Gallican chant

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Not to be confused with Galician chant.

Gallican chant refers to the liturgical

Roman Catholic Church in Gaul, prior to the introduction and development of elements of the Roman rite from which Gregorian chant
evolved. Although the music was largely lost, traces are believed to remain in the Gregorian corpus.

History

Several sources attest the existence of a distinctive

Pepin and Chrodegang of Metz abolished the Gallican rites in favor of the Roman use, in order to strengthen ties with Rome that would culminate in Charlemagne's elevation to Holy Roman Emperor. Charlemagne completed the job his father had begun, so that by the 9th century the Gallican rite and chant had effectively been eliminated. However, the Roman chant brought to the Carolingian churches was incomplete, and ended up incorporating musical and liturgical elements from the local Gallican traditions. The resulting Carolingian chant, which developed into Gregorian chant
, was a Romanized chant, but one in which traces of the lost Gallican repertory may still be found.

General characteristics

No chantbooks of Gallican chant have survived, although the first documented reference to a book of Western plainchant is to a Gallican text with psalms and chants. What we know of Gallican chant comes from contemporary descriptions of the chant, and Gallican elements that survived in later Gregorian sources.

Gallican chant was said to be recognizably different from Roman chant in both its texts and its music.

Byzantine chant
, including the use of Greek texts.

Compositional techniques included certain common

cadences, and the use of centonization
.

The chief candidates for chants in the Gregorian repertory that may be Gallican fossils are those chants not occurring in the Roman tradition, but having counterparts in the Mozarabic chant and Ambrosian chant traditions, and local and votive chants specific to French saints and locations.

References

  • Apel, Willi (1990). Gregorian Chant. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
    ISBN 978-0-253-20601-5
    .
  • Hiley, David (1995). Western Plainchant: A Handbook. Clarendon Press.
    ISBN 978-0-19-816572-9
    .
  • Hoppin, Richard (1978). Medieval Music. W. W. Norton & Company.
    ISBN 978-0-393-09090-1
    .
  • Wilson, David (1990). Music of the Middle Ages. Schirmer Books.
    ISBN 978-0-02-872951-0
    .

External links
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Gallican_chant&oldid=1211045320"