The Two Main Parts of a Gregorian Score: The Sacred Text and the Music

It's 6:57 PM on Sunday and I am back to consideration of the Hail Mary (English) in monastic reciting tone C by Paul Rose. The first thing I want to do in this evening's session is identify and define all the components of this simple Gregorian score. Then hopefully I will have some time at the end to work on my actual chanting. Hmmm. Well, after considering all that seems to be involved here, I just ordered my first rosary. It's a one-decade pocket rosary. Okay, now on to the main parts of a simple Gregorian score. There are two:

• Sacred Text: I don't feel entirely comfortable calling the sacred text of a Gregorian score the "lyrics," but if we think of a Gregorian chant as a form of song, then lyrics are what we are talking about here. "The primary purpose of Gregorian chant," according to Google Gemini, "is to serve this text, which carries a mystical and spiritual message. In Gregorian chant, the melody is created to serve and heighten the text, rather than the other way around. This means the music perfectly integrates with the prose."  
• Music: It was tempting for me to think of the staff as the foundation of the musical portion of Gregorian chant, but actually the neumes came first (cf. History and Spirituality of Gregorian Chant - Heralds of the Gospel). This point aside, there appear to be five basic elements of musical notation in a simple Gregorian score. These are the Arezzo staff (four lines); the Fa and Do (Ut) clefs, or clavis; the bar lines (quarter, half, full, and double) or divisio/divisiones; the neumes; and the custos (cf. Gregorian Chant Notation).    

Well, that will have to do it for tonight. I didn't do any actual chanting practice, and I feel like I am moving at a snail's pace, but this is how learning curves work. There are some important quotes in the link from Heralds of the Gospel, above, that I think I should revisit in my next session.