| Part ofa series on |
| Celtic Christianity |
|---|
 |
History |
| Portal Christianity |
Celtic chant is the liturgicalplainchant repertory of theCeltic rite of theCatholic Church performed inCeltic Britain,Gaelic Ireland, andBrittany. It is related to, but distinct from theGregorian chant of theSarum use of theRoman rite which officially supplanted it by the 12th century. Although no Celtic chant was notated, some traces of its musical style are believed to remain.
TheCeltic Church goes back to the Irishmonastic traditions. The churches in Ireland and Britain had no central authority except, in theory, Rome, which in practice exerted very little influence. Notable in this transition from local Irish customs to more standardized Roman traditions was the conflict over the dating ofEaster, where the Roman tradition of solar dating finally supplanted the Irish lunar dating at the Synod ofTara in 692. Over the next several centuries, versions of the Roman rite such as theUse of Salisbury were gradually enforced in Brittany in the 9th century, Scotland in the 11th century.
The Irish monks famouslyestablished monasteries throughout much of Europe. As a result, Celtic chant was influenced by Spanish, Gallic, Roman, and Eastern traits. However, it shows the greatest liturgical similarity withGallican chant.
No musical specimen prior to Roman influence survives.[1] One chant typical of those that may reflect this style isIbunt sancti, whose use was attested in Ireland.[2] The original text shows elements such as alliteration and a couplet structure. The surviving melody, from a French manuscript, has an ABA structure, in which the opening phrase is repeated at the end of the melody, and the whole melody is repeated for the second half of the couplet. Neither the ABA structure nor the repeated melody for the couplet are typical of the Roman chant traditions, except inSequences, which themselves trace back toNotker of St Gall's andTuotilo'stropes at the Irish-foundedAbbey of St. Gall.