Medieval Chant

Chant was the preferred form of music during the Middle Ages, an era spanning roughly 482 - 1497 AD. The most popularized form of this chant is Gregorian Chant, which was standardized in the 11th century.

Early Chant

During the 9th and 10th centuries, there were as many variations in styles of chant as there were regions. Each region of Europe had its own standard. During this era, a musician had a rather hard time learning his stuff, as the staff had not yet been developed. Instead, they used a system similar to that of the Ancient Greeks, in that directions called nuemes were written above the text. These nuemes would indicate what direction to go in, but not what interval. As a result, this notation was only used to aid the memory, but the actual music was passed down orally. Each region, in addition to having its own chants, also had its own set of nuemes. For example:

- Milan: Ambrosian
- Italy: Beneventen
- Germany: St. Gallen
- England: Sarum (Salisbury Chant)
- France: Gallican
- Spain: Visigothic

11th Century

By the 11th century, the style known as Gregorian Chant had become the standard in the western Church. The origin of it is not truly known, but it is attributed by legend to Pope Gregory, who reigned from 590 - 604. Every single prayer, office, and text of the Mass had been set to the chant, and was collected in a huge volume known as the Liber Visualis. This was made possible by the development of notation, specifically, the four line staff. The origin of this staff is held by legend to have come from the Guidonian Hand.

The Guidonian Hand was developed by Guido of Arezzo. This (in)famous monk was the bloke who developed the system of solfegge, which is the bane of music students today. Solfegge assigns a syllable to each note. Thus, the first note of the scale is "ut", second is "re", and so on. There was no "ti", as this note participate in the interval known as a tritone (also known as Devil's Tone), which was the bane of medieval composers. He would thus tell his singer which tone to sing by pointing to one of his fingers, each of which had a syllable assigned to it. Four fingers = four lines in the staff, or so the story goes.

Technical Stuff

All of these thousands of chants are based on 8 Church Modes, or scales. (follow image link)


-Dorian
-Phrygian
-Lydian
-Mixolydian
-Hypodorian
-Hypophrygian
-Hypolydian
-Hypomixolydian


In the absence of rhythmic notation, the rhythm is completely based on the text. The 3 main types of rhythmic chant are interwoven in one piece.

- Syllabic: One syllable per note
- Neumatic: 5 - 6 notes per syllable
- Melismatic: many notes per syllable

The Melisma is a very technical subset of chant, usually placed on the last syllable of an "Alleluia", and was a chance for the scribes to show their prowess in composition. To act as a memory aid for remembering these Melismas, the scribes wrote religious poetry, extraliturgical, which was sung to the same notes. These poems were commonly used as additions to the liturgy. The use of the Melisma was abolished in the Council of Trent, because all the poetry was obscuring the message of the Service.

Daily Office

The Daily Office was sung only in monasteries and convents. Each office consists of an Antiphon and several Psalms. The Antiphon was sung to standard chant settings, while the Psalms were recited using a Psalm tone. In a Psalm tone, or reciting tone, the main text is sung on one note only, while the end of the phrase uses a cadence, very similar to the settings in Lutheran hymnals.

Liturgical Dramas

Liturgical dramas, or morality plays, were exactly what they sound like. They were incorporated into the liturgy to teach a moral to the common rabble. Being almost completely sung (except for the devil, who just drones, being tainted and unable to comprehend the purity of music), liturgical dramas were the precursor of opera.

The most famous of these plays is the Ordo virtutum, written by Hildegard von Bingen, a German mystic, in 1151. This play was, in fact, an extraliturgical work, written to commemorate the founding of her convent in 1150. There are two sets of characters, the Virtues, which were usually associate with women and were played by women:

- Humility
- Love
- Obedience
- Faith
- Hope
- Chastity
- Innocence
- Mercy

And the acting roles:

- Happy soul
- Unhappy soul
- Devil
- Militant Christ

This set of characters was very common in morality plays. Probably the most identifying feature of the music in this particular one is the drone behind the chant, which was causes by a sort of organ, which had 2 pedals connect to 2 pipes, in tone a Perfect 5th apart.


In a nutshell, Gregorian Chant rocks and you should all listen to it. Now children, who wants to learn about polyphony? ;-)