Plainsong

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For the band, see Plainsong (band). For the song on The Cure's 1989 album, see Disintegration. For the novel, see Plainsong.

Broadly speaking, plainsong (also known as plainchant) is the name given to the body of traditional songs used in the liturgies of the Roman Catholic Church. The liturgies of the Eastern Orthodox Church, though in many ways similar, are generally not classified as plainsong, though the musical form is nearly as old as Christendom itself. Plainsong is also commonly used in the Anglican churches.

[edit] History

Plainsong is monophonic, and is in free rather than measured rhythm. Gregorian chant is a variety of plainsong that is named after Pope Gregory I (6th century AD). Though frequently asserted, it is not true that Gregory invented the chant, or that he ordered the suppression of previous chant styles, such as the Ambrosian or Mozarabic, for the chant pre-dated St Gregory himself. What he did was to codify and standardize the use of plainchant throughout Christendom. It became known as "Gregorian Chant" because the chant was named in his honour for the endeavour he undertook to promote its use in the Roman liturgy.

For several centuries, different plainchant styles existed concurrently, and standardization on Gregorian chant was not completed, even in Italy, until the 12th century. Plainchant represents the first revival of musical notation after knowledge of the ancient Greek system was lost. Plainsong notation differs from the modern system in having only four lines to the staff and a system of note-shapes called neumes.

There was a significant plainsong revival in the 19th century, when much work was done to restore the correct notation and performance-style of the old plainsong collections, notably by the monks of Solesmes Abbey in Northern France. Following the Second Vatican Council and the introduction of the New Rite Mass, use of plainsong in the Roman Catholic Church declined and was mostly confined to the Monastic Orders^[1] and to ecclesiastical Societies celebrating the traditional Latin Mass (sometimes called the Tridentine Mass). Since Pope Benedict XVI's motu proprio, Summorum Pontificum, however, use of the Tridentine rite has increased and this along with other Papal comments on the use of appropriate liturgical music is promoting a new plainsong revival.

In the late 1980s, plainchant achieved a certain vogue as music for rest, and several recordings of plainchant became "classical chart hits."