By John Lambert, Esq. 317 
of the two were the same, both being based upon the diatonic Scale, 
common to the Greeks, and other nations of classical antiquity. 
Two centuries after St. Ambrose we come to the time of Pope 
Gregory the Great, from whom the Gregorian Chant takes its name, 
not because it was invented by him, as is commonly supposed, but 
because he reduced the Church Music to a more regular system, 
collecting and correcting the musical phrases then in use, and 
extending them to other parts of the Liturgy. 
But St. Gregory was not content with merely arranging the 
Music of the Church. He well knew that without living voices 
to execute it, it would remain a dead letter; and accordingly he 
instituted and endowed two Academies or training schools for 
singers, under his own immediate direction, giving lessons there 
himself, even when he was so feeble as to be unable to stand or sit; 
and a writer in the ninth century tells us, that at that time, the 
couch upon which the old man reclined, as well as the rod with 
which he kept his pupils in awe, were still preserved in Rome. It 
would be well for the cause of Ecclesiastical Music, whether of the 
ancient or modern school, if those in authority made themselves 
acquainted with it, after the example of St. Gregory; and I 
am not quite sure that some of our Choirs, even at the present day, 
might not be benefitted by the threat, if not by the application of 
the chastisement which he found so efficacious. 
From his position Pope Gregory was enabled to diffuse his Music 
throughout Christendom; and up to the period when modern 
Harmony became generally adopted, the Gregorian Chant was the 
only Music deserving that name in Europe. The secular Music 
of the Middle Ages was composed upon its principles, and I could 
adduce instances of Songs being adapted to some of the Melodies 
of the Hymnal. 
Of course it must not be supposed that the musical text of the 
liturgical books preserved a constant uniformity. At some periods 
the Music was more elaborate than at others, and moreover it became 
modified by national peculiarities; but whether in the more simple 
forms of its first composition, or the more complicated phrases of 
its later developement, it was essentially the same in its Scales and 
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