Influence of Gregorian Chants on Sacred Polyphony - Coursework Example

Influence of Gregorian Chants on Sacred Polyphony Outline 0 Introduction to Gregorian Chants 2.0 Categories of Gregorian Chants 3.0 Link between Antiphonal chants and Gregorian chants 4.0 History of Gregorian Chants 5.0 Impacts of Gregorian Chants 1. Introduction to Gregorian Chants Gregorian Chants are forms of music that was developed by Pope Gregory. It dates back to the ancient years of between the year 590 and 604 AD1. The first Christian church obtained their songs and music from the chants that belonged to the Jewish religious chants that existed those days. Plainchant like any other western music consisted of only one melody and did not have any support or accompaniment that could create a sense of harmony. Greek language referred to the melody as modes, but they did not produce the same sound as those from the minors and the major scales in the modern day music. The monotonic melodies had a free tempo and were determined by the Latin liturgical scripts. They shift from one melody to another1. When the use of chants was getting wide spread application in the entire Europe, their development depended on the factors that were specific to the local areas. They were influenced by various sects during the time of its development in Europe. Many people believe that Pope Gregory codified the monotonic melodies in the 6th century, and established a uniform application in the whole of the Catholic Church in the Western regions2. Despite the fact that the Pope’s real contribution to the magnificent development in music was never known, the music became known after his own name, as the Gregorian chant. The Gregorian chant is still one of the most sacred and well established forms of music in the Western world. It spreads the idea of pure melody that is common in the Easter songs known as the “Victimae paschali laudes”. Later on Renaissance polyphony, otherwise known as the scared polyphony developed from the elements of Gregorian chants. The developers of the sacred polyphony used plainchant melodies to form the foundation of the spiritual works they had performed. 2. Categories of Gregorian Chants Gregorian chants are types of vocal music. The scripts, phrases, lyrics and even the syllables can be performed in singing, in many different ways. The most logical form is the recitation on similar tones, which are referred to as syllables3. Each syllable is sung to a single tone. Likewise, very low level chants are presented in syllabic form everywhere with just a few incidents where 2 notes or more are presented using a single syllable. There is another group of chants known as the Neumatic chants2. These are more overstated and their texts contain ligatures, that is a collection of notes linked together to form one compound of the notes, called neume. Another category of chants is the Melismatic chants. This group of chants is the most over-elaborate chants, where elaborated melodies are presented on long continuous vowels. A good example is in the Alleluia. The vowels range from 5 or 6 notes in each syllable to more than sixty in the more prolix melisma4. In terms of melodies, Gregorian chants can be classified under two wide categories. One category is the recitative chants melodies and the free melodies. The lowest melody type is known as the liturgical recitative. In recitative melodies, there is one pitch, the reciting tone, which is dominant. The other pitches are found in the melodic formula. These chants are fundamentally in syllabic form. To illustrate, the melody for “Collect for Easter” is made up of 127 syllables with 131 pitches in singing5. Out of these pitches, 108 are the reciting note, the A note. The other 23 pitches does flex downwards up to tone G. Liturgical recitatives are more commonly found in the accentus chants of the liturgy. This accentus chants include the intonations of the Collect, and Gospel and the Epistle during the Mass. They also include the direct recitation of psalm in the of the Office psalmology. Psalmodic chants play the role of intonation in psalms; including the recitative melodies and free melodies. Psalmodic chants do include responsorial chants, direct psalmodic chant and antiphonal chants. In direct psalmody, people sing verses of psalm without any refrain to simple tones or even to formulaic tones. Majority of the psalmodic chants are antiphonal chants and responsorial chants which are sung to the free melodies at a variety of complexity. 3. Link between Antiphonal chants and Gregorian chants Antiphonal chants include the Introit and the Communion. These originally referred to chants that involved the singing of two alternating choirs3. One choir sung the verses of a psalm while the second psalm sung a refrain verse known as the antiphon. For a period of time, the verses were then converted into numbers for the purpose of simplifying it to one psalm verse. In many occasions, it excluded the doxology completely4. Antiphonal chants indicate that their old day’s origin is elaborate recitatives. This indication is evident in the reciting tones seen in the melodies of the chants. Normal chants, including the popular “Kyrie and Gloria”, are not viewed as examples of antiphonal chants6. Even so, they are usually performed in the style and fashion of the antiphonal chants5. 4. History of Gregorian Chants The initial sources of Gregorian chants began with musical notation whose writings dated back to around the year 930s6. Previously, plainchant had undergone the transition of oral transmission7. Many musical scholars of Gregorian chant come to a common agreement that the growth and development of musical notation helped the propagation of chant all over Europe. The former notated writings of the chants were essentially from three European countries, Germany, Switzerland and France. Gregorian chant has over a period of time undergone a series of enhancement to elevate it to the changing contemporary features and practice7. The more recent transformation carried out in the Benedictine Abbey in Solesmes, has changed into a magnificent practice to bring back the chant that according to many scholars had been corrupted, to a hypothetical initial state. Ancient Gregorian chant was taken through a revision to be compatible to the conceptual features of the modes8. The Council of Trent in the later years prohibited majority of the sequences9. Further revisions drastically transformed the Gregorian chants into a form that was perceived to be a corrupted version, because it made the chants conform to the up to date aesthetic standards. During the French Revolution, the French musician Alexandre-Étienne Choron, following the inefficacy of the noninterventionist Catholic instructions, decided to call for the restoration of the original uncorrupted Gregorian chant of Rome. This was a claim that the French had distorted the purer Gregorian Chants. Later on in the 19th century, early musical and liturgical writings were discovered and subjected to a thorough revision, after a revision of the monastic culture in Solesmes10. The re-establishment of the spiritual office was one of the priorities then but no good structure of chant books was in existence. A good number of monks were assigned duties of visiting European Libraries to unearth relevant manuscripts and writings related to the Chant. However, the old Medicea version was reprinted and Pope Pius IX made a declaration that it was the sole formal edition11. With confidence that they were in the right path, Solesmes added its reprinting, research and revision efforts. In 1889, the monks of Solesmes produced the initial book in an organized series12. The publication was meant to illustrate the distortion of the Medicea edition by showing a pictured notations emanating from a great number of writings of a single chant. Solesmes presented this as witnesses to confirm the validity of their own reforms. They decided to ignore the important letters from the initial source, which gave instructions for the inclusion of the rhythm and the control of speed13. About one century after that, there is still a disconnection between a strict musical methodology and the actual requirements of the church choirs14. Therefore, the well grounded performance tradition from the beginning of the restoration process does not agree with musicological evidence. Pope Pius X forced the application of Gregorian chant, and encouraged the worshippers to sing the normal mass15. Even so, he spared the singing of the Propers for men8. As this remains to be the tradition in the traditionalist Catholic societies, the Catholic Church does not insist on this ban. Vatican II formally authorized the faithful to use other songs as substitute, specifically the sacred polyphony to replace the Gregorian chant. Despite all the efforts, it reaffirmed that Gregorian chant remained as the formal music of the Catholic Church and the most preferred music suitable for worship purposes in the entire Roman Liturgy. 5. Impacts of Gregorian Chants Gregorian chant had a considerable effect on the transformation of Renaissance as well as the medieval music9. The present staff notation grew directly from the Gregorian neumes, where as thee square notation that was a direct product of plainchant, was derived and adapted for other types of music16. Certain conglomeration of neumes was applied in the bid to show recurring rhythms known as the rhythmic modes. Rounded note heads continued to take the place of the former squares and as well as the lozenges during the 15th century and continued up to the 16th centuries, notwithstanding the fact that chant books unadventurously preserved the square notation10. By the coming of the 16th century, the 5th line was added to the musical staff, thus becoming a standard in music17. The bass clef, the sharp, the flat and the natural notes were directly derived from the notations of Gregorian chants18. Gregorian melodies acted as the fundamental musical material and as models for liturgical actions. Vernacular hymns began to adapt the first Gregorian chant melodies and were translated to texts, for example, "Christ ist erstanden"11. Secular tunes also began to adapt Gregorian melodies for example, the Renaissance popularly referred to as "In Nomine". Starting with the revised harmonization of the Gregorian chant referred to as organum, Gregorian chants and melodies became a vital determinant factor in the medieval and Renaissance sacred polyphony12. A Gregorian chant is sometimes improvised to be used as a “cantus firmus”, so that the successive notes of the Gregorian chant determined the harmonic sequence in the sacred polyphony melodies. The Marian antiphons were very frequently organized according to the Renaissance composers, especially the “Alma Redemptoris Mater”19. The application of chant was the most common practice until the time when the stronger harmonic sequence became a possibility by a self-sufficient bass line that became the standard. The Roman Catholic Church in the subsequent years permitted the use of polyphonic orders to substitute the Gregorian chant during the ordinary Mass13. This explains why the Mass in its composed form, as preset by its script writers like Mozart, appears to be featuring a Kyrie instead of an Introit. The choral melodies may also replace the proper on certain serious events. One of the composers of the sacred polyphonic songs settings of the Propers was William Byrd14. These polyphonic progressions often incorporated properties of the initial chant. The Catholic Church hasn’t been in the habit of prohibiting certain types of music for about five decades 20. It has instead tolerated a number of music15. Such music includes the contemporary, folk, country music and other forms of improper secular songs. They have consequently interfered with the liturgies16. Some of them have extended their influences to the normal pure hymns. In the view of the directives on sacred polyphonic music from the Holy, it is not normal for the non-sacred music to proceed with the permeating actions on our liturgies. It may be necessary for the religious church leader, either the bishop or pastors to who abdicated their privileges or their authority on this matter to offer remedies to correct them. It’s difficult to understand that the Council Fathers and the people responsible for reforms of the liturgy for the last 4 decades years ago can envision a complete disappearance of Gregorian chant together with the Latin from the Mass Order. It is not also easy to understand that in the present day liturgies are the acceptable ideas of the spirit, or even the desire of the 2nd Vatican Council. Still in the present age, there are Catholic liturgists and the musicians are not quick enough to embrace the ancient traditions of the Church21. Gregorian chant, Latin and the use of sacred polyphony in the mass are usually seen as out of place with the liturgy. They are sometimes received with antagonism and even open hostility at the point when they are suggested17. The lack of enthusiasm on the part of the clergy and musicians to accept Gregorian chant is very evident. This perhaps is because the clergy, the liturgists and the musicians no longer receive training on liturgy, sacred songs and the history of the Roman Catholic tradition. The last 4 decades permanently transformed the catholic liturgy. It indicates an evidence of confusion interlinked with secular agendas as well as other agendas. Most of the present day liturgies have lost the idea of the meaning of sacredness, and the sense of dread that initially was related to the Mass18. In essence, Gregorian chants have erased the idea of sacred polyphony from the memories of the Catholic Church worshippers. For 4 decades, the Roman Catholic Church has undergone a turbulent transformation in almost every element of her liturgical and musical practices, owing to the Gregorian chants being dominant of all the three19. However, the Council Fathers managed to document instructions to specifically protect sacred (spiritual) tradition. Bibliography Andy Bennett, Barry Shank & Jason Toynbee, The Popular Music Studies Reader (London: Routledge, 2006), 187. Angelo Di Berardino, We Believe in One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church (London: InterVarsity Press, 2010), 341. Anton Baumstark & Fritz West, On the Historical Development of Liturgy (Rome: Liturgical Press, 2011), 287, Daniel Walker Howe, What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815-1848 (New York: Oxford University Press, 2007), 323. Diarmaid Ferriter, The Transformation Of Ireland 1900-2000 (London: Profile Books, 2010), 342. Dom Gregory & G. M. Durnford, Textbook of Gregorian Chant According to the Solesmes Method, 1930 (Quarr Abbey: Kessinger Publishing, 2003), 65. Dom Pierre, The Restoration of Gregorian Chant: Solesmes and the Vatican Edition (New York: CUA Press, 2008),49. 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Paul Collins, Renewal and Resistance: Catholic Church Music from the 1850s to Vatican II(New York: Peter Lang, 2010), 207. Peter Ludwig Berger, Linda Woodhead & David A. Martin, Peter Berger and the Study of Religion (London: Routledge, 2001), 201. Ruth Haley Barton, Sacred Rhythms: Arranging Our Lives for Spiritual Transformation (New York: nterVarsity Press, 2009), 17. Stephen Ryan, The Transformation of Violent Intercommunal Conflict (London: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2007), 89. T. E. Muir, Roman Catholic Church Music in England, 1791-1914: A Handmaid of the Liturgy? (London: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2008), 145. Uwe Michael Lang, The Voice of the Church at Prayer: Reflections on Liturgy and Language (Rome: Ignatius Press), 53. Notes Read More