Plainsong orplainchant (calque from the Frenchplain-chant;Latin:cantus planus) is a body ofchants used in theliturgies of theWestern Church. When referring to the term plainsong, it is those sacred pieces that are composed in Latin text.[1] Plainsong was the exclusive form of the WesternChristian church music until the ninth century, and the introduction ofpolyphony.[2]
Themonophonic chants of plainsong have a non-metric rhythm,[3] which is generally considered freer than the metered rhythms of later Western music.[3] They are also traditionally sungwithout musical accompaniment, though recent scholarship has unearthed a widespread custom of accompanied chant that transcended religious and geographical borders.[4]
There are three types of chant melodies that plainsongs fall into:syllabic,neumatic, andmelismatic.[3] The free flowing melismatic melody form of plainsong is still heard in Middle Eastern music being performed today.[3]
Although theCatholic Church and theEastern Orthodox churches did notsplit until long after the origin of plainsong,Byzantine chants are generally not classified as plainsong.
Plainsong developed during the earliest centuries of Christianity, influenced possibly by the music of the Jewish synagogue and certainly by the Greek modal system. It hasits own system of notation.[5]
As the number of chants in the church's repertoire increased, officials needed a better way to standardize the music.[3] A unique form of musical notation was developed to help standardize the music and provide a reference for the performers and audience alike.[1] The musical notations that were used were calledneumes, and they are employed on a four-line staff, unlike the five-line staff we are accustomed to today.[3] The earliest neumes were marks placed above the chant's words to help the performer remember the piece's melody. They showed the general shape of the melody, but did not specify the pitches or intervals that needed to be sung, so the melody had to be learned by ear.[1] It was not until the eleventh century that a notation system was perfected that placed the neumes on a four-line staff. This allowed the music to be written down accurately.[1] In the example from the plainsong massOrbis Factor, the notes for each syllable of the text are grouped together. Their position on the lines shows their pitch relative to one another, and the dots after some notes indicate a lengthening of the note. The vertical stroke after the wordKyrie indicates where the singer may take a breath.
Most of the early plainsong manuscripts have been destroyed due to war, purposeful destruction and natural causes such as water, fire, and poor environmental conditions.[1] The Toledo Cathedral in Spain has one of the world's largest collections of indigenous plainsong manuscripts devoted to Western Christianity.[6] Their collection consists of 170 volumes of plainsong chants for the procession, Mass, and Office.[6]
There are three methods of singing psalms or other chants,responsorial,antiphonal, and solo.[1] In responsorial singing, the soloist (or choir) sings a series of verses, each one followed by a response from the choir (or congregation). In antiphonal singing, the verses are sung alternately by soloist and choir, or by choir and congregation.[5] It is probable that even in the early period the two methods caused the differentiation in the style of musical composition which is observed throughout the later history of plain chant, the choral compositions being of a simple kind, the solo compositions more elaborate, using a more extended compass of melodies and longer groups of notes on single syllables. The last type of plainsong performance is the solo performed by the choir or the individual performer.[1] A marked feature in plainchant is the use of the same melody for various texts. This is quite typical for the ordinary psalmody in which the same formula, the "psalm tone", is used for all the verses of a psalm, just as in a hymn or a folk song the same melody is used for the various stanzas.[2]
Gregorian chant is a variety of plainsong named afterPope Gregory I (6th century AD), but Gregory did not invent the chant. The tradition linking Gregory I to the development of the chant seems to rest on a possibly mistaken identification of a certain "Gregorius", probablyPope Gregory II, with his more famous predecessor. The term Gregorian Chant is often incorrectly used as a synonym of plainsong.[1]
For several centuries, different plainchant styles existed concurrently. Standardization on Gregorian chant was not completed, even in Italy, until the 12th century. Plainchant represents the first revival ofmusical notation after knowledge of the ancient Greek system was lost.
In the late 9th century, plainsong began to evolve intoorganum, which led to the development ofpolyphony. When polyphony reached its climax in the sixteenth century, the use of plainsong chant was less appealing and almost completely abandoned.[2]
There was a significant plainsong revival in the 19th century, when much work was done to restore the correct notation and performance-style of the old plainsong collections, notably by the monks ofSolesmes Abbey, in northern France. After theSecond Vatican Council and the introduction of the vernacular Mass, use of plainsong in the Catholic Church declined and was mostly confined to themonastic orders[2] and to ecclesiastical societies celebrating the traditional Latin Mass (also calledTridentine Mass). SincePope Benedict XVI'smotu proprio,Summorum Pontificum, use of the Tridentine rite has increased; this, along with other papal comments on the use of appropriate liturgical music, is promoting a new plainsong revival.[7][8]
ThePlainsong and Medieval Music Society was founded in 1888 to promote the performance and study of liturgical chant and medieval polyphony.[2]
Interest in plainsong picked up in 1950s Britain, particularly in the left-wing religious and musical groups associated withGustav Holst and the writerGeorge B. Chambers. In the late 1980s, plainchant achieved a certain vogue as music for relaxation, and several recordings of plainchant became "classical-chart hits".
There are different types of plainchant. Syllabic chants are the simplest chants; they one note per syllable for most of the text.Hymns, and some sections of the mass such as theGloria andCredo are typically set to syllabic chants. Neumatic chants have multiple notes for each syllable. These are often used for short texts such as introits, and theSanctus andAgnus Dei of the mass. Finally, some chants combine a syllabic setting with occasional use ofmelismas – a sequence of multiple note on a single syllable. In the example above, there is a nine-note melisma on the first syllable of the wordeleison.
Gregorian chant is widely used today, but through much of its history plainchant had distinct local varieties, linked to differences in the form and content of church services. In England, theSarum rite had its own associated chant, for example. Other chant traditions included theAmbrosian andVisigothic. Some monastic orders had their own chant, such as theDominicans.[9]
Plainchant is typically anonymous, as befits music composed for worship. Among the few identifiable composers areAdam of Saint Victor (c.1068 – 1146), a prolific composer of latin hymns,Hildegard of Bingen, a nun who lived in the 12th century, who composed 71 Latin liturgical pieces[10] andHenri Dumont, who published five plainchant mass settings in 1660. Notker Balbulus (Notker the Stammerer) who lived from about 840 to 912, composed hymn chants and sequences, andHermannus Contractus (Hermann of Reichenau, 1013–1054) is identified as the composer of several well-loved chants including theSalve Regina and theAlma Redemptoris Mater.
Plainchant employs a distinctive system ofmodes and this is used to work out the relative pitches of each line on the staff. It is distinct from the modal system used in ancient greek music.
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