Studying Gregorian chant presents many problems to the researcher because its most important stages of development were not recorded in writing. From the sixth to the tenth century, this form of music existed only in song as medieval musicians relied on their memories and voices to pass each verse from one generation to the next. Peter Jeffery offers an innovative new approach for understanding how these melodies were created, memorized, performed, and modified. Drawing on a variety of disciplines, including anthropology and ethnomusicology, he identifies characteristics of Gregorian chant that closely resemble other oral traditions in non-Western cultures and demonstrates ways music historians can take into account the social, cultural, and anthropological contexts of chant's development.

A simple and friendly guide to reading chant notation, the easiest guide in print to make help you learn to read Gregorian Chant fast. We do this by printing out the notes and signs as big as they were back in medieval days. Big notes are easier to read and remember. And when you open the Parish Book of Chant or the Liber Usualis you'll be able to read the notes. In Gregorian Chant notes are arranged like a train....each note or grouping has a clear purpose and when connected to its neighbors makes up a melody. Join the new schola at your church or school and find yourself confident and comfortable reading Gregorian Chant. Reviews: This was a great refresher, it's been years since I sang chant and this brought it all back to me fast! Our schola appreciates how effective this book is, seeing these big notes makes it so much easier to recognize them in today's small printed pages that we usually find in churches.

Music has been at the heart of Christian worship since the beginning, and this lavishly illustrated and wonderfully written volume fully surveys the many centuries of creative Christian musical experimentation. From its roots in Jewish and Hellenistic music, through the rich tapestry of medieval chant to the full flowering of Christian music in the centuries after the Reformation and the many musical expressions of a now-global Christianity, Wilson-Dickson conveys 'a glimpse of the fecundity of imagination with which humanity has responded to the creator God.' Book jacket.

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