One of the places the Mass showcases chant in its purest form is during the gradual. The gradual is the psalm chanted between the epistle and the gospel in the Tridentine Rite. These moments of the Mass are, as Abbe Claude Barthe states in his book A Forest of Symbols
Wonderful post. The ability to linger over some words and pass quickly through others is one of the things that is lost in polyphony. Chant is sometimes maligned as "primitive", but it has distinct aesthetic advantages.
Wonderful post. The ability to linger over some words and pass quickly through others is one of the things that is lost in polyphony. Chant is sometimes maligned as "primitive", but it has distinct aesthetic advantages.