Gregorian Chant (review)

Gregorian Chant, David Hiley's contribution to the Cambridge Introductions to Music series, offers an ideal balance of authoritative scholarship and accessibility. Although Hiley's book is intended as an introduction for non-specialists, the author refuses to allow the reader to fall prey to misconceptions that one might construe from an introductory text. As such, this is an excellent starting point for students new to the study of plainchant, offering a solid overview that avoids inappropriate and awkward oversimplifications throughout. The appendices include a map showing the provenance of extant manuscripts, a general chronology, and a glossary full of clearly defined terms; the bibliography is augmented by suggestions for further reading after each major section of the text. For readers familiar with Richard Crocker's Introduction to Gregorian Chant (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000), this book will seem less personal but no less engaging. One of the world's leading scholars on Western plainchant, Hiley writes with clarity and wit. His inviting style, which often includes humorous stories and asides, makes the reader feel like an insider rather than a neophyte.

The organization and flow of the text is a pedagogical masterstroke, one that reflects the author's extensive experience communicating effectively about plainchant. Each of the five large chapters deals with a significant aspect of Gregorian chant, from its characteristics to its modern performance. This structure frames and focuses the substantial subsections within the chapters, linking major themes and rendering often intimidating material both manageable and accessible to readers. Chapters and subsections are arranged like a compact, graded curriculum, each section building on the information that has already been presented; shaded boxes house additional explanations, source readings, and other asides without interrupting the flow of the main text. Examples, figures, and text boxes are not merely window dressing, but rather contribute significantly to the reader's substantive understanding of the subject.

The text begins with the absolute basics. The first chapter, "Gregorian Chant in the Service of the Church," contextualizes chant as a function of liturgy and addresses issues of chant's nature, texts, and general uses. An engaging, concise portrait of the various types of clergy, religious institutions, and their respective churches and outbuildings follows, using Worcester cathedral as a case study. High-quality ground plans of the cathedral, priory, and city of Worcester bring Hiley's prose to life, showing literally where chant was sung in procession or otherwise, and the spaces in which clergy lived and worked.

Hiley's account of the Mass and Divine Office is one of the clearest and most readable available, illuminated further by the line art of the previous section. Again, the meticulous organization of content stands out here. While some form of diagram would have been a welcome addition to the description of the liturgical year, the overview is nonetheless direct and governed by what information might be useful to a reader at this point in the text. It is only after these basics of function and context have been introduced that the author turns to Gregorian chant itself, beginning—logically—with the texts that were central to the chant. Hiley outlines the sources from which chant texts were drawn, and the ways those texts were adapted, in a straightforward manner, well-chosen examples illustrating the processes described. The section on music begins, not surprisingly, with the essential prerequisites for more advanced discussion, a primer on describing melodies and a refreshingly practical introduction to the Church modes and psalm tones. Hiley addresses the major plainchant forms and styles individually, beginning with responsory verses and office antiphons. The organization that follows is unorthodox, but logical in its treatment of the most complex styles first: great responsories, graduals, and tracts. Mixing items of the Mass proper with a discussion of chants for the Divine Offices risks confusing readers unfamiliar with Catholic liturgy, and it is somewhat of a relief when the ordinary is discussed as a unit.

Having outlined the functions, nature, and styles of...