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Chapter Two: Gregorian Chant in Roman Liturgy
The Mass and the Office
Gregorian chant served as the musical foundation for Christian worship, encompassing melodies that range from straightforward recitation to intricate florid lines, each tailored to its role within the liturgy. To fully appreciate chant, one must consider its context within the elaborate structure of Christian services. The Roman liturgy, shaped by centuries of development and refinement, presents a complex tapestry of ritual and music, much of which evolved gradually and often remained obscure to the worshippers themselves. Recognizing this historical background helps clarify both the liturgical framework and the rich variety of chant.
Central to the Roman Catholic tradition is the Mass, which commemorates the Last Supper of Jesus with his disciples, as described in Luke 22:14–20. Celebrated daily in monasteries, convents, and major churches, and weekly in all congregations, the Mass is repeated multiple times on major feast days. Its texts are divided into two main categories: the Proper, whose words change according to the liturgical calendar and the Ordinary (from ordinarium missae), whose texts remain constant—though their melodies may vary. Proper chants are named for their liturgical function while Ordinary chants are identified by their opening words. Each day of the liturgical calendar (Sundays, weekdays, feasts, and memorials) has its own set of Proper chants: Introit, Gradual (or Tract, depending on the season), Alleluia (except in Lent), Offertory, and Communion. These chants are called Proprium Missae (the Proper of the Mass) and are found in liturgical books such as the Graduale Romanum and Liber Usualis (see below). On major feasts (like Christmas, Easter, Pentecost, and saints’ days), the Proper chants are often more elaborate and specific to the event. On ordinary days, the chants are simpler and sometimes shared with other days or grouped into “Commons” (for types of saints, for example). For days that do not have their own unique Proper (such as a saint who does not have a dedicated feast), the liturgy uses chants from the “Common of Saints” (e.g., Common of Martyrs, Common of Virgins), which provide appropriate texts and melodies for various categories of saints.
Ordinary chants—the Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei—are used at every Mass because their texts are fixed and do not change with the liturgical calendar. However, the melodies (musical settings) for these chants can and do vary depending on the feast, season, or local custom. For Christmas Mass and other feasts, any of the standard Gregorian chant melodies for the Ordinary (as found in the Kyriale) could be used. There is no single “required” or exclusive melody for the Ordinary, but certain melodies are traditionally favored for major feasts to add solemnity and festivity. For example, Mass settings such as Missa de Angelis or Missa Orbis Factor are often chosen for Christmas because of their grandeur and familiarity. Originally, many Ordinary chants were sung by the congregation, but over time these became the responsibility of the choir, which was traditionally composed of men (or, in convents, women).
The Mass begins with the entrance procession of the priest and his assistants, accompanied by incense and the singing of the Introit, a psalm-based chant marking the start of the service (e.g. Puer natus est nobis, used for Christmas Mass – track 1 in playlist above). Once the celebrants are in place, the choir continues with the Kyrie, a threefold invocation of mercy that also symbolizes the Holy Trinity (e.g. Kyrie Cunctipotens Genitor, track 2 in playlist). On Sundays and feast days outside Advent and Lent, the Gloria follows—a hymn of praise that further emphasizes the Trinity and repeats the plea for mercy (track 3 in playlist). The priest then offers the Collect, a prayer on behalf of the assembled worshippers.
After these introductory rites, the Mass shifts to readings and instruction, familiarizing participants with scripture and doctrine. The subdeacon intones the Epistle, followed by the Gradual and Alleluia—two elaborate chants performed by soloists with choral responses (e.g. Viderunt omnes and Dies sanctificatus, tracks 4 & 5 in the playlist – both used for Christmas Mass). These pieces, based on psalm texts, represent the musical zenith of the Mass, drawing attention to the interplay of text and melody. During Easter, the Gradual may be replaced by an additional Alleluia, while in Lent the joyful Alleluia gives way to the more somber Tract. On certain occasions, a Sequence follows the Alleluia. The deacon then proclaims the Gospel, after which the priest may deliver a sermon. On Sundays and major feasts, this section concludes with the Credo, a profession of faith that recounts the life, death, and resurrection of Christ (track 6).
The liturgy then turns to the preparation of the bread and wine for communion, accompanied by the Offertory chant (e.g. Tui sunt caeli, track 7 – used for Christmas Mass). After spoken prayers and the Secret, the Preface—a dialogue between priest and choir—introduces the Sanctus, echoing the angelic praise from Isaiah’s vision (track 8). The priest recites the Canon, including the consecration, and sings the Lord’s Prayer. The choir responds with the Agnus Dei, a plea for mercy adapted from ancient litanies (track 9). In the medieval Mass, the priest alone received communion, a practice that has since been restored to include the congregation. The choir sings the Communion chant, based on a psalm, and the priest offers the Postcommunion prayer (e.g. Viderunt omnes, track 10 – used for Christmas Mass). The service concludes with Ite, missa est (Go, it is ended), from which the term for the entire service was derived: Missa in Latin and “Mass” in English (track 11). When the Gloria is omitted, Benedicamus Domino (Let us bless the Lord) replaces Ite, missa est.
Beyond the Mass, early Christians observed regular prayer and psalmody throughout the day and night. These practices were formalized into the Office, a cycle of eight daily services that have been central to monastic life since the early Middle Ages. Outside monasteries, the Office varied in structure and content, resulting in a more diverse and localized repertoire of chants compared to the Mass. Each Office service includes psalms with antiphons, scripture readings with responsories, hymns, canticles, and prayers. Over the course of a week, all 150 psalms are sung at least once. The most significant Office services, both liturgically and musically, are Matins, Lauds, and Vespers.
Throughout the Middle Ages, liturgical texts and music were compiled in handwritten books by scribes, and later printed under church authority. The Missal and Gradual contain the texts and chants for the Mass, while the Breviary and Antiphoner serve the same purpose for the Office. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the Benedictine monks of Solesmes produced modern editions of these books, culminating in the Liber usualis, which offers a standardized collection of the most frequently used texts and chants. These Solesmes editions, now widely used in both worship and recordings, provide an accessible introduction to Gregorian chant, even as they reflect a modern synthesis of a tradition that was once far more varied and regionally diverse.
Styles, Structures, and Liturgical Functions of Chant
Gregorian chant encompasses a wide spectrum of musical styles, reflecting the diverse functions and historical evolution of the liturgy. Performances may vary, with some chants sung by a soloist and choir in alternation (responsorial), others by two groups of singers taking turns (antiphonal), and yet others sung straight through without breaks (direct). Each of these approaches has traditionally been linked to specific types of chant, though practices have evolved over time. Chant settings also differ in their treatment of text: some assign a single note to each syllable (syllabic), others use a small group of notes per syllable (neumatic), and the most elaborate feature long, ornate passages on a single syllable (melismatic). Many chants blend these styles, shifting between them to suit the meaning or structure of the text. Some parts of the Mass and Office are sung to simple recitation formulas—melodic outlines that can be adapted to many different texts. Other sections are set to fully formed melodies. Even the most elaborate melodies often build upon underlying formulas, blurring the distinction between the two categories.
Chant melodies, whether simple or complex, serve primarily to convey the words. Unlike later vocal music, chant composers did not aim to express emotion or depict images, but rather shaped their melodies to mirror the natural flow and accentuation of the text. Phrases in chant typically rise and fall like an arch, echoing the rhythm and contour of spoken Latin (track 12). Accented syllables are often set higher, and important words may be emphasized by longer note groupings, though sometimes melismas appear on less significant syllables for contrast.
Among the simplest chants are the recitation formulas used for prayers and readings, such as the Collect, Epistle, and Gospel. These are almost entirely syllabic, with most of the text sung on a single reciting note and brief melodic motives marking the ends of phrases or sentences. These formulas predate the modal system and are not assigned to any specific mode. They are performed by the priest or an assistant, with occasional responses from the choir or congregation. Their simplicity reflects the practical needs of priests, who were not always trained singers and had extensive texts to recite.
Slightly more elaborate are the psalm tones, formulas for singing psalms in the Office. Each of the eight modes has its own psalm tone, using the mode’s reciting tone as the main pitch for most of the text. These psalm tones remain in use today in Catholic, Anglican, and other traditions, continuing a practice that is at least twelve centuries old. Office antiphons frame the singing of psalms or canticles, providing context for the event or person being commemorated. Since the cycle of 150 psalms is sung weekly, while the antiphon changes daily, each psalm is paired with many different antiphons throughout the year. Office hymns, familiar to almost all Christian traditions, are strophic songs with several stanzas sung to the same melody. These hymns are performed in every Office service, with melodies that often repeat phrases to create varied patterns.
Psalmody also features in the Mass, where psalms sung with antiphons originally accompanied liturgical actions such as the entrance procession and communion. Over time, these chants—the Introit and Communion—were shortened and repositioned within the service. Mass antiphons are typically more ornate than their Office counterparts, often featuring neumatic or melismatic passages. Responsorial psalmody, in which a soloist sings verses and the choir or congregation responds with a refrain, is rooted in early Christian and Jewish practice. This structure underlies the Office responsories and the Gradual, Alleluia, and Offertory in the Mass. Over time, these chants became increasingly ornate, especially in the solo sections, as singers demonstrated their skill.
The Ordinary of the Mass—Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei—was originally sung by the congregation to simple, syllabic melodies. As Latin became less familiar to laypeople, these chants were taken over by the choir, and new, more elaborate melodies were composed. These later settings are characterized by clear modal identity, melodic repetition, and individual musical profiles.
Frankish composers played a pivotal role in developing ornate melodies for the Mass Ordinary. Before the Carolingian era, there was little motivation to create elaborate settings for these texts, since they functioned primarily as acclamations and had not yet secured a permanent place in the liturgy. The Frankish embrace of these chants was closely tied to their taste for ceremonial splendor, likely influenced by public rituals such as the laudes regiae—the royal acclamations used to honor Charlemagne after his coronation in Rome. Once these texts became established components of the Mass, they were incorporated into the ordo (the prescribed order of worship), allowing them to be formally notated and performed as part of the service.
The chants and texts specific to particular feasts and occasions were compiled into specialized liturgical books such as antiphoners and graduals. In contrast, the chants performed at every Mass were incorporated into the ordo. Consequently, the term “Mass Ordinary” came to denote the five unchanging texts sung by the choir: Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei. These chants began to attract focused musical development during the Carolingian era. Over time, composers started creating unified polyphonic settings for the entire Ordinary, typically providing one musical composition per text, with the notable exception of the Credo, which, due to its extensive length, has traditionally been set in a straightforward, syllabic manner. This practice gave rise to unified polyphonic cycles by composers from the Renaissance through the twentieth century.
The Gloria—often called the “Gloria in excelsis” or Greater Doxology (to distinguish it from the shorter “Gloria patri” used at the end of psalms and canticles)—was the first of the Ordinary chants to receive special musical attention. The Gloria is typically set in a neumatic style, with melodic phrases that match groups of a few syllables. Both the Gloria and the Credo are lengthy texts characterized by recurring melodic motives, but neither follows a rigid musical form. In the liturgy, the priest begins the Gloria by singing the opening words, after which the choir continues the chant.
The text of the Gloria opens with two verses from the Gospel of Luke, echoing the angels’ proclamation to the shepherds on the night of Christ’s birth. Before it became a regular part of the Mass, the Gloria in excelsis was frequently used as a processional hymn for Christmas, serving as the highlight of the celebrants’ entrance. It was also used in a similar way at Easter. Once it was incorporated into the Mass, the Gloria was omitted during the penitential seasons leading up to Christmas and Easter, so that its return would mark the joyful character of those feasts.
Most Sanctus melodies are likewise neumatic, with repeated musical phrases that mirror the textual repetition—especially in the two Hosanna sections, which often share the same melodic material. The Sanctus is a biblical acclamation, originating in the book of Isaiah. Known in Jewish tradition as the Kedusha, it has been a central part of synagogue worship since ancient times and was adopted by the earliest Christians as the congregation’s response within the eucharistic prayer. Even in its Latin version, the Sanctus preserves two Hebrew words: Sabaoth (“hosts”) and Hosanna (“save us”). The earliest Frankish musical settings for the Sanctus appear in the tenth century, by which point the chant was typically performed not by the whole congregation, but by the trained schola.
The Agnus Dei has a comparatively recent place in the liturgy, having been introduced into the Mass in the seventh century as an accompaniment to the breaking of bread before communion. Initially, it took the form of a litany, with the invocation to the Lamb of God repeated an indefinite number of times, each followed by the congregational plea, “have mercy on us.” Over time, the structure was standardized and shortened to three acclamations, with the final response altered to “grant us peace.” This reform coincided with the period when Frankish composers were actively developing their settings for the Mass Ordinary, so the earliest melodies for the Agnus Dei emerged alongside the finalized text. Musically, the Agnus Dei often uses the same melodic phrase for all three petitions, though some settings introduce a variation in the final line.
The Kyrie eleison stands out among the Ordinary chants for its unique and somewhat enigmatic history. It is the only part of the Latin Mass that retains its original Greek, with Kyrie eleison meaning “Lord, have mercy on us”—the same sentiment expressed by Domine, miserere nobis. This phrase was once a common liturgical response, especially in the context of litanies, which were often sung during processions. Pope Gregory the Great, in one of his few well-documented liturgical reforms, decreed that Kyrie eleison should alternate with Christe eleison (“Christ, have mercy on us”). By the ninth century, when Frankish composers began to focus on the chant, the Kyrie had taken on its familiar ninefold structure: three repetitions each of Kyrie eleison, Christe eleison, and Kyrie eleison.
As with the other Ordinary chants, there exist both simple Kyrie melodies—likely reflecting early congregational participation—and more elaborate versions, which were probably developed in Frankish monasteries from the tenth century onward for performance by the trained schola. These ornate settings often mirror the structure of the litany, using patterns of melodic repetition such as AAA BBB AAA’ or AAA BBB CCC’. The repetitive nature of the text encourages florid, melismatic settings, with extended melodic lines especially on the final syllables of Kyrie and Christe and the opening of eleison. The Kyrie is typically sung antiphonally by two halves of the choir, with the final statement lengthened so that both groups can join together. Although a variety of melodies for Ite, missa est circulated in the Middle Ages, the cycles in the Liber usualis customarily use the melody of the first Kyrie.
Additions to the Authorized Chant Repertory
During the ninth century, as the Frankish church enriched the Gregorian chant repertoire, the liturgy of the Mass grew increasingly ornate. Amalarius of Metz, a cleric serving under Charlemagne, was a notable advocate for the inclusion of melismatic passages in festive chants. He argued that these extended vocal flourishes could evoke a transcendent or mystical comprehension that surpassed the limits of spoken language. Amalarius praised the Roman custom of replacing the jubilus—the melisma on the “-ia” of “Alleluia”—with an even more elaborate melody, which he claimed singers referred to as a sequentia. However, this embellishment was not universally welcomed. Agobard of Lyons, a contemporary church figure, criticized the trend, lamenting that singers prioritized vocal display over spiritual devotion, boasting of their technical skill and memory, and competing in elaborate melismatic displays.
Early sequentia melismas often featured repeated internal phrases, a strategy that helped singers commit them to memory. Frankish musicians introduced another important mnemonic device with lasting artistic consequences: they began adding texts to these melismatic chants, transforming them into syllabic hymns. This innovation sparked a remarkable era of new devotional song, flourishing over three centuries and reaching its height in twelfth-century France.
One of the earliest documented instances of setting words to melismatic melodies comes from Notker Balbulus (Notker the Stammerer, d. 912), a monk recognized as Charlemagne’s first biographer. In the preface to his Liber hymnorum (Book of Hymns), written around 880, Notker recounts how he learned this technique as a young man from a monk who had fled a Norman (Viking) attack on an abbey in northwestern France, likely around 850—about two decades after Amalarius first described and promoted the sequentia among the Franks. The refugee monk brought with him an antiphoner in which some sequentia melismas had been fitted with words. Inspired by this approach, Notker enthusiastically adopted the practice of setting syllabic texts to extended vocalises, laying the groundwork for what we now know as the sequence.
The sequence developed into a fully syllabic chant characterized by a paired versicle format. This form stands out as a unique Frankish innovation within the growing Roman liturgical tradition. The term “sequence” itself means “that which follows,” reflecting its placement immediately after the Alleluia in the liturgy. In the sixteenth century, as part of the Counter-Reformation reforms, nearly all sequences were removed from the liturgical repertoire. Only four remained: Victimae paschali laudes for Easter, Veni sancte spiritus for Pentecost, Lauda Sion (composed by St. Thomas Aquinas) for Corpus Christi, and Dies irae for the Requiem Mass.
Tropes
One of the most frequent methods for adding new musical material to existing chants was to compose a preface that served to expand and interpret the original for contemporary worshipers. Although this approach—like many Frankish musical innovations—originated in the ninth century, it reached its height in the tenth, mirroring the spiritual and artistic ambitions of the Cluniac reform movement.
The Benedictine abbey of Cluny, located in east-central France, was established in 910 by Abbot Berno with support from William the Pious, the first duke of Aquitaine. The land, recently won from the duke of Burgundy, was granted outright to the monastery to ensure its independence from secular control. At Cluny, Berno aimed to restore the original Benedictine discipline, which had been undermined during two centuries of Norse invasions. Central to this renewal was a dramatic increase in the time and energy devoted to liturgical worship. This meant not only making services longer and more solemn, but also deepening the monks’ devotional education.
One likely function of these newly created prefaces—known as tropes (from the Latin tropus, possibly related to the Byzantine-Greek troparion, a non-scriptural hymn stanza)—was to foster such devotion. Typically, tropes were inserted into the antiphons of the Mass proper, most notably the Introit, recasting it as an introduction that explained the broader significance of the Mass—essentially offering worshipers a reason for the day’s celebration. Tropes were similarly appended to other Gregorian antiphons used during key moments in the service, such as the Offertory and Communion, providing a sung reflection on the meaning behind presenting gifts or partaking in the Eucharist. As the Cluniac reform spread across much of France, Germany, and northern Italy, the practice of troping became widespread. However, individual tropes remained more local and flexible than the established chants, with the same antiphon often appearing with different prefaces in various sources, reflecting local liturgical traditions.
At their most elaborate, tropes could serve not just as prefaces to an entire Introit, but also as introductions to each psalm verse within the antiphon, to the following verses, or even to the doxology. In practice, tropes could be inserted at several points, functioning as interpolations as well as prefaces. Unlike the syllabic sequence, which stood in sharp contrast to the melismatic alleluia that preceded it, tropes adopted the neumatic style of the antiphons they accompanied, effectively becoming part of the original. Because the first words of chants were always sung by the precentor to establish the pitch, it is thought that tropes may have been distinguished from the choral antiphons by being assigned to soloists.
After the 12th century, tropes quickly declined, though the Marian trope Spiritus et alme for the Gloria is a notable late example. This piece uses rhyme and syllable matching to link its six lines to the older Mass text, and its melody survives as Gloria IX in the Vatican/Solesmes tradition. The oldest copy appears with 11th-century Norman neumes. The dual themes of the Trinity and the Virgin Mary in this trope inspired later composers, who sometimes adapted its lines for other chants or poetic texts. In some cases, the Spiritus trope was combined with other tropes in polyphonic settings, showing its acceptance as part of the chant tradition.
The Agnus Dei was introduced as a separate chant by Pope Sergius I in the late 7th century and later became the subject of troping, especially during the 9th and 10th centuries. According to a theory proposed by Michel Huglo, the regionalization of early tropes reflects the political divisions of the Carolingian Empire after 843. The earliest Agnus tropes, found in both East and West Frankish sources, show few melodic variants and likely predate 850; later tropes are more regionally distinct and often more poetic and symmetrical.
Terms like farsing and glossing have also been used for troping, especially for practices like alternating verses of a lesson with phrases from pre-existing chants in certain Christmas liturgies, or for devotional songs popular in Bohemia in the 14th and 15th centuries.
Hodie cantandus est is an introductory trope for the Christmas Introit Puer natus est nobis composed by Tuotilo of St. Gall around the year 900 and was widely used throughout the Middle Ages, appearing in numerous liturgical manuscripts across Europe. The trope adds new text and melody before the main Introit chant, serving as a kind of poetic introduction that sets the theological and celebratory tone for the feast. Its structure and function are classic examples of the trope genre, which embellishes and expands existing liturgical chants (track 13 – the Introit begins at 1:47).
Prosula
A prosula is a text added syllabically to a pre-existing melisma. One of the earliest documented examples is Psalle modulamina for the alleluia with the verse Christus resurgens. This alleluia does not appear in the oldest graduals (such as those in René-Jean Hesbert’s Antiphonale missarum sextuplex) or in the late 9th-century gradual-antiphoner but is now associated with the fourth Sunday after Easter. The manuscript, possibly the oldest datable source of neumatic notation, integrates the original alleluia text syllable-by-syllable into the new prosula, assigning each note of the melody to a text syllable. Richard L. Crocker’s transcription of Psalle modulamina illustrates this practice, with capitalized words representing the original verse text.
Texting individual melismas within chants—particularly alleluias, offertory verses, and Great Responsories—was more common than fully texting entire melodies. These melismas often feature internal repetition (e.g., AABBC), resulting in structures resembling miniature sequences. Some scholars argue these compositions were newly created as unified works rather than adaptations of pre-existing melismas.
A significant collection of 91 alleluia, offertory, and responsory prosulas appears in F-Pn lat.1118, an Aquitanian troper dated 985–96. Prosulation often involved splitting neume groupings (e.g., podatus, climacus) into individual notes, each assigned a syllable. This practice is evident in the alleluia prosula Laudetur omnis tibi caterva from F-Pn lat.903 where neumes are dissected into single notes.
The dual notation of prosulas—melismatic and texted—has sparked debate over performance practices: whether sung simultaneously or alternatim. Similar questions arise with sequences, which also often appear in both forms in early sources.
Melisma
The appearance or omission of responsory melismas varies across manuscript sources, making it difficult to determine whether these melodic passages were part of the original composition or later additions to an existing responsory. Some melismas seem to have developed a semi-independent status, as illustrated by the well-known threefold melisma (also called the neuma triplex or trifarium neuma) described by Amalarius of Metz (c. 775–c. 850) in his Liber de ordine antiphonarii. According to Amalarius, this distinctive neumed melisma was originally associated with the Christmas responsory In medio ecclesiae for the feast of St John the Evangelist (28 December), but by his time, contemporary singers (the moderni cantores) had begun to use it with the Christmas responsory Descendit de caelis, particularly at its closing phrase lux et decus universae fabricae mundi.
The practice of prosulating—adding text syllabically—to the final words of the triple melisma, such as fabricae mundi, and to related texts like Facinora nostra relaxari mundi gloriam, likely began as early as the late 9th century. This involved setting new words to the interpolated neumed melisma, further blurring the line between original and adapted material.
Other types of added melismas can be found as embellishments in numerous introits and Glorias, especially in early manuscripts from St Gallen. Many of these melismas were also texted using the standard method of assigning one syllable to each note of the melisma.
Sequence
The term sequentia refers to the often elaborate, textless melismas that were originally sung in place of the repeated jubilus of the Alleluia at Mass, creating an extended musical structure: Alleluia–jubilus–verse–sequentia. There is ongoing debate about whether these passages were always performed as wordless melodies or if they were texted from the outset, as they appear in sources from the late 9th century onward. Early references suggest a textless origin. The earliest known mention is in the late 8th-century Codex Blandiniensis, which lists Alleluia incipits followed by the rubric cum sequentia. Amalarius, writing a few decades later, described the sequentia as a jubilatio that singers called a sequentia, and the term also appears in the late 9th-century Ordo romanus V. Amalarius further noted that at Easter Vespers, the pope would embellish the Alleluia with verses and sequentiae—examples of which survive in Old Roman and Ambrosian chant traditions. The Synod of Meaux in 845 recognized the sequentia as an important part of the Alleluia, and forbid the addition of texts.
Only one 9th-century manuscript preserves notated sequentiae, but the roughly forty texts set by Notker Balbulus to thirty-three different melodies (completed in 884) provide insight into the repertoire of the late 9th century. While it is unclear exactly which melodies were known to Amalarius or the Synod of Meaux, the evidence suggests that a moderate number of untexted sequentiae existed early in the 9th century, with the practice of adding texts emerging by mid-century. By the early 10th century, manuscripts often transmit sequences in both melismatic and texted forms, though it is difficult to determine how many melodies date back to the early 9th century. Some may have been newly composed as unified text-and-music works—a view emphasized by Crocker, who argues that most surviving sequences were texted from the start. Nevertheless, a few notated collections of sequence melodies without texts survive, and even in the late 11th century, many sequences at Cluny were still sung without texts. The frequent assignment of new texts to sequence melodies also suggests that these tunes were regarded as independent musical entities. Notker’s proemium famously describes the process of fitting texts to existing melodies. In early French and English sources, melodies and texts were often copied in separate parts of a manuscript, and many early sources give unique names to melodies, sometimes referencing Alleluia verses, sequence texts, or using obscure names such as Metensis, Aurea, or Planctus cigni.
There has long been confusion between the terms sequentia and prosa. West of the Rhine, the word sequentia referred to the melodic addition to the Alleluia, while the text set to this melody—and by extension the entire piece—was called prosa. East of the Rhine, sequentiae were rarely copied as independent pieces; instead, they appeared as marginal additions to the texts they accompanied, giving singers the option to perform the melody with or without words. In Italy, virtually all manuscripts transmit the text with the music directly above, but the Italians adopted the West Frankish terminology, calling the texted melody prosa and the purely melodic version sequentia.
The sequence became the most significant independently structured musical genre to emerge in the 9th century, typically sung between the Alleluia verse and the Gospel reading at Mass. Standard sequences are syllabic chants made up of paired verses (e.g., ABBCCDD), with each pair sharing the same number of syllables and musical phrase. Strophes vary in length, and a modal relationship often exists between the final note and internal cadences. The origin of the double-verse structure is unclear; some have linked it to topical songs from c. 840–880, but these are not liturgical and differ in structure.
A small group of early sequences are much shorter and lack the paired-verse structure, often associated with lesser feasts. From the 11th century, new styles emerged, emphasizing rhyme and accent. By the late 12th century, fully rhymed and regularly accented sequences became common, allowing for the reuse of melodies with different texts (contrafacture). Many of Adam of St. Victor’s texts from the early 12th century gained special popularity in Paris and beyond. The Council of Trent (1545-63) banned most sequences, retaining only a handful such as Victimae paschali laudes and Dies irae.
Congaudent angelorum chori by Notker Balbulus (c. 840–6 April 912) is a classic example of the sequence genre, which became especially popular in the St. Gall Abbey tradition, where Notker was a leading figure. The sequence was typically sung after the Alleluia at Mass on major feasts. It was especially associated with the Feast of the Assumption (August 15), though it was also used for other Marian feasts and, in some local traditions, adapted for other occasions (track 14).
Liturgical dramas and laments
The origins of the renowned Easter dialogue Quem queritis in sepulchro (track 15)—the exchange between the Marys and the angel(s) at Christ’s tomb—have been widely debated, as it is generally regarded as the starting point of medieval liturgical drama. The earliest known sources, from Limoges and St Gallen, both date from the 930s, suggesting that the composition likely occurred at the start of the 10th century or possibly earlier. By the late 10th century, Quem queritis had gained broad recognition, though the precise center of its spread remains uncertain. Over time, the dialogue came to occupy one of three standard liturgical positions: (1) as part of the procession before Mass on Easter Day, with a station at the sepulchre; (2) as an introduction to the Easter Day Mass introit; or (3) following the final responsory at the end of the Night Office on Easter morning.
In its simplest form, Quem queritis in sepulchro consists of the angel(s)’ question, the Marys’ reply, and the angelic proclamation of Christ’s resurrection, although additional verses were often appended. The dialogue was soon adapted for other liturgical seasons, appearing as an exchange between midwives and shepherds at Christmas, or between angels and apostles at the Ascension. From the 11th century onward, further scenes from the Easter story were dramatized, often incorporating existing Office antiphons and responsories with biblical texts. Sometimes these retained their original melodies, resulting in modal shifts; at other times, new, unified musical settings were created.
A significant development in the 11th century was the revision of the Quem queritis dialogue with new text and music, notably with central verses in E mode instead of D. This version originated in south Germany, though the exact location is unknown. The new version’s chants include further dramatized scenes, such as Mary Magdalene’s arrival (Ad monumentum venimus) and the choir’s antiphon Currevant duo simul, which narrates Peter and John’s race to the tomb. Other elements, like the sequence Victimae paschali laudes and the German hymn Christ ist erstanden, were often integrated into the ceremony.
By the 12th century, texts in accentual, rhymed verse became increasingly common, sometimes replacing earlier prose chants or serving as new scenes or entire plays. The connection with the liturgy in these later works often became tenuous, making it useful—if not always clear-cut—to distinguish between older representational liturgical ceremonies and newer dramatic plays. Some of the earliest Epiphany plays, such as those depicting the Magi, Herod, and the Slaughter of the Innocents, appear to exceed liturgical boundaries and hint at non-liturgical origins. Other plays, like the Sponsus (about the wise and foolish virgins, early 12th century, Limoges) and the miracle plays of St Nicholas (early 13th century, the Fleury Playbook), are marked by the use of strophic verse, often with the same melody for multiple strophes. In contrast, the Ludus Danielis by students of Beauvais Cathedral School (early 13th century) features a rich variety of musical material, blending references to liturgical melodies and conductus with many original compositions.
The episode of the Slaughter of the Innocents inspired several laments for Rachel, while laments by the Virgin Mary beneath the cross—known as Marienklagen in German sources—became even more widespread, especially in Italian and German traditions. Although both types are related to a broader repertoire of non-liturgical laments (planctus), Marian laments often held a place in the liturgy, typically sung after the Reproaches during the Adoration of the Cross on Good Friday.
Ordo virtutum, (The Virtues, ca. 1151), is a sacred music drama with eighty-two songs by Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179). This allegorical play features characters such as the Prophets, the Virtues, the Happy Soul, the Unhappy Soul, and the Penitent Soul, with the Virtues leading the fallen soul back to the faithful. All parts are sung in plainchant except the Devil, who speaks—symbolizing his separation from God. “O nos peregrine sumus” (“O, we are strangers” – track 16) is a poignant choral chant in Ordo virtutum that marks a significant moment early in the drama. It is the fourth chant in the work’s sequence and is generally sung by the Virtues as a group, expressing the lament of souls exiled from their heavenly home and struggling with the trials of earthly existence. The Latin lyrics, O nos peregrine sumus. Quid fecimus, ad peccata deviantes? Filie regis esse debuimus, sed in umbram peccatorum cecidimus. O vivens sol, porta nos in humeris tuis, translate to: “O, we are strangers. What have we done, straying into sin? We should have been daughters of the king, but we have fallen into the shadow of sins. O living sun, carry us on your shoulders.” This passage captures the sorrow and longing of the Virtues (and, by extension, all souls) for redemption and return to divine grace.
Conductus, versus, cantio
Numerous 12th- and early 13th-century manuscripts preserve Latin songs—variously labeled conductus or versus—that display remarkable variety and inventiveness in their strophic and refrain forms, usually set in accentual, rhymed verse. These sources fall into two main categories. The first includes song collections with little explicit indication of liturgical function. The second category consists of sources tied to special festal liturgies of the Christmas season, especially the Feast of Fools on New Year’s Day and the Feast of the Circumcision. Examples include the New Year’s Day Office of Sens, the New Year’s Day Office of Beauvais, the Epiphany Office of Laon, and the St James Office of Santiago de Compostela.
The evidence suggests these songs often served as substitutes for traditional chants, especially for the versicle Benedicamus Domino: Deo gratias, and were used to accompany liturgical actions such as processions or the movement of the reader to the lectern. Over time, this repertoire became part of a larger tradition of rhymed prayers and devotional verse poetry, flourishing in southern Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Bohemia, and Poland from the late 13th to the 17th century. Many of these Latin poems were published by Mone and Dreves.
Favored devotional themes included the Trinity, Corpus Christi, the Holy Cross, patron saints, angels, and above all, the Virgin Mary. Some earlier pieces reflect Hussite sympathies, such as the Corpus Christi chant Jesus Christus nostra salus, which features an acrostic spelling the Latinized name of Jan Hus. The function of these pieces is often unclear, as sources rarely provide informative titles or rubrics; they may have been sung at Vespers, in processions, or for private devotion. The frequent use of the terminal abbreviation Evovae from the doxology suggests some formal liturgical use. Many of these poems are in trochaic metre, which was popular for marches and processions.
The texts are rich in stylized symbolism, drawing on botanical, astronomical, musical, and biblical imagery. Acrostic schemes and glosses from prayers such as the Lord’s Prayer, Ave Maria, or Salve regina are common. Among the longer Marian psalters, some with musical prologues, each of the 150 verses may begin with recurring acclamations like Ave, Salve, Vale, or Eia. Musical forms are highly variable: while some poems follow regular patterns (such as aab or aabbc), macaronic texts and refrains are less prevalent than in contemporary English carols. Through-composed melodies, with few internal repeats, are typical of poems lacking end-lines or using free poetic metre, as well as artificial constructs like alphabetic acrostics.
A Cantional is a collection of these devotional songs and chants, compiled either as a section within a gradual, antiphoner, or processional, or as a standalone book. Most of the repertoire is monophonic with Latin texts, though polyphonic settings and vernacular translations are also found.
Another notable group of Bohemian liturgical songs featuring both Latin and Czech texts are the Rorate chants. This repertory is associated with special Masses and cantiones centered around the introit for the fourth Sunday of Advent, Rorate coeli. These votive chants, traditionally performed during Advent, are believed to have originated in Prague around the mid-14th century and gained widespread popularity from the 16th century onward.
The medieval Office
One of the most elaborate musical forms of the central Middle Ages was the Office in honor of local saints. These Offices could include more than 40 separate chants—such as invitatories, antiphons, responsories, hymns, versicles, canticles, collects, psalms, and lessons—alongside numerous prayers. The structure of Matins (the night Office) typically followed one of two main patterns. Monastic communities adhering to the Rule of St Benedict used the monastic cursus, with Matins divided into three nocturns: the first and second each had 6 antiphons and psalms, 4 lessons, and 4 responsories, while the third included 1 antiphon with canticles, 4 lessons, and 4 responsories. In contrast, diocesan or secular churches followed the canonical or Roman cursus, dividing Matins into three nocturns of 3 antiphons, psalms, lessons, and responsories each. Some medieval Offices, such as those in the early 11th-century Hartker Antiphoner from St Gallen, combined elements of both systems. Collectively, the antiphon, lesson, and responsory texts were called the historia, a term dating back to the early 9th century.
The earliest Gregorian Offices drew their historiae texts mainly from scripture and the Church Fathers, but later Offices for local saints relied on hagiographical sources—lives, passions, translations of relics, miracle stories, and sermons. In these later Offices, the lessons provided extended narrative, while antiphon and responsory texts offered brief, devotional commentary.
The process of creating a single liturgical formulary from an older saint’s life is illustrated by the Office of St Valeria of Limoges, where an antiphon is derived from the Vita antiquior of St Martial, first bishop of Limoges. At the basilica of St Salvatoris Mundi in Limoges, eight feasts celebrating St Martial were added to the liturgy between 930 and 1550, including his Natalis (30 June), two Translations of relics, the Apparitio Martialis (16 June), and a Thursday Office. The principal Natalis Office, known as the Venerandam (from its opening antiphon), served as a prototype: as new feasts were introduced, this Office was adapted and expanded with new material for each occasion.
For example, the Apparitio feast of St Martial (16 June), commemorating a miraculous vision before his death, reused responsories from the earlier Venerandam Office, while the monastic rhymed Office Martialis festum recolens Aquitania plaude incorporated these and other elements. Another case is the Office In susceptione reliquiarum for Notre Dame in Paris (4 December), composed between 1180 and 1200 to celebrate the reception of relics in the new cathedral. This composite Office drew its nine Matins responsories from five different feasts, demonstrating how patronal Offices were often assembled from pre-existing liturgical material.
Such Offices for local saints first appeared in the Frankish empire. The Compiègne gradual–antiphoner, dated to 877, shows that Offices for northern French saints like Medardus, Crispinus and Crispinianus, Vedastus, Quintinus, and Germanus were already in circulation before that date.
With the introduction of new patronal feasts, especially after the 11th century, hundreds of new Offices were composed, often using alliterative prose and, from the 12th century, accentual, rhymed verse. The melodies accompanying these texts were frequently arranged in modal order, as seen in the Valeria Office’s first nocturn.
Chant’s Enduring Legacy in Western Music
Gregorian chant was central to Christian worship in central and western Europe until the Reformation and remained so in Catholic regions afterward. Most people heard chant at least weekly, and it was the primary activity of professional singers until the late sixteenth century. Composers like Leoninus, Du Fay, Ockeghem, Josquin, and Palestrina spent much of their careers singing and directing chant.
Chant was reformed in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries and again in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The Second Vatican Council (1962–65) allowed Catholic services to be held in local languages, and chant was no longer prescribed. By the late twentieth century, chant was mostly practiced in monasteries and convents or performed in concert, known mainly through recordings.
From the ninth to the thirteenth centuries, chant formed the foundation for most polyphonic music and continued to influence sacred music well into the sixteenth century. The diversity inherent in chant—from syllabic to melismatic styles and various modes—was reflected in later service music. After the Reformation, many chants were adapted as chorale or hymn tunes in Protestant churches, and chant-derived melodies are still used today in Lutheran, Anglican, and other traditions.
During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, composers incorporated chant melodies into both sacred and secular works. Yet, the influence of Gregorian chant extends beyond direct quotation. For over a thousand years, chant shaped the musical sensibilities of Europeans, leaving a lasting imprint on all later Western music.
Bibliography
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