Choeur Gregorien De Paris

Bells is a genre centered on music performed on bell instruments—most prominently the tower carillon, change-ringing peals, handbell choirs, and concert chimes/tubular bells. Its sound world is defined by long, shimmering decays and inharmonic overtones that create a luminous but sometimes austere resonance. Melodies tend to be clear and diatonic so they can project through the rich ring and after-sound of each bell, while harmony is voiced widely to avoid muddying the spectrum. Historically tied to liturgy and civic ceremony, the genre today ranges from solemn tolls and processional fanfares to complex keyboard-like carillon repertoire and virtuosic handbell arrangements, as well as ambient and seasonal recordings that foreground the instrument’s unique timbre.

Gregorian chant is the central Western tradition of plainchant: a monophonic, unaccompanied sacred song in Latin (and occasionally Greek) used in the Roman Catholic liturgy. It employs free rhythm guided by the prosody of the text rather than by strict meter, and is sung in unison by clerics or scholas. Its melodies are organized by the system of eight church modes, with characteristic finalis (final), tenor/reciting tones, and melodic formulas. Repertoires include the Proper and Ordinary of the Mass (e.g., Introit, Gradual, Alleluia, Offertory, Communion, Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Agnus Dei) and the Divine Office (e.g., Antiphons, Responsories, Hymns, Psalms). Although legend credits Pope Gregory I, modern scholarship sees Gregorian chant as a Carolingian synthesis of Old Roman and Gallican chants, standardized across Frankish realms and later the broader Latin West.