Mozarabic chant
Dissatisfaction with the Islamic term "Mozarabic chant" has led to the use of several competing names for the music to which it refers.
However, this Catholic rite existed in Hispania prior to their conversion, and the chant was not limited to the Visigoths, so "Old Spanish" can also be seen as an inaccurate alternative.
With the papal appointment of a French abbot as the new archbishop of Toledo, which had been recaptured in 1085, Roman influence could be enforced throughout the Hispanic Church.
Following its official suppression by Pope Gregory VII, the Mozarabic rite and its chant disappeared in all but six parishes in Toledo.
Most of the surviving music is written in neumes that show the contour of the chant, but no pitches or intervals.
Melismatic chants feature long, florid runs of notes, called melismas, on individual syllables.
Many Visigothic/Mozarabic chants are recorded with no musical notation at all, or just the incipit, suggesting that the psalm tones followed simple and frequently used formulas.
Unlike the Gregorian repertory, these are sung at Matins and Vespers even on penitential days, when "alleluia" is omitted from the liturgy.
Matins features a musical form called the missa, which consists of an Alleluiaticus framed by two Antiphons and a Responsory.
Other Office chants include the morning-themed Matutinaria, the Benedictiones using texts from the Book of Daniel, the melismatic Soni, and the alleluiatic Laudes.
The neumatic Vespertini, like the Lucernaria of Ambrosian chant, usually allude to the lighting of lamps or to nightfall.
They show a high degree of centonization, construction from a vocabulary of stock musical phrases, and adaptation, application of a pre-existing melody to a new text.
Finally, the Office chants include a number of Hymns, many of which are found throughout Catholic Europe, although we do not know if the same melodies were used.
Plainchant occurs prominently in the Mass for several reasons: to communally affirm the faith, to expand on the scriptural lessons, and to cover certain actions.
Praelegenda are opening chants corresponding to the Gregorian Introit, which use the same antiphonal structure and psalm tones found in the Visigothic/Mozarabic Office.
Like the Benedictiones of the Office, these come from the Book of Daniel, but use more complex melodies, whose refrain structure derives directly from the biblical poetry.
