PLAIN CHANT MUSICAL. - In 1669 Henri Du Mont published five masses that became universally famous.
It seems that he was also the inventor of the term used to designate those religious compositions of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries which stand in opposition to polyphony because they are monodic, although not derived from Gregorian chant. The origin of p. c. m. has not been established, and it is not certain that it arose in Italy.
P. c. m. appears as a compromise between Gregorian chant and modern taste, and aims to offer easy pieces for everyone. It further claims to be simpler than Gregorian chant. From modern tonality it takes major and minor keys, modulations, phrasing, cadences, and chromaticisms; from mensural notation, longs, breves, and semibreves. Cultivated in France by Bourgoing (1634), Cl. Chastelain, J.-B. de Contes, Du Mont, Nivers, the son of Lalli, Poisson, and Laboeuf, it found its best theorist in La Faillée (1748) and was used by the Gallican neo-liturgies. Its masterpiece is the famous Messa Trompette.