THE HARMONIOUS MOVEMENT

The Ambrosian Chant is the oldest musical “Corpus” in Western Europe today. When Ambrose became Bishop of Milan in 374 AD, he found a liturgy which tradition associates with St. Barnabus. It is presumed that this liturgy which came from Greece and Syria, included both “the spoken word” and liturgical action.

Ambrose composed only the melodies for most of his hymns. Furthermore, of the great number of hymns attributed to him, only 14 have been declared authentic. The literature at the time of Ambrose shows that Greek music was the only kind known to him and to his contemporaries.

St. Augustine, who wrote “De Musica” at the time when Ambrose wrote his hymns, defined music as the “Science of Harmonious Movement” (Scientia bene movendi).

For many centuries those we now call antiphons and responsories have been attributed to Ambrose: there is no substantial proof however. Various experts have explained how the melodies belonging to the authentic Ambrosian texts have been passed down to posterity, and which rhythmic and melodic changes they have undergone in the different countries they have spread to. An extremely important reference text is the complete Ambrosian Hymnary, a manuscript preserved in the Bibliotheca Trivulziana in Milan.

Taken from works by Giovanni Vianini