Beneventan chant

During the Lombard occupation of the 7th and 8th centuries, a distinctive liturgical rite and plainchant tradition developed in Benevento.

The two traditions appear to have coexisted for about a century before the Gregorian chant began to replace the native Beneventan.

External ecclesiastical influences, such as two German abbots at Montecassino during the 11th century, led to an increasing insistence on the Roman rite and Gregorian chant instead of the local Beneventan traditions.

A few Beneventan chants continued to be recorded and performed for a time, especially for the feasts of local importance such as the Holy Twelve Brothers, which had no Gregorian counterpart.

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.

The melodic motion is primarily stepwise, with a limited ambitus, giving the chants a smooth, undulating feel.

Unlike the Ambrosian rite, there is no special service for nightfall, but there are about fifty extant antiphons and five responsories.