No CrossRef data available.
Article contents
The use of melodic formulas in responsories: constancy and variability in the manuscript tradition
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 March 2009
Abstract
The basis of this study comes from the great responsory repertory in the twelfth-century French monastic manuscript, Paris 12044 from Saint-Maur-des-Fossés. A computerised database containing each component phrase was used to create a more accurate melodic taxonomy of responsories than has hitherto been available. Building on the research of W.H. Frere, H-J. Holman, and others, it is possible to obtain clearer insight into formulaic composition in an oral culture. This is achieved by comparing the use of recurrent, or ‘standard’, musical material in Paris 12044 to that found in several other manuscripts. The presence of standard material in a respond melody is found to be linked to the consistency of form and tonal structure.
- Type
- Research Article
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © © Cambridge University Press 2009
References
1 Walter Howard Frere, Antiphonale Sarisburiense: A Reproduction in Facsimile of a Manuscript of the Thirteenth Century (London, 1901–24).
2 Hans-Jørgen Holman, ‘The Responsoria prolixa of the Codex Worcester F 160’, Ph.D. diss., Indiana University (1961).
3 For a more detailed discussion of this form see Peter Wagner, Einführung in die gregorianischen Melodien, 3 vols., III Gregorianische Formenlehre (Leipzig, 1921), 329–44, esp. 331, and Andreas Pfisterer, ‘Skizzen zu einer gregorianischen Formenlehre’, Archiv für Musikwissenschaft, 63 (2006), 145–61.
4 Wagner, Gregorianische Formenlehre, 329.
5 Helmut Hucke and David Hiley, ‘Responsorium’, in Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, 2nd rev. edn. ed. Ludwig Finscher (Kassel, 1998), cols. 176–200.
6 Katherine Helsen, ‘The Great Responsories of the Divine Office: Aspects of Structure and Transmission’ Ph.D. diss., Universität Regensburg (2008). Here, these recurrent phrases are given labels and studied individually. The database, from which the information in this article has been taken, is included in the online publication of this dissertation, at www.opus-bayern.de/uni-regensburg/frontdoor.php?source_opus=1031&la=de.
7 Helsen, ‘The Great Responsories of the Divine Office’, provides a more detailed discussion of the role and use of recurrent melodic material.
8 Helsen, ‘The Great Responsories of the Divine Office’.