These days, a person doesn't need to be expressly religious to appreciate Gregorian chant. Many are attracted to it simply for the sense of peace and calm that it exudes. We hear it worked into Spotify playlists devoted to meditation and mindfulness, and streamed at spas and yoga classes. In the scientific realm, groundbreaking research is revealing the effects of Gregorian chants upon the physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being of the human person. Professional music thanatologists now incorporate Gregorian chants into palliative care for the dying.
No doubt, these uses for Gregorian chant are beneficial and praiseworthy. They are removed, however, from the chant's heart and lifeblood. Gregorian chant is a distinct musical form in which the purpose of the melodies are at service to the text. The chants are carefully crafted out of the liturgical texts, which usually come from the scriptures, and are meant to return the hearer to them.
"Man shall not live by bread alone,
but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." ~ Matthew 4:4
In Gregorian chant, the text comes first.
Nowhere is this more evident than in early manuscripts with adiestematic (staffless) neume notation. Here, the text is written first, and the neumes drawn afterward. Certain syllables which parade extensive melismas (elaborate melodic phrases on single syllables) are given a bit more space, but even so, the neumatic notation must be squeezed into a space which has first been framed by the text.
Observe the incredible melisma at the end of the third line of text in the manuscript below — the line beginning with a bright orange "Of", for Offertory: iubila............................te. The melisma above the word actually runs out of room, and wanders into the upper righthand corner of the parchment! (Listen to the Offertory, Iubilate Deo universa terra here.)
Saint Gall Codex 342, Folio 201 (10th c.): Alleluia Laudate Deum omnes angeli eius and Offertory Iubilate Deo universa terra for the Second Sunday after Epiphany
Psalm 65 [66]: 1, 2, 16 full psalm
Iubilate Deo universa terra: iubila...........................te Deo universa ter.......ra:
Shout with joy to God, all the earth: shout with joy to God, all the earth:
psalmum dicite no.....mini ei...........us:
sing ye a psalm to his name:
venite, et audite, et narrabo vobis, omnes qui timetis Deum, quanta fecit Dominus animae meae, alleluia
come and hear, all ye that fear God, and I will tell you what great things he hath done for my soul, alleluia.
Did you listen to the recording of the chant above? The pure joy in the melisma on iubilate at the end of that third line in the manuscript is unmistakable! Iubilate means "Rejoice!" and at that moment, the melody is literally dancing and singing for joy. It is one of the more striking moments of what we could call "word painting" in the Gregorian repertory.
The Gregorian melody amplifies its text.
The Gregorian melody grows out of the text, not just in a generic overall sense, but word for word. What does this mean? Sometimes it's easiest to explain a concept by comparing it with something it isn't. Take, for example, this communion chant. Both the Latin and English versions follow practically identical melodies and texts.
The original Gregorian version in Latin was inspired first by the scriptural text, Psalm 19 [20]:6, while the version in English just below it was fitted (rather brilliantly, I must say) to the pre-existing Gregorian melody.
Listen here. Full psalm
Melodically, the highlighted phrases in the charts above and below are practically identical.
Textually, however, look at how different they are!
Liturgical texts vs. Scriptural texts
Let's start at the very beginning.
Gregorian chant went through many stages of development before becoming what we know it as today. While an historical analysis is beyond the purview of this article, a brief overview can help to dispel some of the mystery surrounding the texts of the chanted Mass proper.
in directum: continuing the tradition in the Jewish synagogue, an entire psalm would be sung during the Christian liturgy from start to finish by a solo cantor.
responsorial: a solo cantor would sing the psalm, with the congregation periodically interjecting a short, easily memorized refrain between verses.
schola cantorum (i.e. specialized group of singers): in 312 A.D. liturgies started to be held in public and took on a more noble character upon the end of the persecutions and legalization of Christianity. The schola assumed the role of singing at Mass, shaping the chants with often highly ornate melodies. Due to the significant length of these melodies, the texts themselves were truncated to just one or two verses of the original psalm.
Antiphons and verses
Now, if the sung text was intended for a procession, additional verses would be sung according to a simple, repetitive tone ad libitum (yep, the term "ad lib" comes from ad libitum!). These verses would be interspersed with a repeat of the original truncated, ornate chant which we will now call the antiphon. The process would finish with the doxology (Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit...) and a final repeat of the antiphon. (for example: A V1 A V2 A Dox A)
In conclusion, the insertion of the schola cantorum into the liturgy triggered an alteration in the sung liturgical texts. Psalms which originally were sung in their entirety from start to finish, were abbreviated to just one or two verses. (As we are about to see below, sometimes these texts underwent even further alteration.)
Now, upon learning all of this, some readers here may wonder whether the schola cantorum contributed to a decreased reverence for the scriptures. Do not fear; nothing could be further from the truth! First of all, members of the schola cantorum were required to memorize the entire psalter as a part of their training. Verses which today we sing from notation they were expected to sing by heart. (This is one reason why modal classification was so critical: the cantor needed it to discern the correct tone for singing the verses.) Second of all, the psalms continued to be sung in their entirety on a daily basis as a part of the Divine Office.
I also intend to show that anything lacking in truncated Mass texts has been supplied in the melodies themselves as a sort of Musical Lectio Divina — something that will be expounded upon later in Parts 2 and 3 when they are published.
Liturgical texts "in the wild"
I just mentioned that the sung Mass texts sometimes underwent further alteration than a simple paring down to one or two verses. What follows here are several examples which illustrate just how unique these scriptural texts can be.
The Introit (entrance chant) for Easter Sunday is pieced together from portions of three different verses from Psalm 138 [139], that do not go in numerical order.
Listen here. Full psalm.
The Communion antiphon Manducaverunt adds the word Dominus "Lord" where it does not exist in the scriptural text. Perhaps the insertion was made for the sake of the listeners, who might not understand that this text is a reference to the Lord giving manna to the Israelites wandering in the desert.
Listen here. Full psalm.
Sometimes verb tenses in Gregorian chants have been changed from those in the scriptural texts, or words changed out for entirely new words. The Offertory chant Stetit angelus substitutes "iuxta" for "ante", "ei" for "illi", and "aromatum" for "incensorum". A few other words have been added altogether (in red).
Listen here. Apocalypse 8.
Some antiphons are not direct quotes at all, but are simply based upon scriptural texts. The scriptural references in these cases are marked "Cf" (which, incidentally, is short for confer "compare" or conferatur "to be compared" in Latin). In the chart below, the Introit for Epiphany is based upon those parts of the scripture bracketed in red.
Listen here.
A very few Mass propers, such as the offertory chant Domine Jesu Christe of the Requiem Mass, and all of the Sequences, are not scriptural texts at all.
Regarding the chants of the Office, the hymns, responsories, and a large portion of the antiphons are not of scriptural origin.
"Proper" texts
In the Mass, there are six distinct kinds of proper chants ("proper" means the text and its respective melody is properly sung only for one particular day of the liturgical year), each with a distinct musical form and liturgical function. Regarding the texts of these proper chants, we can say this much:
Introits (entrance chants) are processional chants, and are meant to set the tone of the day or of the feast. Puer natus est nobis (A child is born to us) is the Introit for Christmas Day, and Resurrexi (I am risen) is the introit for Easter Sunday. Introits for certain other days are less thematically specific, but rather suggest a certain disposition of the soul appropriate to the season.
A Gradual chant is a meditation chant which follows the First Reading (called a Lesson in the pre-Vatican II Mass). The Graduals are considered to be among the oldest genres of Gregorian chant, (NB: In most places adhering to the modern liturgy, the Responsorial Psalm has supplanted the Gradual.)
Tracts, like Graduals, are among the very oldest genres of Gregorian chants. They are meditation chants which are sung in the absence of the Alleluia during Lent, and certain other times of the year.
Alleluias are also meditation chants, preparing the congregation for the hearing of the Gospel which directly follows. During the Easter season, a second Alleluia chant occupies the regular place of the Gradual.
Offertory chants are processional and meditation chants. In spite of their liturgical function, very rarely do they textually relate to the theme of bearing gifts to the Lord.
Communio (or Communion) chants are processional chants whose texts frequently establish a connection between one of the day's scripture readings — especially the Gospel — and the Eucharistic Liturgy. One of the most striking examples is Pater si non potest on Palm Sunday, which ties the Passion reading to the reception of communion: "Father, if this chalice may not pass away, but I must drink it, thy will be done."
The chart below reveals another aspect of the assignment of liturgical texts: ascending numerical order of the psalms among consecutive Sundays. The Graduals, which we just noted above are among the very oldest of all Gregorian chants, are the only group which defies this progression (the third column titled "Rheinau" refers to a different collection that did not retain permanent significance, and can be disregarded).
chart from the book Gregorian Chant by Willi Apel, page 93
NB: "Time after Pentecost" on the old liturgical calendar roughly corresponds to "Ordinary Time" on the modern liturgical calendar, with the First Sunday after Pentecost correlating to the Seventh Sunday of Ordinary Time.
The mission of the International Chant Academy is to keep the beauty and meaningfulness of Gregorian Chant and Early Sacred Music alive and relevant. We foster understanding of these art forms, and teach the musical and vocal skills necessary to excellent performance.
Praying with Gregorian Chant, Part I: the Latin texts (continued)
Now, let's talk about Latin!
Okay, Angela, all this background is great, but what about all those people who don’t know Latin and don’t have the time to commit to studying it? Is it a hopeless cause?
Not at all! The remainder of this article is devoted to just this subject, and I promise, I won't make you memorize anything, and I won't even mention the words "declension" or "conjugation".
What? You don't believe me? Challenge accepted.
The poetry of Latin
By conservative estimate, the English language contains more than four times as many words as the Latin language. Why? Latin words tend to contain a whole lot more information than English words.
Latin relies heavily on root words and stems. These roots and stems can combine to produce new words, but never at the expense of their original meanings. The result is a profoundly poetic language, in which the meanings of simpler words are still contained in the compound words.
To these roots and stems are added word endings which contain extremely specific information. The word endings for each of these parts of speech contain the following kinds of information:
nouns: gender (even inanimate objects have gender), singular vs. plural, role in the sentence (e.g. subject or direct object)
pronouns: singular vs. plural, role in the sentence (e.g. subject or direct object), and sometimes gender
verbs: singular vs. plural, first/second/third person, past/present/future (and a whole lot of other related tenses),
adjectives: these take the same gender, number, and case as the nouns they modify
To illustrate this principle in action, I created the chart below. Psalm 118 [119] employs six different words which come from just one primary root word, ius (iudex also comes from the word ius). These words, with all their various endings, appear more than fifty times over the course of the psalm.
You may download your own complimentary PDF copy of the above chart here, if you wish:
A cursory look through the Graduale Triplex (my preferred Gradual) revealed nearly twenty different Mass propers based upon Psalm 118 [119], including:
Introit Iustus es Domine (v. 137, 124)
Gradual Sederunt principes (v. 23, 86)
Offertory Meditabor (v. 47, 48)
Offertory Gressus meos (v. 133)
Communion Tu mandasti (v. 4, 5)
Communion Aufer a me (v. 22, 24)
Here is the full text for Psalm 118 [119] in Latin and English.
Latin is less a foreign language than one might think!
English is predominantly a Germanic language, but still has significant Latin influences. It is estimated that 60 per cent of the English language is of Latin origin, due to borrowing. [source]
This is good news for those of us who haven't studied Latin, because there is a lot of similarity between Latin words and English words. We can learn a lot about the meaning of a Latin word simply by brainstorming English words which share the same root.
Take, for example, the communion chant Dominus regit me.
You may download your own complimentary PDF copy of the above chart here, if you wish:
Latin has an even stronger link with the Romance languages (e.g. Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Romanian), which actually developed directly from Latin. If you are familiar with one or more of these languages, you probably thought of plenty of other words that align with the Latin text of Dominus regit me as you worked through the chart above.
The Translation Process
Now that we've established some basics, what might the translation process for a Gregorian chant look like for someone who doesn't have much background with Latin?
Start with the context of the chant. What part of the liturgical year does it belong to? Is it related to a particular solemnity? A saint's feast day? Another special day of observance? In which part of the liturgy does it occur? Determine the scriptural reference, if there is one. The context often gives clues to the meaning.
Look at the text. Do you already know the meanings of any of the words (e.g. Deus = God)? Are there any other words for whose meaning you can make an educated guess? Write them down.
Look for roots and stems (e.g. ius, iuris, iudex, and iudicis in Psalm 118). Remembering that 60 per cent of the English language comes from Latin, are there any English words you can think of which might be related to these roots and stems? Write them down.
You may wish to consult one of the online Latin dictionaries under the Useful Resources below to determine some other word meanings.
Look up a translation for the whole chant, using the Useful Resources further down. (Personally, I like to start with the Latin Vulgate, for reasons I'll explain in Part 3 when it is published.)
Compare the given translation with your own work, remembering that a) Latin words contain more information than English words, 2) Latin word order does not always follow English word order, and c) given translations tend not to be entirely literal (e.g. in saecula saeculorum is usually translated as "world without end", but literally means "in the ages of ages"). How close did you get? Does the provided translation help you to fill in the gaps?
Now, in your chant, write underneath the Latin text any words which will keep you mindful of what you sing as you sing it. Just a few key words are all that will be necessary, as you will have a lot of other information to process (e.g. notation and watching the director). You can write down the literal definition of a word, such as "pasture" under pascuae, or you may prefer to write a derivative word, like "regiment" for regit.
Useful Resources (free and online)
Latin translation
table: Latin root, original Latin word, meaning, and English words derived from the Latin root
includes prefixes and suffixes
A Dictionary of the Psalter by Dom Matthew Britt, OSB
Contains the vocabulary of the psalms, hymns, canticles and miscellaneous prayers of the Latin Breviary Psalter according to the old liturgical calendar (pre-Vatican II).
Dictionary of Liturgical Latin by Wilfrid J. Diamond
NB: this resource assumes a working knowledge of basic Latin. Elementary words such as sum, est, de, in, tu, tibi, nos, nobis, etc. are not included in this volume.
translate.com/latin-english Latin to English translator
more accurate than Google translate; NB: free version has a daily word limit
Sacred Texts
vulgate.org Latin Vulgate Bible with Douay-Rheims English
NB: The Psalms are given in two Latin translations: black for the translation Jerome made directly from the Hebrew (iuxta Hebraica) which was his final translation of the book, and red for the translation he made from the Greek (iuxta Septuaginta) earlier in life. Gregorian proper chants tend to follow the Vulgate text given in red, iuxta Septuaginta, more closely.
The Chants of the Vatican Gradual by Dom Dominic Johner
Provides scriptural references and translations for the proper chants for Sundays and Feast Days following the old liturgical calendar (pre-Vatican II).
Provides scriptural references and translations for the proper chants for Sundays and Feast Days according to the new liturgical calendar (following the Second Vatican Council).
Chants of the Church with interlinear translations
Literal, word for word translation provided with every chant!
Miscellaneous
Intro to Liturgical Latin, Lesson 1 (24 minute video)
Origin of ecclesiastical Latin, pronunciation, grammar, why Latin words have so many parts, and what those parts mean.
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