GREGORIAN MUSIC

From the beginning of Christianity singing represented a very important and particular moment of collective prayer. Gregorian singing was the Christian singing in Latin adopted by the Western Church and set itself against the Byzantine one of the Eastern Church. With this word we refer to the music created in the period form the first years of Christianity (313 after Christ) to about the year 1000. The name derives from Benedettino Gregorio Magno (Pope from 590 to 604) who undertook to increase the prestige of the church in comparison with the Longobards. He gathered and put  in order sacred songs in a volume called Antifonario. As a matter of fact among his numerous reforms there was also one which concerned religious singing: to give more unity to the church he took the pain to blend the numerous songs of prayers which were used in centres already reached by the Christianity. He gathered pieces which were to be used in all European centres; he reorganised the complex of rules and traditions which would be reinforced during the reign of Carlo Magno in his work of unification, known as the Carolingian revival and put it into practice at the beginning of the IX century.

Pope Gregory officially imposed Gregorian singing in all the provinces of the HolyRoman Empire which thus spread in abbeys and convents. Only Milan had the permission to go on executing Ambrosian songs, wanted by S. Ambrose, bishop of this city in the IV century. Gregorian singing hadn't any artistic aim, but the only object was to unite the faithful followers in the prayer. It was a monodic singing in Latin, and it distinguished itself in two forms: accentus and concentus. Typical of the first form was the psalmody, that is biblical singing; of the second, on the contrary, was the Hymnody, that is the singing of hymns, also these on biblical texts (Alleluia). The musical theory based itself on scales which preserved the name of the ancient Greek scales; thus   one had a Doric scales, a  frigia, a  lidia and a misolidia scale. Later on, other similar scales were added, so called: ipodorica, ipofrigia, ipolidia and ipomisolidia, defined as plagal scales . All together these eight kinds of scales were called ecclesiastic modes and they made the on complex of the Gregorian mode.