Relationships between Aquitanian versus and troubadour song have often been adduced, particularly with respect to formal structures or terminology (the term vers used by some troubadours could come from versus). This study adopts a different approach, emphasizing comparative examination of musico-poetic techniques on which much work remains to be done. It uses the refrain – not hitherto a subject of substantive comparative study of these repertories – as a focus of analysis in selected versus and early troubadour pieces. It demonstrates both the rich inventiveness of refrain techniques and how these techniques, deployed in different linguistic environments and in different cultural contexts, shed light on the specificities as well as similarities of each repertory and nourish the individual expressiveness characteristic of the early twelfth-century ‘New Song’.

Comparison of a considerable number of Gregorian sources dating from the tenth to the thirteenth centuries reveals a handful of Mass Proper items that do not belong to the standard repertory and show possible ties with the Byzantine and/or Gallican traditions. These pieces are not recorded in most of the earliest French and German sources of the Gregorian tradition. Some of them seem to have been composed in Italy (but not in Rome), while others would appear to have Eastern or Frankish ties. Comparative melodic analysis, along with the discussion of their position in the liturgical year, discloses insights about their origin, date, routes of transmission and the ways to compare chants belonging to different liturgical families.

The Gilbertine Order, a monastic community for both sexes founded by Gilbert of Sempringham, attracted the attention of contemporaries because of the close proximity of the men and women who made up its members. Although Gilbertine canons, nuns, lay brothers and lay sisters were strictly separated by gender, the possibility of scandal aroused the suspicion of twelfth-century observers. Modern scholars seem to share the same fascination, even as this applies to the musical history of the order. Many Gilbertine scholars assume that the nuns of the Order of Sempringham did not participate musically in Mass or the Office, lest the canons of the Order fall into sin at the sound of their alluring, feminine voices. This article re-examines the texts that have prompted such assumptions, including the Gilbertine Institutiones, two papal bulls directed at the Order, and works by John Capgrave, John of Salisbury, Gerald of Wales and Nigel de Longchamps. The reassessment of these texts provides evidence that the Gilbertine nuns did sing in worship, albeit in a restricted fashion.

Liturgical chant bibliography 16 maintains the previously established subdivisions: (1) Editions and facsimile editions, (2) Books and reprints, (3) Congress reports, (4) Chant journals, (5) Collections of essays and dictionaries, (6) Articles in periodicals and Festschriften. Additions to previous bibliographies, mostly reviews, will be found immediately following this introduction.