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Page 35
The first steps toward actually defining the new music took
place in the second century, when the Christians were free to
worship more openly, and, having wealthy converts among them,
held their meetings in public places and basilicas which were
used by magistrates and other officials during the day. These
basilicas or public halls had a raised platform at one end, on
which the magistrate sat when in office. There were steps up to
it, and on these steps the clergy stood. The rest of the hall
was called the "nave" (ship), for the simile of "storm-tossed
mariners" was always dear to the early Christian church. In the
centre of the nave stood the reader of the Scriptures, and on
each side of him, ranged along the wall, were the singers. The
Psalms were sung antiphonally, that is, first one side would
sing and the other side would answer. The congregations
were sometimes immense, for according to St. Jerome (340-420
A.D.) and St. Ambrose (340-397 A.D.) "the roofs reechoed with
their cries of 'Alleluia,' which in sound were like the great
waves of the surging sea."
Nevertheless this was, as yet, only sound, and not music. Not
until many centuries later did music become distinct from
chanting, which is merely intoned _speech_. The disputes
of the Arians and the Athanasians also affected the music of
the church, for as early as 306 A.D., Arius introduced many
secular melodies, and had them sung by women.
Passing over this, we find that the first actual arrangement
of Christian music into a regular system was attempted by Pope
Sylvester, in 314 A.D., when he instituted singing schools,
and when the heresy of Arius was formally condemned.
Now this chanting or singing of hymns was more or less a
declamation, thus following the Greek tradition of using one
central note, somewhat in the nature of a keynote.
Rhythm, distinct melody, and even metre were avoided as
retaining something of the unclean, brutal heathenism against
which the Christians had revolted. It was the effort to keep
the music of the church pure and undefiled that caused the
Council of Laodicea (367 A.D.) to exclude from the church all
singing not authorized from the pulpit.
A few years later (about 370 A.D.) Ambrose, the Archbishop
of Milan, strove to define this music more clearly, by fixing
upon the modes that were to be allowed for these chants; for
we must remember that all music was still based upon the Greek
modes, the modern major and minor being as yet unknown. In the
course of time the ancient modes had become corrupted, and the
modes that Ambrose took for his hymns were therefore different
from those known in Greece under the same names. His Dorian
is what the ancients called Phrygian, [G: d' d''] dominant,
A; his Phrygian was the ancient Dorian, [G: e' e''] dominant,
C; his Lydian corresponded to the old Hypolydian, [G: f' f'']
dominant, C; and his Mixolydian to the old Hypophrygian,
[G: g' g''] dominant, D. These modes were accepted by the
church and were called the Authentic modes.
Almost two centuries later, Gregory the Great added four
more modes, which were called Plagal or side modes (from
_plagios_--oblique). These were as follows:
(Keynote)
Hypodorian, [G: a (d') a' ] dominant, F.
Hypophrygian, [G: c (e') b' ] dominant, A.
Hypolydian, [G: c' (f') c''] dominant, A.
Hypo-mixolydian, [G: d' (g') d''] dominant, C.
It is easy to see that these so-called new modes are simply
new versions of the first four; although they are lowered a
fourth beneath the authentic modes (hence the _hypo_), the
_keynote remains the same_ in each instance. Still later two
more modes were added to this list, the Ionic, [G: c' c'']
dominant, G, which corresponded to the ancient Greek Lydian;
and the Aeolian, [G: a' a''] dominant, E, which, strange to say,
was the only one of these newer modes which corresponded to
its Greek namesake. Naturally these two newly admitted modes
were also accompanied by their lower pitched attendant modes,
the Hypoionic, [G: g (c') g'] dominant, E, and the Hypoaeolian,
[G: e' (a') e''] dominant, C.
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