Plainsong

The Plain song is a Musical genre crowned. In the medieval Western music , the plainsong is:

  • a song, therefore a vocal music primarily ,
  • has cappella i.e. without instrumental accompaniment,
  • monodic, i.e. with only one polyphonic vote, not ,
  • modal, i.e. each part is without harmonic modulation and lies within a modal scope (or mode) fixes,
  • and who follows a verbal rhythmic , i.e. without division nor measurement.
The term is the French equivalent of Latin Cantus Planus . Here, the term lime pit (not to be written “full”) is same family that flat , and indicates something which does not have rupture, of accident or deterioration.

The Plain song is a type of vocal Musique traditional, generally appearing in a religious context. This musical style is old and widespread. It is not specific to the catholic rites, but one also finds of them examples in the Cantillation S and parts of the Hebrew, Moslem or Buddhist rites. Although the terms are often taken one for the other, it is advisable to distinguish the lime pit song (a musical style) from the Gregorian chant (a liturgical repertory composed in this style). ; Homonymy

  • a butterfly, the Hespérie of the False-Boxwood of the family of the Hesperiidae, names also plainsong .

Western plainsong

The Western plainsong (Christian) has its origin in the song of the psalms and the anthems already present in the liturgy of the synagog, with the birth of the Christian era. This primitive song includes/understands two principal kinds initially:

  • the Chant or the Cantillation of the readings and the Psalm S, carried out by a reader soloist.

  • the song Responsorial, where the assembly sings together an answer to the text of the soloist.

Hymne S are added quickly to it, in the catholic liturgy, including one great creator was Saint Ambroise, at the origin of the repertory ambrosien.

As a kind of the Western music, the traditional lime pit song appears with the top Moyen-âge (between Ve and IXe centuries, and mainly of the Life in VIIIe century), in the crowned Musique. These parts form the “traditional” bottom of the Gregorian chant.

With the the Middle Ages, the plainsong indicates the Latin whole of the melodies in language E, primarily present in the Christian liturgy of Occident (but this kind also accommodates profane parts). At that time, the plainsong is opposed to the measured musics and polyphonic characteristic of the end of the Moyen-âge.

Following the Council of Thirty, the plainsong undergoes a first evolution: simplification and modification of the melodies, displacement of the accents on the long notes. These modifications led to a primitive rehandling of the funds.

In parallel, the Gregorian repertory itself was modified: removal of parts (in particular near total of the sequences), and addition of original compositions of the era baroque (masses, offices and anthems).

This repertory will be of use until the restoration of Solesmes and with the edition of Vaticane (beginning XXe century). With the modern time, the plainsong remains a vocal Musique crowned primarily and inspired by the Gregorian chant, but having been subject to the influence of the musical novel methods with the Organum: the measurement, and sometimes, the harmony. This second type of plainsong will give rise to the kind Choral, in Germany. This “measured plainsong” or “illustrated plainsong” is generally regarded by the purists as a serious deterioration of the original plainsong. It is in reaction to this late plainsong that was undertaken, as of the end of the 19th century, a movement of restoration of the medieval plainsong.

Which future for the Gregorian chant?

The Gregorian chant is already a Musical genre more than thousand-year-old, and one can wonder which will be its future. Many monasteries or laic choruses still practice this art, and some Compositeur S comtemporains are interested in it.

One of the questions which arises at present in the medium of the composition of Gregorian chants is that of the accompaniment of this one. Indeed, the Gregorian chant is traditionally monodic, but it is perhaps possible to reconcile tradition and Polyphonie.

See, on this subject:

  • work Gregorian Polyphonies of Michel Prophette.
  • the book of George Mercury: Gregorian Polyphony .

Several modern groups made the “Gregorian-pop one”. It is the case of Gregorians - Master off Songs as Enigma which was a great success in the years 1990 with its tube Sadness .

Employment in the liturgy

The lime pit song is practically always sung in Latin, for songs intended to accompany by the religious liturgies.

The Gregorian chant more is known and more diffused repertories of the plainsong, so much so that one ends up confusing the two concepts. But the plainsong also includes/understands repertories other than the Gregorian one: let us quote the old man-Roman (more sober), the song ambrosien (or Milanese ), the Mozarab (more exuberant) also called Hispanic or wisigothic , the Gallican (more coloured and dramatic), the bénéventain (in the south of Italy).

The Gregorian repertory is a mixture of the Roman traditions and gallicanes, which it supplanted. This creation dates from the Carolingian time, and belonged to the policy of alliance between the empire of Charlemagne and papacy. A late legend (written by a monk of the Cassin Mount into 872) attached then this musical reform to the liturgical reform which the holy pope Gregoire had undertaken, giving the name of “Gregorian” with what was initially only the “Metz-native Chant” (of the school of Metz). This legend subsise until in the frontispiece of the edition vaticane of the Gradual .

See also: Gregorian chant

Styles of ornamentation

According to their ornamentation, the parts of Gregorian plainsong (or passages of these parts) are divided into four styles (which are the subject of separate articles):
  • the style Psalmodique: a note = several syllables.
  • the Syllabic style : a syllable = a note.
  • the style Neumatique: a syllable = one (sometimes two) Neume of two or three notes.
  • the Style Mélismatique: a melism = several neumes on only one syllable.

N.B.: The styles psalmodic and syllabic are often gathered, insofar as the parts of style psalmodic are traditionally noted at a rate of a Punctum per syllable. However, this notation is obviously superfluous.

See too

Related subjects

External bonds

  • References of musicology
  • Imago Mundi
  • Christian liturgical song
  • Catholic Encyclopedia: Lime pit Song

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