Who's Afraid of Gregorian Chant?

Everyone. But for all the wrong reasons.

Think of Gregorian Chant, and in your mind's eye you are probably seeing monks singing in Latin, in a dark church filled with incense.  A modern "Gregorian" series of videos featuring modern popular songs sung in a dirge-like manner have intensified this thought.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Catholics and Protestants have been singing the Gregorian Chant for a long time, without realizing it, and this alone should help destroy some fears.  There are two issues that people have with chant, both being based on preconceived notions.

The first misconception is that to sing Gregorian Chant must be sung in Latin.  Wrong, totally wrong.  Did you sing "O Come, O Come, Immanuel" in Latin during Advent last year?  It's a Gregorian Chant.  Gregorian Chant is a style of music, not a style of music that has to be sung in Latin.  The Anglican church has sung Gregorian Chant in English for centuries.  

This shoots down fear No. 1.  Latin not required.

Fear No. 2, I'll never learn to sing it or like it.  It's too hard to sing.

You are already singing chant.  Remember "O Come, O Come, Immanuel."  Here's another example - a well-loved hymn, "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross," is often sung to a tune named HAMBURG, which is a Gregorian Chant melody. "Of the Father's Love Begotten," a popular Christmas hymn, is another example of Gregorian Chant.  When paging through a hymnal, tunes with Latin names are almost always hymns which are based on chant.

So really, what's the difference?

Chant was, and is, the music of the people.  Easy music that the people could sing, having been composed for the people, and also for the choir.  Chant served to let the congregation pray together in song.  Some chants, however, were written to be sung by the choir alone.  Choristers sang daily scriptures, settings of which could be more difficult, more ornate, than congregational chant, especially on high feast days.  Not unlike today's choral anthems, as compared to congregational hymns.  

But the church never forgot the need for simple music for the congregation to sing.  We can see that in today's Catholic Mass, in English, where the congregation sings a repeated phrase in between verses of the psalm.  And during the Gospel procession, outside of Lent, when the people sing an Alleluia, then a cantor from the choir sings the Gospel verses, which is followed by another congregational  Alleluia.

The major thing  to understand about Gregorian Chant is that it was created for the average person to sing, one who does not have a trained voice, and written within the small range of notes an untrained singer can sing.

The difference is this.

Modern music is written like a TV Sitcom.  It has a beginning, a middle and an end. It's predictable, which is why people like it.  It can be ignored.  It can be perfect elevator music.

In this type of music, the note patterns in both the melody and the harmony are very predictable.  The words are adjusted to fit into the patterns of the music.  Music first.  Words second.  

Gregorian Chant allows the words, themselves, to set the rhythm.  And the melody is written to fit the words, not the other way around.  Words - text - comes first, music second.

So, what's the big deal?

We all have heard the arguments and complaints about the translation of the Mass, how it's changed more than once since it was first permitted for the Mass to be said in English.

As an example, most people are aware that modern composers have been writing music for the Responsorial Psalms for years.  But they are writing music first, and altering the text (second) to fit the music.  And ignoring the church approved translations.  The term used for this is, paraphrase.  The psalms have been paraphrased, to fit the music.

According to church documents this is not permitted.  But it is the only way to make the Psalms singable to modern music, where Music appears to be more important than the Text.

Gregorian chant, however, is simple music, composed for the people, and is 100% true to the text.

And it doesn't have to be sung in Latin.

Noel Jones, AAGO, is creative director at Frog Music Press, author of three beginner's books on reading and singing Gregorian chant, all available at www.frogmusic.com, bookstores and Amazon.

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Publisher of books on Gregorian Chant and Organ music.