Page 24 - (DK) The Classical Music Book - Big Ideas Simply Explained
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PSALMODY IS
THE WEAPON
OF THE MONK
PLAINCHANT (6th–9th CENTURY), ANONYMOUS
he early Christian Church into the Divine Office or Liturgy
IN CONTEXT began as a Jewish sect, of the Hours—the basis of Roman
T so the evolving liturgy, or Catholic worship.
FOCUS forms of service, of the new faith
Plainsong
shared many traits with Jewish The singing of rites
BEFORE worship, including the repeated As Christianity spread from
c. 1400 bce A clay tablet from speaking, or chanting, of scripture the Holy Land, so did its rites
the ancient city of Ugarit in and prayer. Specifically, Christian and ceremonies, celebrated in
northern Syria records the aspects focused on particular the languages of the communities
hymn of a religious cult, with types of observance, such as the where it took root, such as Aramaic
fragmentary musical notation. reenactment of the Last Supper in Palestine and Greek in Rome.
(later to become the Mass) and As a result, different chant styles
c. 200 bce–100 ce Found psalm-singing, scripture readings, evolved, including the Mozarabic in
on a tombstone in a town and prayer to mark the new Iberia, the Gallican in Roman Gaul,
near Ephesus, in Turkey, Church’s holy days and feasts. and Ambrosian, after St. Ambrose,
the “song of Seikilos” is the Over time, these rites evolved a 4th-century bishop of Milan.
earliest complete, notated Of these earliest liturgies, only
musical composition. the Roman and Ambrosian chants
have survived in a recognizable
AFTER form. They became known as
1562–1563 The Catholic “plainsong” (a direct translation
Church’s Council of Trent bans of the Latin cantus planus) for the
the singing of the medieval simplicity of their unaccompanied
embellishments of plainchant melodies, which were sung in a
known as “sequences.” free, speechlike rhythm, reflecting
the unmetrical prose of prayers,
1896 The monks of the psalms, and the scriptures. This
Benedictine Abbaye de music, though unstructured, largely
Solesmes publish their Liber
usualis, an attempt to restore
Gregorian chant, distorted by A wooden sculpture of St. Ambrose
centuries of use, to a more (c.1500) shows him in his study. The
Roman bishop championed the hymn,
pristine and standardized text. or “sacred song,” as a key part of
church worship.
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