The Function of Religion in Gregorian Chant and the Social Mechanisms of Cultural Transmission of Music

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-511-9_43How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Gregorian chant; religious function; cultural transmission; social mechanism; social identity

Abstract

As the core of medieval Christian liturgical music, Gregorian chant is not only a sacred religious practice but also a key vehicle for the spread of European musical culture. This paper aims to analyze how its religious functions (e.g., ritual unification, doctrinal dissemination, etc.) drove its trans-regional transmission, to reveal the social mechanisms of its transmission, such as the church network, the education system, and the social power structure, and to explore its impact on the standardization of European musical culture and the formation of social identities. Using a combination of historical documentation and score analysis, the study compares and analyses the regional variations of typical chants in medieval manuscripts and ecclesiastical documents. The study shows that the religious function of chant is the intrinsic driving force of its dissemination and that its dissemination relies on an institutionalized social mechanism consisting of religious networks, educational systems, and social power. This process not only laid the foundation for the standardization of European music and the emergence of polyphony but also profoundly contributed to the construction of European social and cultural identity through the shaping of collective musical experiences, demonstrating the profound logic of the interaction between music, religion, and society.

Copyright

© 2025 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Jiutong Feng
PY  - 2025
DA  - 2025/12/31
TI  - The Function of Religion in Gregorian Chant and the Social Mechanisms of Cultural Transmission of Music
BT  - Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Literature, Art and Human Development (ICLAHD 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 380
EP  - 389
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-511-9_43
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-511-9_43
ID  - Feng2025
ER  -