The tract for the feast of St Gregory, Beatus uir, appears in very different versions in the Old Roman and Gregorian traditions, and in more than one version in the Gregorian tradition. Close study of the melodies of these different versions and of the second-mode tract Ecce uir, attached to the feast in Corbie, Bec and Bec-influenced institutions, permits tentative conclusions to be drawn about the adoption of Roman chant in early eighth-century England and mid-eighth-century Francia. Before the concerted Carolingian effort to learn the entire Roman Mass Proper, Beatus uir appears to have been adopted north of the Alps at least twice: in early eighth-century England, and at St Denis in the 750s.

Friedrich Ludwig's appointment in medieval music at the University of Straßburg came at a crucial time for German musicology, then a new discipline in a flourishing academic environment. Upon entering his post at Straßburg in the autumn of 1905, Ludwig delivered a formal lecture, here translated, in which he outlined the goals for twentieth-century medieval musicology. While many of these goals, in particular the editing of certain theorists and late medieval repertories, have been achieved, other directions implied in Ludwig's synthetic approach have received less attention. Ludwig's own musicology was a creative combination of forces: on the one hand, a reaction to earlier French scholarship in archaeology and philology; on the other, a borrowing of recent German trends in historiography, philosophy and music. Most notable is the influence of Ranke and Hegel on Ludwig's then new concept of latent rhythm (i.e., ‘modal rhythm’) in medieval music. A century of scholarship later, Ludwig's vision for musicology as an innovative interdisciplinary conjunction has much to teach us.

The role of the minstrels of the English court has been relatively neglected compared to the attention devoted to the Chapel Royal, and the importance of the reign of Edward IV has been long overlooked. The minstrels disappeared from court life, and we have no modern comparison that might help us to understand their role. The fact that they did not have a prescribed set of daily rituals to perform, as the chapel did, also complicates discussion. Study of the instrumentalists employed by Edward IV reveals information about working practices that can illuminate our view not only of them, but also of the whole royal household. It also helps to clarify the difference between ‘King's Minstrels’ and ‘King's Trumpeters’, a distinction that has been hitherto ignored.

Liturgical chant bibliography 12 maintains the traditional division into: (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, consisting mainly of reviews, follow the present introduction. A significant publication in 2002 was without doubt the colour facsimile of the manuscript Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, fonds lat. 776 (12002), an eleventh-century gradual from the Benedictine abbey of Saint-Michel-de-Gaillac near Albi. Although no staff lines are present, the music is notated carefully in diastematic notation. The availability of a facsimile of this famous manuscript will certainly be of value for the study of semiology and the transmission history of tropes, proses and prosulae. It also contains traces of the Gallican and Mozarabic chant repertories.