Research Essay
  • JosTUBA
    Posts: 1
    Hello,

    I'm a music major, and I'm looking for research on gregorian chant from the early medieval period. I'm writing a research paper on this topic for a college writing course. I like this music, I would love to learn more about it!

    Thank you!
  • ryandryand
    Posts: 1,640
    http://musicasacra.com/resource-lists/

    http://musicasacra.com/literature/

    http://musicasacra.com/music/

  • OlivierOlivier
    Posts: 58
    For starters, there are articles in the 1911 Catholic Encyclopedia (also on Google books), and the 1967 New Catholic Encyclopedia, both of which are most likely in your college library. After that, there's a wealth of information available for free download here at the CMAA's website, such as Saulnier's _Gregorian Chant: A Guide_. The old standard intro text, I believe, was Willi Apel's _Gregorian Chant_, but it is not currently in print. I think it has been supplanted by David Hiley's _Western Plainchant_, which can be downloaded from the University of Regensburg. Here are the respective links...
    http://media.musicasacra.com/books/gregorian_chant_guide_saulnier.pdf
    http://epub.uni-regensburg.de/25558/1/ubr12760_ocr.pdf
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,415
    You don't say whether you are graduate or under-graduate, or the depth of research you are seeking to accomplish. Some or all the following may be helpful in varying degrees, depending on the seriousness of your work. The first two listed below are very fine as introductory surveys.

    Must references -
    1.>Dom Daniel Saulnier: Gregorian Chant: A Guide to the History and Liturgy. (Saulnier's scholarship, unlike much you will run into represents current scholarly thought.)

    Ditto the following:
    2. >David Hiley: Gregorian Chant (Cambridge Introductions to Music)
    3. >David Hiley: Western Plainchant: A Handbook
    The first Hiley book is a very good historical survey with current scholarship.
    The second one is really much more than a 'handbook'. It is exhaustive and would be a must if you are contemplating really serious researcn. It is the successor to Willi Apel's magisterial and now-somewhat-dated work of the mid-twentieth century.


    4. >Dom Eugene Cardine: Gregorian Semiology (If you wish to treat authoritatively on notation, do not fail to include this in your references. It is vital.)

    Others of note:
    5. >James McKinnon: The Advent Project (about the origin of the 'propers'.)
    6, >Kenneth Levy: Gregorian Chant and the Carolingians
    7. >Peter Jeffery: Re-Envisioning Past Musical Cultures: Ethnomusicology in the Study of Gregorian Chant
    8. >Edward Foley: Foundations of Christian Music: The Music of Pre-Constantinian Christianity (useful for early background and ancient influences on Gregorian chant and its cantors. A very short-but-useful book.)
    9. >Christopher Page: The Christian West and its Singers: The First Thousand Years (while not specificaally or solely about G-chant this is an exhaustive treatment of cultural context, musical influences on chant, and liturgical development, in addition to being a lode of fascinating informational nuggets.)

    These will be familiar to most on this forum. There are many others. But these just occured to me off-hand.
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  • JonLaird
    Posts: 245
    For your purposes, the Saulnier and Hiley's Handbook are probably the best starters. If your university library has a subscription to the New Grove online, look up the relevant articles on Gregorian chant and you will get other current references.

    Jeffery's book mentioned by MJO is fascinating and provocative but, in my opinion, ranks extremely high in the far-fetched speculation department. It may have some interesting ideas to mention in your paper, but do not approach it with the same attitude as the unparalleled scholarship in Hiley's tome.
    Thanked by 2M. Jackson Osborn advocatus
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