Beneventan chant
Beneventan chant is a liturgical plainchant repertory of the Roman Catholic Church, used primarily in the
orbit of the southern Italian ecclesiastical centers of Benevento and Monte Cassino distinct from Gregorian
chant and related to Ambrosian chant. It was officially supplanted by the Gregorian chant of the Roman rite
in the 11th century, although a few Beneventan chants of local interest remained in use.
History
During the Lombard occupation of the 7th and 8th centuries, a
distinctive liturgical rite and plainchant tradition developed in
Benevento. It included feasts of special local importance such as the
Holy Twelve Brothers of Benevento. At the time it was called “Tu es deus” in beneventan notation
cantus ambrosianus ("Ambrosian chant"), although it is a separate
plainchant tradition from the chant of Milan which we call
Ambrosian chant. The common use of the name cantus ambrosianus, the common influence of the
Lombards in both Benevento and Milan, and musical similarities between the two liturgies and chant
traditions suggest a Lombard influence in the origins of Beneventan chant.
Gregorian chant had already begun to take hold in the Beneventan
orbit as early as the 8th century. The two traditions appear to have
coexisted for about a century before the Gregorian chant began to
replace the native Beneventan. Many Beneventan chants exist only
as interpolations and addenda in Gregorian chantbooks, sometimes
next to their corresponding chants in the Gregorian repertory.
External ecclesiastical influences, such as two German abbots at
Montecassino during the 11th century, led to an increasing
insistence on the Roman rite and Gregorian chant instead of the
local Beneventan traditions. One of these abbots later became Pope Façade of the church in
Stephen IX, who in 1058 officially outlawed the Beneventan rite Montecassino
and chant. A few Beneventan chants continued to be recorded and
performed for a time, especially for the feasts of local importance
such as the Holy Twelve Brothers, which had no Gregorian counterpart. However, the Beneventan
repertory as a whole fell into disuse. This was commemorated in a legend of a singing contest between a
Gregorian and a Beneventan cantor, which ended in victory for the Gregorian repertory when the
Beneventan cantor fainted from exhaustion.
General characteristics
Beneventan chant is largely defined by its role in the liturgy of the Beneventan rite, which is more closely
related to the liturgy of the Ambrosian rite than the Roman rite. The Beneventan rite has not survived in its
complete form, although most of the principal feasts and several feasts of local significance are extant. The
Beneventan rite appears to have been less complete, less systematic, and more liturgically flexible than the
Roman rite; many Beneventan chants were assigned multiple roles when inserted into Gregorian
chantbooks, appearing variously as antiphons, offertories, and communions, for example.
Like all plainchant, Beneventan chant is monophonic and a cappella. In
accordance with Roman Catholic tradition, it is primarily intended to be
sung by males. Like the other Italian chant repertories, the Old Roman
chant and Ambrosian chant, the melodies are melismatic and ornate. The
melodic motion is primarily stepwise, with a limited ambitus, giving the
chants a smooth, undulating feel. Unlike Ambrosian chants, Beneventan
chants do not notably specify whether any given chant is meant to be
sung by the choir or by any particular singer. The chants almost all end Cloister of Santa Sofia church
on one of two pitches, a G or an A, and thus do not fit into the Gregorian (Benevento)
system of eight modes.
What most distinguishes Beneventan chant is its frequent and repeated use of various short melodic motifs.
Although this technique is used in other chant traditions, such as the centonization of melodic formulae in
the Gregorian Graduals, it is far more frequently used in Beneventan chant than in the other Western
plainchant traditions.
Chants of the Office
Many Beneventan antiphons have psalmody, but no specifically Beneventan style can be distinguished
from the Gregorian sources in which it survives. Unlike the Ambrosian rite, there is no special service for
nightfall, but there are about fifty extant antiphons and five responsories. Only antiphons for Sunday
services survive. Much melodic material is shared among the antiphons and among the responsories.
Chants of the Mass
With rare exceptions, only Proper chants (chants which vary depending on the feast) for the Mass survive.
As in the Ambrosian rite, a threefold Kyrie was sung to a simple melody following the Gloria, but this was
not analogous to the more complex Kyrie of the Gregorian repertory.
In the Beneventan rite, the Proper of the Mass included an Ingressa, Alleluia, Offertory, Communion, and in
six extant Masses, a Gradual.
Ingressae, as in the Ambrosian rite, are elaborate chants sung without psalm verses. They are analogous to
the Gregorian Introit. Alleluias appear in every Mass except the Masses of Holy Week. Most of them share
a single melody. Offertories and Communions are melodically more simple. Some Masses have two
Communion chants. Some Communion chants appear in other services as the Offertory chant, or as a
simple antiphon.
References
Apel, Willi (1990). Gregorian Chant. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press. ISBN 978-0-
253-20601-5.
Hiley, David (1995). Western Plainchant: A Handbook. Clarendon Press. ISBN 978-0-19-
816572-9.
Hoppin, Richard (1978). Medieval Music (https://archive.org/details/medievalmusic00hopp).
W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0-393-09090-1.
Kelly, Thomas Forrest (1989). The Beneventan Chant. Cambridge University Press.
ISBN 978-0-521-34310-7.
Wilson, David (1990). Music of the Middle Ages (https://archive.org/details/musicofmiddleage
0000wils). Schirmer Books. ISBN 978-0-02-872951-0.
External links
A few pieces of Beneventan chant transcribed in square notation (https://web.archive.org/we
b/20150924095110/http://www.scholagreg.org/scholadoc_alt_f.php)
Kelly, Thomas Forrest: "Beneventan Chant", Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy (Accessed 7
May 2006), Grove Music – Access by subscription only (http://www.grovemusic.com)
Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20080516041031/http://www.grovemusic.com/) 2008-
05-16 at the Wayback Machine
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