Embellishing the Liturgy: Tropes and Polyphony

by Planchart,Alejandro Enrique

• ISBN13: 9780754627647
• ISBN10: 0754627640
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2009-04-28
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

After the imposition of Gregorian chant upon most of Europe by the authority of the Carolingian kings and emperors in the eighth and ninth centuries, a large number of repertories arose in connection with the new chant and its liturgy. Of these repertories, the tropes, together with the sequences, represent the main creative activity of European musicians in the ninth, tenth, and eleventh centuries. Because they were not an absolutely official part of the liturgy, as was Gregorian chant, they reflect local traditions, particularly in terms of melody, and more so than the new pieces that were composed at the time. In addition, the earlier layers of tropes represent, in many cases, a survival of the pre local pre Gregorian melodic traditions. This volume provides an introduction to the study of tropes in the form of an extensive anthology of major studies and a comprehensive bibliography and constitutes a classic reference resource for the study of one of the most important musico-liturgical genres of the central middle ages.

Table of Contents

Tropes in General: The troping hypothesis

Some observations on the interrelationships between trop repertories

Aux origines des tropes d'interpolation: le trope mTloforme d'intront

Les libelli de tropes et les premiers tropaires-prosaires

Tropes and the concept of genre

Beyond a chant, 'Tui Sunt Caeli' and its tropes

The liturgical function of the tropes

On the nature of transmission and change in trope repertories

Zum VerstSndniss des'klassischen' tropus

Aquitaine and the West: Northern French elements in an early Aquitainian troper

A new voice in the monastery: tropes and versus from 11th- and 12th-century Aquitaine

Further notes on the grouping of the Aquitanian tropers

St Gall and the East: Tropentypen in Sankt Gallen

Some observations on the repertory of tropes at St Emmeram

From tuotilo to the 1st manuscripts: the shaping of a trope repertory at Saint Gall

The Ordinary: The earliest Agnus Dei melody and its tropes

The Kyrie trope

Pax et sapienta: a thematic study on tropes from different traditions

Introducing the Gloria In Excelsis

Tropes in the Office: Melismatic tropes in the responsories for Matins

New music from old: the structuring of responsory prosas

Index

Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.

Excerpts

The tropes, together with the sequences, represent the main creative activity of European musicians in the nineth, tenth, and eleventh centuries. This volume provides an introduction to the study of tropes in the form of an extensive anthology of major studies and a comprehensive bibliography, providing a useful entryway into the study of one of the most important musico-liturgical genres of the central middle ages.