Digital Analysis of Chant Transmission

A common technique to evoke the Middle Ages in popular media is through the sound of nuns or monks singing Latin plainchant (Haines 2013), more commonly described as “Gregorian Chant”. Yet the singing of plainchant continued in the Western Church alongside other music styles for a thousand years through to the 20th century, continuing still today in some traditions. The repertory itself developed and changed in many ways because of religious reforms and through international travel and missionary activity that accompanied European colonial expansion. In the Digital Analysis of Chant Transmission network (DACT), we will analyze the movement of liturgical chant books geographically, the transformation of melodies and texts, and the creation of new liturgical artefacts in Latin and vernacular languages. Books of liturgy accompanied Europeans, and the music they contain was woven into the devotional practice of Catholic Settlers and used as a tool by priests, nuns, and monks as they sought to Christianize populations outside of Western Europe. Indigenous communities brought their own languages, writing systems (e.g. the Mi’kmaq), and religious and musical practices to these repertories. Western plainchant thus serves as a key witness to the enduring influence of the medieval Church on societies throughout the world.