“The end of the sixth century saw a man mount to the Apostolic See whose pontificate of thirteen years six months ended in the year 604 but left for all ages after the renown of glory that has never been surpassed. Saint Gregory the Great, whose immense correspondence retraces in such lively fashion the solicitude he showed for all the churches, brought to bear his enlightened efforts upon the liturgy of the Church of Rome and, by the finishing touches he brought to it, prepared in a sure manner, for a more or less distant future, its dissemination to all the provinces of the immense Patriarchate of the West.”
– Dom Prosper Guéranger, Liturgical Institutions, Vol. 1, ch. 7.
Icon of St. Gregory the Great in a side chapel at Clear Creek Abbey
Iconography traditionally places a dove close to his head, representing the Holy Spirit, who is dictating the liturgical melodies to the holy pope. Through this beautiful image, it is a a whole epoch that affirms both the divine origin of the sacred chant and the primordial role played by Saint Gregory in this area.
The chant of the Latin Church took its name officially from St. Gregory the Great and was placed under his patronage, somewhat like the Psalms are characterized by King David, even if all of them were not effectively composed by him. Saint Gregory gave the first impulsion to the schola cantorum, which shortly after him developed into a movement which would decisively mark the development of the sacred music of the Church.
Saint Gregory, following the repertory of the ancient Fathers, renewed and augmented the chants which serve for the liturgical year. These three verbs mention the essential of the matter with precision: Gregory inherits from the musical past, he brings it up to date with skill, and he increases it. Because at that time, vocal music, and especially the sacred chant was governed by oral tradition, it can be conjectured that a personal impulse from Saint Gregory on the very formation of the musical repertory of the Roman Church could be transmitted without our being able to grasp its exact content. In the ages that follow, the Latin Church readily unites all the stages of the development of sacred music to that influence of Saint Gregory in such a way that in the course of the centuries, chant books were spontaneously placed and continued to be placed under his protection.
(adapted from Laus in Ecclesia, Volume 1)
