Musical Form
Gregorian Chant
A single line of sung prayer - the oldest music still regularly performed in the West.
Vocal / Sacred
Gregorian chant is the traditional sung prayer of the Roman Catholic Church: a single, unaccompanied melodic line, sung in Latin, flowing freely without a regular beat. It is one of the oldest bodies of music still in use, and it lies at the foundation of Western classical music - its melodies, scales, and notation shaped everything that followed.
What it sounds like
Chant is monophonic: everyone sings the same melody, in unison or octaves, with no harmony and no instruments. Its rhythm follows the natural flow of the Latin words rather than a fixed meter, giving it a calm, floating quality. Some chants are simple, with one note to each syllable; others are highly ornamented, with long, flowing melodies on a single syllable, such as the "Alleluia." Chant was sung by monks, nuns, and church choirs throughout the services of the day and in the Mass.
Pope Gregory and the origins of chant
The chant is named after Pope Gregory I, who reigned from 590 to 604. A medieval legend shows him dictating the melodies as they were sung into his ear by the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove. In fact, the repertoire we call Gregorian chant developed later, in the 8th and 9th centuries, when the Frankish rulers of the Carolingian empire, including Charlemagne, promoted a standard form of Roman chant across their lands.
The birth of musical notation
At first chant was passed on by memory. From the 9th century, monks began writing small signs called neumes above the words to show the shape of the melody. Around 1025 the Italian monk Guido of Arezzo described a system of lines on which neumes could be placed to show exact pitches - the ancestor of the modern staff - and a method of teaching singers using syllables that became our do-re-mi. See how to read sheet music.
Chant melodies are built on the church modes, scales that give chant its distinctive, ancient sound, and composers later used chant melodies as the foundation of polyphonic music such as the motet and the Mass.
Revival and rediscovery
By the 19th century, chant had become corrupted and was sung in heavily altered forms. The monks of the Abbey of Solesmes in France spent decades studying ancient manuscripts to restore it, and their editions became the official chant books of the Church. In 1994, a recording called Chant by the Benedictine monks of Santo Domingo de Silos in Spain became an unexpected international bestseller.
Chant also lives on in concert music. The Dies irae ("Day of Wrath"), a chant from the Requiem Mass, has been quoted by Berlioz, Liszt, Rachmaninoff, and many film composers as a symbol of death and doom. See requiem.
Famous chants
- Dies irae - the dramatic sequence from the Requiem Mass.
- Victimae paschali laudes - the joyful Easter sequence.
- Salve Regina - a beloved hymn to the Virgin Mary.
- Pange lingua - a hymn later used by Josquin for a Mass.
- Ave maris stella - one of the most popular medieval hymns.
Where to start listening: the Salve Regina and the Dies irae, then try a recording of a complete chanted service. Compare it with the music of Hildegard von Bingen, who wrote her own chant in the 12th century. See also the Medieval era.