As far as Western Europe is concerned, the ancient history of religious music is vague.  The reason for this is that early Christians in Europe had limited, or no writing skills.  The first Christian music was passed down from one generation to another, orally. With parents and the church congregation passing the music down to their children, who would then pass it on to theirs, and so on.

As such, there is little or no record of the very first Christian music styles and lyrics.  Early scales, known as modes, were passed down orally and may have been based on ancient Christian and other religious texts. Some of the first recorded texts were produced by St Ambrose. His church music had similar musical values to what we would consider traditional hymns. The Orthodox Greek Church still uses one of these hymns, O, Gladsome Night, in modern services.

At some time in the early years of the seventh century, the current Pope, Gregory the Great.  Set about a reformation of church music, and ventured the notion that religious music should be more melodic, and more commonly used in religious services. These changes were popular and in modern times are known as the Gregorian Chants, which are still performed today.

Gregorian Chants, or plain chant melodies, were the first to be properly documented by religious scholars, who used a system of square notes, known as Neumes, to illustrate the music.

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