214 



PLAIN-SONG 



Clothing, hate, and machinery are manufactured. 



IVp. ( IS'.HI) Il,'2li7 ; ( I'.KKI) 15;39. 



Plain-song, PLAIN -CHANT, GREOORIAX 

 CHANT, or GREGORIAN Music, U the music used 

 in the Christian church of tin- West from the 

 f.-irlif-i times, still in use in all Roman Catholic 

 churches, and extensively revived since the rise 

 of the High Church party in the English Church. 

 Many g^xxi musicians, however, consider ite interest 

 as antiquarian rather than musical. Its distin- 

 guishing pointe are ( 1 ) ite recitative-like character, 

 as opposed to what was styled mutiea mensurata 

 i.e. barred music, with a marked and regular 

 rhythm, which was the essential point of ancient 

 Greek music, and more or less of nearly all modern 

 music; (2) the modes, or scales, in which it is 

 written, which are more numerous and varied 

 than the modern major and minor; and (3) its 

 being (originally) sung in unison, though much of 

 it is susceptible of treatment in harmony, and is 

 now frequently so heard. It used to lie stated 

 also that the notes in it were all of equal length, 

 but this view is now generally repudiated and con- 

 demned. It embraces music for all parts of the 

 Human services, from the Accents (nearly in mono- 

 tone) proper to the various readings to the more 

 elaborate melodies of the antiphons and hymns, 

 and the various parts of the mass. The best known 

 and most ancient of all is the music of the eight 

 Tones sung to the Psalms, commonly called the 

 Gregorian Tones. As to the origin of these many 

 different views prevail, some ascribing them to a 

 Greek, some to a Hebrew source, others to the 

 early Christians; there seems some probability, 

 though there is no direct evidence, that they 

 were actually derived from the music of the 

 temple service. As at lii-t plain-song was handed 

 down orally only, and the early systems of nota- 



tion were very defective, it is impossible to ii> 

 mine how far it may have been corrupted. It was 

 first reduced to system by St Ambrose (died 397), 

 but much more extensively by St Gregory the 

 Great, towards the end of the tiib century. There 

 have of course been large additions since.' How he 

 noted the music is uncertain ; the early notation 

 and rules of plain-song were so complicated that it 

 is said ten years' study were necessary to acquire 

 a mastery of them. Local varieties of the proper 

 melodies gradually sprang up, almost every 

 diocese having an office-book peculiar to itself 

 e.g. the antiphonary and gradual of Sarum, said 

 to be one of the purest. The earliest known 

 existing record of plain-song is the Antiphonarium, 

 or rather Gradual, in the library of the monastery 

 of St Gall in Switzerland, probably of the 9th or 

 10th century. Various directories have been pub 

 lished, notably that begun by Palestrina and 

 finished by Guidetti ; the latest, issued under 

 sanction of the pope, is the great series pub 

 li^hed at Ratisbon by Pustet, beginning in 1S71 

 with the Gradual. The music is still alv 

 minted in the old square notes on a stave 1 of four 

 At the Reformation the Gregorian music 



was adapted to the new veniocular services of the 

 English Church by John Marl>eck, who published 

 in 1550 The Book of Common Prater noted ; and his 

 arrangement is still in use in cathedral services. 

 Anglican Chants (q.v.) are modelled on the Gre- 

 gorian psalm tones. 



The modes, or scales, of plain-song require some 

 explanation. Their variety lias been acknowledged 

 b\ first-rate authority as affording greater resource 

 of expression than our major and minor modes ; 

 and music has been written in them by great 

 modern composers e.g. the ' Hymn in the Lydian 

 Mode' in Beethoven^ Quartet, op. 132. They 



SPECIMEN OF ANTIPHON, LEADING TO A PSALM, SET TO THE FIRST TONE, FROM TUB 

 RATISBON 'VESPERAL,' TRANSLATED AND IN MODERN NOTATION. 







The an gel said an - to him, Thou shall call his name John. 



e^ 





I 



r 



Thou shall bare jo; and glad - ness, and ma 



ny shall re joioe at his birth. 



Intimation 

 (tiled only before verse IX 



Mediation, Festal form. 



Bles - sod U 



Second Reciting Note. 



the man that fear eth 

 Ending, 1st form. 



the 



Lord. 



(Tones 8, 4, 7, and 8 hmve 

 me m- than one form of 







!=ZZt I E 



Hi. seed 



hall 



might 



up 



earth, 



*o. 



