Old Roman Chant - History

History

The chant which we now call "Old Roman" comes primarily from a small number of sources, including three graduals and two antiphoners from between 1071 and 1250. Although these are later than many notated sources from other chant traditions, this chant is called "Old Roman" because it is believed to reflect a Roman oral tradition going back several centuries, until its use was replaced by Gregorian chant.

There are several theories concerning the origins of Gregorian and Old Roman chant, but one prominent hypothesis, supported by Apel and Snow, posits that both chant traditions derive from a common Roman ancestor in use circa 750 AD. In order to consolidate ecclesiastical power and strengthen their political ties to the power of the Roman church, the Franks, especially under the Carolingian rulers Pepin and Charlemagne, brought this older Roman chant north. There it was subsequently modified, influenced by local styles and Gallican chant, and categorized into the system of eight modes. This Carolingian, or Frankish-Roman, chant, became known as "Gregorian." In the meantime, the local chant remaining in Rome gradually evolved into the form in which it was eventually notated, just at the time that Gregorian was supplanting it in Rome.

Another theory, advanced by Hans Schmidt, suggests that what we now call "Old Roman" chant reflected the use in the city churches in Rome, as opposed to the chants used in the Vatican for papal ceremonies, and that it was the latter that was brought north and evolved into Gregorian chant. This would explain the discrepancies between early Gregorian chant and the local Roman chant which were noticed even during the Middle Ages. However, this remains a minority view.

In the case of other defunct chant traditions, such as the Gallican, Mozarabic, and Beneventan, it is conceivable that Roman pre-eminence in the West would have tended toward the supplanting of non-Roman liturgies and chant traditions. The supplanting of the local chant of Rome itself would seem to require some other explanation. Several factors influenced this. In the 10th century, virtually no musical manuscripts were being notated in Italy. A pattern developed wherein Roman Popes imported chant from the German Holy Roman Emperors during the 10th and 11th centuries. For example, the Credo was added to the Roman rite at the behest of the German emperor Henry II in 1014. The local musical traditions in Rome had already been showing some Gregorian influence, and eventually the Gregorian was taken to be the authentic, original chant of Rome, a misconception that continues to this day.