Neo-Gallican chant

This is the name given to the chants for the liturgy composed during the 17th and 18th centuries in France, influenced by a desire in France to be more independent of Rome, and more clearly national. The supporters of the new liturgical movement advocated regularity in the metres of their Latin hymns, which could be sung to modern settings of plainchant, often with ornaments, to an organ accompaniment. In hymn texts the most important examples of the movement were the hymns of Charles Coffin* published in the new Paris Breviary of 1736. In hymn tune composition, examples are those by François de La Feillée*, whose Méthode pour apprendre les Règles du Plain-chant et de la Psalmodie (1745,...