Gregorian chant

Monte Linas Library System

3 anni fa

GREGORIAN CHANT THE SONG OF THE SOUL

The 'Monte Linas' Library System and the Library of the 'Mons. G.M. Pilo' Institute of Religious Sciences of San Gavino Monreale are proposing a 'journey' lasting more than a thousand years to learn more about the chant proper to the Roman liturgy, an example and model of sacred art: Gregorian chant, considered by the Church as the 'sung Bible'.

It is a homophonic, monodic, single-voice liturgical chant sung a cappella, i.e. without musical accompaniment. It is music that excludes the simultaneous sound of different notes: each voice performing it sings in unison. The name derives from the Benedictine Pope Gregory I the Great who, according to tradition, collected and ordered the sacred chants in a volume called Antiphonarius Cento.

In reality, Gregorian chant arose from the unification of various traditions initiated between the 8th and 9th centuries in France by the Carolingian kings Pepin the Short and Charlemagne. With the Holy Roman Empire, the Christian chant practised in France, known as Gallican, and the Roman chant merged. Most of the song repertoire was composed during the 5th and 6th centuries in the schola cantorum, where the Church trained the singers who accompanied the services. During the 8th century, Frankish rulers adopted the Roman liturgy, giving rise to Gregorian chant proper: the Gallic-Roman. The Benedictine monasteries were instrumental in its spread throughout the Carolingian Empire during the 9th century.

In Italy, the two most active centres were the abbeys of Nonantola and Montecassino. Since the mid-19th century, thanks to ongoing research work, the abbey of Solesmes, in France, has established itself as the world's leading centre for the study and preservation of Gregorian chant, whose repertoire is vast and is differentiated by period of composition, region of origin, form and style. It consists of the 'Chants of the Office' or 'Liturgy of the Hours' and the 'Chants of the Mass'.

Gregorian chant is not an ornamental or spectacular element added to a community's prayer but an integral and effective part of praise itself, ordered to the service and understanding of God's Word. This is the deepest and most intimate meaning of this musical genre. Gregorian chant is the official sung prayer of the Roman liturgy in Latin, it would be reductive to consider Gregorian chant merely as a musical element within the liturgy, it is the musical form of the liturgy.

The Second Vatican Council, in the sixth chapter of the Constitution Sacrosanctum Concilium of 4 December 1963, sanctioned that "The Church recognises Gregorian chant as the chant proper to the Roman liturgy; therefore, in liturgical actions, all things being equal, its principal place is reserved for it."

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Complete method of Gregorian chant : with an appendix for Ambrosian chant according to the School of Solesmes / by R. P. D. Gregorio M. Sunol, monk of Monserrato. - Rome : Society of St. John the Evangelist ; Desclée and C.i Editori Pontifici, 1935.

"Greatly enthusiastic about true Gregorian chant, I have decided to publish this Method in order to comply, to the extent of my strength, with the wishes of the Roman Pontiffs Leo XIII and Pius X, and to contribute, if only with a small stone, to the reconstruction of the great edifice of Gregorian chant. The doctrine, I am quick to say, is not my own. My only aim has been to reproduce with clarity and exactitude the teachings of the school of Solesmes, to which we owe today the honour of having so magnificently served the Church by restoring to it its true chant; that chant so beautiful, so grave, so much in keeping with its holiness; that chant inspired by God and issuing from the heart of one of its most illustrious sons, as from a delicate instrument under the touch of the Holy Spirit." Fr Gregorio M. Sunol, O.S.B., Monk of Monserrato

A brief history of sacred music / Eckhard Jaschinski ; Italian edition edited by Eugenio Costa. - Brescia : Queriniana, 2006.

A comprehensive exposition of the development of sacred music in Western Europe, from its beginnings as witnessed in the New Testament to its multifaceted expansion in contemporary Catholicism. The exhibition is structured in a twofold perspective: on the one hand, keeping the focus on music in the celebration of the liturgy; on the other hand, sacred music as an autonomous artistic form, with important composers and works. While keeping the sphere of liturgy and music well connected, the exhibition also takes popular elements into account.

Breve storia della musica sacra : dal canto sinagogale a Stockhausen / Luigi Garbini. - Milan : Il saggiatore, 2005.

If in every time and place the religious inspiration has found privileged expression in rhythm and sound, the music that has accompanied the fortunes of Christian civilisation presents a unique wealth of forms. Over the course of two millennia, the Jewish heritage, the conciliar documents, the work of the Fathers of the Church, and the intervention of the popes have shaped a corpus of musical genres of great refinement, which in Gregorian chant has its most famous example and in the organ its elective instrument. Since the modern era, this canon, which includes hymns, psalms and oratorios, has been joined by works of great composers inspired by religious history or genres destined for worship - such as the 'mass' - with which sacred music is no longer exclusively associated with consecrated places and becomes part of 'great music'. In the name of greater accessibility of ritual practices, the liturgical reform sanctioned by the Second Vatican Council replaced Latin with national languages, consigning to history this precious aesthetic and spiritual heritage, which today lives mostly in concert form. This is probably the reason for the oblivion of Italian musicologists, which Luigi Garbini interrupts after decades with this brief history.

Guide to sacred music / edited by Claudio Bolzan ; presentation by Msgr. Massimo Palombella. - Varese : Zecchini, 2017.

Fin dalle sue più remote origini la musica è sempre stata strettamente legata all’esperienza religiosa, accompagnando di epoca in epoca l’intero percorso dell’umanità, dando vita ad un repertorio musicale di enorme vastità e di straordinaria varietà nell’avvicendarsi di linguaggi, forme, stili e tecniche compositive, spesso intrecciate alle più diverse manifestazioni artistiche, alla letteratura, alla filosofia in un connubio tanto più denso, suggestivo e stimolante: dalla monodia cristiana, alla prime forme polifoniche, dall’esperienza dell’Ars Antiqua a quella dell’Ars Nova, dal Rinascimento al Barocco, dal Classicismo al Romanticismo al Decadentismo, giungendo fino alle avanguardie del Novecento, la musica sacra ha lasciato un segno indelebile ed imprescindibile attraverso un repertorio immenso e straordinario comprendente alcuni degli esiti più alti della sensibilità, dell’intelligenza e della fantasia dell’uomo, fosse egli credente o ateo. Non a caso l’esperienza musicale, nella sua dimensione immateriale, nella sua tensione tra bellezza e spiritualità, è stata spesso assimilata all’esperienza religiosa stessa, mentre l’attività del musicista veniva accostata a quella di un vero e proprio sacerdote.
Questa nuova Guida, unica nel suo genere in Italia, intende offrire al lettore una panoramica esauriente dei movimenti, dei generi, delle forme e degli autori che hanno lasciato in questo ambito una testimonianza decisiva, permettendo così ad ognuno di addentrarsi passo dopo passo in quelle opere che hanno segnato il cammino della civiltà, comprendendone la genesi, gli ambienti in cui sono nate, le problematiche ad esse connesse, le peculiarità stilistiche e linguistiche, senza eccedere in aridi tecnicismi, ma senza scadere in un generico descrittivismo.

CD-AUDIO

Gregorian chant 'A te levavi' / Resurrection Singers ; director Antonio Sanna. - Sassari : Tekno, 1994.

Gregorian Chant: The great melodies of early Christianity. - Milan : Gruppo Futura, c1997.

Gregorian Chants : The Franciscan Monks of Assisi : Recording Art, c2001.

Gregorianischer choral : Kirchweihe ; Mariae Aufnahme in den Himmel / performed by the Choralschola der Benediktinerabtei Munsterschwarzach ; dir. Godehard Joppich Pater. - Hamburg : Polydor International GmbH, p1982.

Gregorian chant : art, miniatures and music in the exultet rolls - Zopper, c1997. - 1cd-rom.