Angel compiled four other discs from the same source, and the total sales were around five million discs. Other labels quickly entered the market. Archiv reissued an older recording from Silos as Gregorian Chant from Spain, even though it contained only Mozarabic chant, a different type of liturgical music. Teldec reissued a recording of chant sung by Capella Antiqua München as Quietude (or ‘Tranquility’), and every label that had a recording to reissue followed suit. The French label Jade even reissued a series of mono recordings made at Silos for the Pax label about 1957 to 1960. The market for chant records remained strong for several years. But it seemed that most listeners considered chant not as music of liturgical worship but as soothing background music of the kind heard in elevators. They missed its real meaning.
The power of chant
Is chant something more than a quiet background without any real significance? An old story will provide an answer. In 1263 the archbishop of Trier sent a new abbot to the monastery of St. Matthias. Since monks usually elect their own abbot, they were not pleased. When Abbot William arrived, he found the monks in the church, prostrate on the floor in a position of supplication, singing the penitential responsory Media vita, praying that God would deliver them from their new abbot. Terrified, Abbot William fled. At the Council of Cologne in 1316, the assembled bishops forbade the Media vita to be sung against anyone without the local bishop’s permission.
Media vita is a moving prayer that was regularly sung on the three Sundays before the beginning of Lent. It is called an antiphon in the earliest manuscript, the Hartker Antiphoner, but it has the form of a responsory, a chant made up of refrain and verses. “In the midst of life we are at the point of death. From whom do we seek help but you, O Lord? You are justly angry because of our sins. O holy God, O holy strong one, O holy merciful Saviour, do not deliver us to a bitter death.” Then a verse is sung, “In you our fathers hoped; they hoped, and you delivered them,” and the entire group repeats the conclusion “O holy God …” Another verse is sung, “To you our fathers cried out; they cried out, and they were not confounded,” and the conclusion is repeated again. Finally the doxology “Glory be to the
Father …” is sung, and the conclusion is repeated once more. The melody is very poignant, especially in the concluding petition, the cumulative power of its four repetitions accounting for the responsory’s emotional effect. Media vita can be heard on the best-selling Silos disc, but, lacking any provision for understanding the words, the beautiful responsory is easily overlooked.
This and other chants of the Office, the daily prayers sung at set hours by monks and cathedral canons, were probably composed during the ninth and tenth centuries, for the Hartker Antiphoner was written about the year 1000. But the practice of singing the psalms as daily prayer began with the hermits of the Egyptian desert in the fourth century. The hours of prayer were fixed in the Rule of St. Benedict in the sixth century. The Rule prescribed that the entire 150 psalms be sung in the course of the week, divided into seven daily hours of prayer. Each psalm was framed with an antiphon specific to the day, and the lessons (readings) of Matins were followed by meditative responsories. Lauds and Vespers, the two principal hours, and Compline, the bedtime hour, reached a climax with a canticle from the gospel of St. Luke. A hymn was later added to each hour. The collect, or principal prayer at the beginning of Mass, was repeated at the end of each hour.
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