Mystical systems
Plainsong
Direct answer
Plainsong: Plainsong, also called plainchant, is the unaccompanied single-line chant of Christian worship, with no harmony and no fixed beat, of which Gregorian chant is the largest family.
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At a glance
- Also called
- plainchant, plain chant, cantus planus, church chant
- Found in
- Mystical Systems
- Related
- Gregorian chant, Psalmody, Lectio Divina
Plainsong, also called plainchant, is the unaccompanied single-line chant of Christian worship, with no harmony and no fixed beat, of which Gregorian chant is the largest family.
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What is plainsong?
Plainsong translates the Latin cantus planus, plain or level song, a medieval name that set it apart from measured music with fixed note lengths and from music in several parts. It is one line of melody sung by a single voice or by a choir in unison, and its rhythm comes from the words.
Gregorian chant is the best known kind, but not the only one. Milan kept its own Ambrosian chant, Spain the Mozarabic, and Rome an older local repertory, while the Eastern churches developed Byzantine, Armenian, Coptic and Syriac chant. Anglican churches sing the psalms in English to plainsong tones. The melodies are grouped in eight modes, scales with their own final note and reciting note.
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What sets Plainsong apart
What is plain about plainsong is its rhythm. The name was coined when composers began to write music in measured note lengths and in several parts, and the old chant, which has neither, needed a word of its own. Its melodies move mostly by step within the span of an octave, and each belongs to one of eight modes that are told apart by the note on which the tune ends and the note on which it lingers. With no beat and no harmony to lean on, the words and the breath set the pace.
- Latin name: cantus planus, level or even song, current from the 1200s
- Texture: one melodic line, sung solo or in unison, unaccompanied
- Families: Gregorian, Ambrosian, Mozarabic, Old Roman, and the Eastern chants
- Modes: eight, each with a final note and a reciting note
- In English: set to the Prayer Book by John Merbecke in 1550; revived in the 1800s
Often mistaken for something else: Polyphony sets several melodic lines against each other; plainsong is always a single line, however many voices sing it.
The story behind Plainsong
The churches of late antiquity sang psalms and hymns in regional styles that were passed on by ear. From the eighth century the Frankish rulers pressed for one Roman custom in the West, and the Gregorian repertory displaced most local chants, though Milan held to its own. The term cantus planus appears in the thirteenth century, when measured polyphony had grown up beside the chant. John Merbecke set the English Prayer Book to plainsong in 1550, and the Oxford Movement revived it in English parish worship in the nineteenth century.
Why Plainsong matters
The word names the whole family of church chant, so that Gregorian chant can be seen as one member of it and not the whole.
How to read Plainsong
It serves a reader who wants the general term: for chant in English, for the chants of Milan or Spain, or for the style as against harmony.
Plainsong in practice: an example
A parish choir sings the evening psalm in English to an old tone, all voices on one line, with a breath at the middle of each verse.
Where readings of Plainsong go wrong
Plainsong belongs to the worship of living churches, and a listener at a service is a guest of that prayer.
Sources and editorial method
This entry summarizes the tradition in the Almanac's own words; where no source is listed, it is an editorial summary rather than a primary text, and symbolic readings are named as the tradition's, not as fact.
- Source
- The Great Almanac Dictionary
- Category
- Mystical Systems
- Aliases
- plainchant, plain chant, cantus planus, church chant
- Last updated
- 2026-09-26
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Common questions
What is plainsong?
Plainsong is the unaccompanied, single-line chant of Christian worship. It has no harmony and no regular beat, and its rhythm follows the words being sung.
Is plainsong the same as Gregorian chant?
Gregorian chant is one kind of plainsong, the largest. The word also covers the Ambrosian chant of Milan, the Mozarabic chant of Spain and plainsong sung in English and other languages.
Why is it called plain?
The Latin name cantus planus means level or even song. It was coined in the Middle Ages to tell the chant apart from measured music, in which each note has a fixed length.
