Gregorian Chant

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So what exactly is ? A bunch of notes slapped on a paper that people just riddle off in a deep voice so it sounds good? Of course not. Chant is a specific kind of music. The people of that time didn’t really develop far into music so there was no real back bone to work from. No organization or format to follow. The way chant was written and performed is very different from today’s music. today has a format to follow and a way to be written, so it sounds very much different from the Chant from the time it was originally written.

Why did Gregorian chant change ? Why isn’t it still chanted today as it was back when it was first created ? There are a few answers to both of those questions, and they are not as complicated as they may sound. Many influences were changing the way people had thought and what they believed. Rome had just fallen and the Catholic church had just begun it’s rise to power. More factors played a role in the shaping of Gregorian chant, and ...

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The Church during that time period was the ruling authority over the people. Chanting was done in groups of monks, which showed unity.

The written chant back then was very vague, because they didn’t have a musical note system nor did they have five lines to write the chanting on. They did, however, find a way to write down the chant. “Melodies were not based on a series of notes organized on a scale; rather, they were created out of certain standard motives or formulas used as building blocks in different combinations.”3 Since organized music did not exist they wrote the words down on pages and made notions above the words or below the words to show a rise in pitch or a drop in pitch. ...

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