Photo: A wall of the parish church in Solesmes, France, which is adjacent to l'Abbaye de St. Pierre. The sign posted directly under the exposed bricks indicate that they are from the tenth century.
It is easy to think of the tenth century as simply “the Dark Ages.” Beyond that, it is easy to think that the intellectual greatness of the Church Fathers of late antiquity, and the intellectual greatness of the thirteenth century, so far exceeded that of the writers in between that those centuries of the Middle Ages produced little intellectual genius.
Because of that, it may come as a surprise to some people that the time frame around the year 1,000 produced some of the most intellectually significant developments in the entire history of western music. Indeed, it was an era of important developments in both western and eastern chant.
In the Western Church
Kenneth Levy, in Gregorian Chant and the Carolingians (See Bibliography below with links to amazon.com or other web references), asked at the beginning of his Chapter 4: “When was Gregorian chant first written down? When were the propers of the Roman Mass and Office, which we can trace in an unbroken line from the later Carolingians to Solesmes, given their definitive forms?” The current wisdom would say the first half of the ninth century, he said. However, Levy believed that some form of writing chant existed as far back as 800 and the reign of Charlemagne. The evidence, he found, pointed to an origin in the Carolingian era of what is present day France.
According to Levy’s theory, the earlier manuscripts were simply “rendered obsolete by notational innovations of the tenth and eleventh centuries. The emergence of staff lines and clefs meant that new books were substituted, and the older ones with prediastematic neumes had little further purpose. ” (Levy, Pg. 88).
The change in writing music was not the only transition of that era. Antiphons for the Epiphany octave “began their diffusion in the West during the early 9th century as a melodic translation from a Byzantine to a Carolingian melos, carried out by the order of Charlemagne. Just when the Veterem hominem set was incorporated in Roman usage is not known, though this perhaps occurred no sooner than the exercise of Ottonian influence at Rome in the later 10th or early 11th century. What is clear is that when those antiphons reached Rome, the Urban musicians still cared enough about their local dialect to effect the melodic conversion from the Carolingian dialect to the Old-Roman.” (Levy, pg. 26). Thus, melodic transitions of the same era also came from what is now France to Rome.
The change in the technique of music writing may have evolved at the same time or a bit later than the melodic transition, “and by the middle eleventh century the staffless neumes were accurately heightened on staff lines. With that, the basic relationship between memory and writing changed so that the notational factor became primary and the memory was reduced to an auxiliary role.” (Levy, pg. 253)
Levy is not alone in viewing the late tenth and early eleventh centuries as a time of profound change in Gregorian chant. Dom Daniel Saulnier, whose basic text on the history of Gregorian chant is published in several languages by Solesmes, cites Levy and other historians in providing a history of Gregorian chant that takes Levy’s theories into consideration, Somewhat similarly to Levy, Saulnier speaks of an eighth century “Frankish-Roman hybridization” rather than a Roman replacement of the Gallican chant.
Moreover, Saulnier has a definite view of the purpose of neumes and of their impact. ”The discovery of “modal types” and of “modal equivalences “proves that the table of modes is a work achieved by theorists, after the repertoire was composed. . . . [I]t tries to list the whole of the repertoire under a number of limited categories.” (Saulnier, Gregorian Chant: a Guide, translated by Edward Schaefer, Solesmes, 2003, pg. 50).
Saulnier places even more emphasis than Levy upon transitions in chant notation around the year 1000:
“Chants of the Mass appear in the first notated manuscripts of the tenth century. Throughout all of Europe these first manuscripts already have the same texts, the same melodies and nearly the same rhythmic nuances: they form a unified repertoire of monolithic proportions.
“The chants of the Office are only found in manuscripts from about the year 1000 and later. Yet, they transmit well to us forms from much earlier.” (Pg. 55).
Moreover, Saulnier is consistent with Levy in attributing to the tenth century the birth of musical notation with the use of a staff:
“Around 930, the Gradual of Laon provides the complete repertoire of chants for the Mass in “Lorraine” notation (or Messine), which is representative of the eastern part of France. Brittany also possesses, from the tenth century, its own system of “Breton” notation. The regions between Normandy and Lyons also develop their own neumatic writing, the “French” notation, of which the oldest witness is the manuscript of Mount-Renaud (second half of the tenth century, cf. p. 116). Also, several documents of the tenth century transmit to us a writing proper to the southwest of France, one destined for a rich development: “Aquitainian” notation.” (Saulnier, pg. 119)
Continuing, Saulnier writes:
“The tenth century is, then, the century of the birth of musical notation, with its placing the Gregorian repertoire in written form. . . . Several of these systems, notably the notations of Laon, Brittany and Aquitaine, already testify to a concern about indicating the relative height of notes; but it is to the eleventh century to perfect diastematic and solfege systems of notation. The ascribing of the invention of the musical staff to Guido d’Arezzo is an historic simplification. This pedagogical genius did perfect the system of the staff, and he presented it to Pope John XIX, who showed a great deal of interest in it. . . but the staff itself had appeared progressively.” (Pp. 120-121).
Saulnier attributes to Aquitaine the development of the custos (a sign at the end of a line to signal the position of the first note of the following line).
The change in writing music at the turn of the eleventh century, says Saulnier, is a matter of music theory. At page 125, Saulnier quotes Levy’s article “On the origin of Neums,” Early Music History 7, Cambridge 1987, p. 59-90, stating: “It does not represent the music itself, but its theory . . . [Its] signs correspond to the relationships between order and measure, to mathematically conceived and formulated relationships, instituted by the theory.” Thus, Saulnier concludes:
“Fundamentally, it is the rapport of the singer with the music that is changed; and it is probably the most significant turning point in the entire history of music in the West.” (Pg. 125; emphasis added)
Music and the Pope of the Year 1000
Neither Levy nor Saulnier wrote much, in those particular books, to correlate these musical developments with the political and philosophical history of the time or with other developments in Church history of that time. One of those related developments was the presence of a very musical pope who had been a Church musician and teacher of music theory in the late tenth century: Gerbert of Aurillac (Pope Sylvester II).
Gerbert was born around the year 945 in Aquitaine. He entered the Benedictine monastery of St. Gerald in Aurillac (within Aquitaine) when he was a child and received his early education there. He later maintained friendships with monks in Aquitaine. The Aquitainian neumes, as mentioned above, are not the only form of musical notation that he would have known. Part of his later education was in Spain, where he also would have encountered a form of musical notation.
From 972 to 989, Gerbert was the abbot at the royal Abbey of St. Remi in Reims, France, and at the Italian monastery at Bobbio (Italy). In addition to rhetoric, the dialectic, and the classics , he taught the quadrivium – mathematics, geometry, astronomy and music – drawn in part from the sixth century writings of Boethius. Bobbio had a more extensive library than he had found at St. Remi. Gerbert returned to Reims, and collected a library there, which was significant enough that he later complained of the inadequacy of his library in Rome (letter 238). He wrote that he was particularly interested in copying the works of Boethius. He would have been able to gather musical knowledge from several parts of Europe, including Boethius and other musical theorists and philosophers whose works were then available.
The musical part of the quadrivium had three branches: cosmic, vocal and instrumental. The laws of music were considered to be divine and objective, and it was important to learn the relation between the musical movement of the celestial spheres and the sounds of the voice and musical instruments (Pierre Riché at 51). Gerbert created an instrument called a monochord for his students, from which it was possible to calculate musical vibrations. He devised the consonances of notes in tones and semi-tones. He wrote about the measurement of organ pipes. Some historians believe that Gerbert actually built organs.
A number of Gerbert’s letters survive from his time as abbot of St. Remi and Bobbio. Among them are two letters explaining difficult passages of Boethius’s De Musica to a student, Constantine at Fleury (Letters No. 4 and 5, written around 978-980), The two letters both concern the theory of superparticular numbers (numerical proportions) discussed in the second and fourth books of De Musica.
The Benedictine monastery at Fleury, where his former student Constantine was then a monk, is the location of St. Benedict’s tomb, a monastery known for the purity of its Benedictine life. In Gerbert’s Letter 105, written from Reims in 987, Gerbert wrote to a monk of Aurillac, recommending Constantine of Fleury for teaching rhetoric, music and organ-playing. Gerbert added, “Therefore, if anyone of you is moved by an interest in such things [as rhetoric], as well as in the learning of music and the playing of organs, I will see to it that what I am unable to finish myself will be completed by Constantine of Fleury, if I may know the definite wish of Lord Abbot Raymond to whom I owe everything. For the former is an excellent teacher, especially learned, and very closely joined to me in friendship.”
Several of Gerbert’s letters mention church organs in Italy, which Gerbert was seeking to have moved from Bobbio to the abbey in Aurillac. Letter No. 77, written by Gerbert from Reims in 986, asks an abbot in Aurillac for prayer for the churches and for him, and adds that the organs and other things that the abbot had requested were being kept in Italy until peace was made between the two kingdoms. Letter 102, written to the subsequent abbot of Aurillac in 987, mentions that the organs are still in Italy and asks about sending a monk from Aurillac to Italy “to learn and practice on them” again for fear of the political situation.
On Easter, April 9, 999, with Emperor Otto III’s support, Gerbert became the first French pope (Riché at 202-203). He took the name of Pope Sylvester II. As Otto III’s campaigns were bringing Poland and Hungary into the Holy Roman Empire, Gerbert was credited with Christianizing both countries. A large monument to him as Pope Sylvester II is in the Basilica of St. John Lateran, given by a Hungarian emperor in recognition of Pope Sylvester II’s role in Christianizing Hungary. At a time when the communication between Rome and Constantinople had all but completely broken off, Sylvester II maintained a thin thread of correspondence with Prince Vladimir of Kievan Russia, probably hopeful that the new Kievan empire would eventually side with Rome instead of Constantinople, in an effort to restore unity within the Church (Lattin at 17).
As busy as he was with his work as pope, Sylvester II was still a writer and musician. He added to the canons of the mass a prose in honor of the angels and a canticle on the Holy Spirit. (Riché, pg. 208, referencing manuscripts from Oxford and Douai).
In the Eastern Church
Kiev chant, the beautiful Russian Orthodox form of Church music, developed beginning around the same time as the major change in western music just discussed.
Constantinople was the wealthiest city in the world at the year 1,000. Moreover, a newer empire was developing, with its capitol city in Kiev, prompting Prince Vladimir to consider what should be the faith of his empire to mark its cultural and spiritual identity as a growing power in its day.
In the late tenth century, the beauty of the Eastern liturgy struck Prince Vladimir and was a key reason for his choosing the Byzantine liturgy, with ties to Constantinople, in preference over the liturgy of the western Church and in preference over non-Christian religions. (Fedotov, The Russian Religious Mind, pg. 51). Thus, ancient Greek chants were carried into the Kievan Church (Fedotov, pg. 53; Morosan, “Liturgical Singing,” pg. 70), the development of Kiev chant thus taking place around the same time as the developments described above were taking place in the west.
Gerbert of Aurillac and the Development of Chant
Pope Sylvester II must surely have been aware that Rome had taken second place to Constantinople in the eyes of Prince Vladimir at least partly because the Russian prince had preferred the music of Constantinople. Besides that, he must have had concerns with how the western liturgy was to be communicated to the new churches in Hungary and Poland. However, if such concerns impacted the development of western Church music in the same era, Gerbert made no mention of it in his known writings. His love for music and learning had originated decades earlier, and it does not seem to have become any greater a concern for him as pope than it had been when he was a teacher in a monastery.
What is more clearly true is that Gerbert of Aurillac’s genius impacted the Church and western culture in a variety of areas, and that the developments within western chant were no doubt furthered by his interest. His appreciation of Boethius, philosophy, mathematics, and scientific reasoning influenced his study of music and the work of his students. Boethius’s Treatise on Music had begun to influence the study of music theory substantially in the ninth century’s Renaissance, and the interest in a theoretical and rational study of music already existed before Gerbert.
However, it was Gerbert who is thought to have first begun to have a full vision of the blend of scientific reason and faith that would come to fruition in the thirteenth century with St. Albert the Great and St. Thomas Aquinas. His view of music shows much of that blend of faith and reason. In science, he stood alone, but in music, it was a series of developments in different places, over decades, that led toward a transition that was -- as Levy and Saulnier wrote -- based upon "mathematically conceived and formulated relationships, instituted by the theory”. In music, reason and faith thus blended more readily, with more acceptance while Gerbert was still alive.
J.E.G. de Montmorency wrote of Gerbert's view of science and reason in Thomas à Kempis: His Age and Book, “The pathway of Christ needed to be the pathway of reality. . . Gerbert turned to the investigation of the parts while he recognized the ideal existence of the whole. To have shown the possibility of such an attitude was his contribution to man’s conception of the relationship of man and God. He saw things dimly, but he also saw them whole.” (pp. 256-257). This aspect of Gerbert's view of science was not much different from his view of music. He wrote of mathematics, astronomy and music in much the same way. And yet it was in music that the transition occurred in the tenth and eleventh centuries.
If it took until the thirteenth century for St. Albert the Great and St. Thomas Aquinas to begin to fully develop that path of reason and faith in the areas of philosophy and theology, the same was not so in the area of music. In music, Gerbert did not stand at all alone. The reasoned analysis of music theory took hold more quickly than the reasoned analysis of science, and the greatest transition in western music blossomed, as Saulnier found, by the middle of the eleventh century. What may have been “dark ages” philosophically, were musically brimming with intellectual life.
Bibliography:
Boèce, Traité de la Musique
, Hors Collection, 2005
Fedotov, G.P., The Russian Religious Mind: Kievan Christianity, The Tenth to the Thirteenth Centuries, Harvard University Press, 1946
Gerbert of Aurillac, The Letters of Gerbert of Aurillac, translated and with an introduction by Harriet Lattin, Columbia University Press, 1959
Hilarion of Kiev, "Eulogy for Prince/St. Vladimir"
Levy, Kenneth, Gregorian Chant and the Carolingians, Princeton University Press, 1998
Montmorency, J.E.G., Thomas à Kempis: His Age and Book, Methuen & Co., London, 1906
Morosan, Vladimir, “Liturgical Singing Or Sacred Music?: Understanding the Aesthetic of the New Russian Choral Music”, from The Legacy of St. Vladimir: Byzantium, Russia America, John Breck & John Meyendorff, ed., St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1997
Riché, Pierre, Gerbert d'Aurillac: Le Pape de l'an mil, Fayard, 1987
Saulnier, Dom Daniel, Gregorian Chant: A Guide, Solesmes, 2003
