Ambrosian, Chant

AMBROSIAN CHANT. - This is the chant currently used in the Ambrosian liturgy. In ancient times its extent was much more widespread, reaching as far as Benevento and Montecassino, although "Ambrosian" was always synonymous with "Milanese." In reality one cannot claim that the chant, like the liturgical order itself, is the work of St. Ambrose; certainly, however, in the psalmody, in the hymnody and in other parts, he had a personal direction. Everything, though, leads us to believe that by at least the 6th century, chant and liturgy had a character of their own, different from the one that Pope St. Gregory established for Rome. As for its origin, although many details are still unclear, it is believed that it corresponded — not excluding Eastern influences and some Gallican orientation — to a more or less Latin tradition; in this way one can say that there was a Roman musical tradition, which was stylized differently in Rome and in Milan, perhaps also given the different importance of the two centers. As for rhythm, it is certain that the tradition was the same; indeed the oldest Ambrosian musical manuscripts use, one might say, the same North Italian notation, which shows great affinity with the Sangallese notation used at Bobbio, and the same additional rhythmic signs. In the modal part, Ambrosian chant bears witness even more than Gregorian to the ancient theory, before it was retouched and systematized in the Middle Ages; it is more in keeping with the Latin genius, with free rhythm and with the ancient theories of Hellenic harmonics. The two chants, Ambrosian and Gregorian, although they may be called one and the same musical liturgy, each have their own style and formulas. In the Ambrosian, the melismas are, in general, more prolonged, composed of more conjunct intervals, of a form more resembling the Byzantine. The manuscripts on which a critical edition of this chant could be established are relatively numerous, and date back to the 9th and 10th centuries. The notation, from the primitive one, developed until it assumed Gothic forms; today it has quite legitimately been possible to present it with the common Latin neumatic tradition. Noteworthy, in the modality of Ambrosian chant, is the absence of any numerical indication of the modes at the beginning of the melody; which better corresponds to its primitive character. The psalmody knows no melody proper to the mediation, and as dominant for the singing of the psalm it logically chooses that note which has most dominated in the antiphon, with which it must form a harmonious and liturgical whole. As for its aesthetics, there is, more than in Gregorian, a great diversity of formulas for the different liturgical moments. Its expression, although at times it is of an extraordinary simplicity, at other times is more intense, more deeply felt, more daring; therefore the appellation applied to it of "harsh chant" is completely false, at a time when the true Ambrosian chant was unknown. On the whole, it is a musical expression more primitive, more spontaneous, less refined than the Gregorian.

Gregorio M. Suñol