Gregorian Chants For Dummies

[XIX]

1) How old is Gregorian Chant?
2) How common is GC compared to other kinds of chant? Is most chant these days Grogorian?
3) Is all chant held in high esteem by the Church, or just the GC?
4) Is GC normally sung in Latin?
5) What are some of the most well-known chants? I feel like I probably know some chants without even knowing it's chant. All I know about the GC is that it's suppsed to be really aweXome/traditional.

[jeffpugh]

First of all, you're a newb, not a n00b.

1)It is said the practice of chant came from Jewish Worship, but the oldest Catholic stuff we know of comes from around the 6th century. Manuscripts (on sheepskin) probably 1 or two centuries later
2)Depends if you're talking about the Western Church. In that case, there isn't much of any other kinds, but Gregorian takes the lead in the West.
3)In the Latin Church, Gregorian chant has pride of place. But it doesn't disclude the other forms of chant because they derive from the same source: prayer.
4)Yes, but there have been translations. Anglicans are the primary culprits for such translations, though there are Catholic translations as well.
5)That's a good question. The "well known" ones are some settings for the ordinary, and there are common prayers in chant such as Salve Regina, and there is also the popular chant Ubi Caritas. And yes, I guess they are all prayers because chants main function si to transform prayer. There is no "secular" Gregorian chant like there is secular counterparts to polyphony, and folky/rock guitar stuff that people pull off at mass.

[XIX]

Was Gregorian Chant invented by a Pope named Gregory?

Also, someone on youtube said "gregorian chant can't be sung by women. This isn't gregorian chant." Is this true? It seems quite counterintuitive that women would at all be disallowed to sing. Or is it just during the Mass that women can't sing GC?

[missionseeker]

all right:

Gregory codified chant. That basically just means that he collected all the known chants and put them in a book. lol. He also assigned different chants to different day and liturgical feasts according to the texts.

Women can sing chant. It used to be that women could not sing at Mass at all, whether it was hymns, chant or polyphony. I'm guessing that that would be where that notion came from? There are all sorts of abbeys and convents where the nuns record chant CDs. There are also female schola groups.

I will say that my personal preference is all men or mixed. The reason for theis is that sometimes just women annoys me because it's soo high and sometimes shrill. I like it together because the men's voices balance it out. And, perhaps this sounds weird, but I just like hearing men sing well....

SMM is right, in the Eastern churches there are other types, ut I forget the names.

Chants you know may include Tantum Ergo, O Salutaris Hostia, and the tune for "Humbly we adore you"

Translations by Gerard Manley Hopkins are the best.

[jeffpugh]

Werd to your post, Missionseeker!

[truthfinder]

As well, there are chant formats which were derived from Gregorian. These are Dominican, and I believe that Charthusian and Carmelites traditionally chanted a little differently as well.