Chapter One Outline «Last» i

Chapter 1: The First Literate Repertory in Western Music: Gregorian Chant

I. Introduction
A. Music notation began more than 1,000 years ago. Before that, we know
very little about how it sounded. Music for the Roman Catholic Church
is the first notated music in the West.
B. Surviving illustrations, such as those found on prehistoric cave paintings,
Egyptian murals, and Greek pottery, provide clues concerning
instruments, as do written descriptions, such as those found in the Bible.
C. Early notation from Babylon survives: see Ex. 1-1. The intervals used
therein are also recognized as consonant in today’s Western music.
D. Ancient Greeks developed pitch-specific notation, and some pieces have
been deciphered.
1. The Epitaph of Seikolos, probably from the first century BCE,
survives in complete form on a tombstone. See Ex. 1-2.
2. Greeks used symbols to indicate pitch and rhythm.
3. Music played an important role in Greece: It was prevalent in
drama; philosophers such as Plato discussed its power.
II. The Distant Past
A. Theories of Music
1. Pythagoras discussed physical properties of music, noting which
were consonant and dissonant. St. Augustine wrote about the
rhythmic aspects of music in De musica.
2. Boethius wrote the treatise most studied in the Middle Ages, De
institutione musica, in which he translated earlier ideas.
a) Boethius lays out the premise of abstract music (which derives
from the followers of Plato) in a doctrine of ethos: in ascending
order of significance these are musica instrumentalis (audible
music), musica humana (music of the human constitution),
musica mundana (music of the cosmos).
b) The ideas presented in De institutione musica influenced
Western thought for centuries, as Ex. 1-3 illustrates.
B. Historical Imagination
1. Early medieval notation employed a diatonic pitch set similar to the
Greek system. The first systems included only pitch; rhythm enters
around the late twelfth century.
2. Notated music of the early Middle Ages is predominantly sacred. It
is known as monophonic chant.
3. Notated chant represents only a small part of musical life in this
period.
4. The first great surviving Western repertory is Gregorian chant.
a) Gregorian chant is one aspect of a life devoted to God, not
concert or party music.
b) We should try to hear Gregorian chant in the context of its
original contemporaries in order to gain a clearer understanding
Chapter One Outline «Last» ii

and appreciation for it. By so doing, we may gain perspective

on our own world.
C. Christian Beginnings, as far as We Know Them
1. Several different chant repertories existed in the early Middle Ages
(before Charlemagne), representing practices from different parts of
the Christian world.
2. We will focus on that of the Roman church, which has the most
extensive written legacy and came into prominence under the reign
of Charlemagne (c. 742–814).
a) Charlemagne conquered much of Europe and was crowned
Holy Roman Emperor by Pope Leo III on Christmas Day, 800.
b) Charlemagne brought some of the greatest minds to his court,
including Alcuin of York, who instituted an education
curriculum in which music was part of the quadrivium (four arts
of measurement, along with arithmetic, geometry, and
astronomy). This system considers the measurable qualities of
music: harmonic ratios and rhythm.
c) Charlemagne’s centralization of authority extended to the
church, which resulted in suppressing alternative rites and
establishing the Roman rite (with its constituent chants) as the
“correct” way.
d) The words of the Roman liturgy were easily codified, but the
melodic aspects of chant required notation in order to spread the
Roman versions of chants.
D. The Legend of St. Gregory
1. Through legend, Pope Gregory I (pope 590–604) became credited
with creating the entire musical repertory of the Roman church.
2. He was purported to have been taught the sacred chants by the Holy
Spirit, in the form of a dove. This made it holy, divine, better than
any other chant repertories, and unchangeable.
3. Gregorian chant was central to a monastic life.
a) Monasteries and convents arose very early in the life of the
Christian church.
b) The practices of chanting psalms in monastic settings gradually
developed into Gregorian chant, as “speaking” the texts in a
heightened pattern assisted in both memory and focus.
c) These chants were monophonic and sung by the entire
community of worshippers, not a trained choir.
III. Liturgy
A. The Development of the Liturgy: The Offices and the Mass
1. The Offices
a) The Offices were eight daily services that featured the psalms—
all psalms were to be heard within the space of a week.
b) Offices were spaced roughly every three hours, and some of
them bear names derived from that spacing (Prime, Terce, Sext,
Chapter One Outline «Last» iii

and None). The others relate to a specific part/activity of day

(Matins, Lauds, Vespers, and Compline).
c) Offices contain at least a psalm, scripture reading, and a hymn.
d) Some of the Offices contain canticles, which are similar to
psalms but from the New Testament.
e) Feast days marked the liturgical year.
f) Eventually, antiphons introduced psalms—these were newly
created musical compositions.
2. The Mass
a) The most elaborate music of the Christian Church is associated
with the Mass. During the Mass, celebrants re-enact the Last
Supper of Jesus, the Jewish Passover Seder.
b) The Mass Proper consists of the texts that are “proper” to the
day—that change based upon the feast day, liturgical calendar,
etc.
c) The Mass Ordinary consists of the “ordinary” texts—the ones
done every time. These developed over time, but have existed in
their present form for centuries. The five sections are Kyrie,
Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei.
B. Writing It Down: Neumes
1. Chant notation evolved through the invention of neumes.
2. Scholars believe that neumes were invented to indicate accent,
which implied direction, although these explanations are not
completely proven.
3. In the early eleventh century, neumes were placed on lines and
spaces. We call these diastematic neumes.
C. Guido of Arezzo
1. The Italian monk Guido of Arezzo wrote a treatise on music theory
(Micrologus) and provided the earliest guide to staff notation in the
early eleventh century. The norm for early notation is four staff
lines.
2. Guido used the hymn Ut queant laxis as a device to teach sight-
singing. Each syllable of this text is one step above the next. (Think
“Doe, a deer,” from the Sound of Music.) This is the beginning of
solmization.
3. Guido describes a system in which music is organized around
groups of six consecutive pitches, hence hexachord.
a) Hexachords began on G, A, C, and D and followed what we
consider the “white notes” of the piano. See Ex. 1-6.
b) Hexachords with a major third (e.g., on G or C) were the “hard”
hexachords, and those with a minor (e.g., A and D) were “soft.”
c) The tritone from F–B was “fixed” by substituting B-mi for B-fa;
that is, lowering it a half-step to what we consider B-flat.
d) Guido is well-known to musicians for his Guidonian Hand, a
visual guide to sight-singing based on solmization. See Fig. 1-9.
4. Later teachers added si (ti) and substituted do for ut.
Chapter One Outline «Last» iv

5.
After Guido, square or quadratic notation became standard
(beginning in the twelfth century). This notation can be found in the
Liber usualis (a large anthology of chants for the Mass and Office).
See Exx. 1-7a and 7b.
D. Modal Theory
1. Psalm tones outline the basic functions of singing psalms. There are
eight plus the tonus peregrinus (“migrating tone”). They consist
primarily of a primary reciting tone (tenor) and ending note (finalis).
2. Mode indicates not simply a scale, but also melodic characteristics.
3. Collections of antiphons grouped according to the psalm tones with
which they were associated are known as tonaries. These emerged
in the ninth century.
a) These groupings were practical because they assisted in group
singing of the psalms in the correct patterns.
b) The existence of tonaries means that the person who put them
together had to deal with a large body of music and organize it.
c) The result was neither Greek nor Roman, but Frankish (after the
Franks, Charlemagne being the most famous).
4. Chant classification by mode and its correspondence with psalm
tones involves the recognition of the range (ambitus).
a) Chants are broken down further based on the range + final.
b) Those that end on the final are “authentic.”
c) Those that emphasize the final in the middle of their range are
“plagal.”
5. Eight modes make up the Medieval church modes, whose names
may be found in Boethius’ writings.
6. Pitch is non-standard in medieval music, so we should not associate
modes with pitches found on the piano. Notation indicates the
arrangement of half-steps and whole-steps.
E. Psalmody in Practice: The Office and the Mass
1. Justus ut palma florebit (Psalm 91) in the Office
a) As a psalm tone.
(1) To sing Justus ut palma florebit according to the psalm
tone, the soloist gives the intonation, which ascends to a
repeated pitch (reciting tone).
(2) Everyone else enters for the recitation (on the reciting
tone), which lasts as long as is needed for the text. The
setting is syllabic.
(3) The second half begins on the reciting tone.
(4) The psalm ends with a fall to the termination, or cadence.
(5) The Doxology is added to the end of the psalm. It is so
common that it is abbreviated and appears only as its
vowels in the Liber usualis.
b) Other uses in the Office.
(1) At Vespers, as psalm antiphon.
(2) At None.
Chapter One Outline «Last» v

2.
Justus ut palma florebit (Psalm 91) in the Mass Proper, where it
occurs at least four times a year.
a) As an Introit.
(1) Introits open the Mass. As part of the Mass, it is more
elaborate than the syllabically set Office uses.
b) As the opening of the Offertory.
(1) Here the Justus ut palma florebit is set even more
elaborately, with lengthy melismas.
(2) They are so decorated because there is nothing going on
liturgically at this time—it is meant purely for the listeners.
(3) The Alleluia occurs at this place. It being a celebratory
word, the music that underlies the text is also celebratory.
In Ex. 1-13, we see a particularly long melisma on the final
syllable. This is known as the jubilus—jubilation indeed.
c) As the Gradual.
(1) The respond to the Gradual in Ex. 1-14a is another use of
Psalm 91.
(2) Graduals are grouped by shared melodic characteristics,
possibly to allow melodic formulas to be adapted to
different texts.
F. The Layout of the Mass
1. The Introit is the first Proper chant, followed by the first Ordinary
chant: the Kyrie.
(1) The Kyrie is the only part of the Mass in Greek.
(2) The text is tripartite, and each section is also tripartite. The
text’s scheme is AAA BBB AAA.
2. The Gloria follows the Kyrie.
(1) The Gloria text is found in the Gospel of St. Luke, the part
where the angels greet the shepherds to announce the birth
of Jesus.
(2) The text is significantly longer than that of the Kyrie.
(3) Surviving Frankish settings suggest that the Gloria was
sung by a choir, not the congregation.
(4) There are not many melismas, which would make the text
too long.
3. Two elaborate Proper chants (the Gradual and Alleluia, which may
be replaced in more somber liturgical seasons with the Tract)
precede the next part of the Mass Ordinary: the Credo.
(1) The Credo is the longest text in the Mass
(2) It is a Latin statement of the Nicene Creed, which was
approved in the fourth century as a statement of faith (“I
believe...”).
(3) Due to its great length, it is set syllabically.
4. The Eucharist (re-enactment of the Last Supper) is the second half
of the Mass. It begins with antiphons for the Offertory. Then follows
Chapter One Outline «Last» vi

the Sanctus, part of the Mass Ordinary. Most settings indicate that
the choir sings the Sanctus.
5. After the consecration of the bread and wine (called the Canon) and
the Lord’s Prayer (Pater noster), the final Ordinary chant is sung:
the Agnus Dei.
(1) Like the first Ordinary chant, the final one can be tripartite
in structure.
6. The Mass can end with different prayers, versicles, and responses.
IV. Frankish Additions to the Chant Repertory
A. One way of altering a traditional chant was with the sequence.
1. Sequences initially were added melismas, replacing the traditional
jubilus.
2. They had internal repetitions, which made them easier to memorize.
3. Eventually new words were added to the musical additions.
4. Sequences began to stand alone as musical compositions and were
rather popular. By the Renaissance, they were so numerous that the
Counter-Reformation reformers cut the number to four.
B. Hildegard of Bingen (1098–1179) also composed sequences.
1. The biography of Hildegard illustrates a remarkable composer,
preacher, and administrator.
2. She wrote a large amount of poetry and music, expressing mystic
visions.
3. The sequence in Ex. 1-18 demonstrates aspects of her melodic style,
including wide ranges and intervallic leaps.
C. Hymns, Tropes, and Liturgical Drama
1. Hymns were another type of innovation in Frankish music.
2. Hymns can be interpreted as liturgy’s popular songs and differ
significantly from psalmody in their creativity.
3. Tropes were another type of new music composed under the Franks.
a) Unlike sequences and hymns, however, tropes did not stand
alone.
b) Tropes are added to existing material and comment directly on
that material. They can be placed in between lines and phrases
of a chant or at the end.
c) Manuscripts containing tropes are called Tropers. Two
monasteries of note who produced tropers are St. Gallen and St.
Martial at Limoges.
4. The most famous trope is that describing the visit of the three Marys
to Christ’s tomb: Quem quaeritis in sepulchro. This particular trope
exemplifies what becomes liturgical drama.
5. Liturgical dramas were plays sung in Latin. They were acted out and
helped tell the story to largely illiterate audiences. Famous examples
include the Play of Herod and Ordo virtutum (by Hildegard of
Bingen). They were yet another form of embellishment to the
liturgy.
D. Marian Antiphons
Chapter One Outline «Last» vii

1.
Votive antiphons were the last genre of Medieval chant added to the
liturgy.
2. They are antiphons that are not based on the psalms. “Marian”
antiphons honor the Virgin Mary.
3. Marian antiphons grew in popularity until they were incorporated
into the liturgy in the thirteenth century.
4. Only four Marian antiphons remain in use today.
V. Polyphony
A. How to Do Polyphony
1. Western music was never entirely monophonic, but we do not know
how polyphonic music from early periods sounded. Sacred and
secular music are described in medieval texts as polyphonic long
before polyphonic music was notated.
2. A chief—perhaps primary—distinguishing feature of Western music
is polyphony. From the Middle Ages it became ever more a marker
of the style.
3. The polyphony described in surviving sources comes from Paris,
which emerged as an intellectual center of Europe in the twelfth
century.
B. Symphonia and Its Modifications
1. The earliest surviving descriptions of polyphony from which we can
understand what the sound might have been were the Frankish
treatises the Musica enchiriadis and Scolica enchiriadis (late ninth
century).
2. There are two basic ways to do polyphony. One is based on a drone,
the other by singing a parallel part above or below another.
3. The parallel doubling was known by the Greek name symphonia.
When sung at perfect intervals, it is called organum.
4. Strict parallel organum quickly runs into problems, such as tritones.
Alterations were made that also assisted in “meeting points” along
the way, and at the beginning and ending. This becomes “oblique”
organum: when one part moves somewhat independently.
5. The rules for preparation of consonant and dissonant intervals
govern oblique organum.
6. Perfect fourths are considered consonant at this time.
C. Organum and Discant
1. Guido’s Micrologus was widely influential, and its influence can be
felt on early polyphony.
2. The Winchester Tropers include staffless neumes, indicating that the
organal voices (counterpoints) were sung from memory. Guido’s
rules on counterpoint assist in recreating them today.
3. The earliest extant decipherable polyphony is from late-eleventh-
century Chartres. These are in two parts, note-against-note
counterpoint, and do not double in parallel motion.
4. The style of polyphony in the Chartres source is known as discant,
which means “singing apart” or “singing in parts.”
Chapter One Outline «Last» viii

5. The principles seen in this music provide the basis for much of
Western music written since the Middle Ages, particularly our rules
for handling consonances and dissonances (even to the point of
defining those terms).