ed them. The pagans pointed the finger of scorn at the
Christians, as being mere renegades from the old religion,
and said, plausibly enough, that their worship was merely
another form of the Dionysus tragedy. There was the same altar,
the same chorus, the priest who sang and was answered by the
chorus; and the resemblance had grown to such an extent that
St. Chrysostom (350 A.D.) complained that the church chorus
accompanied its singing with theatrical gestures, which,
as we know, is simply the first step towards the dance.

This was the state of things when Gregory became Pope in
590 A.D. His additions to the modes already in use have been
explained. His great reform lay in severing the connection
between the music of the church and that of the pagan world
before it. Casting aside the declamation and rhythm, which
up to now had always dominated pure sound, he abolished the
style of church singing in vogue, and substituted for it a
system of chanting in which every tie between the words and
music was severed.

The music was certainly primitive enough, for it consisted
merely of a rising and falling of the voice for the space of
many notes on one single syllable, as, for instance,

[F: (f g f g a a) a (a a a g a g g f a)]
[W: Gloria]

The difference between this and the Ambrosian chant is evident
if we look at the following; and we must also bear in mind
that the Ambrosian chants were very simple in comparison with
the florid _tours de force_ of the Byzantine church:

[F: d (d f) (d e) f | (g f) (g a) a | (a g) a c' d']
[W: Al me pater | Ambrosi, | nostras, preces,]
[F: (a b) a | a g a f e d]
[W: audi | Christe, exaudinos]

Now this reform could not be carried out at once; it was
only through the medium of Charlemagne (742-814 A.D.),
a hundred years later, that the Gregorian chant was firmly
established. Authorized by a synod of bishops, called together
from all parts of Europe by Pope Adrian I, Charlemagne, in
774, caused all the chant and hymn books of the Ambrosian
system throughout Italy to be burned. So completely was
this accomplished that only one Ambrosian missal was found
(by St. Eugenius at Milan), and from this work alone can we
form any idea as to the character of the music used by the
followers of Ambrose, who were much retarded by the lack of
a musical notation, which was the next factor needed to bring
music to an equality with the other arts.

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