Index Classifications: Monophony to 1300, Polyphony to 1300

The chanson d’amour L’Amours dont sui espris R. 1545, attributed to the twelfth century trouvère Blondel de Nesle, and its retexted version by Gautier de Coinci served as the basis for several works in the ensuing decades, and these later works provide a useful view into the compositional practices of the era. All of these songs and conductus feature virtually identical line length, rhyme arrangement, and large-scale form, although it is unclear if any or all of these works follow a particular rhythmic mode. An analysis of Blondel’s chanson shows a close correspondence between the textual rhythm and musical motives, with the whole melody built in paired sequences that act almost like question-and-answer phrases—a common technique in medieval song practice. The conductus Purgator Criminum AH. 20,16 from the manuscript W1 uses the L’Amours melody as a tenor and features new upper voices, but these added parts are deeply dependent on the contour and motivic cells of Blondel’s melody. The limited voice exchange and simple counterpoint with the tenor, moreover, marks it as a fairly unsophisticated reworking. The conductus Procurans odium AH. 21,176 from manuscripts F, Mü, and Ma, on the other hand, makes use of more elaborate voice exchanges above the tenor to create a unique, almost static aural effect, like the ringing of bells. The numerous repeating motives and cellular construction of the upper voices’ melodies also suggest this conductus is derived from improvisatory vocal performance practices of the era. Questions of chronology and which works may have influenced one another are more difficult to answer, due to the limited number of medieval songs available to scholars and the general lack of analytical studies of the repertory.

Works: Gautier de Coinci: L’Amours dont sui espris R. 1546 (20-30); Anonymous: Purgator Criminum AH. 20,16 (30-35); Anonymous: Procurans odium AH. 21,176 (35-38).

Sources: Blondel de Nesle: L’Amours dont sui espris R. 1545

Index Classifications: Monophony to 1300, Polyphony to 1300

Contributed by: Matthew G. Leone

Index Classifications: Monophony to 1300

Index Classifications: Monophony to 1300

The oldest known Agnus Dei melody, Melody 226 in Martin Schildbach's Das einstimmige Agnus Dei und seine handschriftliche überlieferung vom 10. bis zum 16. Jahrhundert, appears with additional verses in its earliest sources, raising the question of whether these are tropes or whether all the music was composed at the same time. In the ninth century the function of the Agnus Dei became dissociated from an extended rite of Fraction, and its form became that of threefold repetition. As the Agnus Dei moved into Frankish regions, geographically distinct repertoires of associated verses came to be identified. The interior verses that appear with Melody 226 are more syllabic and differ from the Agnus Dei melody itself with regard to range, tessitura, and ductus, suggesting that the interior verses are in fact tropes.

Index Classifications: Monophony to 1300

Contributed by: Felix Cox

Index Classifications: Monophony to 1300

The Kyrie trope is a Kyrie with independent text and melody inserted between phrases, in contrast with a texted Kyrie, which is a lengthy chant with a syllabic text. The most common forms of Kyrie trope contained one, three, or eight phrases. The texted Kyrie seems to be the older form and is more common in western Europe. It is possible that the Kyrie and trope were composed together, as may also be the case for the sequence, due to the presence of a more purely melismatic style. The longer Kyrie trope is more common east of the Rhine, uses shorter chant melodies, and has more formal and structural similarities to Kyrie melodies in general. Complete musical independence is the only universal characteristic of all Kyrie tropes. Tables list fourty-four Kyrie tropes and their sixty-one manuscript sources.

Works: Eia chorus clamans (12, 16, 20-22); Rex regnum domine (14, 23-26, 37); Omnipotens genitor lumenque (10, 13, 15-16, 17, 26-31); Deus solus et immensus (12, 31-36).

Index Classifications: Monophony to 1300

Contributed by: Felix Cox

Index Classifications: Monophony to 1300

An analysis of two contrafacta in the versified office for St. Donatus Splendor stelle clare lucis (dated circa 1300) demonstrates how musical borrowing can interact with literary borrowing to generate extra-musical meaning in medieval historiae. The text of Splendor draws on multiple sources for the St. Donatus passion and at times quotes related psalm texts to accentuate its themes. The office additionally alludes to the dragon-slaying iconography of St. Michael to glorify its subject. The second responsory of the office of St. Donatus, Luce carens corporali, deals with the healing of Syranna, a pivotal episode in the Donatus office, and is melodically derived from O summe Trinitati, a responsory from the Trinity office. The use of this chant in particular emphasizes the doctrine of the Trinity in the healing of Syranna, which is not emphasized in the text. Only at the invocation of the Trinity was Syranna’s conversion complete. Another significant episode, the miracle of the chalice, is addressed in the responsory Divinum mysterium, appearing in the Night Office of Splendor. Divinum is a contrafact of Accepit Ihesus calcem, a responsory from the Office of Corpus Christi. The melodic source is thematically relevant to the Donatus office by connecting the miracle of the chalice to the chalice bearing Christ’s blood. Because of their thematic relevance to the subject of the office, these two instances of melodic borrowing are extensions of the intertextual network of quotation and allusion that paints a portrait of St. Donatus.

Works: Anonymous: Luce carens porporali from Splendor stelle clare lucis (66-69), Divinum mysterium from Splendor stelle clare lucis (70-72)

Sources: Anonymous: O summe Trinitati (66-69), Accepit Ihesus calicem (70-72)

Index Classifications: Monophony to 1300, 1300s

Contributed by: Matthew Van Vleet

Index Classifications: Monophony to 1300

Three late thirteenth-century, refrain-form conducti that interpolate French refrains offer insight into the compositional processes of Latin conducti that engage in the rare practice of cross-genre and cross-linguistic borrowing. The interplay of musical and textual borrowing suggests that the unknown composers of these conducti conceived the music and text in tandem. Veni sancte spiritus spes, copied in GB-Lbl Egerton 274 (ca. 1275), adapts the text of the sequence of the same name and the melody of a French refrain En ma dame ai mis mon cuer et mon panser (vdB 662). The vdB 662 melody also appears in several motets, chansons, and a rondeau (with some variation), complicating its chronology. The form and scansion of Veni sancte spiritus spes draws on both the sequence and the refrain, creating a hybrid work with no clear distinction between borrowed and new material in both text and music. The northern French manuscript F-Pn lat. 15131 contains no musical notation, but the musical identity of the included Latin poems can be derived from the appearance of French and Latin refrains in their rubrics. The incipits Marie preconio and Superne matris gaudia demonstrate identifiable textual borrowing from sequences transmitted in other sources. The two incipits also have poetic scansion in common with French refrains, suggesting musical borrowing as well. Marie preconio is in this sense a “contrafact” of the refrain Amez moi douce dame amez (vdB 117) and Superne matris gaudia a “contrafact” of Par defaus de leaute (vdB 1476). The relationship between the scansion of Superne matris gaudia and its refrain source suggests that the composer adapted the Latin sequence to align with the French refrain form and rhyme scheme. These and many other examples of vernacular song citations in Latin conducti reveal an intertextual and intermusical borrowing practice that brings disparate “voices” into harmony.

Works: Anonymous: Veni sancte spiritus spes, GB-Lbl Egerton 274 (138-54), Superne matris gaudia, F-Pn lat. 15131 (169-71), Marie preconio, F-Pn lat. 15131 (171-74).

Sources: Anonymous: En ma dame ai mis mon cuer et mon panser, vdB 662 (138-54), Amez moi douce dame amez et je fere voz voulentez, vdB 117 (169-71), Par defaus de leaute que j’ai en amour trove me partire du pais. contra in latino, vdB 1476 (171-74).

Index Classifications: Monophony to 1300

Contributed by: Matthew Van Vleet

The long-standing appeal of the Fulget dies refrain in twelfth- and thirteenth-century hymns, through the Counter-Reformation, and into nineteenth-century Catholic hymnals is linked to its association with liturgical time and relationship with multiple feasts, seasons, offices, and chants. The Fulget dies refrain originated sometime in the twelfth century within a family of contrafact tropes on Benedicamus Domino, each related to a different feast. By 1220, the refrain was found in hymns as well, as illustrated by its appearance in at least five hymns found in the Worcester Antiphonal. By 1300, the refrain had made its way to Hungary, Spain, Norman Sicily, France, and England. While Fulget dies appears in a variety of musical and liturgical contexts, it generally functions as a marker of festivity. Even after many office and mass tropes fell out of favor, Fulget dies lived on as a refrain in fourteenth- and fifteenth-century hymnals. The Feast of Corpus Christi hymn O salutaris hostia and the Marian hymn Matrem per integerrimam illustrate its continued association with important feasts and the ways in which the text and melody of Fulget dies gradually changed over time. In sources from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the refrain was transmitted only in ordinals which did not contain notated music, just text. Here, Fulget dies became primarily associated with the Christmas season. Two sources, the thirteenth-century Worcester Antiphonal and a sixteenth-century Hungarian ordinal, document the erasure of the Fulget dies refrain from hymn transmission. Through the sixteenth century, Fulget dies had a degree of stability attached to three Christmas hymns, most often to Fit porta Christi pervia, with both the text and music demonstrating a high degree of similarity. Accounting for its longevity as a refrain, the text of Fulget dies (the day shines forth . . . this day shines forth) exhibits both poetic brevity and flexibility to engage with any number of theological cycles from daily rituals to the cycles of seasons.

Works: Anonymous: Iam lucis orto sidere (91-97, 114-16, 120-23, 138, 141-42), A solis ortus cardine (107-11, 120, 126-27, 133-25, 142), Nunc sancta nobis spiritus (107-11), O salutaris hostia (117-20, 125), Matrem per integerrimam (117-20), Ordinarius Stringoniensis (122), Deus tuorum militum (125-26), Enixa est puerpera (126-32), Fit porta Christi pervia (126-32), Venez vos gens chantez Noé (132); Willaert: Enixa est puerpera (131-32), Fit porta Christi pervia (131-32, 142-43); Orlando di Lasso: Enixa est puerpera (131-32), Fit porta Christi pervia (131-32)

Sources: Anonymous: Fulget dies from tropes on Benedicamus Domino (91-144), A solis ortus cardine (126)

Index Classifications: Monophony to 1300, 1400s, 1500s, 1600s, 1700s, 1800s

Contributed by: Matthew Van Vleet

Modern ideas of the trope are an ill-informed effort to provide a single definition to the variety of musical forms introduced in the ninth and tenth centuries. What are today called "tropes" actually served different functions and may be grouped into different types. Fourteen early troper manuscripts are listed. Introit tropes (as well as those for Offertory and Communion) are new compositions, both in text and melody, added to the official chant. Often these are of considerably greater size and complexity than the original chant. Gloria and Sanctus tropes involve new compositions, but the official melodies may be roughly the same age as the tropes. The Agnus Dei is such a new liturgical form that it is difficult to separate the "official" text, much less the melody. So-called Kyrie tropes may well be integral parts of the composition of the Kyrie itself. Texting of pre-existing melismas did occur, especially in the Alleluia, but these instances are infrequent and usually of later origin. It is particularly erroneous to describe the sequence as a trope of its Alleluia.

Index Classifications: Monophony to 1300

Contributed by: Felix Cox

Index Classifications: Monophony to 1300

Comparing twenty thousand variants from three thousand chants helps to determine what components of chants change during their transmission, providing a starting point for comparisons when tracking the relationship of settings and liturgical practices between institutions, or the variants of a single tune over time, as well as other possible applications. The majority of the sources analyzed are Hungarian. Fields of comparison are text-melody combinations, antiphons with modal ambiguity, text variants, and variants of single notes. Many variants, modally ambiguous antiphons in particular, appear to be interpretations of older monophonic styles that are governed by stylistic coordination. This suggests a culture of musical borrowing between liturgical institutions during the period.

Index Classifications: General, Monophony to 1300

Contributed by: Elizabeth Stoner

Evidence suggests that the trope evolved independently of the prosa and other additions to the liturgy. For example, the existence of poetic trope texts suggests that they were new compositions, both in text and music, while the prosa is created by adding words to an existing melody, and is inevitably in prose. This challenges the "St. Gall theory" of the origin of troping, which argues that the trope, like the prosa, arose through the process of supplying texts to melismatic additions that had previously been made to the official chant. This theory fails on three counts: (1) it is based only on three St. Gall tropers, and does not consider all of the earliest tropers; (2) it suggests four stages of development, but traces of the "intermediate steps" are lacking in all but the St. Gall tropers; and (3) it assumes that trope lines must be extensions of lines of chant, whereas the evidence, such as the use of connective expressions or striking melodic figures, suggests that they developed as introductions. The precise date and place of the origin of troping are uncertain, but since the earliest tropers give evidence of a primitive trope repertory, it must have received considerable development in the ninth century.

Index Classifications: Monophony to 1300

Contributed by: Brian Phillips

Index Classifications: Monophony to 1300

Philip the Chancellor composed two Latin songs, Nitimur in vetitum and Pater sancte, dictus Lotharius using music from two vernacular songs. An analysis of musical borrowing between the songs reveals two French-Latin groups; these are Complex I, Nitimur in vetitum and Quant li rossignols iolis; and Complex II, Pater sancte, dictus Lotharius and Brulé’s trouvère song Douce dame, gres et graces vous rent. While there are no textual connections between the two complexes, and at first glance any relationship seems remote, a musical analysis reveals subtle musical relationships between the four songs. The term “contrafactum” does not convey the nature of musical borrowing between the four songs, because Philip the Chancellor does not substitute one text for another over the same melody. “Parody” is a more appropriate term for Philip’s compositional technique. However, the motivation for composing parodies of his own songs is not clear from this musical analysis. Conscious parody, occasional resemblance, or common practice melodic formulae and formal principles are all possible explanations for the musical similarities between the four songs.

Works: Philip the Chancellor: Nitimur in vetitum (92-97), Pater sancte, dictus Lotharius (95).

Sources: Anonymous: Quant li rossignols iolis (85-86, 90-92); Gace Brulé: Douce dame, gres et graces vous rent (85-92).

Index Classifications: Monophony to 1300

Contributed by: Elizabeth Stoner

The dominance of rhythmic texts in the twelfth-century sequence, conductus, versus, and related genres imposed a structural framework on their musical settings which was crucial to the development of "rhythm" in Notre-Dame polyphony. In the sequence repertory, it was not uncommon to borrow the text and melody from another source and use them as a basis for the composition at hand. The high level of sophistication possible using this technique is illustrated by the use of the hymn Ave maris stella as both a textual and melodic source for the sequence O Maria stella maris, where the music of the sequence is a theme with variations upon the original hymn melody.

Index Classifications: Monophony to 1300

Contributed by: Randal Tucker

Index Classifications: Monophony to 1300

Index Classifications: Monophony to 1300

Index Classifications: Monophony to 1300

Index Classifications: Monophony to 1300

Index Classifications: Monophony to 1300

Just as certain architectural styles are spread over several cultures, we find "international" melodies scattered in manuscripts all over Western Europe. They mostly originated in France and later were adapted musically (variants) and textually (variants and contrafacta) to their new surroundings. Gennrich discusses contrafacta of monophonic liturgical chants (such as the famous sequence Laetabundus exsultet fidelis chorus), of liturgical motets (O Maria, maris stella/Veritatem), sacred motets and conductus (Agmina milicie celestis omnia), and of Latin songs (Bulla fulminante sub judice tonante). Gennrich is not always able to clarify the priority of identical melodies with different text, but provides the music and its sources wherever possible.

Works: Allein Gott in der Höh (German Chorale 265-66); anonymous: Mei amic e mei fiel (267); O Maria, Deu maire, Deus t'es e fils e paire (267); Adam de St. Victor: O Maria, stella maris (267); anonymous: Glorieuse Deu amie, dame de pitié (268-72); Johannes Rodericus: O Maria, maris stella (268-72); anonymous contrafacta: Or hi parra (273-78); O Gras tondeus (274-78); Frölich erklingen (274-78); Gautier de Coinci: Hui enfantez Fuli fiz Dieu (273-78), L'amour dont sui espris (331-40); anonymous contrafacta: Fille de Dieu, ben as obras (280-81); Diable, guaras non tormentes (280-81); Auiatz, seinhors per qual razon (279-81); Philippe le Chancelier: Agmina milicie celestis omnia (281-96), Bulla fulminante (325-30); anonymous: De la virge Katerine chanterai (283-96); L'autr'ier cuidai avoir (283-96); Philippe le Chancelier: Li cuers se vait de l'ueil plaignant (322-24); anonymous contrafacta: Seyner, mil gracias ti rent (322-24); Veste nuptiali (235); Blondel de Nesle: L'amour dont sui espris (331-40); Ma joie me sement de chanter (is a contrafactum of Walter of Châtillon's Ver pacis aperit, or the other way round, 342-43); anonymous: Ar ne kuthe ich sorghe non (346-47).

Index Classifications: Monophony to 1300, Polyphony to 1300

Contributed by: Andreas Giger

Gennrich briefly discusses the relation between some French songs and their Latin contrafacta. While it is often difficult to decide whether the chanson (Kanzonentypus) or the Latin song is the contrafactum, the priority of the French version becomes obvious as soon as formes fixes (rondeaus, virelais) are involved. Some Latin poems did not come down with music. References to French refrains, however, indicate to which melody the poem belongs. These refrains appear with a certain consistency of time and place and thus help dating and localizing related pieces. Gennrich provides the music of the songs discussed and cites their appearances in the manuscripts.

Works: Anonymous: Crescens incredulitas (190); Adam de la Bassée: Olim in armonica (190); anonymous contrafacta: Flos preclusus sub torpore (192-95); Amis, quelx est li mieux vaillanz (192); Povre veillece m'assaut (192-95); Parit preter morem (196-201); Adam de la Bassée: Nobilitas ornata moribus (201); anonymous contrafacta: Veni, sancte spiritus spes omnium (201); Ecce nobilis (202-3); Nicholai sollempnio (203-4); Ille puerulus (205-6); Universorum origo (206).

Index Classifications: Monophony to 1300

Contributed by: Andreas Giger

Index Classifications: Monophony to 1300

Gennrich discusses not those refrains that are repeated after each couplet of a song (chansons à refrain), but those that exist sometimes as isolated very short pieces, sometimes interpolated in other works. They mostly have their own melodies and were created by the poets with a particular intention. Later these refrains were borrowed (with or without music) in chansons avec des refrains, long poems (such as the Cour d'Amour and the Roman de Renart le Nouvel), and motets, usually at the beginning and at the end. Sometimes they even adopt another text (contrafactum). According to Gennrich, refrains are neither folk songs nor parts of them. They were, however, originally conceived as refrains and not designated as such merely because they appear in several pieces. The end of the article includes a list of motet-refrains.

Works: Jacquemart Gielee: Renart le Nouvel (366); Mahius li Poiriers: Cour d'Amour (367); Messire Thibaut: Roman de la Poire (367); Anonymous: Salut d'Amour ((367-68); refrains "Qui aime Dieu et sa mere" (373); "Sache qui m'ot" (373); "Cui donderai je mes Amours, mere Dieu" (373); "Ne vous hastés mie, bele" (373); "Pitiés et Amours, pour mi" (373); "Amours ne se done, mais ele se vent" (374); Si come aloie/Deduisant/Portare (374); Haro! haro! je la voi la/Flos filius eius (377); Je quidai mes maus/In seculum (377); Je m'en vois/Tieus a mout/Omnes (378).

Index Classifications: Monophony to 1300, Polyphony to 1300

Contributed by: Andreas Giger

Index Classifications: Monophony to 1300

Gennrich discusses the reuse of popular songs in motets and of parts of motets as popular songs, providing transcriptions and including the variants. The features of the chanson largely determine the priority (chanson or motet): if the textual and musical structure of the chanson correspond, Gennrich assumes it to antedate the motet. The following list represents the author's view of priority.

Works: Richard de Fournival: Chascun qui de bien amer, borrowed from the motet Chascun qi de bien amer/Et florebit (13-16); motets Onques n'amai tant con je fui amée /Sancte and Onques n'amai tant con je fui amée/Sancte Germane borrow Richard de Fournival's chanson Qnques n'amai tant que jou fui amée (16-20); anonymous: En non Dieu, borrowed from the motet En non Dé, Dex/Ferens pondera (21-23); Ernoul le Viel: Por conforter mon corage, borrowed from the motet Por conforter mon corage/Go (24-29); Robert de Reims: Quant voi le douz tens venir, borrowed from the motets Quant voi le douz tens venir/Latus or En mai quant rose/Quant voi le dou tans venir/Latus (29-33); Robert de Reims: Main s'est levée Aelis, borrowed from the motet Main s'est levée Aelis/[Et tenuerunt] (34-35); Robert de Reims: Quant fueillissent li buison, borrowed from the motet Quant florissent li buisson/Domino (35-37); Jehan Erart: Mes cuers n'est mie a moi, borrowed from the motet Mes cuers n'est mie a moi (38-39, 76); motet Fine Amurs ki les siens tient/J'ai lonc tens Amurs servie/Orendroit plus c'onkes mais borrows the anonymous chanson Orendroit plus qu'onques mais sont li mal d'amer plaisant (67-69); motet Sans penseir folur aç servi tote ma vie/Quant la saisons desireie/Qui bien aime a tart oblie borrows the anonymous chanson Quant la saisons desirée (69-72); motets De mes Amours sui souvent repentis/L'autr'ier m'estuet venue volentés/Dehors Compigne l'autr'ier and Par une matinée/O clemencie fons/Dehors Compigne l'autr'ier borrow the anonymous chanson Dehors Compignes l'autr'ier (72-76); motet Boine Amours mi fait chanter/Uns maus savereus et dous/Portare borrows the anonymous chanson Uns maus savereus et dous.

Index Classifications: Monophony to 1300, Polyphony to 1300

Contributed by: Andreas Giger

Index Classifications: Monophony to 1300

Index Classifications: Monophony to 1300

Index Classifications: Monophony to 1300

Index Classifications: General, Monophony to 1300, Polyphony to 1300

Index Classifications: Monophony to 1300, Polyphony to 1300, 1300s

Index Classifications: Monophony to 1300, Polyphony to 1300, 1300s, 1400s

A comparison of the great responsories for Matins in various western European codices from the tenth to thirteenth centuries suggests that the melismatic closes were conceived as musical tropes. Such melismas were also transferred in whole or part from one responsory to another. Evidence for the conception of these melismas as tropes includes their appearance in a fixed point of the respond, a melodic repeat structure foreign to the style of the neumatic and syllabic parts of the responsories, and stylistic differences to the respond even when repeat structure is not present.

Works: Responsory: O pastor apostolice (36-38), Sanctissimi martyris Stephani (36-37, 39), Electus est dilectus (39), Filie ierusalem (39), Christe miles preciosus (45). Related works: Respond: Ego pro te rogavi (44), Hic est discipulus (44-45), Sine lumbi vestry (44-45), Symon bariona tu vocaberis (45-46).

Sources: Responsory: Descendit de celis (36-37), Cuthbertus puer bone indolis (39), Hec est ierusalem (39).

Index Classifications: Monophony to 1300

Contributed by: Felix Cox

Index Classifications: Monophony to 1300

Index Classifications: Monophony to 1300

Some troubadour and trouvère songs are found in Latin contrafacta that show, in contrast to the French settings, an advanced rhythmic notation. By comparing the different versions, Husmann finds rhythmic solutions for the songs in the vernacular, for example the conclusion that not only in melismatic organa but also in syllabic monophonic songs frequent rhythmic changes are possible.

Works: Uns lais de nostre dame contre le lai Markiol (6); Vite perdite (6); Veris ad imperia (14-16); Legis in volumine (14-16); Philippe le Chancelier: Veritas, equitas (6).

Index Classifications: Monophony to 1300

Contributed by: Andreas Giger

Index Classifications: Monophony to 1300, Polyphony to 1300

Index Classifications: Monophony to 1300

Index Classifications: Monophony to 1300

Index Classifications: Monophony to 1300

The discovery of the entire textual repertory of Jerusalem chant means that the history of this chant tradition can be traced from its origins in the fourth century to its decline in the twelfth. Testimonies of the tradition from Jerusalem survive in Greek texts which were translated into Georgian when the church of Georgia adopted the rite of Jerusalem as its own. Critical editions of these translations, made from tenth-century manuscripts, have recently been published. These translations show that the Jerusalem chant repertory had a significant influence on later medieval chant repertories in Greek, Syriac, Armenian, and Latin. Furthermore, when texts from the original Jerusalem tradition are borrowed by other traditions, they tend to be set to melodies that are consistent with the modal assignments and neumes of the Georgian sources. This suggests that the features these melodies share do go back in some way to the lost melodies that were once sung in Jerusalem itself.

Index Classifications: Monophony to 1300

Contributed by: Elizabeth Stoner

Chant texts used in Jerusalem from the fourth and fifth centuries onward imported into or shared with other Eastern and Western chant traditions, where medieval adaptations of the melodies survive. The medieval melodies associated with each text have many melodic and modal similarities, despite the wide chronological and geographic dispersal of the chant traditions that preserve them. These similarities are best seen as survivals of the lost Jerusalem melody, particularly because they are consistent with the mode(s) indicated in Jerusalem textual sources. Regardless of shared traits between many chant traditions that may point to a common Jerusalem chant element, each melodic survival reflects a later tradition in accordance with modal and formulaic preferences. The differences between Byzantine, Gregorian, Old Roman, Ambrosian, and Mozarabic melodies reflect extensive reworking and development, but they do not completely obscure essential melodic similarities common across traditions. These similarities are consistent with the modal assignments of now-lost Jerusalem melodies which are preserved in Gregorian and Greek sources. Graduals of the Roman mass and prokeimena of the Byzantine Divine Liturgy are particularly fruitful subjects for study based on the age of their texts and the apparent similarities of their melodies, suggesting a common ancestry in the ancient Jerusalem chant repertoire.

Works: Benedictus qui venit (160-72); Justus ut palma (173-85).

Index Classifications: Monophony to 1300

Contributed by: Elizabeth Stoner

Karp corrects misinterpretations in Hans Spanke's revised and enlarged edition of Reynaud's Bibliographie des altfranzösischen Liedes, Leiden, 1955. Spanke looked at too few sources and thus thought that the contrafactum Bon rois Thibaut, en chantant respondés was derived from the version of its model that is in the same manuscript (Chansonnier de l'Arsenal). Karp shows, however, that the contrafactum is based on the version of the model as it appears in the Manuscrit du Roi, which implies that in the Arsenal manuscript not the contrafactum but the model underwent changes. Such comparisons between both models and contrafacta from different manuscripts help to detect misreadings of copyists and to establish manuscript filiations. Trouvères drew on a large body of melodic formulas that may lead to the unjustified impression of borrowing. If, however, these formulas coincide over several verses and if the texts are structurally unrelated, we can be reasonably sure that one of the two melodies was borrowed.

Works: Thibaut de Navarre: Bon rois Thibaut, en chantant respondés (87-88, 90-91); Anonymous: Li chastelains de Couci ama tant (91-92); Hué de la Ferté: Je chantasse volentiers liement (92-93); Gautier d'Espinal or Châtelain de Coucy: Comencement de douce saison bele (93-94, 97); Blondel de Nesle: Bien doit chanter cui fine Amours adrece (96-97); Gace Brulé: Biaus m'est estés, quant retentist la breuille (96-97); Conon de Béthume: Ahi, Amours, con dure departie (97-99); Anonymous: Toi reclaim, vierge Marie (99); Anonymous: Ne chant pas que que nus die (99-100); Moniot d'Arras: Qui bien aime, a tart oublie (100); Châtelain de Coucy: La douce vois du rossignol salvage (100-1).

Index Classifications: Monophony to 1300

Contributed by: Andreas Giger

A sizeable body of melodies survives from the troubadour, trouvère, and Minnesinger repertories that demonstrate intentional modal variation. In comparing the appearance of a tune in different manuscripts, whether accompanying the same text or as a contrafactum, one can observe three changes in modal structures in the melodies. The different variants of the same melody may (1) emphasize opposing scale patterns, (2) emphasize a difference in the relationship between focal centers (pitches), and (3) affect both of these characteristics equally. The evidence suggests that these modal variations are the result of compositional planning and that medieval musicians did not feel bound to the mode of a borrowed tune so long as they retained the original melodic outline of the tune.

Works: Châtelain de Coucy: L’an que rose ne feuille (119, 126), Quant voi esté (199-22), A vous, amant, plus qu’a nule autre gent (122), La douce vois du rossignol salvage (123), Mout ai esté longuement esbahis (126); Anonymous: Souvent souspire (123); Anonymous: Veris ad imperia (123); Thibaut de Navarre: Pour conforter ma pesance (127).

Sources: Châtelain de Coucy: L’an que rose ne feuille (119, 126), Quant voi esté (199-22), A vous, amant, plus qu’a nule autre gent (122), La douce vois du rossignol salvage (123), Mout ai esté longuement esbahis (126); Raimbaut de Vaqueiras: Kalenda maya (123); Anonymous: A l’entrada del tens clar (123); Thibaut de Navarre: Pour conforter ma pesance (127).

Index Classifications: Monophony to 1300

Contributed by: Daniel Rogers

Index Classifications: Monophony to 1300

The authors raise questions about the textual and melodic adaptation of troubadour melodies by German Minnesingers. Hardly any German melodies survive, and since several texts seem to be based on Occitan models in terms of overall sense, scansion, rhyme scheme, and sound of the syllables (correspondances phonématiques), it may be assumed that the texts were sung to the corresponding melodies. However, the number of syllables does not always fit the number of notes, and it is often difficult to decide which of the musical variants should be chosen.

Works: Friedrich von Hausen: Si darf mich des zihen niet (19-21); Heinrich von Morungen: Lange bin ich geweset verdaht (26); Ulrich von Gutenberg: Ich horte ein merlikin wol singen (26-27); Bernger von Horheim: Nu enbeiz ich doch des trankes nie (27-28).

Index Classifications: Monophony to 1300

Contributed by: Andreas Giger

Farsed epistles are vernacular contrafacta of such famous tunes as the hymn Veni creator, commenting on the Latin epistles. Three factors might indicate an oral transmission: (1) variants in the contrafacta as compared to the original melody; (2) adaptation of the music by repetition of melodic formulas to changing lengths of verses; and (3) variants between the strophes. While the ornamental variants among contrafacta of the same tune indirectly suggest an oral tradition, the absence of such variants between strophes of the same piece seems to imply a written tradition.

Works: Farsed epistles of St. Stephen Sesta lesson (69-70); and St. John Evangelist Esta luson (68-70); Lament from the Jeu de sainte Agnès (68-70).

Index Classifications: Monophony to 1300

Contributed by: Andreas Giger

The concept of centonization (recurrence of melodic formulae) may be expanded to suggest that certain textual elements (including word sounds, placement, and meaning) also may have suggested musical setting. Clues to the sources of these borrowings are sometimes found in verses other than the first one. Whether or not it was conscious, musical borrowing of this type serves to reinforce the authority of the pre-existent material and may be an aid to memory.

Works: Pax in caelo permanet (26-27); Laudabilis domine (29-31); Alme mundi (31-35); O alma virgo (35-36); Hic laudando (35-43); Cives superni/Christus surrexit (43-45).

Sources: Laudat in excelsis (25-26); Laus tua deus (28-29, 31-35); Laus tibi domine (28-29); Alme mundi (35-36); Quem patris (35-43); Pax sempiterna (43-45).

Index Classifications: Monophony to 1300

Contributed by: Felix Cox

Index Classifications: Monophony to 1300

An English codex from 1343 includes a nearly complete exemplar of the Office for the Feast of Corpus Christi, with notation, providing new clues to the development of this office. Both texts and chants differ in some respects from other sources. Neither the texts nor the chants for this office were composed by St. Thomas Aquinas, as tradition holds. The chants were borrowed from numerous earlier sources, accurately listed in the marginalia in a Paris manuscript for the feast. These sources include the relatively late feasts of St. Thomas of Cantebury and St. Bernard, who were canonized in 1173 and 1174.

Index Classifications: Monophony to 1300, 1300s

Contributed by: J. Peter Burkholder

Index Classifications: Monophony to 1300

Two Roman communions were transmitted directly from Rome to other major centers in medieval Europe without Frankish intermediation. The communions Sint lumbi vestri and Domine si tu es failed to be transmitted to Francia during the mid-eighth century but still appear in medieval books outside Rome. This rare occurrence raises questions about how Roman liturgical and stylistic elements were manipulated and preserved in territories other than Francia. Specific considerations include the different degrees of reliance on orality throughout Italy, modal variations in Frankish and peninsular chant dialects, and patterns of conservation of Roman texts and melodies within and outside of Rome. The case of Sint lumbi vestri is especially significant because, since it was transmitted with music notation, the numerous versions of the chant offer evidence of the stylistic specificities in Italian chant dialects before the twelfth century. The melody circulated particularly well in the Beneventan region, with the Abbey of Montecassino being the most likely outpost for its reception outside of Rome. Analyses of the Beneventan melody reveals that the cantors manipulated the received melody according to regional tastes, but did not modify its grammar, retaining the melody’s relationship with the text as well as leaving the modal profile unchanged.

A list of manuscript sigla is provided in the Appendix, listing the other known appearances of these communions.

Works: Sint lumbi vestri; Domine si tu es.

Index Classifications: Monophony to 1300

Contributed by: Elizabeth Stoner

Index Classifications: Monophony to 1300

Monophonic works identified in medieval sources as motets lie outside our traditional definition of the motet. Although not all monophonic motets were motets entés in the commonly understood sense of borrowing refrains, the concept of grafting (enté) between monophonic and polyphonic repertories was integral to this genre of monophonic motets, as attested to by both medieval theoretical sources and modern analysis. By relating monophonic motets to sampling in today's popular music, one can gain insights about the intertextual nature of monophonic motets and the ways in which they engage their audience through technology (notational) and literacy (musical and textual). For example, the motet D'amor nuit et jor me lo (F-Pn fr. 845), although recorded in nonmensural notation like the other monophonic motets in its source, has notational peculiarities that suggest that it was transcribed from a voice of a polyphonic work recorded in mensural notation. Moreover, "grafting," whether in music or in gardening, implies a sense of cultural refinement that raises the motet enté to a level of technical and intellectual superiority. These motets represent a moment of transition in recording technology (notation and literacy), drawing from both the trouvère tradition, which was monophonic and orally transmitted, and the motet tradition, which grew out of an intellectual and literate context.

Works: Anonymous: En non Dieu c'est la rage (646-49, 674), Quant plus sui loig de ma dame (654-44), D'amor nuit et jor me lo (652, 660-62), Onc voir par amours n'amai (663-64), Bone amourete m'a souspris (664-66), Han, Diex! ou purrai je trouver (672-74).

Sources: Adam de la Halle: Bonne amourete mi tient gai (664-66); Anonymous (from Le roman de Fauvel): Ve qui gregi deficiunt (672-74).

Index Classifications: Monophony to 1300, Polyphony to 1300, 1300s

Contributed by: Elizabeth Elmi, Kerry O'Brien, Virginia Whealton

The word "descantava" in a Provençal vida of the troubador Gui d'Uisel refers not to the addition of a descant, or upper melodic line, but rather to the practice of writing a satirical response to an existing poem. Such responses usually employed the same melodies, stanza structures, and rhyme schemes.

Works: Peire d'Uisel: Fraire en Gui, be'm platz vostra cansos (317-18); Peire Cardenal, Ar mi posc eu lauzar d'amor (319, 320), Rics hom que greu ditz vertat e leu men (319); Monk of Montadon: Be'm enoia s'o auzes dire (319-22).

Sources: Giu d'Uisel: Si be'm partetz, mala dompna, de vos (317-18); Guiraut de Bornelh: No posc sofrir qu'a la dolor (319, 320-21); Raimon Jordan: Vas vos soplei, domna, premieramen (319); Bertran de Born: Rassa tan cries e mont'e poja (319-22).

Index Classifications: Monophony to 1300

Contributed by: Felix Cox

Index Classifications: General, Monophony to 1300, 1300s, 1400s

Index Classifications: Monophony to 1300

Several instances of contrafacture from Ordinary chants are found in Hungarian manuscripts. The application of new texts to these Gregorian melodies gives a new liturgical function to these chants, otherwise heard during the Mass Ordinary. This is particularly important for manuscripts from Hungary, a country with thinkers well-versed in the Gregorian tradition who were able to skillfully reshape melodic material over texts for use in cathedral dramas. Several different Kyrie settings served as the models for newly texted chants.

Index Classifications: Monophony to 1300

Contributed by: Elizabeth Stoner

Index Classifications: Monophony to 1300, Polyphony to 1300, 1300s

Index Classifications: Monophony to 1300

Index Classifications: Monophony to 1300

Index Classifications: Monophony to 1300

Index Classifications: Monophony to 1300

The 11th century manuscript Montpellier H 159 and the mid-13th century copy, Brussels II 3824, are often identified as being functionally and musically identical to each other. However, there are several notational differences between the two manuscripts’ versions of Sacerdotes eius, as well as differences in the organization of the manuscripts themselves. Notational variations between the manuscripts’ versions of the chant consist of omitted pitches and small differences in melody, but the melodies are similar enough to suggest and interdependent relationship between the two versions. Another curious feature of the chant is its distribution in the Brussels manuscript. The chant Sacerdotes eius appears twice in the Brussels manuscript, within several folios of each other. This close positioning is unusual in the common practice of reincorporating specific melodies in the same gradual. Moreover, these two versions exhibit differences in pitches and cadential formulas which are striking, given that they appear near each other in the same manuscript and are written in the same handwriting. The differences in these two instances of the same chant suggests that the scribe copied exactly from his now unknown exemplar or exemplars.

Works: Montpellier H 159: Sacerdotes eius; Brussels II 3824: Sacerdotes eius.

Index Classifications: Monophony to 1300

Contributed by: Elizabeth Stoner

The history of tropes can be compared to the history of the sequence, using evidence drawn from the manuscript Vienna, Nationalbibliothek, 1609. The notation of this manuscript places it among the group of existing tenth-century St. Gall tropers. A comparative list of tropes found in V. 1609 and St. Gall MS 484 is provided. Three distinct groups of tropes can be identified. Group I consists of purely musical inserts found after each phrase of the liturgical composition. This type was already in decline and disappeared by the eleventh century. Group II includes a metrical introduction to the liturgical composition, while troping within the piece remains melismatic. Group III is similar to this type, but both both textual and purely melodic troping are found. The melodic inserts are sung twice, first with text and next without it. The interpolated texts were added to existing melismas. Later, the text and music for the interpolations were composed together.

Index Classifications: Monophony to 1300

Contributed by: Felix Cox

Index Classifications: Monophony to 1300