If we consider the Roman repertory from the point of view of progressions from one note to the next, the basic role of stepwise motion [notes next to each other on the white notes of a keyboard or in a c major scale] is self-evident. There is no chant in which the number of steps would not be, by far, greater than that of all other progressions combined. The only exception, if it can be so considered, is the simple recitative with prevailing unison repeat.
Gregorian Chant, Willi Apel p 252*
For those who are beginning to experiment with composing new chants dealing with the two sizes of steps, a major and minor second is a good place to start (recto tono, is it really composing?).
I will start with the notes d, e and f though in stressing ear-training as much as more theoretical descriptions I'm going to use the "do-re-mi" names for notes in their "fixed-do" form in which "do" is always a c, "re" is always a d, "mi"is always an e and "fa" is always an f. Unlike some of the conventions of fixed-do, I will not use those common names for sharps and flats as well as the plain letter name note, given by Paul Hindemith as his reason for rejecting using solfege syllables in his Elementary Training For Musicians. Hindemith seems to have had perfect pitch, which I and most of humanity does not have. I think using the do-re-mi syllables are extremely helpful but only in fix-ed do for and only with each possible note of the scale having its own syllable. More on that later, for now the syllable do-re-mi-fa-so-la-ti corresponding to c, d, e, f, g, a, and b are what I'll be using.
In the notes of re mi and fa, (d, e, and f) the interval between re and mi is a major second and the interval between mi and fa is a minor second. You should check them on an instrument to make sure you are singing the right notes as you intend to.
Chanting On Only The Notes re and mi.
Try chanting on both re-mi using re as the first and last note and mi as the first and last note. You might use one or the other as the "tenor" for reciting most of the text and the other note for the initiation, the half-pause within a sentence or phrase and as the ending note. You should try both and whatever else occurs to you to try. If you find something you like, write out the words of the text you are singing and the notes you want to sing any given syllable to above it. Use a single line to mark pauses and a double line to mark the end.
Chanting On Only The Notes mi and fa.
Do the same with mi-fa checking the pitches on an instrument to make sure you are accurately singing the size of a "whole-step" (the major second d-e) or a "half-step" (the minor second e-f).
If you tried the chanting on one tone, using pauses and longer and shorter notes to go along with the text you will have some idea of how you might do it with two notes.
If you can't think of a text you want to set in this way, try "Alleluia" Or the English Hallelujah and "Amen" (whether A-men or Ah-men singly or repeated.
Speaking of things you might like to know but you don't have to worry about.
One of the things to keep in mind is that our ears accustomed to music in major and minor keys is that a half-step will often make us feel that the lower note draws us to expect to hear the a resolution on the higher note of the two. But it doesn't have to do that in music. Music in the Phrygian mode has e is the expected last note, the note of repose, the goal of a line often resolves to e from the f a half step above it. Such things are what give the modes their individual character just as the resolution of the B up to the c above it gives the major scale it's character.
* The passage from Apel continues on to the next page:
Unison repeats of a special character occur in some of the elaborate chants, where we find the same pitch repeated, up to eight times, on one syllable; eg. three unisons in the gradual Haec dies [778] on "(Do)mi(nus) five in the Offertory Perfice gressus [508] on "gres(sus)," eight in the Offertory Anima nostra [430] on "(libera)ti." Actually, it would be misleading to consider these formations under the aspect of vocal progression. As explained previously [p. 107] they represent an ornament, the vocal counterpart of the violin tremolo.
And as it happens, there is this example or exactly that in the liturgy of January 6th Reges Tharsis
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