S E R 



added by St. Gregory. Each of thefe had the fame final, 



or key-note as its relative authentic ; from which there is 

 no other difference than that the melodies in the four au- 

 thentic, or principal modes, are generally confined within 

 the corapafs of the eight notes above the key-note, and 

 thofe in the four plagal, or relative modes, within the com- 

 pafs of the eight notes belotn the fifth of the key. See 

 Mode. 



Ecclefiaftical writers feem unanimous in allowing, that 

 pope Gregory, who began his pontificate in 590, coUefted 

 the mufical fragments of fuch ancient pfalms and hymns as 

 the firft fathers if the church had approved and recom- 

 mended to the firll Chriitians ; and that he felefted, me- 

 thodized, and arranged them in the order which was long 

 continued at Ronie, and foon adopted by the chief part of 

 the wellern church. Gregory is alfo faid to have banifhed 

 from the church the canto Jigurato, as too light and dilTolute ; 

 and it is added, tlut his own chant was called canto Jermo, 

 from its gravity and fimplicity. 



It has been long a received opinion, that the ecclefiaftical 

 tones were taken from the reformed modes of Ptolemy ; 

 but Dr. Burney obferves, that it is difficult to difcover any 

 connedtion between them, except in their names ; for their 

 number, upon examination, is not tlie fame ; thofe of Pto- 

 lemy being feven, the ecclefialtical eight ; and, indeed, the 

 Greek names given to the ecclefiaftical modes do not agree 

 with thofe of Ptolemy in the fingle inftance of key, but 

 with thofe of higher antiquity. From the time of Gregory 

 to that of Guido, there was no other diltinftion of keys 

 than that of authentic and plagal ; nor were any femi- 

 tones ufed but thofe from E to F, B to C, and occafionally 

 A to B i. 



With refpeft to the mufic of the primitive church, it may 

 be obfcrved, that though it confifted in the finging of 

 pfalms and hymns, yet it was performed in many different 

 ways ; fometimes the pfalms were fung by one perfon alone, 

 whilft the reft attended in filence ; fometimes they were fung 

 by the whole allembly ; fometimes alternately, the congre- 

 gation being divided into feparate choirs ; and fometimes by 

 one perfon, who repeated the firft part of the verfe, the reft 

 joining in the clofe of it. 



Of the four different methods of finging now recited, the 

 fecond and third were properly diitinguifhed by the names 

 of fymphony and antiphony ; and the latter was fometimes 

 called refponfaria, in which women were allowed to join. 

 St. Ignatius, wlio, according to Socrates (lib. vi. cap. 8.), 

 converfed with the apoftles, is generally fuppofed to have 

 been the firft wlio fuggefted to the primitive Chriftians in 

 the Eaft the method of finging hymns and pfalms alter- 

 nately, or in dialogue ; and the ciiftoni foon prevailed in 

 every place where Chriftianity was eftabhfiicd ; thougli 

 Theodoret, in his Hidory (lib. ii. c. 24.), tells us, that this 

 manner of finging was firft praftifed at Antioch. It like- 

 wile appears, that ahnoft from the time when mufic was 

 firft introduced nito the fcrvice of the church, it was of two 

 kinds, and coiifilled in a gentle infleftion of the voice, which 

 they termed plain long, and a more elaborate and artificial 

 kind of mufic, adapted to the hymns and folemn offices con- 

 tained in its ritual ; and tliis diftinftion has been maintained 

 even to the prefent day. 



Although we find a very early diftinftion made between 

 the manner of finging the hymns and chanting the pfalms, 

 it is, however, the opinion of the learned Martini, that tlie 

 mufic of the firft five or fix ages of the church confifted 

 chiefly in a plain and fimple chant of unifons and oftavcs, 

 of which many fragments are ftill remaining in the canto 

 fermo of the Romifh miftals. For with rcfpeft to 



S E R 



mufic in parts, as it does not appear, in thefe early ages, 

 that either the Greeks or Romans were in podeffion of 

 harmony or counterpoint, which has been generally afcnbed 

 to Guido, a monk of Arezzo, in Tufcaiiy, about the 

 year 1022 ; though others have traced the origin of it 

 to the eighth century, it is in vain to feek it in the 

 church. The choral mufic, which had its rife in the 

 church of Antioch, and from thence fpread through 

 Greece, Italy, France, Spain, and Germany, was brought 

 into Britain by the fingers who accompanied Auftin the 

 monk, when he came over, in the year 596, charged with 

 a coromiffion to convert the inhabitants of this country to 

 Chriftianity. Bede tells us, that when Auftin and the com- 

 panions of his miffion, had their firft audience of king Ethel- 

 bert, in the ifle of Thanet, they approached him in pro- 

 ceffion, finging litanies ; and that afterwards, when they en- 

 tered the city of Canterbury, they fung a litany, and at 

 the end of it, Allelnjah. But though this was the firft 

 time the Anglo-Saxons had heard the Gregorian chant, yet 

 Bede likewife tells us, that our Britifh anceftors had been 

 inftructed in the rites and ceremonies of the Galilean church 

 by St. Germanus, and heard him fing Allelnjah many years 

 before the arrival of St. Auftin. In 680, John, pra'ceutor 

 of St. Peter's in Rome, was fent over by pope Agatho to 

 inftruft the monks of Weremouth in the art of finging ; and 

 he was prevailed upon to open fchools for teaching mufic in 

 other places of Northumberland. Benedift Bifcop, the 

 preceptor of Bede, Adrian the monk, and many others, 

 •contributed to diffeminate the knowledge of the Roman 

 chant. At length the fucceflbrs of St. Gregory, and of 

 St. Auftin his miffionary, having eftabhlhed a fchool for 

 ecclefiaftical mufic at Canterbury, the reft of the ifland was 

 furnilhed with mafters from that feminary. The choral fer- 

 vice was firft introduced into the cathedral church of Can- 

 terbury, and, till the arrival of Theodore, and his fettle- 

 ment in that fee, the praAice of it fcems to have been con- 

 fined to the churches of Kent ; but after that, it fpread 

 over the whole kingdom ; and we meet with records of very 

 ample endowments for the fupport of this part of public 

 worffiip. This mode of rehgious worfliip prevailed in all 

 the European churches till the time of the Reformation : 

 the firft deviation from it is that which followed the re- 

 formation by Luther, who being himfelf a lover of mufic, 

 formed a liturgy, which was a mufical fcrvice, contained in 

 a work, entitled, " Pfalmodia, h. c. Cantica facra Veteris Ec- 

 clefios felcfta," printed at Norimberg in 1553, and at Wit- 

 temberg in 1561. But Calvin, in his ellablifhment of a 

 church at Geneva, reduced the whole of divine fervice to 

 prayer, preaching, and finging ; the latter of which he re- 

 ftrained. He excluded the offices of the antiplion, hymn, 

 and motet, of the Romifh fervice, with that artificial and 

 elaborate mufic to whicli they were fung ; and adopted only 

 that plain metrical pfalmody, which is now in general ufe 

 among the reformed churches, and in the parochial ciiurches 

 of our own country. For this purpofe he made ufe of 

 Marot's verfion of the Pfalms, and employed a mulician to 

 let them to ealy tunes only of one part. In 1553, he di- 

 vided the Pfalms into paufcs or (mall portions, and ap- 

 pointed them to be fung in churches. Soon after they were 

 bound up with the Geneva catechilm, from which time the 

 Catholics, who had been accuftomed to fing them, were 

 forbid the ufe of them, under a fevere penalty. Soon after 

 the reformation commenced in England, complaints were 

 made by many of the dignified clergy, and otht-rs, of the 

 intricacy and difficulty of the church mufic of thofe times : 

 in confequence of which it was once propofed, that organs 

 and curious finging fliould be removed from our churches. 



Latimer, 



