Full Text for The Gregorian Chant (Text)

anb~ ljaliung bes (fbangeliums unb b.or bcm ®Iaulien gemirIte @iiinben~ edenntnis unb meue ifi ben mittedeit, 2.orn unb .x>all luibcr ®.oti unb f ein ljeiIiges ®ei e~ burd)triinft. (fs ifi nid)t etma ber ~nfang bet ®.otiesHnbfd)aft, f.onbetn eine fIeifdJIid)e, fned)tifd)e meue, mie fie fidJ eli en nur in einem untlJiebergeli.otnen, ®.oti feinbIidjen menfdJen finben fann, unb an meld)et barum audj ®.oit fein ljcxaIid)es !m.oljIgefallen ilU ljalien betmag." (.2eljre u. !meljte, 63, 274.) "SDas ®cfd~ mad)± @iiinbe ul1b ftliertretung irn @emiffen bes Siinber;:; lelienbig unb fiim bas .x>era barum mit ~ngft, zyurd)±, 2.orn, €ld)recrcn ber .x>olle. €l.o jucit fiiljrt bas @efe~ ben menfdJen -liis in bie .x>oHe. . .. !mie alf.o bas ®efe~ in bie .x>olle fuljtt, f.o fiiljtt bas (fbangefium mieber ljCtaUS unb berfe~t bie @iiinber in ben .x>immeI. . .. (frft €lunbe, bann ®nabe. (frfi ;;t.ob, bann .2eben. (ftf± @id)recl'en, bann ;;tt.oft. SDurd) bie .x>olle fiiljrt ber !meg ilum .x>immeL" C2eljre u. )llieljre 33, 158 ft.) ;;t lj. (f n g eI bet. The Gregorian Chant.1) What is the origin of the so-called Gl'eg01-ia,n Chant? That is the question asked by Dickinson in his splendid monograph on music in the Westel'll Ohurch. He himself interestingly expounds his ques- tion: "There is hardly a more interesting question in the whole history of m~sic; for this chant is the basis of the whole magnificent structure of medieval church song and, in a certain sense, of all modern music, and it can be traced back unbroken to the earliest 1) Books and articles chiefly consulted: j}Iusic in the History of the Western Ohurch; Alt, Dm' kirchliche Gottesdienst; Von del' Heydt, Geschichte del' evangelischen Kirchenrnttsik in Deutschland J' Rietschel, Lehrbuch dm- Litm'gik; Gevaert, Les Origines du Ohant LituTgique de l'Eglise Latine (German: Del' Urspmng des roemischen Ki1'chengesangs); Lyra, Martin Luthers Deutsche Messe; Wyatt, St. GregorY and the G-re- gorian .Music j Hurley, Gregorian Ohant}· Holly, Elementary Grammwr of Gregorian Ohant; Haberl ( tr. by Donnelly), Magister Ohoralis; also works by Briggs, Palmer, Frere, Gatard, Helmore, Lang, Newton, Terry; and article in America by John La Farge and articles in the Oommonweal by Donovan and by Bonvin. The Gregorian Chant. 669 years of the Christian Church, the most persistent and fruitful form of art that the modern world has known." (P. 109.) The actual historical question still offers difficulties to some investigators, many of whom simply refer to the tradition that Greg- ory the Great (b. 540; Pope 590-604) reformed the plain-song of his day. This tTadition rests upon the testimony of John the Deacon (ca. 872), who wrote a biography of Gregory I, of Leo IV (847-855), of Hildemar (between 833 and 850), of Walafrid Strabo (807-849), and of others. As Wyatt summarizes the tradition, Gregory's work consisted in compiling an antiphonarium from various sources, the musical material being chiefly that of the Ambrosian Ohant; yet he not only edited and adapted old melodies, but provided new ones for the new texts with the help of his Echola Canton~m. But whatever the merits of Gregory I in the field of liturgics may have been, it seems certain that this particular improvement or adaptation of the plain-song of the Ohurch is not to be ascribed to him. The exhaustive research work of Gevaert has definitely shown that "the compilation and composition of the liturgic songs, which was traditionally ascribed to St. Gregory I, is in truth the work of the Hellenic popes at the end of the seventh and the beginning- of the eighth centuries. The Antiphonarium Missarum received its definitive form between 682 and 715; the Antiphon(J;7"ium Officii was already fixed under Pope Agathon (678-681)." It is a well- established fact that all this liturgical work was based upon the foundation laid by St. Ambrose, which was then expanded by Pope Celestine I (422-432) and by Leo the Great (440-461). To Ambrose must be ascribed the fixation of the first four Authentic Modes, the Dorian, the Phrygian, the Lydian (formerly often confused with the Eolian), and the Mixolydian, these responding to the modern keys of D, E, F, and G, respectively. Oelcstine has been called the founder of the antiphonal song in the Roman Ohurch. And Leo the Great gave the song a permanent place by the establishment of a Echola Oantorum in the neighborhood of St. Peter's. Gregory the Great may have codified some of the liturgical material which he found in use, - for he was certainly a prominent figure in the field of litmgics and hymnology, - but beyond this .his merit does not seem to have gone. Nevertheless the reputation given to Gregory by John the Deacon remained, so that the full complement of chants accepted in the Roman Ohurch has borne his name to this day. We next ask: What is the Gregorian Chant, and how is it char- acterized by the leading students in the fie,ld? First of all, as to the word, or term, chant. "Chant," writes Dickinson (p. 98), "is speech-song, probably the earliest form of vocal music; it proceeds from the modulations of impassioned speech; it results from the need of regulating and perpetuating' these modu- 670 The Gregorian Chant. lations when certain exigencies require a common and impressive form of utterance, as in religious Tites, public rejoicing or mourning', etc." This, as will readily be seen, applies to religious chants of every kind, all of them being, in substance, recitations in music, the various keys serving' to convey the particular significance of the respective emotion to be conveyed by the recital. On the basis of this understanding the Gregorian, Roman, or Choral Chant may be defined as a grave, diatonic unison melody, set to the rhythm of the words, without strictly measured time, and used by the Church in her sacred functions. It is called cantU<3 plant~s, or plain-chant, to distinguish it as plain over against the polyphonic and rhythmical music used in harmonic settings. It is called mntus !ir·m.us, i. e., firm or fixed chant, in contradistinction to the accompanying counter- pointed parts. It may be called a recitative melody if we think of melody as musical recitation of one voice. The melody was not fixed in the sense of being an unvarying and unvariable tune, for the medieval chanter claimed the privilege of adding to the melody whatever embellishment he might choose freely to invent on the impulse of the moment. The Roman, or Choral, Chant has a repertory of eight regular psalm-tones, plus one irregular psalm-tone, the tont~S per'egrinus, and the number of Gregorian modes is fourteen. A psalm-tone consists. in its broad outlines, of an Introduction, a Tenor, or reciting-note (always on the Dominant of the Mode) and a Medial Cadence, followed by another Tenor and a Final Cadence. The twelve (theo- retically fourteen) Gregorian modes are the following: Authentic Modes-Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian; Plaga] - Hypodorian, Hypophrygian, Hypolydian, Hypomixolydian; later additions-Eolian, Ionian. HypoeoIian, Hypoionian. By mode is meant the method of using the sounds of the scale. The character of the mode is deter- mined by changing the point of rest, sharping and flatting, and thus varying the dominant, approximately as in our major and minor keys at the present time. The chamcter of the mode may be grave and solemn (Dixit Dominus Domino mea: Sede), mournful (Impro- perium expecta.vit cor meum), brilliant and comma.nding (In nomine Iesu omne genu j!ectat1tr), mystical (In 'voZuntate tua, Domine, uni- versa sunt posita), joyful (Filiae regum in honore tuo), devotional (Esto mihi in Deum Protectorem), expectant and hopf>;ful (Dicite, pussillanimes, confortamini), Each of the original eight modes has its own psalm-tone, and each psalm-tone requires a different division of the words. The antiphon is derived from the psalm-tone. It begins with an Intonation and rises gradually to the Dominant of the Mode, turns about that note in graceful melodic figures, and then falls gradually to the Final. The Gregorian made use of only four leger lines, and the "notes" The Gregorian Chant. 671 were frequently no more than mnemonic signs, since the melody of the chants was passed on from generation to generation through the chor- isters' schools. According to our modern notation the Gregorian can be written in three clefs, or keys, the 0 clef, whose mark on the second line from the top corresponds to the note 0 in the modern scale, the F or Fa clef, and the B flat clef, whose note on the second line from the bottom corresponds to B flat on the modern scale. (For illustrations see Dickinson, Von der Heydt, Holly, and others.) The Gregorian Ohant is thus distinguished from modern music by its scale line, which gives it these tonalities, modes, or tones. The appreciation which Von der Heydt gives to the Ohoral Ohant is worth quoting: "Der Gregorianische Ohoralgesang, wie er im Laufe von zwei bis drei J ahrhunderten ausgebildet und fuer aIle dem roem- ischen Papste unterstellten Kirchen verbindlich gemacht wurde, stellt eine in ihrer wuerdevollen Groesse, in der schlicht en Einfalt der Melodiebildung und in dem unerschoepflichen Reichtum der musi- kalischen Formen bewundernswerte Leistung der christlichen Kirche dar. Der einstimmige Gesang bewegt sich, frei von allen Fesseln der griechischen Metrik, die bis dahin den Kirchengesang beeinflusste, in den mannigfaltig'sten Figuren urn €linen Hauptton, und zwar so, dass nur die Tonfolge, nicht aber, wie wir es bei dem protestantischen Gemeindechoral gewohnt sind, die harmonische Bestimmtheit der Toene den Oharakter des Gesanges auspraegt. Die Melodiefuehrung ist diatonisch, nicht harmonisch. Als Intervalle werden nur die Prim, Sekunde, Terz, Quarte und Quinte benutzt. Ein Rhythmus, der sich in Zahlen und Massen gleichmaessig wiederholter Zeitab- schnitte darstellt, ist mit dieser Gesangsweise nicht verbunden; sie kennt nur den Rhythmus der ins Musikalische uebertragenen feier- lichen Sprechweise. Die liturgischen Gesaenge wurden als Accentus- Stuecke, die im Sprechgesang vorgetragen wurden, und als Concentus- Stuecke, die in eigener Melodie und spaeter meist mehrstimmig gesungen wurden, unterschieden. Erlaeuternde und erweiternde Texte, die in den Gesang del" Ooncentus-Stuecke (KYl'ie, Gloria, Sanctus, Agnus Dei) eingeschoben wurden, nannte man Tropen." (Geschichte der evangelischen Kil'chen1nt~sik, 14.) A sympathetic description is also that of Dickinson, who writes: "If we enter a Oatholic church during High Mass or vespers, we notice that the words of the priest are delivered in musical tones. This song at once strikes us as different in many respects from any other form of music with which we are acquainted. At £rst it seems monotonous, strange, almost barbaric; but when we have become accustomed to it, the effect is very solemn and impressive. Many who are not instructed in the matter imagine that the priest extemporizes these cadences; but nothing could be farther from the truth. Oertain portions of this chant are very plain, long series of words being recited on 672 The Gregorian Chant. a single note, introduced and ended with very simple melodic in:flec- tions; other portions are :florid, of wider compass than the simple chant, often with many notes to a syllable. Sometimes the priest sings alone, without response or accompaniment; sometimes his 'utterances are answered by a choir of boys in the chancel or a mixed choir in the gallery; in certain portions of the service the organ supports the chant with harmonies which seem to be based on a dif- ferent principle of key and scale from that which ordinarily obtains in modern chord progression. In its freedom of rhythm it bears some resemblance to dramatic recitative, yet it is far less dramatic or characteristic in color and expression and at the same time both more severe and more :flexible. To one who understands the whole con- ception and spirit of the Oatholic worship there is a singular appro- priateness in the employment of this manner of utterance, and when properly rendered, it blends most effi,ciently with the atchitectural splendot·s of altar and sanctuary, with incense, lights, vestments, cej'emonial action, and all the embellishments that lend distinction and solemnity to the Catholic ritual." (P. 95 f.) The Gregorian Chant was of course in use when Luther began his reformatory labors. And since he was no foolish iconoclast, with a delight in overthrowing' for the mere sake of destroying, he partly adopted and partly adapted the chant for use in the purified Ohurch. His Formula Missae of 1523 retains much of the good or unobjection- able material, although he omitted the sequences, or tropes, as such. In his DMdsche ]![ esse und Ordnung des Gottesdienstes he even included samples of the psalm-tones, not only for the introit, but also for the Epistle and the Gospel of the day, adding at the end of his suggested service an Exercitatio oder Ue'bung der Melod'ieln. (St. Louis Ed., X, 226 ff.) Nor is it surprising that the majority of church orders followed Luther in this respect, particularly as long as Latin was in use in the services and the number of suitable hymns was still small. We can well understand that Johann Spangenberg's Oantiones Ecclesiasticae of 1545 and the Psalmodia of Lucas Lossius of 1553 were widely followed. It is even an indisputable fact that some of Johann Sebastian Bach's best choral compositions show the very number of the Greg>orian mode on which he constructed his elaborate and beautiful harmonies. And yet we find a counter-current accompanying this movement. This is indicated in an interesting juxtaposition in an article by Georg Kempff of Erlangen. (Kirchliche Zeitschrin Vol. 57, 641ff.) We shall reverse the order of two of his paragraphs, since this makes the discussion chronological. He writes: "Die bisherigen lateinischen JYIessgesaenge aus del' Liturgie uebersetzt er [Luther] mit den Freunden im ganzen deutschen Dichterwald der Reformation. Das Agnus Dei ('0 Lamm Gottes'), das Benedictus ('Gott sei gelobet The Gregorian Chant. 673 und gebenedeiet'), das Kyrie ('Kyrie, Gott Vater in Ewigkeit'), das Gloria ('All' Ehr' und Lob solI Gottes sein') werden fuer die Gemeinde in Verse gebracht.2) Das Sanctus setzt er in neue deutsche Form; das erste Hauptstueck des Katechismus wird gedichtet im Liede 'Dies sind die heil'gen Zehn Gebot,' und das Oredo finden wir wieder im Ohoral 'Wir glauben all' fin pinwn Gott.' Das Paternoster wird cine seiner ruehrendsten, schoensten Schoepfungen, 'Vater unser im Him- melreich'. . .. Luther wird del' Schoepfer des Gemeindegesangs ge- nannt. Was vorher del' Priesterehor in freiem Rhythillus sang, sollte nun die Schar des grossen a11gemeinen Priestertums selbst tun. Del' Gemeinde widmete er den Edelstein aIler J'l1:usikgattungen, den Ohoral. Die Abbildung des Bapstschen Gesangbuches zeigt uns, wie sehr Luther bis zu seinem Tode danach getrachtet hat, dass diesel' Ohoral in einem wuerdigen Gewande den Kil'chengaengern lieb und wert wuerde. Wie haben die Holzschnitte, die Randleisten, der kuenstlerische Druck del' W orte und del' N oten sich hier vereint, del' evangelischen Ohristenheit ein Geschenk "'11 machen, das neben del' Bibel [and the Oatechism] das liebste Buch del' Ohristen werden solIte! Deutsch soUte die Kunstsprache sein. Deutsch auch die musikalische Sprache del' Ohoraele, wenn sie auch ihl'e Verbundenheit und Herkunft aus den Schatzkammern del' alten Kirche nie ver- leugnen wollte." This counter-cUl'rent, which was evident in the gradual elimina- tion of the Latin language and in the more extensive use of hymn- singing by the congregation, showed other divergences as well or inevitably led to them. When Roman Oatholic composers began to arrange church music for several voices, as in the case of Orlandus Lassus in Munich (t 1594) and Giovanni P81'luigi da Palestrina in Rome Ct1594), whose efforts in the field of counterpoint and rhythm combined with exactness of voice-placing a remarkable depth and tenderness of feeling, it was thought possible to utilize the work of these masters for evangelical church music. But as Von del' Heydt notes: "Ein gutes Stueck del' eigenartigen Wirkung diesel' Musik geht dabei verloren. Sie ist ebenso wi;e der Gl'egol'ianische Ohoral- gesang vom katholischen Gottesdienst schwer zu trennen." (P.24.) In this connection he quotes a statement from a letter of Luther: "Mihi pl'ors~~s non placet, nota..s Latinas super verba Germanica. servari."3) 2) In addition to these chants we have parts of our regular liturgy. antiphons, responses, the prefaces, etc., according to the Gregorian tradition. 3) "It is true, the Church of the Reformation, in order to obtain tunes for eongregational singing, did not limit itself to the folk-song, but appro- priated also some of the melodious treasure of Gregorian song. But what it borrowed from this for congregational singing was recast according to the folk-song pattern." (Waldo S. Pratt, in Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia, sub voce "Sacred Music.") 43 674 The Gregorian Chant. If we ask, then, Why was the Gregorian Chant discontinued in practically every PC!,1·t of the Lutheran Church? the answer may be found in the fact that the entire situation seems to make it foreign to the genius and spirit of the Lutheran Ohurch. It is a significant fact that, whereas priestly vestments were retained in the Scandi- navian countries (especially in Sweden) and in a few sections of Germany as well as in individual congregations, these being excep- tional or sporadic cases, the Gregorian Ohant was discontinued prac- tically everywhere as soon as the congregations had an adequate liturgy in the vernacular and a 8uBicient number of good hymns. It was not merely Pietism and Rationalism with their concomitant liturgical detcrioration which brought about this condition, but a resentment against everything that breathed hierarchical aspirations and a justified suspicion concerning the associations connected with a form of worship which was and is emphatically stated to be a dis- tincti've pa,rt of the Roman ritual. That this is actually the case can easily be verified by a reference to the status of the Gregorian Ohant, especially during the last hundred years. It was in 1877 that Haberle wrote: "The Roman Oatholic Ohurch ever regarded the Gregorian as her peculiar chant," (P.11.) "Bound up as it has been with the ceremonial of the Oatho- lie Ohurch and pervading her whole liturgical existence, it becomes a witness to her unity." (P. 14.) Even before this book was pub- lished, in 183B, the Benedictines of the cloister Solesmes in the French department Nord had started the movement for a revival of the Gregorian Ohant in all its forms, according to the best traditions of the Ohurch. In connection with the centenary of the Solesmes Ohant, John La Fluge, S. J., wrote an article in America in which he not only describes the restoration of the chant through the efforts of the great Roman liturgiologist Gueranger, but also includes an appreciation of the chant, calling it "a great comforter or strengthener in this age of uncertainty and distrust, because it is a tangible, audible work of the Holy Ghost [?], the Oomforter and Paraclete .... The words sung were living words, inspired by the Spirit of God, piercing heaven, and drawing down forgiveness and blessing upon mankind." He speaks also of a certain group of Oatholics who "should lead in the popular usage of the chant and thus build a mighty stone into the temple of American Oatholicism." The emphasis contained in this article is no doubt due to the serious considcration which has been given to the liturgical move- ment in the Roman Ohurch since the lvIotu PIf'Oprio of Pius X, issued November 22, 1903, in which we read: "The Gregorian Chant has always been regarded as the supreme model for sacred music. . . . The ancient traditional Gregorian Ohant must therefore be largel,y T8stored to the function of public worship, and everybody must take The Gregorian Chant. 675 for certain that an ecclesiastical function loses nothing of its solem- nity when it is accompanied by no other music but this. . .. Special efforts are to be made to restore the use of the Gregorian Ohant by the people." It was on account of this Motu prop1-io that the Solesmes move- ment received such wide recognition, also at the time of its centenary last year, and that the Pius X School of Liturgical Music (Oollege of the Sacred Heart, Manhattanville) has been mentioned so fre- quently during recent years. What Oatholic writers think of the situation will readily be seen from a few quotations from recent articles. Thus Vincent O. Donovan wrote a few months ago in the Commonweal: "This question ["What Is Plain-chant?"] is in the air because of the movement to-day back to the full beauty of the liturgy. . .. There is the key to the appreciation of plain-chant. It is primarily and essentially a language of p1'ayer in the Roman Catholic Church. . .. Gregorian Ohant is a passport vised by the Ohurch to admit us into the very realms of the Spirit itself. It praises God and talks to Him in beautiful Latin prose of poetie content, not in the measured steps of verse, but the natural freedom of the rhythm of life. . .. The world to-day is becoming more and more conscious of the need of uniting as a community of brothers in God. To achieve this, we need unity of ideas. Only a simple, common language can effect the commerce of those ideas. Is not plain-chant an ideal one to effect a world transformation? Its very monody, its purely melodic nature, which plain-chant really means, is both a symbol and a means of unity. The structure of all its melodies, which sometimes flower like a Gothic cathedral, is based on the four simple cadences which comprise the C'l~rsus of classical oratory. . .. The eight tones, or scales, in one of which each cadence was written, reflect every human emotion, yet in their purity and simplicity are also a means of unity." Some six weeks before this article appeared, a "co=unication" was given space in the columns of the same magazine which referred to an "Apostolic Oonstitution" of Pius XI, published to commemorate the twenty-ufth anniversary of the Motu proprio of Pius X. Here we are told: "These qualities [sanctity, perfection of form, and universality] are to be found in the highest degree in the GregoritUl Ohant, which is consequently the chant proper to the Roman Cht~rch. . .. The ancient traditional Gregorian Ohant must therefore in a large measure be restored to the functions of public worship." Many further expressions from Roman sources could be offered, but the material herewith submitted will probably suffice to show the strength of the Gregorian revival in the Roman Ohurch. A further evaluation of the movement is a matter of the future. P. E. KRETZMANN.