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Gregorian chant was organized, codified, and notated mainly in the Frankish lands of western and central Europe during the 10th to 13th centuries, with later additions and redactions, but the texts and many of the melodies have antecedents going back several centuries earlier. Although popular belief credited Pope Gregory I with having personally invented Gregorian chant (in much the same way that a biblical prophet would transmit a divinely received message), scholars now believe that the chant bearing his name arose from a later [[Carolingian]] synthesis of Roman and [[Gallican chant]], and that at that time the attribution to Gregory I was a "marketing ruse" to invest it with a sanctified pedigree, as part of an effort to create one liturgical protocol that would be practised throughout the entire [[Holy Roman Empire]].{{Citation needed|date=January 2011}}

The [[New Testament]] mentions singing hymns during the [[Last Supper]]: "When they had sung the hymn, they went out to the [[Mount of Olives]]" {{bibleverse||Matthew|26.30|NT}}. Other ancient witnesses such as [[Clement of Rome|Pope Clement I]], [[Tertullian]], [[Athanasius of Alexandria|St. Athanasius]], and Egeria confirm the practice,<ref>Apel, ''Gregorian Chant'' p. 74.</ref> although in poetic or obscure ways that shed little light on how music sounded during this period.<ref>Hiley, ''Western Plainchant'' pp. 484–7 and James McKinnon, ''Antiquity and the Middle Ages'' p. 72.</ref> The 3rd-century Greek "[[Oxyrhynchus hymn]]" survived with musical notation, but the connection between this hymn and the plainchant tradition is uncertain.<ref>McKinnon, James W.: "Christian Church, music of the early", Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy (Accessed 11&nbsp;July&nbsp;2006), [http://www.grovemusic.com/ (subscription access)]</ref>

Scholars are still debating how plainchant developed during the 5th through the 9th centuries, as information from this period is scarce. Around 410, [[Augustine of Hippo]] described the responsorial singing of a Gradual psalm at Mass. At ca. 520, Saint [[Benedict of Nursia]] established what is called the rule of St. Benedict, in which the protocol of the Divine Office for monastic use was laid down. Around 678, Roman chant was taught at [[York]].<ref>James McKinnon, ''Antiquity and the Middle Ages'' p. 320.</ref> Distinctive regional traditions of Western plainchant arose during this period, notably in the British Isles ([[Celtic chant]]), Spain ([[Mozarabic chant|Mozarabic]]), Gaul ([[Gallican chant|Gallican]]), and Italy ([[Old Roman chant|Old Roman]], [[Ambrosian chant|Ambrosian]] and [[Beneventan chant|Beneventan]]). These traditions may have evolved from a hypothetical year-round repertory of 5th-century plainchant after the western [[Roman Empire]] collapsed.

Scholars debate whether the essentials of the melodies originated in Rome, before the 7th century, or in Francia, in the 8th and early 9th centuries. Roman Catholic Traditionalists point to evidence supporting an important role for Pope Gregory I between 590 and 604, such as that presented in Heinrich Bewerunge's article in the ''Catholic Encyclopedia''.<ref>{{ws|"[[s:Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Gregorian chant|Gregorian chant]]" in the 1913 ''Catholic Encyclopedia''}}, article by Heinrich Bewerunge.</ref> Scholarly consensus, supported by Willi Apel and Robert Snow, asserts instead that Gregorian chant developed around 750 from a synthesis of Roman and [[Gallican chant]] commissioned by [[Carolingian]] rulers in France. During a visit to Gaul in 752–753, [[Pope Stephen II]] had celebrated Mass using Roman chant. According to [[Charlemagne]], his father Pepin abolished the local [[Gallican rite]]s in favor of the Roman use, in order to strengthen ties with Rome.<ref>Apel, ''Gregorian Chant'' p. 79.</ref> In 785–786, at Charlemagne's request, [[Pope Hadrian I]] sent a papal [[sacramentary]] with Roman chants to the Carolingian court. This Roman chant was subsequently modified, influenced by local styles and Gallican chant, and later adapted into the system of eight [[musical mode|modes]]. This Frankish-Roman Carolingian chant, augmented with new chants to complete the liturgical year, became known as "Gregorian." Originally the chant was probably so named to honor the contemporary [[Pope Gregory II]],<ref>McKinnon, ''Antiquity and the Middle Ages'' p. 114.</ref> but later lore attributed the authorship of chant to his more famous predecessor Gregory the Great. Gregory was portrayed dictating plainchant inspired by a dove representing the [[Holy Spirit]], giving Gregorian chant the stamp of holy authority. Gregory's authorship is popularly accepted as fact to this day.<ref>Wilson, ''Music of the Middle Ages'' p. 13.</ref>

Gregorian chant appeared in a remarkably uniform state across Europe within a short time. [[Charlemagne]], once elevated to Holy Roman Emperor, aggressively spread Gregorian chant throughout his empire to consolidate religious and secular power, requiring the clergy to use the new repertory on pain of death.<ref>David Wilson, ''Music of the Middle Ages'' p. 10.</ref> From English and German sources, Gregorian chant spread north to Scandinavia, Iceland and Finland.<ref>Hiley, ''Western Plainchant'' p. 604.</ref> In 885, [[Pope Stephen V]] banned the [[Church Slavonic language|Slavonic]] liturgy, leading to the ascendancy of Gregorian chant in Eastern Catholic lands including Poland, Moravia, Slovakia, and Austria.

The other plainchant repertories of the Christian West faced severe competition from the new Gregorian chant. Charlemagne continued his father's policy of favoring the Roman Rite over the local Gallican traditions. By the 9th century the Gallican rite and chant had effectively been eliminated, although not without local resistance.<ref>Apel, ''Gregorian Chant'' p. 80.</ref> The Gregorian chant of the [[Sarum Rite]] displaced [[Celtic chant]]. Gregorian coexisted with [[Beneventan chant]] for over a century before Beneventan chant was abolished by papal decree (1058). [[Mozarabic chant]] survived the influx of the [[Visigoths]] and [[Moors]], but not the Roman-backed prelates newly installed in Spain during the Reconquista. Restricted to a handful of dedicated Roman Catholic chapels, modern Mozarabic chant is highly Gregorianized and bears no musical resemblance to its original form. [[Ambrosian chant]] alone survived to the present day, preserved in [[Milan]] due to the musical reputation and ecclesiastical authority of [[Ambrose|St. Ambrose]].

The first extant sources with musical notation were written around 930 (Graduale Laon). Before this, plainchant had been transmitted orally. Most scholars of Gregorian chant agree that the development of music notation assisted the dissemination of chant across Europe. The earlier notated manuscripts are primarily from [[Regensburg]] in Germany, St. Gall in Switzerland, Laon and St. Martial in France.

Gregorian chant has in its long history been subjected to a series of redactions to bring it up to changing contemporary tastes and practice. The more recent redaction undertaken in the Benedictine Abbey of St. Pierre, Solesmes, has turned into a huge undertaking to restore the allegedly corrupted chant to a hypothetical "original" state. Early Gregorian chant was revised to conform to the theoretical structure of the [[musical mode|modes]]. In 1562–63, the [[Council of Trent]] banned most [[sequence (poetry)|sequences]]. Guidette's ''Directorium chori'', published in 1582, and the ''Editio medicea'', published in 1614, drastically revised what was perceived as corrupt and flawed "barbarism" by making the chants conform to contemporary aesthetic standards.<ref>Apel, ''Gregorian Chant'' pp. 288–289.</ref> In 1811, the French musicologist [[Alexandre-Étienne Choron]], as part of a conservative backlash following the liberal Catholic orders' inefficacy during the [[French Revolution]], called for returning to the "purer" Gregorian chant of Rome over French corruptions.<ref>Hiley, ''Western Plainchant'' p. 622.</ref>

Gregorian chant is, of course, vocal music. The text, the phrases, words and eventually the syllables, can be sung in various ways. The most straightforward is recitation on the same tone, which is called "syllabic" as each syllable is sung to a single tone. Likewise, simple chants are often syllabic throughout with only a few instances where two or more notes are sung on one syllable. "Neumatic" chants are more embellished and [[ligature (music)|ligature]]sligatures, a connected group of notes, written as a single compound neume, abound in the text. [[Melismatic]] chants are the most ornate chants in which elaborate melodies are sung on long sustained vowels as in the Alleluia, ranging from five or six notes per syllable to over sixty in the more prolix melismas.<ref>Hoppin, ''Medieval Music'' pp. 85–88.</ref>

Gregorian chants fall into two broad categories of melody: [[recitative]]s recitatives and free melodies.<ref>Apel, ''Gregorian Chant'' p. 203</ref> The simplest kind of melody is the '''liturgical recitative'''. Recitative melodies are dominated by a single pitch, called the ''[[reciting tone]]''. Other pitches appear in melodic formulae for [[incipit]]sincipits, partial [[cadence (music)|cadences]], and full cadences. These chants are primarily syllabic. For example, the [[Collect]] for [[Easter]] consists of 127 syllables sung to 131 pitches, with 108 of these pitches being the reciting note A and the other 23 pitches flexing down to G.<ref>Hoppin, ''Anthology of Medieval Music'' p. 11.</ref> Liturgical recitatives are commonly found in the [[Accentus Ecclesiasticus|accentus]] chants of the liturgy, such as the intonations of the Collect, [[Epistle]], and [[Gospel]] during the [[Mass (liturgy)|Mass]], and in the direct [[psalmody]] of the [[Canonical hours|Office]].{{listen|filename=Epistle for the Solemn Mass of Easter Day.ogg|title=Epistle for the Solemn Mass of Easter Day|description=example of liturgical recitative in Gregorian chant}}

'''Antiphonal chants''' such as the [[Introit]], and [[Communion (chant)|Communion]] originally referred to chants in which two choirs sang in alternation, one choir singing verses of a psalm, the other singing a refrain called an ''[[antiphon]]''. Over time, the verses were reduced in number, usually to just one psalm verse and the [[Doxology]], or even omitted entirely. Antiphonal chants reflect their ancient origins as elaborate recitatives through the reciting tones in their melodies. Ordinary chants, such as the [[Kyrie]] and [[Gloria in Excelsis Deo|Gloria]], are not considered antiphonal chants, although they are often performed in antiphonal style.{{listen|filename=Loquetur Dominus.ogg|title=''Loquetur Dominus'', Introit for Week XXXIV of Ordinary Time|description=example of antiphonal psalmody in Gregorian chant}}

'''Responsorial chants''' such as the [[Gradual]], [[Alleluia]], [[Offertory]], and the Office Responsories originally consisted of a refrain called a ''respond'' sung by a choir, alternating with psalm verses sung by a soloist. [[Responsory|Responsorial]] chants are often composed of an amalgamation of various stock musical phrases, pieced together in a practice called ''[[centonization]]''. Tracts are melismatic settings of psalm verses and use frequent recurring cadences and they are strongly centonized. {{listen|filename=De profundis.ogg|title=''De profundis'', Tract for the Requiem Mass|description=example of responsorial psalmody in Gregorian chant}}

The non-psalmodic chants, including the [[Ordinary of the Mass]], [[Sequence (poetry)|sequences]], and [[hymn]]s, were originally intended for congregational singing.<ref>Hoppin, ''Medieval Music'' p. 131.</ref> The structure of their texts largely defines their musical style. In sequences, the same melodic phrase is repeated in each couplet. The strophic texts of hymns use the same syllabic melody for each stanza.

{{Main|Musical mode}}Early plainchant, like much of Western music, is believed to have been distinguished by the use of the [[diatonic scale]]. Modal theory, which postdates the composition of the core chant repertory, arises from a synthesis of two very different traditions: the speculative tradition of numerical ratios and species inherited from ancient Greece and a second tradition rooted in the practical art of cantus. The earliest writings that deal with both theory and practice include the [[Musica enchiriadis|Enchiriadis]] group of treatises, which circulated in the late ninth century and possibly have their roots in an earlier, oral tradition. In contrast to the ancient Greek system of tetrachords (a collection of four continuous notes) that descend by two tones and a semitone, the Enchiriadis writings base their tone-system on a tetrachord that corresponds to the four finals of chant, D, E, F, and G. The disjunct tetrachords in the Enchiriadis system have been the subject of much speculation, because they do not correspond to the diatonic framework that became the standard Medieval scale (for example, there is a high F#, a note not recognized by later Medieval writers). A diatonic scale with a chromatically alterable b/b-flat was first described by Hucbald, who adopted the tetrachord of the finals (D, E, F, G) and constructed the rest of the system following the model of the Greek Greater and Lesser Perfect Systems. These were the first steps in forging a theoretical tradition that corresponded to chant.

Around 1025, [[Guido d'Arezzo]] revolutionized Western music with the development of the ''gamut'', in which pitches in the singing range were organized into overlapping [[hexachord]]shexachords. Hexachords could be built on C (the natural hexachord, C-D-E^F-G-A), F (the soft hexachord, using a B-flat, F-G-A^Bb-C-D), or G (the hard hexachord, using a B-natural, G-A-B^C-D-E). The B-flat was an integral part of the system of hexachords rather than an [[accidental (music)|accidental]]. The use of notes outside of this collection was described as [[musica ficta]].

Gregorian chant was categorized into eight [[musical mode|modes]], influenced by the eightfold division of Byzantine chants called the ''[[oktoechos]]''.<ref>Wilson, ''Music of the Middle Ages'' p. 11.</ref> Each mode is distinguished by its ''final'', ''dominant'', and ''ambitus''. The ''final'' is the ending note, which is usually an important note in the overall structure of the melody. The ''dominant'' is a secondary pitch that usually serves as a [[reciting tone]] in the melody. ''[[Ambitus (music)|Ambitus]]'' refers to the range of pitches used in the melody. Melodies whose final is in the middle of the ambitus, or which have only a limited ambitus, are categorized as ''plagal'', while melodies whose final is in the lower end of the ambitus and have a range of over five or six notes are categorized as ''authentic''. Although corresponding plagal and authentic modes have the same final, they have different dominants.<ref>Hoppin, ''Medieval Music'' pp. 64–5.</ref> The existent pseudo-Greek names of the modes, rarely used in medieval times, derive from a misunderstanding of the Ancient Greek modes; the prefix "Hypo-" (under, Gr.) indicates a plagal mode, where the melody moves below the final. In contemporary Latin manuscripts the modes are simply called Protus authentus /plagalis, Deuterus, Tritus and Tetrardus: the 1st mode, authentic or plagal, the 2nd mode etc. In the Roman Chantbooks the modes are indicated by Roman numerals.

:Modes 1 and 2 are the authentic and plagal modes ending on D, sometimes called [[Dorian mode|Dorian]] and [[Hypodorian mode|Hypodorian]Hypodoria].:Modes 3 and 4 are the authentic and plagal modes ending on E, sometimes called [[Phrygian mode|Phrygian]] and [[Hypophrygian mode|Hypophrygian]].:Modes 5 and 6 are the authentic and plagal modes ending on F, sometimes called [[Lydian mode|Lydian]] and [[Hypolydian mode|Hypolydian]].:Modes 7 and 8 are the authentic and plagal modes ending on G, sometimes called [[Mixolydian mode|Mixolydian]] and [[Hypomixolydian mode|Hypomixolydian]].

Although the modes with melodies ending on A, B, and C are sometimes referred to as [[Aeolian mode|Aeolian]Aeolia], [[Locrian mode|Locrian]], and [[Ionian mode|Ionian]], these are not considered distinct modes and are treated as [[Transposition (music)|transpositions]] of whichever mode uses the same set of hexachords. The actual pitch of the Gregorian chant is not fixed, so the piece can be sung in whichever range is most comfortable.