Beginning a Journey of Liturgical Music
The earliest Christians were bathed in a society influenced politically by the Roman Empire and culturally by a Greek world view, literature and learning. It is also good to remember that the great majority of early Christians were Jewish people who lived all across the empire.
In some ways learning was even more social than we are used to. It was not only done together but largely out loud - spoken. It is not hard to imagine, then, that poetry and singing are equally embedded in people's lives.
The earliest Christian chant, therefore, was influenced by its Jewish parentage and by a Greek sensibility. "Hellenized" Jews would be quite at home with this. In the Acts of the Apostles we hear some of the attendant stresses of the time.
It is interesting to note that the musical forms adopted by early Christians were probably more like that of the synagogue than the Temple, in that the chant was unaccompanied.
In this early period we also see a dynamic that expresses itself in different forms through the centuries. The form of singing begins as something familiar, something that is seen as suitable and doable. It is not long, however, before humans begin to evolve and develop the forms. In the ancient history of the Church in Gaul (France), for example, the music for worship could only be adequately performed by musicians trained in the discipline. Perhaps like the development of polyphony much later, a contributing factor might have something to do with the courts of rulers. Aside from that, we do have a basic impetus to tinker, if only to ensure that we embed ourselves in the music.
Notably, this dynamic is very well demonstrated in the history of chant in Milan, the seat of the Ambrosian rite. St. Ambrose was a pretty good writer of poetry. The chant he developed was at least partly used to keep his allies who were doing a kind of "occupy" movement in opposition to the Arian heresy supported by the empress, from becoming bored. That's a way of saying that they might have started to become frustrated and aggressive. Chanting together might indeed be better than taking to Twitter.
In the south of Italy as well during the political upheavals as the Roman Empire was declining, a great number of Byzantine (Greek) monks landed and took up residence. The singing back and forth or "antiphonating" that we associate with Gregorian chant is because of this Greek "invasion", refugees from the Iconoclasm controversy.
And there was chant that developed in the Roman Church specifically prior to the Carolingian period, i.e., before 800. Perhaps not so unlike these other strands, it preserved ancient disciplines. The development and adoption of "Gregorian" chant was the result of scholarly work and a desire to disseminate something of the heart and soul of Christian ancestors. As in many chapters of human history, there had been much destruction and many other ancient traditions had been lost.
The language of the earlier Roman chant was Latin (something that had been common with the use of chant in Gaul). It is interesting to realize that this earlier form continued to exist and be practised alongside Gregorian modes up to the 14th century, dying out roughly around the end of the Avignon Papacy.
It might also be instructive to reflect a little on the relationship of worship to monastic life. There is awareness of the importance of monasteries in the High Middle Ages, the 11th and 12th centuries, but they are at the heart of the life of the Church long before that. They are places of learning and the preservation of learning. The very structured life that we associate with monasteries supported orderly development of many things: agriculture, trade, and of course the primary mission of the Church to spread and support the Gospel. Parishes existed on monastic lands. It is only in the very recent past that this practice has been firmly dying out. In Canada, we had an abbot ordinary, a mitre-wearing abbot, who presided over the parishes in the territory of the monastery of Muenster, Saskatchewan. That changed less than 20 years ago. And during this present papacy, Montecassino ceased to be an abbacy ordinariate. The parishes are now the responsibility of the local diocesan bishop.
In Canada we still do have traditional monasteries though their populations are small and by their nature, they are situated away from urban areas.
In my next article, I will reflect a little on Gregorian chant specifically.
There are interesting recordings of this early music. I have a 10-disc collection put together by the Harmonia Mundi label. It shows a relatively high degree of scholarly care in reconstructing some of the material.
In some ways learning was even more social than we are used to. It was not only done together but largely out loud - spoken. It is not hard to imagine, then, that poetry and singing are equally embedded in people's lives.
The earliest Christian chant, therefore, was influenced by its Jewish parentage and by a Greek sensibility. "Hellenized" Jews would be quite at home with this. In the Acts of the Apostles we hear some of the attendant stresses of the time.
It is interesting to note that the musical forms adopted by early Christians were probably more like that of the synagogue than the Temple, in that the chant was unaccompanied.
In this early period we also see a dynamic that expresses itself in different forms through the centuries. The form of singing begins as something familiar, something that is seen as suitable and doable. It is not long, however, before humans begin to evolve and develop the forms. In the ancient history of the Church in Gaul (France), for example, the music for worship could only be adequately performed by musicians trained in the discipline. Perhaps like the development of polyphony much later, a contributing factor might have something to do with the courts of rulers. Aside from that, we do have a basic impetus to tinker, if only to ensure that we embed ourselves in the music.Notably, this dynamic is very well demonstrated in the history of chant in Milan, the seat of the Ambrosian rite. St. Ambrose was a pretty good writer of poetry. The chant he developed was at least partly used to keep his allies who were doing a kind of "occupy" movement in opposition to the Arian heresy supported by the empress, from becoming bored. That's a way of saying that they might have started to become frustrated and aggressive. Chanting together might indeed be better than taking to Twitter.
And there was chant that developed in the Roman Church specifically prior to the Carolingian period, i.e., before 800. Perhaps not so unlike these other strands, it preserved ancient disciplines. The development and adoption of "Gregorian" chant was the result of scholarly work and a desire to disseminate something of the heart and soul of Christian ancestors. As in many chapters of human history, there had been much destruction and many other ancient traditions had been lost.
The language of the earlier Roman chant was Latin (something that had been common with the use of chant in Gaul). It is interesting to realize that this earlier form continued to exist and be practised alongside Gregorian modes up to the 14th century, dying out roughly around the end of the Avignon Papacy.It might also be instructive to reflect a little on the relationship of worship to monastic life. There is awareness of the importance of monasteries in the High Middle Ages, the 11th and 12th centuries, but they are at the heart of the life of the Church long before that. They are places of learning and the preservation of learning. The very structured life that we associate with monasteries supported orderly development of many things: agriculture, trade, and of course the primary mission of the Church to spread and support the Gospel. Parishes existed on monastic lands. It is only in the very recent past that this practice has been firmly dying out. In Canada, we had an abbot ordinary, a mitre-wearing abbot, who presided over the parishes in the territory of the monastery of Muenster, Saskatchewan. That changed less than 20 years ago. And during this present papacy, Montecassino ceased to be an abbacy ordinariate. The parishes are now the responsibility of the local diocesan bishop.
In Canada we still do have traditional monasteries though their populations are small and by their nature, they are situated away from urban areas.
In my next article, I will reflect a little on Gregorian chant specifically.
There are interesting recordings of this early music. I have a 10-disc collection put together by the Harmonia Mundi label. It shows a relatively high degree of scholarly care in reconstructing some of the material.
