Centonization

---

title: "Centonization" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["melody", "medieval-music-theory"] description: "Compositional system in Christian chant" topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centonization" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Compositional system in Christian chant ::

In music centonization (from Latin cento or patchwork) is musical composition via the combination of pre-existing motivic units, typically in reference to Christian liturgical chant. A piece created using centonization is known as a "centonate".

The concept of centonization was borrowed from literary theory, and first applied to Gregorian chant in 1934 by Dom ; it has since also been applied to Byzantine chant.

Overview

Centonization, according to Ferretti's theory, is a very old and widespread technique. The musical modes used in Gregorian chant are supposed to reflect this use; according to the theory, the modes were more collections of appropriate melodic formulas than a set of pitches. Similar ideas appear in the music theory of other cultures; for example, the maqam of Arab music, the raga of Indian music, or the pathet of Indonesian music. These do not designate merely scales, but sets of appropriate melodies and specific ornaments on certain tones (they are sometimes called "melody types"). The originality of the composer lies in how he or she links these formulas together and elaborates upon them in a new way.

Regardless of whether the application of the concept to other branches of Christian chant, or other types of music is valid, its use with respect to Gregorian chant has been severely criticized, and opposing models have been proposed. The term "centonate" is not applied to other categories of composition constructed from pre-existing units, such as fricassée, pasticcio, potpourri, and quodlibet.

References

Citations

Sources

References

1. Treitler, Leo. (2003). "With Voice and Pen: Coming to Know Medieval Song and How it was Made". Oxford University Press.
2. [[Don Michael Randel. Randel, Don Michael]] (2002). ''The Harvard Concise Dictionary of Music and Musicians''. p. 123. {{ISBN. 0-674-00978-9.
3. [[Richard Hoppin. Hoppin, Richard]] (1978). ''Medieval Music''. New York City: W. W. Norton.
4. (2001). "Centonization (from Lat. cento: 'patchwork')".
5. Levy, Kenneth. (2016). "Byzantine chant".
6. (2001). "Mode (from Lat. modus: 'measure', 'standard'; 'manner', 'way')".
7. Hiley, David. (1993). ''Western Plainchant: A Handbook''. Oxford: Clarendon Press; New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 74–75. {{ISBN. 0-19-816289-8 {{OCLC. 25707447.

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::