The English Plainchant Revival (review)

The English Plainchant Revival. By Bennet Zon. (New York: Oxford University Press. 1999. Pp. xxii, 410. $95.00.)

Of the many forms of church music that the author could have singled out for the kind of scholarly assessment that is found in this present volume, the author chose one of the simplest as well as one of the most ancient and widely-used forms in the history of church music, namely, plainchant. In Roman Catholic church music history, this music is also known as Gregorian Chant, thereby identifying it with the name of Pope Saint Gregory the Great (d. 604), a name that has been traditionally associated with the Latin liturgy of the early Roman Catholic Church.

The musical style of plainchant in its pristine state is characterized by a somewhat elevated declamation of a prayer text, support by a melody of limited tonal range. It is also distinguished by being unaccompanied by other instruments such as the organ, and only sparsely adorned with simple melodic designs.

As this simplest of musical forms, plainchant has served the musical needs of the Church from earliest times. That it should figure so prominently in England during the post-Reformation period, a time of extreme political unrest and turmoil, attests to its commonality of acceptance and function prior to and following the Reformation and the Council of Trent in the sixteenth century.

As told here, the story of the role played by plainchant in a tumultuous time-segment of church music history in England is the central theme of the book. Furthermore, the author devotes two of the three main divisions of his history to the plainchant in the history of the Roman Catholic Church. For example, Part I is devoted to "The Plainchant Revival in the Eighteenth-Century Roman Catholic Church in England"; Part II sets forth "The Plainchant Revival in the Nineteenth-Century Roman Catholic Church in England"; and in Part III, the author writes about "The Revival of Plainchant in the Nineteenth-Century Anglican Church." For each segment of church music history singled out for mention, the author provides a wide-ranging commentary as a background to the topic at hand.

In the scope and sequence of Zon's exposition, he exhibits early on in the narrative his secure grasp of the elements of his topic. His arrangement of the interconnecting events, authors, music, and publications is meticulously supported by cogent reference to authoritative sources. The book is valuable as a compendium of important information, presented with unique insights into the lives and contributions of many known and unknown musicians of the period.

But there is more.

As the reader follows the route of the author's investigation, he will be dismayed by the episodes and grim conflicts that meet his eye. For example, in penal times the celebration of Mass was prohibited everywhere except in the foreign embassy chapels, where Roman Catholics could worship freely. The embassy chapels also served as focal points for the delivery of printed prayer books, handwritten and printed collections of plainchants, Graduals, and other necessary accessories of Catholic worship. The recipients of these publications could not always be sure of the delivery of these items, for if the bearers of them were apprehended, the items would be destroyed and the bearers subject to severe punishment and even death.

Out of this troubled environment, there appeared on center stage the person of John Francis Wade (1711-1786), a convert to Roman Catholicism, known in music history simply as the composer of the Christmas hymn "Adeste fideles." Biographical data on Wade are surprisingly nonexistent. His value to the revival rests mainly on his extraordinary contributions to the underground movement through his expertise as a printer, calligrapher of music notation, a Psalter, a Gradual, and a Confraternity Handbook, among other precious and useful items all distributed through the underground church. The voluminous evidence of his presence and contribution to the cause of plainchant leads the historian...