| Responsory, also called respond, plainchant melody and text originally sung responsorially i.e., by alternating choir and soloist or soloists. |
| The musical style of these songs varies from simple, syllabic melodies to elaborately flowing compositions modelled on melismatic plainchant. |
| In its earliest recorded form, plainchant, the monophonic music of the Western Church, varies from extreme simplicity to great complexity. |
| Guido's treatise Micrologus also explains how to sing a second voice accompanying a plainchant melody, creating two-part organum. |
| These rendered plainchant in unison, either as a body or antiphonally across the choir. |
| The plainchant was delivered faultlessly, and gave a flavour of the complementary timbres of the male voices. |
