Gregorian Chant: Like the Sun in his Orb

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‘The Church of Salisbury shines like the sun in his orb among the Churches of the whole world in its divine services and those who minister in it,’ wrote Bishop Giles de Bridport in 1256.

Indeed the so-called Rite of Sarum,– ‘Sarum’ being a misreading of the common Latin abbreviation for ‘Sarisburia’ or ‘Salisbury’ – was a rite of great magnificence, justly admired well beyond the confines of the Cathedral that gave it its name.

It is in fact a local medieval version of the Roman Rite, but a particularly splendid one.There was music for high voices as well as low in the rite of Salisbury – the boy choristers were responsible for certain chants which they sang by themselves.

The rite became the model for countless secular (that is, non-monastic) cathedral and parish churches all over the British Isles, and was also adopted by religious of both sexes in houses that did not follow the monastic rule.