[56] Gerbert says of him: 'Illud sacrorum hymnorum in Ecclesia genus, quod antiquissimus in Ecclesiæ temporibus in usu fuit, in Oriente præsertim a S. Ephrem, inter Latinos a S. Ambrosio excultum, unde et Ambrosiani dicti sunt hymni ... non cantum alternum, vel populi concentum primu(s) indux(it) in ecclesiam Mediolanensem S. Ambrosinus, sed cantum modulatum antea insuetum in ecclesia occidentali.’--_De Cantu et Musica Sacra_, I, p. 199. The writings of the Fathers are full of fugitive, grateful references to the musical achievements of Ambrose. Nor is his fame based on tradition, as in the case of St. Gregory. Some of his most devoted admirers are near contemporaries. The references to his work are not usually inspired by a clear understanding of just what he did for church music, but all together they create a vivid impression that St. Ambrose is the biggest single figure in the history of liturgical song. [57] According to some musical historians, Celestine introduced the antiphonal psalmody from Poitiers. [58] _Regesta Pontificum Romanorum_, Jeffe, 2d ed., Leipzig, 1881. [59] _Vita S. Gregorii Magni_, in Mabillon, _Acta sanctorum ordinis benedicti_, Paris, 1668. [60] _Les origines du chant liturgique de l’église latine._ [61] The _Alleluja_ is not really a word but a sort of shrilling effect of great antiquity among the Hebrews and other people of the Orient. It was produced by choruses of women in triumphal processions and other joyous celebrations, and seems to have been about half way between a song and a cheer. The early Christians used it in songs of joy and praise, and perhaps sang it to take the place of the instrumental prelude of the psalms. 'Laudes, hoc est alleluia canere, canticum est Hebræorum,’ says Isidore of Seville. (_De off._, I, 13.) [62] See 'History of Irish Music,’ W. H. Grattan Flood, Dublin, 1906. Notker was the author of the famous _Antiphona de Morte_, beginning _Media vita in morte sumus_ (In the midst of life we are in death), which was quickly adopted as a funeral anthem throughout Europe. Miraculous effects were attributed to it, and its use was so much abused that the council of Cologne (1316) forbade anybody to sing it who was not specially authorized by a bishop. [63] Here should be noted one of the ways in which the Christian theorists misapplied the system of the Greeks. In Chapter IV we have seen that the Greeks did not consider pitch as in any way related to the character or ethos of the modes. This _ethos_ was determined solely by the arrangement of the steps in the scale. The Christian theorists, on the other hand, though they still recognized the variety of character obtained by varying the distribution of steps in the scale, evidently allotted to the different modes a different final or pitch, and thus pitch came to influence the character of the modes. The modes might, however, still be transposed and sung at any pitch.