plainsong

plainsong. The traditional music of the Latin rite, often known as Gregorian chant, after St Gregory the Great, although in its surviving form it has little, if anything, to do with him. It was paralleled in the early Middle Ages by a number of other rites and their music, including the Ambrosian (or Milanese), the ancient Gallican, Mozarabic, and Old Roman. Its origins and relation to the Old Roman chant are disputed.

Plainsong itself is entirely monophonic, though often subsequently used as the basis for polyphonic compositions such as motets. Whether it has always been sung in unmeasured time values is disputed. Its tonal organization is based on a system of modes, or scales corresponding to the white notes on the piano and centred for the most part on the notes D, E, F, or G. By the 16th cent. the traditional plainsong had been altered under the influence of humanist ideals, for example by redistributing the notes so that lengthy melismas fell on accentuated syllables. In the 19th cent. a restoration of the medieval tradition was pursued, largely through the work of the monks of Solesmes. After the Second Vatican Council plainsong ceased to be the normal accompaniment of the Roman rite, but the singing of plainsong to translated texts, used in the Anglican Communion from Tractarian times, has recently gained acceptance in the RC Church.