MOZARABIC CHANT

liturgical music and text forming the eucharistic rite of the Roman Catholic church in Spain in and before the 11th century. By the 5th century, Spain had its own religious and liturgical traditions, which reached a full flowering under the Visigoths in the 6th and 7th centuries. The term Mozarab, denoting Christians under Muslim rule, came into use after the Iberian Peninsula was invaded by the Muslim Arabs (711) and eventually came to designate the Spanish liturgy before, during, and after the Muslim domination, which began to decline in the late 11th century. The earliest extant manuscripts of Mozarabic chant (8th11th century) preserve the musical notation and texts of the entire church year. The notation consists of neumes, or signs showing one or more notes; but it lacks a musical staff, which alone could give the exact pitches of the notes. In the 11th century Pope Gregory VII, desiring to unify liturgical practice, suppressed the Mozarabic rite in favour of the Roman. Only six parishes in Toledo and some monasteries were allowed to continue using it. In the early 16th century, Cardinal Francisco Jimnez de Cisneros tried to revive the Mozarabic chant, but by this time the key to the transcription of the neumes had been lost. The Mozarabic liturgy contains one element found in no other liturgy of equal antiquity. This is a Clamor (Shout) in the mass, added on feast days to the Psallendum, a chant that follows the scriptural readings, in order to elicit religious fervour. Musically, Mozarabic chant contains not only influences of Eastern church chantsuch as the long melismata of the Alleluia (prolongations of one syllable over many notes)but it also has affinities to the Gallican (Frankish) and Ambrosian (Milanese) rites and chants.