Gallicano Chant

GALLICAN, CHANT. — In the broad sense, the term G. C. extends to all forms of monodic liturgical music of the Western Church that do not belong to the Roman Church, namely, chant in use in Gaul, Spain, Ireland, and Milan, especially in contrast to Gregorian chant. In the strict sense, the expression G. C. refers to the chant of the Churches beyond the Alps, especially those between the Rhine and the Pyrenees. In a third, little-used sense, G. C. might denote that established in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in France as a result of political and religious Gallicanism, which brought with it liturgical innovations.

The circumstances relating to G. C. in the second sense are rather vague, whereas the ancient Gallican liturgy is better known. In fact, no complete manuscripts of G. C. exist, as there are instead hundreds for Gregorian chant. The melodies called Gallican, in their present form, exist only in Gregorian or Ambrosian codices, in which they were introduced together with rites and prayer formulas of Gallican origin. They are recognized by their often prolix structure, and through deductions and comparisons between the purely Roman sources and the authentic Gallican liturgical books, namely the Antiphonaries of Fleury, Marseille, Tours, and Lyon, the Missale Francorum, and perhaps also the Lesionaria of Luxeuil and the Omilaria of Alcuin. The least doubtful pieces of G. C. would be the “Pange

lingua gloriosi proelium certaminis, a hymn composed by Venansio Fortunato at the end of the sixth century at Poitiers; perhaps also the «Vesilla Regia»; some melodies of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, such as the antiphon «O Crux» of the Gallican office of the Caneri, of the feast of s. Martino; of s. Barnaba, of the Transfiguration, of Palm Sunday («Gloria Laus» and perhaps the antiphon «Cum audiaset»). During Holy Week the «Agios o Theos» and the «Improperia» probably entered the Roman liturgy from the Gallican liturgy; but here arises the problem of the origin of these chants called Gallican, a problem that receives almost a solution from the evident traces of Eastern influence, likewise recognizable in Ambrosian chant. It would therefore not suffice to trace c. g., like the other dialects of ancient Latin liturgical chant, back to a primitive Roman foundation that would then have differentiated itself according to the particular genius of the countries where it developed; this common foundation is attested by the common liturgical texts and also by melodies that are substantially identical; but in addition to this, the contributions from the Eastern Churches must be recalled, especially through the Church of Lyon, which had some bishops who were properly Eastern: e.g., s. Ireneo. Then the creative genius of the Gallic peoples manifested itself not only in the scenic representation of the mysteries of the faith (the rite of the Mendatum) but also in the lyrical translation of the Christian drama centered on the person of Christ (the chant of the Eucharistic text «Venite populi ad sacrum mysterium», still in use in the churches of Milan and Lyon) and on the persons of the martyrs (the Offertory chant «Elegerunt Stephanum» for the feast of s. Stefano).

A fatal blow was dealt to c. g. at the time when King Pipino and his son Carlomagno desired the return of Gaul to the Roman liturgy, that is, the liturgy reformed by Gregorio Magno; once the liturgy disappeared, the chant that accompanied it also disappeared. The only Church that

perhaps can claim to preserve some memory of this chant is that of Lyon; but in the De correplicere antiphonarii one cannot determine precisely what has remained from the ancient usage and what may instead have been introduced independently, also through the Roman practice taught by masters of the great Carolingian schools such as, for example, Alcuino and Amalario. The Church of Aix-en-Provence, in which the liturgy and c. g. remained honored even after Carlomagno, no longer maintains any claim to a liturgy of its own. The other centers in which the musical art was cultivated together with the other disciplines, and from which some contribution to the obscure question of c. g. may be expected, were Autun, Vienna, Arles, Narbonne, Toulouse and, farther north, Tours, Poitiers, Orléans. The diffusion of the monks of Cluny and, with them, of the pure Roman liturgy dealt the final blow to what might have remained of the fruitful source of Gallican liturgical music.