What is the origin of Gregorian chant?
Singing has been a part of Christian worship since the earliest days of the Church. The chant, as it has been handed down to us and as it emerged from the rearrangements and reforms of the 7th, 8th and 9th centuries, has not entirely retained its primitive form. It unites within itself inherited elements that are much older and have been synthesized by either re- forming or preserving them. Five main streams of inherited material flow together into the chant, and within the melodic classifications of the chant they remain formally distinguishable from each other to this day. These include Jewish solo psalmody, whose basic model is preserved in the Invi- tatory, the Responsories, and the Tract; the monastic choir psalmody of the Divine Office; the ancient art of depicting faith in song; the ancient cantillation of the priests and lectors in the tones of orations and readings; and the popular elements of various kinds in the acclamations, doxologies, and simple hymns and antiphons. The m
