Beneventan Chant - General Characteristics

General Characteristics

Beneventan chant is largely defined by its role in the liturgy of the Beneventan rite, which is more closely related to the liturgy of the Ambrosian rite than the Roman rite. The Beneventan rite has not survived in its complete form, although most of the principal feasts and several feasts of local significance are extant. The Beneventan rite appears to have been less complete, less systematic, and more liturgically flexible than the Roman rite; many Beneventan chants were assigned multiple roles when inserted into Gregorian chantbooks, appearing variously as antiphons, offertories, and communions, for example.

Like all plainchant, Beneventan chant is monophonic and a cappella. In accordance with Roman Catholic tradition, it is primarily intended to be sung by males. Like the other Italian chant repertories, the Old Roman chant and Ambrosian chant, the melodies are melismatic and ornate. The melodic motion is primarily stepwise, with a limited ambitus, giving the chants a smooth, undulating feel. Unlike Ambrosian chants, Beneventan chants do not notably specify whether any given chant is meant to be sung by the choir or by any particular singer. The chants almost all end on one of two pitches, a G or an A, and thus do not fit into the Gregorian system of eight modes.

What most distinguishes Beneventan chant is its frequent and repeated use of various short melodic motifs. Although this technique is used in other chant traditions, such as the centonization of melodic formulae in the Gregorian Graduals, it is far more frequently used in Beneventan chant than in the other Western plainchant traditions.