Medieval liturgical chant has been transmitted to us by numerous manuscripts whose importance has been brought to light by the impressive work of rediscovery by the Solesmensians monks since the end of the 19th century. But it is only since the 1950s that this material has become fully available to scholars, musicians and ordinary enthusiasts, through chant editions based on the semiological interpretation of Gregorian Chant.

This video course is aimed at all those who want to learn the secrets of Gregorian Chant through ten lessons covering the following topics:

Lecture 1: some History. The Antiphonale Missarum Sextuplex. The importance of the liturgical text.

Lecture 2: the square notation. Chants for the Mass. Styles and forms.

Lecture 3: Melody types, patchwork melodies (centones), original melodies. Interventions on the text.

Lecture 4: the monosonic neume. St Gall and Lion: a comparison. Rhetoric within the chant. The custos.

Lecture 5: neumes of two sounds. Litterae significativae.

Lecture 6: a few examples on basic neumes. Tironian notes.

Lecture 7: the liquescence.

Lecture 8: oriscus and quilisma. Neumes of three sounds.

Lecture 9: the caesura (neumatic break).

Lecture 10: the Octoechos. Notations and manuscripts. Paleographic tables.