Level III: The Gregorian Modes NEW!

SYLLABUS

Class 1 | Word & Song, Cantillation, and the Archaic Modes

Origins of Gregorian chant. Examination of the cantus obscurior, or innate word-melody. Cantillation and the Archaic Modes, single-pole modes which underpin the development of Gregorian chant. 

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Applications: delivery of the text as a principle of shaping music; association of different experiences (strong, weak, balanced) with the finalis (home pitch) of a chant.
 

Class 2 | The True Modes

Addition of a new pole to the single-pole chants creates a new kind of modality. Far less determinate than the eight mode system, Daniel Saulnier (author of the most definitive work to date on the Gregorian Modes) calls these bipolar modes the "true modes".

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Applications: hierarchy of more important and less important pitches in a given chant is established, allowing singers to seek key stepping stones in complex phrases rather than treating every pitch with equal weight; sight reading chant made easier via relationship of pitches to new structural poles; modal framework for chants of the Office is established.

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Class 3 | Oral Tradition and the role of memory

Even after the invention of musical notation, Gregorian chant was transmitted to subsequent generations primarily by memorization. This Oral Tradition included far more than what was written on the page: insertion of unwritten, standard melodic formulae, and improvisation were both normal parts of liturgical chant. Incipits, melody-types, centonization, neuma, tonaries, etc.

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Applications: Gregorian chant is a living tradition; context and function of Gregorian chant in the Liturgy is identified; presence of formulaic melodies, useful for long term rehearsal planning, is established.

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Class 4 | Principles of the Gregorian Octoechos (8 mode system)

Four finals, authentic and plagal ranges, tenors/reciting tones

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Applications: be able to determine the mode of a chant without reference to its existing classification; recognize when a chant changes mode; certain modes favor particular scale degrees more than others; correctly assign psalm tones to corresponding antiphons.

 

Class 5 | Ethos of the Eight Modes

Modern-day music is built on two scales: major and minor, overly generalized as happy and sad. Each of the eight Gregorian modes, likewise, has its own ethos. Certain textual themes are likely to be characterized in certain modes, and inversely, a mode brings out certain aspects of a text.

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Applications: chant is relatable and deeply human; further nuances regarding modal shifts in free compositions are identified.

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Class 6 | Usefulness of the Octoechos​

Applications: incipit/first incise of a chant sets up the melody which follows; use familiar chants to set one's ear up for more challenging chants of the same mode; modal sight singing exercises; rehearsal exercises to ease one's singers into the mode.

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Class 7 | Limitations of the Octoechos, and alternative approaches

Chants composed after the invention of the Octoechos fit well within the system. Chants preceding the system often defy it in all sorts of unusual ways. Chants of the Office, restored reciting tones for Modes III, IV, and VIII, modally ambiguous chants, transposed chants, chants which change mode, etc.

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Applications: analyze a variety of chants according to different principles of composition as studied up to this point in Level III.

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Class 8 | Structural Pitches: a melody beneath the melody

​This last examination is helpful regardless whether a chant fits within certain modal criteria.

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​Applications: improve phrasing through determination of structural/stepping stone pitches; first impart bare-bones melodic structure to choir, teaching them to lean into the important pitches before learning the full chant.​