From Gregorian Chant To Polyphony

Music in early Christian worship consisted of melody only. Toward the end of the Middle Ages, more complex music, featuring the simultaneous singing of more than one melodic line, was composed for use in worship. For several centuries, this complex-or polyphonic-music was composed by many of Europe's most famous and skilled composers. For the first eight hundred years of Christian worship the musical vehicle for the liturgy was melody. It might take the form of a cantillated prayer of extreme simplicity or of an ornate Gradual for a solemn occasion. But whatever its complexity, monody-the single line of melody untainted by any accompaniment-was the most perfect and satisfying symbol for the unity of Christian believers. It was the advent of notation that allowed polyphony-many melodies together-to develop, in directions that have since made Western music unique. When buildings are constructed on land which is plentiful, the area they occupy is not a critical factor in their design,…