Music in the Monastery and Convent

1
CHAPTER 3

• Music in the Monastery and Convent

2
Important Monasteries in the West

• Early monasteries were centers of worship and the
  study of the scriptures, and they generally
  followed the Rule of St. Benedict compiled c530
  C.E.
• St. Gall, Switzerland, settled by an Irish monk
  around 612 C.E., was an important center for the
  creation of manuscripts of chant and learning.
  Today the library at St. Gall preserves one of
  the richest collections of medieval chant books.

3
Reconstruction of the monastery of St. Gall

• Virtually every monastery included a church, a
  cloister, a refectory, a dormitory, a
  scriptorium, and a library.

4

• Canonical hours regularly scheduled gatherings
  for praying, reading scripture, and singing as
  prescribed by St. Benedict. Matins (early
  morning) and Vespers (early evening) are the most
  important canonical hours.
• Gregorian chant (plainsong) an amalgam of
  Gallican and Roman chant fashioned in the
  northern portion of the Holy Roman Empire during
  the ninth and tenth centuries. Charlemagne
  (742-814) had Roman chant brought north from Rome
  to Gaul where it mixed with Gallican chant to
  form what we now call Gregorian chant.
• Chants for Vespers antiphons, psalms, hymn, and
  canticle

5
The framework of a psalm tone
6
Nuns of a Benedictine convent in Bethlehem,
Connecticut, singing chant today
7
Gregorian chant for the Mass

• Proper of the Mass
• Introit
• Gradual
• Alleluia
• Offertory
• Communion

8
Introit for Mass of Christmas Day Puer natus est
nobis (A boy is born to us)
9
Gradual for Mass of Christmas Day Viderunt
omnes (All the ends of the earth have seen)
10
Ordinary of the Mass (Kyrie, Gloria, Credo,
Sanctus, and Agnus dei)

• From the fourteenth century onward, composers in
  the West usually set only the Ordinary of the
  Mass in polyphony.