GREGORIAN Alleluia: Dies Sanctificatus #tag: The mystery of the Incarnation of the Word lies at the heart of the
Christian faith. It is celebrated just after the longest night of the
year, when (in the northern hemisphere) the days begin to lengthen until
we reach the summer solstice, which is associated with the figure of
John the Baptist. To celebrate this moment, the Church deploys an
exceptional virtually uninterrupted liturgical cycle in which the
usual Offices are interspersed with four Masses. The music is that of
the ancient chant of the Church of Rome, one of the oldest repertories
of which traces have remained in the collective memory of mankind. Up to
the thirteenth century this repertory accompanied the papal liturgy. It
disappeared with the installation of the papacy in Avignon, and sank
into oblivion. Rediscovered in the early twentieth century, it aroused
little enthusiasm among musicians, and only began to be studied
properly, first from the liturgical, then from the musicological
perspective, in the second half of the century. At this time, to
distinguish it from Gregorian chant, it was named Old Roman chant.
Old
Roman chant occupies a central position in the history of music. It is
the keystone which gives meaning and coherence to what ought to be the
musical consciousness of Western Europe and far beyond. For, looking
back to the period before, it gives us the key to the filiation between
the chant of the Temple of Jerusalem and the heritage of Greek music.
Through the magic of music, sung texts become icons. Time is deployed
with sovereign slowness confers on the sound a hieratic immanence in
which time and space are united in a single vibrant truth.
