Overview of Medieval Chant for Choral Literature Class.

1. Medieval era
Presentation I

2. Overview
• Spans 900 to 1500
• Early half of era consisted of monophonic chants,
laude, and songs
• Later part of the era consisted of polyphonic mass
movements, mass cycels, motets, and secular songs

3. Chant
• Defined:
monophonic
liturgical music of
the Christian Church
• There are various
categories of chant
that reflect the
historical time frame,
geography, and usage

4. Categories of chant
• Old Roman
• Mozarabic
• Gallican
• Ambrosian
• Gregorian
• Sarum

5. • Old Roman: 7th through 9th centuries
• Mozarabic: 7th-9th but sung by Christians in Spain under Muslim
rule
• Gallican: chants composed in Gaul before the 10th century
• Ambrosian: named after St. Ambrose - chant centered in Milan
(Italy) during the 12th and 13th centuries
• Gregorian: label given to liturgical chant sanctioned by the
Roman Catholic Church
• Sarum: Gregorian chants that were modified and used throughout
the British Isles between 13th and 16th Ccenturies

6. Gregorian Chant
Began in the late 17th Century with Pope Gregory who
called for a common liturgy in efforts to consolidate
the different factions of the Catholic Church

7. Best known chants
• Ave Maria (1679) • Pange lingua (957)
• Cantate Domino (826) • Salve regina (279, 276)
• Dies irae (1810) • Vicimae paschali laudes
(780)
• Hodie Christus natus est
(413)
• Magnificat anima mea
(207-212)
✤ this list taken from Dennis Schrock’s
Choral Repertoire (2009)
• O magnum mysterium (382)

8. Characteristics of
chant
• syllabic or melismatic?
• does it have musical
structure or is it
through-composed?

9. Ave Maria

11. Cantate domino

12. Dies irae

13. Hodie Christus natus est
(413)

14. How to read chant
This is a description of the traditional Gregorian Chant notation, so that anyone will be able to read the
notation and sing it.
Chant is written in neumes, which are notes sung on a single syllable.
Gregorian Chant has no meter at all, though it does have a rhythm of groups of 2 or 3 notes.
Vertical lines separate musical phrases and may sometimes allow a pause for taking a breath, like
Chant is not in a major key or a minor key, but in modes (though there are some modes which can
sound like a modern scale).
Chant is written on a 4-line staff, instead of 5 lines as music is written on now.
marks where Do is on the staff. Here it is on the third line from the bottom, so if Do is on C then
the lines would go F-A-C-E.
would mean that Do is on the top line, so if Do is on C the notes on the lines would be D-F-A-C.
is a Fah Clef, and indicates where Fah is on the staff. Here, Do would be on the bottom space.

15. Neumes
http://lphrc.org/Chant/

16. Assignment:
Transcribing chant
• On the next slide, you will find the “Hodie Christus
natus est” chant.
• Transcribe the piece into modern notation, carefully
aligning text with notes.
• Extra points for putting it into sibelius.
• Due: TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2012 (place in my
box)