The history of Gregorian chant is as fascinating as the music itself.

Gregorian chant was traditionally sung by choirs of men and boys in churches, or by women and men of religious orders in their chapels. It was performed performed in the Mass and the monastic Office (Canonical hours in monasteries also called offices).

In traditional societies, myth and ritual are integral elements of religious practice. Although both are commonly united in religion, the exact relationship between myth and ritual has been a matter of controversy among scholars.

Gregorian chant had its beginnings in the early centuries of the Church, becoming fully developed around the 8th and 9th Century mainly in western and central Europe, with later additions and redactions.

Chants were learned first as an oral tradition in which the texts and melodies were sung from memory. A ongoing tradition in South East Asia is the Cambodian Buddhist chanting style Smot, which is highly elaborate in terms of melismas*.

The earliest notated sources of Gregorian chant (written ca. 950AD) used symbols called neumes to indicate tone-movements and relative duration within each syllable.

You can find recordings of Gregorian chants in many CD stores across the world. You can hear it at the concert hall, or in movies, on the radio, and television. But most significantly Gregorian chant still has a role in today's spiritual life. * Melissma is a musical phrase of several notes sung to one syllable.