Skip to content


 Select a Chapter |             Purchase the eBook |       RSS  Today in Music History |             Online Listening Lab


"When God saw that many men were lazy, and gave themselves only with difficulty to spiritual reading, He wished to make it easy for them, and added the melody to the Prophet's words, that all being rejoiced by the charm of the music, should sing hymns to Him with gladness." —ST. JOHN CHRYSOSTOM

Key Points

  • Many world cultures use a kind of chant, a monophonic (single-line) melody, in their worship (CP 3).
  • The music of the early Christian church, called Gregorian chant, features monophonic, nonmetric melodies set in one of the church modes, or scales.
  • Chant melodies fall into three categories (syllabic, neumatic, melismatic) based on how many notes are set to each syllable of text.
  • The most solemn ritual of the Catholic Church is the Mass, a daily service with two categories of prayers: the Proper (texts that vary according to the day) and the Ordinary (texts that remain the same for every Mass).
  • Some chants are sung alternating a soloist and chorus in a responsorial performance.
  • The Paris Cathedral of Notre Dame was a center for organum, the earliest type of polyphony, with two-, three-, or four-voice parts sung in fixed rhythmic patterns (rhythmic modes).
  • Preexisting chants formed the basis for early polyphony, including organum and the motet; the latter features multiple texts (polytextual).

Section Menu

Norton Gradebook

Instructors now have an easy way to collect students’ online quizzes with the Norton Gradebook without flooding their inboxes with e-mails.

Students can track their online quiz scores by setting up their own Student Gradebook.