Insights into Gregorian Chant
Peregrinus
Introduction
Gregorian
chant is at the heart of the Roman rite, it animates the prayer of the Church
and beautifully adorns the texts of the Sacred Scriptures, the liturgy, and the
sacraments. Because of its centrality in the life of the Church, these noble
melodies have been passed on to us so that even now we can hear an echo of that
obscure time when grace was poured abundantly on the early Church, when Rome
ran red with the blood of the martyrs, and when knowledge illuminated the minds
of our great doctors. Gregorian chant has been described as glowing “with
living flame, with a clean, profound desire … deep beyond ordinary emotion,” and
as “more inebriating than the imposing voices of the great waters of which the Scriptures
speak.” Even those unacquainted with the mysteries that chant speaks of are moved
by the beauty of this music. Albums which feature chant have often sold
exceptionally well, and this ancient music receives heavy traffic on Youtube
and Spotify daily. In one sense, this is a strange fact, as Gregorian chant is
musically foreign to our ears and its spirit is alien to the modern experience:
instead of harmony, there is pure melody; its scales are unfamiliar; the rhythm
is free; and it flows from a sense of peace and repose rather than from action;
and all of this is meant to adorn texts written in an ancient and clamorous
language.
