This performance, based on two graduals from St Peter's in Rome, (Vat. Lat. 5319, eleventh-twelfth century, and Arch. S. Pietro F 22, thirteenth century), illustrates the form of chant believed to have been sung in Rome between the seventh and thirteenth centuries, that is, before its replacement by the better-known Gregorian chant. The lateness of the dates is mystifying, since Gregorian chant became official in the Carolingian Empire as early as the eighth century; but this can be explained by overlap and conservatism. If Old Roman was sung in the Roman basilicas in the seventh century it was the chant heard by Benedict Biscop during his many visits to the holy City, and that familiar also to Theodore, the newly-consecrated Greek Archbishop of Canterbury, whom Biscop escorted back to England. In the context, therefore, of an undivided Church and bearing in mind a huge earlier influx of Greek monks to Southern Italy, it is not difficult to imagine the existence of powerful Greek influences on the liturgy of the Latins and some degree of cross-fertilization between East and West. Thus, a strong case might be made for performing this Old Roman music, even from such late sources (earlier ones seem not to have survived), with reference to the style of present-day Greek chanting. Which is, in fact, exactly what Marcel Peres and the Ensemble Organum have attempted. The result is entirely convincing.
The group has been experimenting for a number of years with the sort of voice production that is required and they have managed to achieve fluency in a style of singing that is smoother and more uniform than that of seven years ago. This they apply to a choice of repertoire that is in itself of great interest, since it reveals the kinship between the Old Roman chant and its later development, the Gregorian. Listeners acquainted with the latter will easily recognize the Good Friday Agios O Theos and the pieces of the Mass Proper for St Marcellus. They will find that the modal structure of the two protus plagal tracts is not hard to trace, particularly since the texts are identical in the two traditions and the cadences correspond. As for the performance, one is struck by the consistently slow tempo throughout the recording, and not only for the Good Friday music. One is struck, too, by the ease and flexibility of the ornamentation, which is particularly noticeable, as one would expect, in the solo passages; but the body of the choir have also learnt the skills and are able to do justice to the alternate verses entrusted to them, besides dropping quietly but firmly to their ison (drone) with absolute precision. This fine recording may well represent a major breakthrough in our understanding of the early performance of the music of the Western Rite.'