Political and Theological Systems
570 or 580 AD- Pope Gregory comes to power. Everyone is
worried because they are moving to a new century. He tries to save as many
souls as possible. Some of the things that Pope Gregory does is to codify
or systematize worship and the liturgy of the church. One such system was
Gregorian
Chant.
Gregorian Chant : all sing together (monophonic)
Why was chant invented? It passed on Catholic beliefs
in an oral tradition and it helped people remember the words. Gregorian
chant started with Pope Gregory -ceremonial from the Jewish temple Gothic
cathedral and Gregorian chant-echo (overtones and undertones)
The next passage is quoted directly from the Encyclopaedia
Britannica:
Gregorian chant, monophonic, or unison, liturgical
music of the Roman Catholic Church, used to accompany the text of the mass
and the canonical hours, or divine office. Gregorian chant is named after
St. Gregory I the Great, pope from 590 to 604. It was collected and codified
during his reign. Charlemagne, king of the Franks (768-814), imposed Gregorian
chant on his kingdom, where another liturgical tradition--the Gallican
chant--was in common use. During the 8th and 9th centuries, a process of
assimilation took place between Gallican and Gregorian chants; and it is
the chant in this evolved form that has come down to the present.
The Ordinary of the mass includes those texts that
remain the same for each mass. The chant of the Kyrie ranges from neumatic
(patterns of one to four notes per syllable) to melismatic (unlimited notes
per syllable) styles. The Gloria appeared in the 7th century. The psalmodic
recitation, i.e., using salm tones, simple formulas for the intoned reciting
of psalms, of early Glorias attests to their ancient origin. Later Gloria
chants are neumatic. The melodies of the Credo, accepted into the mass
about the 11th century, resemble psalm tones. The Sanctus and Benedictus
are probably from apostolic times. The usual Sanctus chants are neumatic.
The Agnus Dei was brought into the Latin mass from the Eastern Church in
the 7th century and is basically in neumatic style. The concluding Ite
Missa Est and its substitute Benedicamus Domino usually use the melody
of the opening Kyrie.
The Proper of the mass is composed of texts that vary
for each mass in order to bring out the significance of each feast or season.
The Introit is a processional chant that was originally a psalm with a
refrain sung between verses. By the 9th century it had received its present
form: refrain in a neumatic style--a psalm verse in psalm-tone style--refrain
repeated. The Gradual, introduced in the 4th century, also developed from
a refrain between psalm verses. Later it became: opening melody (chorus)--psalm
verse or verses in a virtuosically embellished psalmodic structure (soloist)--opening
melody (chorus), repeated in whole or in part. The Alleluia is of 4th-century
Eastern origin. Its structure is somewhat like that of the Gradual. The
Tract replaces the Alleluia in penitential times. This chant is a descendant
of synagogue music.
The sequence flourished primarily from about the 9th
century to the 16th. In its modern form the texts are sacred poems with
double-line stanzas having the same accentuation and number of syllables
for each two lines. The melody of the first line was repeated for the second
line of then stanza, a new melody being given to the next stanza; the music
is syllabic. The Offertory originally consisted of a psalm and refrain,
but by the 12th century only the refrain remained. The music is quite melismatic.
Peculiar to the Offertory is repetition of text. The Communion is, like
the Offertory, a processional chant. The music is neumatic in style.
The canonical hours consist of eight prayer services:
Matins, Lauds, Prime, Terce, Sext, None, Vespers, and Compline. Each includes
antiphons or refrains, short texts that precede or follow each psalm and
are set mostly in syllabic chant; psalms, with each set to a psalm tone;
hymns, usually metrical and in strophes or stanzas, and set in a neumatic
style; responsories, which follow the lessons of Matins and the chapter,
a brief lesson of the other hours, and have the form response- salm verse-partially
or entirely repeated response. The responsory is related to the form and
style of the Gradual.
Encyclopaedia Britannica,
St. Augustine-theologen who wrote about man's relationship
with God system to understand philosophical structure-spiritual world and
physical world are tied together.
Greek Orthodox Church exists in Constantinople
and the Roman Catholic Church lives in Rome, Italy. Everybody believes
in the ten commandments, that Jesus has come to save them and that he died
for our sins. This is a theology everybody has come to accept, except for
the Jews and Islamics. The beginning of some of the problems that they
have is that they start reading different doctrine and different ways of
worshiping into that and that changes what people think. In the Greek Orthodox
church they speak Latin, only because it's a trade language.
Feudalism- Starts at almost 600-700 A.D. Feudalism
was a system of military service and land ownership that created a pyramid
of political and military power. Feudalism is a system of government in
which the minority rules the majority. For every Lord there are 60 to 70
Serfs. It called for support mostly from the church and included mainly
little kingdoms run by Landlords-kings. It did not rely on one single dictator
or person to run the empire. During or about this time Monasteries were
also built . They served as universities, hospitals, library, training
schools for future monks, public shelter, and many other purposed. These
same monasteries also were responsible for preserving many important documents
that are so vital in today's history. If it weren't for them we may have
not seen many of the documents that have provided us with many important
information about history.
In around 500-600 AD there was a breakdown in the pre-established
Roman order which had dominated Europe and the Near East. Feudalism
came to the fore and cities, as we know them, disappeared. The Church
at this time became the central repository of classical knowledge.
When Charlemagne, in the late 700 to early 800's attempted
to centralize the "Holy Roman Empire," the churches he built also served
as a kind of palace/throne room. The architecture of these structures
is not as sophisticated or ornamented as earlier basilica.
Another great achievement of the middle ages was the rise
monasticism. The monastery was almost a great fortress of information.
Scribes and scholars housed in monasteries were basically responsible for
transcribing and storing the information of classical antiquity and later
philosophers and theologians.
One of the main products or art forms the monks produced
was the illuminated manuscript.
Chi-Rho
n, pl Chi-Rhos [chi + rho] (1868): a Christian monogram and symbol formed
from the first two letters X and P of the Greek word for Christ--called
also Christogram
