Gregorian chant facts for kids
Gregorian chant is a special kind of plainchant (which means everyone sings the same melody together). It's mostly used in the Catholic Church. Sometimes, a second part called "organum" is added. This second part often uses the same tune but at a different musical interval, like a fourth or a fifth.
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What is Gregorian Chant Used For?
Gregorian chant is sung during special prayer times in the Catholic Church. These times include the daily prayers called the canonical hours (or the "Office") and the main church service called the Mass.
Some parts, like the accentus, are sung by leaders such as bishops or priests. They usually sing on one main note with simple tunes for certain parts of sentences. More complex songs are sung by trained soloists and choirs.
How Gregorian Chant Started
Gregorian chant mostly grew in western and central Europe during the 800s and 900s. However, people kept writing new songs and changing old ones later on.
There's an old story that says Pope Gregory the Great wrote these songs. But most music historians believe that powerful kings, like Charlemagne, brought music from Rome to their kingdoms in France and Germany. When Charlemagne's people sang these Roman songs, they changed them. This new style of music became what we now call Gregorian chant.
Usually, men and boys sang Gregorian chant in churches. Holy women and men also sang these chants during their daily prayers in monasteries and convents. In the Roman Catholic Church, prayers and songs follow a special order called the "Roman Rite." Gregorian chant is the music used for the Mass and the Office in this Rite.
- The Mass is the part of the Roman Rite where Catholics receive what they believe to be the body and blood of Christ.
- The Office is where holy men and women pray at specific times each day.
In the past, different parts of Europe had their own unique songs, but Gregorian chant eventually replaced almost all of them. Even though the Roman Catholic Church doesn't require people to sing Gregorian chants anymore, it still says that Gregorian chant is the best music for prayer.
Early Christian Music
Christians have sung songs without musical instruments since the very first days of the Church. For a long time, many people thought that Jewish songs called the "Psalms" (found in both the Jewish and Christian Bible) were a big part of early Christian music. However, experts now believe this isn't quite right. Most early Christian songs were not from the Psalms, and Jews didn't sing Psalms in the same way for many centuries after their important holy place, the Second Temple, was destroyed in the year 70.
Still, some parts of Jewish music and prayer did influence Gregorian chant later on. For example, the organized daily prayers called "canonical hours" came from Jewish traditions. Words like "amen" and "alleluia" come from the Hebrew language. The Christian prayer "sanctus, sanctus, sanctus" (meaning "holy, holy, holy") comes from the Jewish prayer "kadosh, kadosh, kadosh."
The New Testament tells us that Jesus and his friends sang together: "When they had sung the hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives" (Matthew 26:30). Other early writers, like Pope Clement I, also mentioned that Christians sang religious songs. But they don't tell us what the music sounded like. There is a 3rd-century song from Greece called the "Oxyrhynchus hymn" that has written musical notes, but we don't know if it's connected to plainchant.
How Roman Chants Developed
The types of songs that Catholics later sang in the Roman Rite began to appear in the 200s. A book called Apostolic Tradition, which describes early Christian customs in Rome, says that Christians sang "Alleluia" during early holy meals called "agape feasts."
The chants for the Office started in the early 300s. This was when holy men in the deserts began the tradition of singing all 150 psalms every week. Around the year 375, Christians in Eastern Europe started singing religious songs back and forth between two groups. In 386, Saint Ambrose brought this tradition to Western Europe. Singing back and forth like this is called "antiphonal" singing.
Most people think that the order of the Roman Mass was put together during the 600s. In 785-786, Pope Adrian I sent some Roman chants to the court of Charlemagne. Later, this music developed into a system of eight modes. This music, along with some new chants to complete the church year, became known as "Gregorian." It was probably named after Pope Gregory the Great.
When Charlemagne became Holy Roman Emperor, he made everyone in Europe use this Gregorian chant. By the 1100s and 1200s, almost all other kinds of chant had disappeared, even the older Roman form (now called Old Roman chant).
Types of Gregorian Chant
Gregorian chants are grouped into three types based on how many notes are sung for each syllable:
- Syllabic chants: Mostly have one note per syllable.
- Neumatic chants: Usually have two or three notes per syllable.
- Melismatic chants: Have many notes sung for just one syllable.
Some chants are like speaking on a single note (called recitative), while others have a free, flowing melody.
When two choirs stand in different parts of the church and sing back and forth, these are called Antiphonal chants. Responsorial chants are ones where the choir sings a repeating part (a refrain), which alternates with a psalm verse sung by a soloist.
Musical Features
Gregorian chant uses eight modes that came from Byzantine chants. The music was written down using a special notation called neumes. These neumes don't show the exact rhythms, so we can't always be sure how they were sung. The rhythm was probably quite free and flexible. There were definitely no bar lines or a regular beat.
The chant was normally sung by men. Women only sang in convents, and even then, they couldn't sing in all the services.
Gregorian chant had a big influence on polyphonic music (music with multiple independent melodies) during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. When an original plainchant melody was used as the lowest part in a new composition, it was called a "cantus firmus" (meaning "given melody"). Cantus firmus became a very important part of how music was composed during the Renaissance.
Images for kids
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A dove representing the Holy Spirit sitting on Pope Gregory I's shoulder symbolizes Divine Inspiration
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Two plainchants from the Mass Proper, written in adiastematic neumes, from Codex Sangallensis 359
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Antiphonary with Gregorian chants
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Offertory Iubilate deo universa terra in unheightened neume
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Liber usualis in square notation (excerpt from the Kyrie eleison (Orbis factor))
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Plainchant notation for the solemn setting of the Salve Regina; a simple setting is used more commonly.
See also
In Spanish: Canto gregoriano para niños
