This illumination of Pope Gregory I (Gregory the Great) by an anonymous illustrator is found in the collection of the Bibliothèque municipale de Douai; the first miniature in the second volume of a manuscript of Des Extraits de Ses Oeuvres by Gregory I; Public Domain.
Spanish Chant Manuscript; University of British Columbia Library; no known copyright restrictions.
Part I
Today we embark on a musical journey visiting the historical moments in the annals of Anglican Church Music which will include the Sundays of Lent, Palm Sunday and Easter. Our first stop, on this first Sunday in Lent, will be a visit to our ancient past. , We stop at the wellspring of church music tradition in a time before there were Anglicans, Lutherans, Presbyterians and the like.
The year is 1157. We are remembering Pope Gregory I who in the sixth century reorganized and codified our single line melodies. We have since labeled music of this style Gregorian Chant. As we stand as spectators peering in on this twelfth century experience, we are perhaps more struck by what Gregorian chant is not rather than what it is. Our twentieth century ears sense the lack of supporting harmony or accompaniment. We miss the structure of a regular beat. Perhaps we resent the fact that the music seems to do nothing to thrill our senses or entangle our emotions with crescendos of sound or luscious harmonies.
Let us today explore the virtues of Gregorian chant: simple, unencumbered melodies confined in the space of a few notes, clothing words in a flowing, pulsing, and chanting, soothing garment of sustained pitches. Gregorian Chant would have been sung in Latin by a men's and/or boys' choir. Singing the chant in the vernacular alters the musical character of the chant and detracts somewhat from the fluid qualities of the Latin.
St. Stephen’s service on Sunday, February 21, 2021 featured music from this ear. The special music, a twelfth century chant, words by Pope Gregory the Great, is found in The Hymnal 1982 #146. There is no record of organ music in England before the fifteenth century. The prelude and postlude from the February 21 service were more contemporary settings of plainsong (Gregorian chant) melodies. Click here to listen to the music in the service.
