160070 VO Revolutionary Chants (2024S)

Monophony - and in particular the liturgical monophony of so-called "Gregorian chant" - occupies a special place in the history of European music. In terms of musical material, it can be seen as an architectural foundation upon which music is built; a "level" (planus) or "firm" (firmus) type of music. As compositional material, monophony is often regarded in historical textbooks as a kind of developmental stage before the advent of polyphony. Of course, some authors (including Adorno) have been more subtle and have seen the liturgical monophony of the Roman Catholic Church as a constant through the centuries. Indeed, this "Roman chant" lays claim to being the longest surviving musical repertoire in European history after its first codification in the 8th and 9th centuries.
But this narrative of unchanging tradition is deceptive, and the purpose of these lectures is to examine the ways in which monophony has been subject to radical and even revolutionary change at different points in history. The story begins with the Carolingians under Pippin (d. 768) and Charlemagne (d. 814) and their adoption of 'Roman' chant as part of a deliberate strategy to unify the lands they ruled. However, instead of viewing this history as fundamental to the "formation of a European music culture" (Reckow) - the first supraregional repertoire that crossed different languages and cultures - attention will be focussed on the chant repertoires that were suppressed in this process (Gallican, Old Hispanic, Beneventan). In a second phase, the radical reforms of church chant by the Cistercians in the 12th century are analysed, when melodies were shortened and polyphony was apparently forbidden. Finally, the different ideals regarding liturgical unanimity of the new missionary orders, the Franciscans and Dominicans, will be analysed, as chant developed from a European to a Eurasian phenomenon in the 13th century - and further into the so-called 'New World' of the 16th century.