PLAIN CHANT. A term applied to the ec clesiastical chant of the Roman Catholic Church. This style of music was used in the Church from the earliest times. It has certain characteristics which distinguish it from any other known music.
All the melodies have a stateliness and quiet dig nity rendering them particularly appropriate for the use of the Church. The tempo is moderate, and each melody is written in one of those tonali ties known as the Church modes. (See :110DEs.) For the notation a staff of four lines is used, and the notes are all black and square or lozenge shaped. For the history and development of this system of plain chant notation, see AIENSCRALILE MUSIC JI l'SICAL The origin of plain chant has been the subject of much speculation. but the best authorities now agree that it seems exceedingly probable that the chants of the early Christian Church were either taken directly from or modeled after those of the Hebrews. This supposition is borne out by the information we possess regarding the performance of the nnisic during the first three centuries of the Christian Era; for the singing was antiphonal, i.e. a precentor intoned the mel ody and the chorus answered. We have the tes timony of Philo, a Hebrew writer of the first cen tury, that the psalms in the Christian Church were rendered by a double chorus singing in alternation. it does not seem probable that these old psalms should have been sung to any other music than the old tunes. This music is scarcely more than emphatic declamation moving within the compass of a only the cadences present a little more melodic variety. The use of instru ments was strictly forbidden, because these played an important part in the religious cult of the pagans. This prejudice against instruments lasted for centuries. Plain chant, the only fonn of music ever officially sanctioned by the Church, never made use of instruments. Even the compli eated polyphonic works of the school of the Netherlands and the great Roman school banish instrumental accompaniment. It is only with the rise of the school of Venice toward the end of the sixteenth century that instruments find their way into the Church. When the plain
chant melodies arose harmony was utterly un known, and. consequently, the whole theory of music turned about melodic progression. Choral singing meant nothing else than singing in unison. As long as the persecutions compelled the early adherents of the faith to worship secretly in the catacombs, it was impossible to establish a tmiversa] liturgy. However, the melodies were pre served among the various congregations and handed down from generation to generation by oral tradition, though we can scarcely doubt that in the course of time the original melodies became more or less distorted. When, after the conver sion of Constantine in 312. Christianity became the State religion, free intercourse between the different congregations became possible. Choirs were formed and received special training, so that congregational singing disappeared more and more. At the Council of Laodicea in 367 a decree was passed prohibiting any one but the regularly trained singers from in church. In the beginning of the fourth century Pope Sylvester established a singing-school at Rome, which re sulted toward the end of the same century in the composition of original hymns. Some of the old est of these hymns are attributed to Saint Hilary, who was Bishop of Poitiers about 335. Saint Am brose, Bishop of :Milan. who died in 397, devoted all his energies to the arrangement and systema tizing of all the then known plain chant melodies. To him is also ascribed the introduction of the four authentic modes, which he selected from among the seven octave species of Ptolemy, be cause these four most closely resembled the char aeter of the ancient psalm-tones. Although the four authentic modes correspond to the Greek Phrygian, Dorian. Hypo-Lydian, and Hypo-Phry gian modes, the Creek names were discarded and the appellations prof os, deuteros, tritos, and tetar tos substituted. Saint Ambrose also composed a great number of original hymns, such as: Deus, creator (minium: .Eterne renna coeditor; Veni, redemptor !lutetium; Jam surgit horn tertia. See AMBROSIAN CHANT..