22
PSALMODY IS
THE WEAPON
OF THE MONK
PLAINCHANT ( 6 th–9th CENTURY), ANONYMOUS
T
he early Christian Church
began as a Jewish sect,
so the evolving liturgy, or
forms of service, of the new faith
shared many traits with Jewish
worship, including the repeated
speaking, or chanting, of scripture
and prayer. Specifically, Christian
aspects focused on particular
types of observance, such as the
reenactment of the Last Supper
(later to become the Mass) and
psalm-singing, scripture readings,
and prayer to mark the new
Church’s holy days and feasts.
Over time, these rites evolved
into the Divine Office or Liturgy
of the Hours—the basis of Roman
Catholic worship.
The singing of rites
As Christianity spread from
the Holy Land, so did its rites
and ceremonies, celebrated in
the languages of the communities
where it took root, such as Aramaic
in Palestine and Greek in Rome.
As a result, different chant styles
evolved, including the Mozarabic in
Iberia, the Gallican in Roman Gaul,
and Ambrosian, after St. Ambrose,
a 4th-century bishop of Milan.
Of these earliest liturgies, only
the Roman and Ambrosian chants
have survived in a recognizable
form. They became known as
“plainsong” (a direct translation
of the Latin cantus planus) for the
simplicity of their unaccompanied
melodies, which were sung in a
free, speechlike rhythm, reflecting
the unmetrical prose of prayers,
psalms, and the scriptures. This
music, though unstructured, largely
A wooden sculpture of St. Ambrose
(c.1500) shows him in his study. The
Roman bishop championed the hymn,
or “sacred song,” as a key part of
church worship.
IN CONTEXT
FOCUS
Plainsong
BEFORE
c. 1400 bce A clay tablet from
the ancient city of Ugarit in
northern Syria records the
hymn of a religious cult, with
fragmentary musical notation.
c. 200 bce–100 ce Found
on a tombstone in a town
near Ephesus, in Turkey,
the “song of Seikilos” is the
earliest complete, notated
musical composition.
AFTER
1562–1563 The Catholic
Church’s Council of Trent bans
the singing of the medieval
embellishments of plainchant
known as “sequences.”
1896 The monks of the
Benedictine Abbaye de
Solesmes publish their Liber
usualis, an attempt to restore
Gregorian chant, distorted by
centuries of use, to a more
pristine and standardized text.
US_022-023_Plainchant.indd 22 26/03/18 1:00 PM