Old Hispanic Chant, with Emma Hornby
Learn about: the Old Hispanic Chant, methods for analyzing music we can't hear, and what we can learn from medieval processions.
Here's the Big Why: "I think these artifacts that we have - these musical and liturgical artifacts - are as valuable as a Gothic cathedral. And in a way even more valuable, because a Gothic cathedral is a space in which something precious happens. But we have the evidence of the Something Precious. And if we take that seriously, and we look at it, there's a huge amount for us to learn about how to approach God in different ways." - Emma Hornby
About Emma Hornby: Dr. Emma Hornby is Professor of Music at the University of Bristol, UK. She works on Western liturgical chant, and in recent years has focused on the Old Hispanic rite. She is currently leading a Leverhulme International Network, collaborating with colleagues in Spain to explore the processional practices of early medieval Iberia. Her recent research focuses on how Old Hispanic chant texts and melodies interact in order to promote a particular devotional state or theological understanding. Her books include Music and Meaning in Old Hispanic Lenten Chants (co-authored with Rebecca Maloy) and Medieval Liturgical Chant and Patristic Exegesis.
Manuscript image above from "Musical Values and Practice in Old Hispanic Chant" by Emma Hornby
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Transcript of Old Hispanic Chant, with Emma Hornby
Sarah Bereza: Old Hispanic chant – where did it come from?
Emma Hornby: Old Hispanic chant is what they sang in modern day Spain and Portugal up until about the year 1080. And it seems to have been composed, compiled in the seventh century. Our earliest evidence is a little bit later, early 8th century, but this is very ancient Christian chant. It’s Latin, it’s Roman Catholic, but it’s not Gregorian chant. It’s absolutely not the liturgy and not the chant that they were doing in Rome or across the rest of Western Europe. It’s a local way of singing in worship.
How does Old Hispanic Chant Relate to Gregorian Chant?
Sarah Bereza: Can you tell us a little bit about the story of Gregorian chant and other kinds of chant. I think many of our listeners will have experienced Gregorian chant, but there are so many other regional chant families.
Emma Hornby: In the very early Middle Ages, I mean as Christianity was spreading across Europe, pretty much everybody was singing chant, but there was no sense that there was one authoritative way of doing it. There is a tradition which is associated with Milan, which we still have – the manuscripts are much later, from the 12th century - but we have that tradition. Then there were traditions associated with Gaul. We’ve lost almost all of that, the traditions associated with Ireland. Again, we’ve lost almost all of that. Benevento in southern Italy and then Iberia, Spain and Portugal. And then there were chant traditions also associated with Rome.
Emma Hornby: In the eighth century for various reasons, the emperors of pretty much what’s modern day France and Germany – Francia – took on the Roman way of doing liturgy and the Roman way of singing that went with it (or what they thought it was the Roman way of singing that went with it). And that’s what spread like wildfire across western Europe. So that by the 10th or 11th century, they were pretty much singing the same songs on the same days, right across western Europe, from Dublin to Dubrovnik. And we have evidence from both ends of that scale.
Sarah Bereza: This is kind of a political unification – by unifying liturgical elements, unifying the empire.
Emma Hornby: Absolutely so. And it came with a narrative of authority and of uniformity. So it wasn’t just Roman chant but this was Gregorian chant whispered into the ear of Pope Gregory the Great by the Dove of the Holy Spirit.
Here's the Big Why: "I think these artifacts that we have - these musical and liturgical artifacts - are as valuable as a Gothic cathedral. And in a way even more valuable, because a Gothic cathedral is a space in which something precious happens. But we have the evidence of the Something Precious. And if we take that seriously, and we look at it, there's a huge amount for us to learn about how to approach God in different ways." - Emma Hornby
About Emma Hornby: Dr. Emma Hornby is Professor of Music at the University of Bristol, UK. She works on Western liturgical chant, and in recent years has focused on the Old Hispanic rite. She is currently leading a Leverhulme International Network, collaborating with colleagues in Spain to explore the processional practices of early medieval Iberia. Her recent research focuses on how Old Hispanic chant texts and melodies interact in order to promote a particular devotional state or theological understanding. Her books include Music and Meaning in Old Hispanic Lenten Chants (co-authored with Rebecca Maloy) and Medieval Liturgical Chant and Patristic Exegesis.
Manuscript image above from "Musical Values and Practice in Old Hispanic Chant" by Emma Hornby
Enjoying this podcast episode? Click here to find other Music and the Church episodes, or subscribe to the show wherever you listen to podcasts.
Transcript of Old Hispanic Chant, with Emma Hornby
Sarah Bereza: Old Hispanic chant – where did it come from?
Emma Hornby: Old Hispanic chant is what they sang in modern day Spain and Portugal up until about the year 1080. And it seems to have been composed, compiled in the seventh century. Our earliest evidence is a little bit later, early 8th century, but this is very ancient Christian chant. It’s Latin, it’s Roman Catholic, but it’s not Gregorian chant. It’s absolutely not the liturgy and not the chant that they were doing in Rome or across the rest of Western Europe. It’s a local way of singing in worship.
How does Old Hispanic Chant Relate to Gregorian Chant?
Sarah Bereza: Can you tell us a little bit about the story of Gregorian chant and other kinds of chant. I think many of our listeners will have experienced Gregorian chant, but there are so many other regional chant families.
Emma Hornby: In the very early Middle Ages, I mean as Christianity was spreading across Europe, pretty much everybody was singing chant, but there was no sense that there was one authoritative way of doing it. There is a tradition which is associated with Milan, which we still have – the manuscripts are much later, from the 12th century - but we have that tradition. Then there were traditions associated with Gaul. We’ve lost almost all of that, the traditions associated with Ireland. Again, we’ve lost almost all of that. Benevento in southern Italy and then Iberia, Spain and Portugal. And then there were chant traditions also associated with Rome.
Emma Hornby: In the eighth century for various reasons, the emperors of pretty much what’s modern day France and Germany – Francia – took on the Roman way of doing liturgy and the Roman way of singing that went with it (or what they thought it was the Roman way of singing that went with it). And that’s what spread like wildfire across western Europe. So that by the 10th or 11th century, they were pretty much singing the same songs on the same days, right across western Europe, from Dublin to Dubrovnik. And we have evidence from both ends of that scale.
Sarah Bereza: This is kind of a political unification – by unifying liturgical elements, unifying the empire.
Emma Hornby: Absolutely so. And it came with a narrative of authority and of uniformity. So it wasn’t just Roman chant but this was Gregorian chant whispered into the ear of Pope Gregory the Great by the Dove of the Holy Spirit.
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