (Burkholder. 2002. 289.)
The passing down of tradition is something we see throughout the history of Western art
music and even though time may tend to blur the associations they nevertheless do exist.
Still there is no clear-cut evidence that Ives had anything more then casual involvement
with the Bach harmonized chant or chorales.
“it is unlikely that Ives played Bach chorale settings in his
work as a church organist; they were not standard fare in the
churches for which he played, and none was included in the two
volumes of Bach organ music he owned. But he may have
encountered some in his studies at Yale, in Parker’s lectures on
music history or in the counterpoint class he took as a junior,
which included “accompanying chorales and canti firmi.”
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Whatever Ives’s experience with Bach chorale settings, he knew
organ music by nineteenth-century composers who used methods
similar to Bach and to his later cumulative-form movements.
(Burkholder. 2002. 289.)
It is valid then, I think, to surmise that on some level Ives’s music was certainly
influenced by early chant both through his study in his student years with Horatio
Parker and through his professional experiences as a church organist.
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The Future of Chant
We have seen through the course of this paper how chant evolved over many
hundreds of years from its earliest Greek-mode beginnings into a kind of liturgical folk
music in a sense throughout the Middle East and subsequently, with the spread of
Christianity, it became the standard means of accompanying the mass and is used to this
day. We have also seen how composers of both liturgical and secular music alike have
over the ages borrowed from chant as a compositional element. Through every period we
have seen composers using chant melodies, borrowing concepts of the layered arranging
techniques of the early polyphonic composers, employing modal harmonization and the
like; all musical concepts that are chant –based approaches. The old axiom “what goes
around comes around” certainly seems to apply when discussing music. Even in the jazz
world modal melodies and subsequent modal harmony all but replaced standard diatonic
approaches starting sometime in the late 1950’s with the collaborative efforts of pianist
Bill Evans and trumpeter Miles Davis. The “old” being conceived as “new.”
“His greatest contribution (Evans’s) to the development of
jazz lies beneath the surface of his style, in his creative use of traditional
techniques. ……by melding the appropriate device to the situation at
hand, drawing from a wide range of musical background and history and
putting old ideas to work in new ways.” (Israels. 1985. 109)
Just as the works of Debussy, Ravel, Schöenberg, Stravinsky and other 20th century
composers can be seen as a reaction to traditional diatonic means so did this kind of tonal
revolution occur in jazz. This going back to modal harmony was a huge part of the
evolution of jazz harmony and it forever changed the way jazzmen ply their craft. A new
sense of harmonic freedom was established and once again we seem to forge ahead by
going back, by borrowing from the old to create something new.
Norwegian jazz saxophonist Jan Garbarek has a strong interest in early forms of
Western music and he has recorded numerous CD’s where he mixes jazz with other,
older forms with interesting results. In 1993 he recorded albums with the Hilliard
Ensemble (a vocal group that specializes in early Western music) producing works that
blended Renaissance music with jazz. (Garbarek. 1993) The first was called Officium
and was a best seller, this work was followed by a sequel called Mnemosyne in 1999.
26
"What is this music?" Fundamentally, it's an exploration of what
happens when an improvisatory instrumental voice (saxophone) is placed
into the world of early vocal music, which has elements of both
improvisation and formal structure. In reality, it's an adventure in which
the four male voices of the Hilliard Ensemble travel the 14th- and 15thcentury territory of Morales and Dufay, visit the 12th century of Perotin,
and roam even earlier ages of plainchant, accompanied by the always
sensitive and tasteful, often astonishing, saxophone improvisations of jazz
master Jan Garbarek. Sometimes, these new melodies simply accompany;
sometimes they transform the common--a routine minor chord, for
instance--into a sublime, indescribable moment. The answer to the above
question is easy, but it's different for each listener. --David Vernier
(Vernier. Amazon.com review)
Hopefully interest in ancient chant will not diminish and the success of Mr. Garbarek’s
project gives cause for optimism. I myself am in the process of composing chant-based
music. I have been studying and learning chants over the past year and am in the process
of arranging them for 4 voices, 4 brasses, and jazz quintet. The more time I spend with
these chants the more they seem to reveal, this is often an earmark of substance in music.
For instance I can listen to let’s say a particular Beethoven Piano Sonata, and it seems on
each new hearing I find something I missed previously. I find this to be true of much of
the music I have heard in my life that may possibly be classified as “great”; Armstrong,
Ellington, Parker, Bach, Stravinsky, Bartók, et al. Music of great substance seems to
possess this unique quality of revealing new treasures with each subsequent hearing.
I also have given much thought to a pedagogical system for teaching trumpet
(something I do regularly) that would be chant based. Why not, instead of using only
exercises derived from the major and minor scales, use all the modes in teaching basic
technical skills? For instance all scale patterns, arpeggios, and scale based studies could
be extended to include dorian, locrian, lydian and phrygian .I think the benefit here would
be in developing the ear of the student, having it getting used to hearing the harmonic
implications not found only in diatonic keys but in the various modes as well. It would be
a more all-inclusive approach to ear training. There is nothing more important then a
well developed ear in brass instrument mastery, in all musical performance actually.
Along these same lines, in order to learn proper phrasing and tone production why not
use the chants? The standard text used for most trumpet students is the Arban Complete
Conservatory Method, a fine 19th century method book. There is a section in this book
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called “The Art of Phrasing” and in it are excerpts from various composers; Bellini,
Verdi, Donizietti, etc. Why not a section of transcribed chants in a method book? I can
think of no better medium in which to impart the skills of phrasing and tone production.
This I think would be a project worthy of further consideration and would certainly be a
good starting point for another paper.
28
Sources Cited
Hindemith, Paul. 1937. Craft of Musical Composition, Book I Theory Associated Music
Publishers, Inc. New York, NY.
Blume, Friedrich; Newcomb, Wilburn W. Jan, 1968. J. S. Bach's Youth
The Musical Quarterly Vol. 54, No1.
Mathiesen, Thomas J. 1999 Apollo's Lyre: Greek music theory in Antiquity and the
Middle Ages University of Nebraska Press. USA
Audience Insight LLC. Classical Music Consumer Segmentation Study; How Americans
Relate to Classical Music and Their Local Orchestras. October 2002. Audience
Insight LLC Southport, Conn.
Parrish, Carl. Ohl, John F. 1951
Masterpieces of Music Before 1750;
An Anthology of Styles From Gregorian Chant to J.S. Bach. W.W. Norton
& Company Inc. NY, NY.
Connor, Sister M. John Bosco. 1957. Gregorian Chant And Medieval Hymn Tunes In
The Works Of J. S. Bach. Catholic University of America Press, Inc. St. Joseph
College, West Hartford, Conneticut.
Gregory, Robin. 1953. Dies Irae
Music & Letters, Vol. 34, No. 2. (Apr., 1953),
pp. 133-139. Oxford University Press.
Scott, Ann Besser. Medieval and Renaissance Techniques in the Music of Charles Ives:
Horatio at the Bridge? The Musical Quarterly, Vol. 78, No. 3. (Autumn, 1994),
pp. 448-478.
i
Burkholder, J. Peter. The Organist in Ives Journal of the American Musicological
Society, Vol. 55, No. 2. (Summer, 2002), pp. 255-310.
András, Wilheim. Erik Saties Gregorian Paraphrases. Studia Musicologica Acadamiae
Hungaricae. 1983. pp.229-273
Rajeczky,Benjamin. Mi a Gregorian? (What is Gregorian?) Budapest 1981. pp 156.
Israels, Chuck. Bill Evans (1929-1980): A Musical Memoir. The Musical Quarterly, Vol.
71 No. 2. 1985 pp.109-115
Garbarek, Jan.
Mnemosyne Hilliard Ensemble and Jan Garbrek. 1993. ECM 1700
Vernier, David. (From an editorial review.) Officium - Jan Garbarek / The Hilliard
Ensemble www.amazon.com/Officium-Jan-Garbarek-Hilliard-Ensemble
Harap, Louis. Some Hellenic Ideas on Music and Character The Musical Quart-erly,
Vol. 24, No. 2. (Apr., 1938), pp. 153-168.
ii
Illustrations
Fig 1.
Example of Organum from Notre Dame circa 1100 AD
The Norton Scores 7th ed. Norton & Co. NY, NY.
Fig 2.
Kyrie elesion in 3 forms…..showing how J.S.Bach adapted plainsong to
chorales.
Fig 3.
Dies irae from Wilkipedia (checked for accuracy.)
iii