00:00 Mass III (Kyrie Deus sempiterne): Kyrie (mode 4) - Gloria (mode 8) - Sanctus (mode 4) - Agnus Dei (mode 4)
08:40 Mass IV (Cunctipotens Genitor Deus): Kyrie (mode 1) - Gloria (mode 4) - Sanctus (mode 8) - Agnus Dei (mode 6) - Ite missa est & Benedicamus Domino (mode 1)
17:37 Mass V (Kyrie magnae Deus potentiae): Kyrie (mode 8) - Gloria (mode 8) - Sanctus (mode 4) - Agnus Dei (mode 4) - Ite missa est (mode 8)

Notre Dame Seminary Choir (New Orleans, La.) directed by Rev. Robert J. Stahl, S. M. (c1945)

GREGORIAN CHANT is the official music of the Catholic Church. Organized and disseminated by St. Gregory the Great (Pope, 590—604), the Chant had developed contemporaneously with the Liturgy of the Church from its very inception. While it is not used exclusively at her divine services, it is nevertheless the music that the Church considers most specially her own, because of its remarkable spiritual quality and of its intimate relationship with the Latin texts of her worship. t is perhaps true to say that nowhere else in the history of music is tee such a constant interplay and interdependence between text and music.

It is this last factor which accounts for the remarkable rhythm of Gregorian Chant. It is "free rhythm", unfettered by the modern measure bar and time aignature. ts binary and ternary note groupings are derived from the dactylic and spondaic character of the Latin words which they adorn.

Some of the chant melodies are predominantly "syllabic" in character, i.e. with single notes accompanying the syllables of the text, as in the Credo and in some of the Gloria chants. Other melodies are more ornate, with small clusters of notes on single syllables of the text, as in the Kyrie, the Sanctus, and the Agnus Dei: these are called "neumatic", from the Greek word "neum" which signifies a group of notes. Then there are other melodies very ornate, employing many notes on certain syllables, as in the solemn Ite missa est: these are called "melismatic" chants, from the Greek word "melisma" for a group of neums.

But what impresses the novice listener about the Chant even more than the unusual rhythm is its tonality. The tonality of most modern music derives from the major and minor scales. But the tonality of the Chant derives from eight scales, none of which are akin to the modern major and minor, though some of sound minor. Though they are all diatonic, like the two modern scales, the difference lies in the varying position of tonic and dominant in each one.

Yet the ensemble of all the material components of the Chant does not entirely explain the spirituality it radíates so eminently. Always reverent and sincere, it is the perfect melodic robe for the sacred texts, of a texture that shares in their sacredness. It is, beyond all others, prayer music, and only as such and in the setting of prayer can it be fully appreciated. It is functional music, not ornamental, serving to give expression and not merely to create an impression.

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