The biggest selling album in the history of Christian music has quite staggeringly turned out to be a double CD of Gregorian Chant. John Irvine carries out a comprehensive survey of the ancient musical and spiritual tradition.

The massive body of liturgical music referred to as 'Gregorian Chant' is named after a sixth century Pope. However, the medieval picture of Pope Gregory the Great sitting on a papal throne dictating to a scribe the melodies that a heavenly dove whispered into his ear, is somewhat inaccurate. "Gregorian" Chant actually started in the Jewish synagogues (long before Christianity began), particularly in the congregational singing of psalms and in the practice of cantillation - reading scriptural passages in a heightened, sing-song manner, a practice which springs from the natural tendency of a reader in a large building (in the days before microphones and amplifiers) to utter his words on a single note with modulation of notes upwards or downwards to indicate punctuation. Try it for yourself. When Jesus stood up in the synagogue to read from Isaiah, he probably sang the scripture using the official tune for that text. Since the majority of early Christians were Jews, it was natural for them to continue to use plainchant in their worship, probably originally in Greek and only much later in Latin. When Christianity and Judaism parted their ways, Christians retained centuries old chants in their worship.

Chant continued to develop in the early church as the faith spread. As feast days and the hours of the Daily Office became established, so too did a set written liturgy of praise for the whole year and with it, formalised chant. This process was aided by the development of the monastic orders, devoted to a life of prayer and praise: the monks required a body of words and music comprehensive enough to permit daily worship to be offered at all hours of the day or night. In the third century, Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, carried out a large amount of this work (Ambrosian Chant), but the process continued throughout the early Middle Ages with the final touches put in place by the reforms of Charlemagne the Great, conqueror of Europe, in the 10th century. Gregory the Great's name was borrowed to add authenticity and authority to the endeavour.

As the church began to enforce the official words and music of worship, local variations fell by the wayside and were forgotten, variations such as the Celtic liturgy of Scotland and Ireland, the Gallic liturgy of France and the Mozarabic rites of Moslem-occupied Spain. The point was reached that whatever day and time it was, the same words and music were being used all over Latin Christendom at the same time -Brother Cadfael in Shrewsbury, the Pope in Rome and the Crusaders in Jerusalem, in fact the whole Latin church, praised God with one voice.

With the emergence of polyphonic music in the 13th century, Gregorian Chant began to enter a period of decline. The melodies and rhythms were altered, 'improved', harmonised and rewritten to suit changing tastes. The Benedictine Monks of Solesmes in Southern France set themselves the task, in the 19th century, to purify Chant, by combining scholarship and prayer. Their efforts were recognised in 1903 in the decree of Pius X "Motu Proprio" when the central place of plainchant in Catholic worship was affirmed. As a result, the Chant in use today is essentially the same as that sung over 1,000 years ago.

Getting Into Gregorian Chant
It is worth remembering that plainchant is precisely that - a single melodic line rising and falling with rhythm determined by the structure of the words being recited. Often much of the chant recites on a single note. Chant was not written to be listened to, admired, or 'chilled out' to. It was, and is, part of the ancient tradition of worship of the Roman Catholic church and should not be taken out of context. Part of its attraction is its link to an ages old tradition where the ritual of daily worship continued as the seasons, years and centuries rolled by... Ultimately the idea of a recording of Gregorian Chant is in some respects self-defeating. Chant should be sung or otherwise experienced in the context of worship.

That aside, bear in mind that some of the bigger classical music departments have shelves upon shelves of Gregorian Chant CDs; apart from the recent re-releases by the big record companies, some smaller companies (like Herald AV) continually produce Gregorian Chant discs of a very high quality. Basically you're spoiled for choice, and this selection has tried to cover both top selling discs and other releases, which we feel, would be of interest to Cross Rhythms readers. Bear in mind also that recordings can probably be divided into those which enhance the catalogue by providing an exceptional performance or an interesting selection and those which burden the catalogue by churning out collections of standard chant repertoire.

The Best Selling Blockbuster
In any survey of recordings of Gregorian Chant, one has to start with the biggest selling chant disc of them all, the surprise smash hit of 1994, 'Canto Gregoriano' (disc M1), featuring the Spanish Benedictine Monks of Silos. Inevitably this disc has sold more through hype than merit, but it has a certain charm likely to appeal to any listener, a charm which increases with every listen. Buying this would not be a waste of money -you'll get 95 minutes of competent, unaccompanied singing of selected chants from throughout the Christian year. The Monks have good strong manly voices, sanctified without being sanctimonious. The recordings vary in quality, however. CD1 was recorded in 1973 and the cavernous acoustic of the monastery threatens to overwhelm the singers on occasion. It's annoying on a first listen; but eventually you get used to it as part of the authentic ambience of monastic worship. CD2 was recorded between 1980 and 1982 and has been selected from three CDs currently on release in Spain. The balance between singers and the recording location is far superior on the second disc. The set as a whole has some drawbacks, however - no texts, translations or notes on the chants are provided, which means that the listener is left in the dark as to the meaning and the significance of what he is listening to and the very 'bitty' nature of the compilation has meant that there is a definite lack of continuity between items on the recording and, consequently, little feeling of having entered into the same frame of heart and soul and mind as the Monks.

Contenders For The Top Spot
Hot on the heels of 'Canto Gregoriano' striving for sales and airplay are several excellent discs.

The Benedictine Monks of the Abbey of Saint Maurine in Luxembourg strut their sacred stuff on 'Salve Regina' (disc M2). This is a really old recording (1959) but has lasted reasonably well, notching up a large number of sales over the years, and particularly since it was heavily plugged on Classic FM. The standard of performance varies greatly on the disc, with some very dodgy notes at times. The soloists in particular leave a lot to be desired and the organ accompaniment, while generally unobtrusive, is quite unforgivable. The rather nice balance between voices and the abbey acoustic is spoiled by 'noises off - creaky chairs, hymn books being dropped, monks falling asleep... On the plus side you have 45 minutes of some of the most accessible and approachable chants of the liturgy arranged thematically, so that five communion and six chants in praise of Mary follow one after another, powerfully conveying a genuine sense of Benedictine worship. Latin texts are provided, but without translations. To my mind this is probably the best selection of chants for the beginner, even if the performance leaves much to be desired.

Packaged in a gold CD tray and sporting a rather fetching picture of a hooded monk at prayer, Tranquility' (disc M3) is one of the better examples of the craze for repackaging old recordings in the wake of the success of 'Canto Gregoriano'. One might even say that Erato have done us a great service by reissuing this disc in its current form. The performances on this disc were originally issued in 1988 in France and then reissued in 1990 in the UK on a double CD (disc M4), which didn't have a track listing and proved to be extremely user un-friendly. Set free from the obscurity of the double CD version, 'Tranquility' is an extremely good selection of Holy Week chants for Palm Sunday and Maundy Thursday. Although no details are given, I suspect that the singers - the Choeur Gregorien De Paris - are professional singers: you don't normally get monks this good. The result is one of the best-recorded discs of chant I have listened to. The tone of the singers, their command of the text and the melodies, the balance between voices and acoustic - everything is attractive and the disc is a joy to listen to. Sensible notes on the chants are provided, but texts are not provided.

Britain's leading early music singing group Pro Cantione Antiqua surface on 'The Essential Gregorian Chant' (disc M5) a compilation derived from two other discs, 'The Gregorian Advent' and The Gregorian Lent'. Despite the terrible title, you have a very attractive disc here. Originally recorded in 1990, but only now released in the wake of 'Canto Gregoriano', this disc provides 71 minutes of professionally performed chant. In complete contrast to the laid back, soft, ambient performance associated with certain best selling monks, you have a more hard-nosed, up-front approach - you couldn't call this lot laid back. Perhaps this strength - the sheer professionalism of the performance -is also a weakness: the identity between text and music which one expects of worship appears to be lacking and if you're looking for relaxing background music, you will find this too engaging and demanding, performance wise. Nevertheless, an excellent performance, highly recommended, and a welcome change from droning monks.

The Silos monks reappear on a Deutsche Grammophon release recorded in 1968 and now repackaged as The Mystery Of Santo Domingo De Silos' (disc M6). Unlike the EMI disc, full Latin and English texts have been provided to allow the listener to follow the singers through the celebration of the Mass. This gives a cohesion and unity to the recording which is distinctly lacking on the EMI disc. The quality of the recording is generally very good, in many ways superior to the later EMI disc. However the nightmarish acoustics of the abbey with its overpowering booming echo almost proved too much for the Deutsche Grammophon engineers (among the best in the world). At several points the monks are almost overwhelmed by the abbey acoustic. Fine if you're there worshipping with them, but not necessarily pleasant to listen to at home. Overall a good disc in its own rite and a more satisfying selection than the EMI bestseller.

Price Busting Performances
'Adorate Deum' (disc B1) is a selection of chants taken from the Proper of the Mass, performed by Nova Schola Gregoriana, a professional singing group from Italy. (The Ordinary of the Mass is the bit which is constant; the Proper of the Mass is the bit specific to any given time or day.) Despite being professional singers, the group provide a very heartfelt performance - you might even be fooled into believing that they are monks. The sound quality is excellent, achieving a near perfect balance between voices and recording location.

Female voices can be heard for a change on 'Salve Festa Dies' (disc B2). Discs of female voices are generally rare in the world of Gregorian Chant recordings - probably due to the fact that a group of old, croaky nuns is generally less aesthetically pleasing than a group of wheezy old monks. Don't ask me why. Anyway, I suspect that you will find much to praise and little to condemn in this collection: these are certainly very appealing female voices and the performance is of the same standard as that on the other Naxos disc. The sound quality is not as good however, with some dodgy edits between takes. See if you can spot the gaps.