Gregorian Psalm 1. Concept: Describe Gregorian Psalm in one simple sentence. The definition of Gregorian Psalm is: Christian liturgical music named after Pope Gregory I, called Gregorian Psalm ( Gregorian chant), also known as plain song because of its solemn expression and simple style. It should be said that it is the source of the history of Western professional music. It not only has religious and cultural functions, but also breeds the buds of professional music. Without understanding the artistic tradition of Gregorian chant, one cannot fully understand the development of music history (Chai The ancient hymn melody "Lord, save your people" is used in the introduction and ending of Kovsky's "1812 Overture"). Christianity has recognized the role of music in faith from the beginning, making music play an important role in religious worship activities. The so-called chants are formed when scriptures appear in the form of chants. The formation process of Gregorian chants is also very complicated. Yes, let’s take a brief look at it. 2. After Christianity became the official religion, it quickly spread widely in various places, and the accompanying worship rituals gradually formed a scale and system. However, the worship forms and the musical part of each place - the chants - have their own local colors (such as a There are a hundred Hamlets if a hundred people play Hamlet). The most popular ones are as follows: the Old Roman chant in Rome - the oldest chant in Rome. It is closely related to the Gregorian chant that was later formed. There are more or less connections between chants. There is an entry in Grove Music Dictionary titled Gregorian and Old Roman chant, which discusses the relationship between the two in more detail; Ambrose chant comes from Milan . After Christianity became the state religion, two church music development centers were formed in Rome. One was the city of Rome, where the first church singing school was established (it is said to have been built by Gregory), which specialized in training psalmists for liturgical ceremonies. Singer (regarded as an early professional music school), and the other center is Milan. Bishop Ambrose borrowed from the Eastern Church, added the form of singing psalms in a responsive way to the liturgy, and wrote hymns himself, thus forming a new center in Milan. The "Ambrose Chant" named after him; Mozarabic chants are popular in Spain and Portugal; Celtic chants are popular in Ireland, Scotland and northern England. They were more or less influenced by the Psalms of Ambrose; Gallic Psalms were popular in France and Belgium today. Later, after Pepin ascended the throne as King of the Franks (Carolingian Renaissance), Gallic Psalms were banned and Roman rites and Saints were forced to be implemented. His son Charlemagne, who succeeded him, further expanded politically, causing the Roman liturgical tradition to be implemented everywhere. As a result, around the 8th and 9th centuries, a Roman liturgy was formed based on the Roman liturgy and integrated with the liturgical elements of the Gallic region. The unified Roman Catholic chant liturgy - Gregorian chant. It can be said that Gregorian chant is a hybrid, one is the combination of religious power and royal power, and the other is the result of combining musical and liturgical factors from different regions (mainly Rome and Gaul). So it seems that it has nothing to do with Pope Gregory himself, so what is the reason for naming the psalm after him? In some music history works, there are some reports that he sent people to various places to collect psalms, compiled two psalm books (a mass chant book, and a daily chant book), and also created the earliest psalm collection in Europe. There is also a legend that Gregory listened to the doves that symbolized the Holy Spirit singing sacred music to him, and thus recorded the tunes to form psalms. But what is certain is that when Gregory I took office at the end of the 6th century, he did make a lot of efforts to unify Roman liturgical music. He began to rectify the discipline, financial management and worship system within the church. With the courage and means of a statesman, The power of the Roman Church was consolidated and expanded. Later, in order to maintain the authority of the Pope and praise the achievements of Gregory I, under the attention of the authorities of the Carolingian Dynasty, the psalms of the Roman Church (the Gregorian Psalms and the new psalms compiled later) were collectively called " Gregorian Chant.”

3. Basic characteristics The characteristics of Gregorian chant come from its function. The religious spirit requires rationality, abstinence, and moderation, so the chant also presents a simple style. The lyrics are in Latin, mostly biblical content, and the music must be submissive. The lyrics and therefore the melody are monophonic music without accompaniment, no fixed beat, smoothly progressing (mainly progressions and thirds, with occasional jumps of fourths and fifths), improvised, and purely male. (Listen) There are four ways of singing Gregorian chant: solo (less), unison, alternate singing (alternatives) and responsorial singing (responsorial). The singing content mainly consists of chanting prayers and liturgical singing, just like recitatives and arias in operas. The former is a half-singing, half-speaking recitation style, like a monk chanting sutras, while the latter has a slightly stronger sense of melody and highlights the solemnity. Gregorian chant melodies are divided into three types based on the combination of lyrics and singing: syllabic style - one word for one note; neumatic style - one word for one neumatic symbol ( polyphonic); melismatic style - one word pairs several tones, highlighting the "melismatic style". The following important Gregorian chant music forms embody these three music types: Psalm tone (psalm tone): It is the oldest and most original chant melody, and the content is 150 verses in the "Bible? Old Testament" These psalms are not strictly metrical, and each sentence is of different lengths. They only have the upper and lower sentences as the framework of one section, and mainly use steady and even repetition of the same sound. They are "syllabic" psalms. Its form basically includes the introduction of "qi" (only used in the first verse), chanting sounds (sounds repeated with the same sound, singing a verse or sentence quickly), the "turn" in the middle (half-stop) and the end "He" (which is the most melodic part of the heart). Antiphon: It was originally a way of singing Psalms. The upper and lower lines of each verse of the Psalm were alternately sung by two choirs. Later, this alternating part became independent and became "antiphon", which belongs to "antiphon". Newmian" chant. Responsory: It is the most artistic form of Gregorian chant. Like the alternate chant, it originally refers to the singing form-the soloist leads a verse, and the choir repeats the first half of the verse. . After that, the choir part chose other content as lyrics, and the melody became more and more fancy, becoming a unique "response part". It is a "floral" chant. Hymn (hymn): It is the only poetic form among the early Gregorian chants. It is "syllabic" and has strict meter. Canticle: similar to the melody of the psalm, but the lyrics are other content in the Bible and the melody is decorated A slightly more sexual short poem (versicle): sung in response form, with content other than psalms