Understanding the Old Hispanic Office Texts, Melodies, and Devotion in Early Medieval Iberia
Cambridge University Press, 2023
Based on highly original archival and palaeographical research, this is the first methodological ... more Based on highly original archival and palaeographical research, this is the first methodological and factual primer in English on the distinctive liturgical tradition of early medieval Spain. It provides clear and approachable blueprints for future work on the description and analysis (musical, theological and cultural) of this and other liturgies. For non-specialists, the authors introduce the main features of Old Hispanic liturgy, its manuscripts, its services and its liturgical genres. For specialists, they model a variety of ways to work with the Old Hispanic materials in depth, incorporating notational, musical, theological and historical perspectives. For those interested in musical notation, the book lays out a method for working with unpitched neumes, with illustrative results, that will inspire and challenge others working on monophonic chant. For historians and liturgists, the texts and melodies are analysed in combination with the theological context that informed their creation.
Songs of Sacrifice: Chant, Identity, and Christian Formation in Early Medieval Iberia
Oxford University Press, 2020
Between the seventh and eleventh centuries, Christian worship on the Iberian Peninsula was struct... more Between the seventh and eleventh centuries, Christian worship on the Iberian Peninsula was structured by rituals of great theological and musical richness, known as the Old Hispanic (or Mozarabic) rite. Much of this liturgy was produced during a seventh-century cultural and educational program aimed at creating a society unified in the Nicene faith, built on twin pillars of church and kingdom. Led by Isidore of Seville and subsequent generations of bishops, this cultural renewal effort began with a project of clerical education, facilitated through a distinctive culture of textual production.
Rebecca Maloy's Songs of Sacrifice argues that liturgical music--both texts and melodies--played a central role in the cultural renewal of early Medieval Iberia, with a chant repertory that was carefully designed to promote the goals of this cultural renewal. Through extensive reworking of the Old Testament, the creators of the chant texts fashioned scripture in ways designed to teach biblical exegesis, linking both to patristic traditions--distilled through the works of Isidore of Seville and other Iberian bishops--and to Visigothic anti-Jewish discourse. Through musical rhetoric, the melodies shaped the delivery of the texts to underline these messages. In these ways, the chants worked toward the formation of individual Christian souls and a communal Nicene identity. Examining the crucial influence of these chants, Songs of Sacrifice addresses a plethora of long-debated issues in musicology, history, and liturgical studies, and reveals the potential for Old Hispanic chant to shed light on fundamental questions about how early chant repertories were formed, why their creators selected particular passages of scripture, and why they set them to certain kinds of music.
Containing substantial new studies in music, liturgy, history, art history, and palaeography from... more Containing substantial new studies in music, liturgy, history, art history, and palaeography from established and emerging scholars, this volume takes a cross-disciplinary approach to one of the most celebrated and vexing questions about plainsong and liturgy in the Middle Ages: how to understand the influence of Rome? Some essays address this question directly, examining Roman sources, Roman liturgy, or Roman practice, whilst others consider the sway of Rome more indirectly, by looking later sources, received practices, or emerging traditions that owe a foundational debt to Rome.
Over the past century, scholars have identified examples of liturgical chant belonging to more th... more Over the past century, scholars have identified examples of liturgical chant belonging to more than one Western liturgical tradition, including Franco-Roman, Old Hispanic, Old Beneventan and Milanese. In a seminal study, Kenneth Levy identified a set of offertories that circulate in the Franco-Roman, Old Hispanic and Milanese traditions, arguing that all existing versions derive from an earlier, Gallican tradition. This article expands the evidence for connections between the Franco-Roman and Old Hispanic traditions, identifying nearly two dozen Franco-Roman responsories that are shared with the Old Hispanic rite and may be of Gallican or Iberian origin. The diversity of their liturgical assignments and circulation patterns suggests that the exchange of repertory took place at different times and through different routes. Many of these responsories are assigned to the later layers of the Roman liturgy. Others were added to the Old Hispanic liturgy between the eighth and tenth centuries. Just over half of these responsories show enough melodic connections between the Franco-Roman and Old Hispanic versions, in contour and melismatic density, to imply a shared melodic ancestor. Each version, however, uses the formulas associated with its own tradition, indicating that the melodies have been assimilated to the style and formulaic content of the receiving tradition. Despite the resulting melodic differences, we identify certain commonalities between Franco-Roman and Old Hispanic chant, such as text-setting strategies and common cadential contours, that facilitated the exchange of repertory. Over the past century, scholars have identified examples of liturgical chant belonging to more than one Western liturgical tradition, including Gregorian (hereafter Franco-Roman), Old Hispanic, Old Beneventan and Milanese. In a seminal essay, Kenneth Levy identified a set of offertories that circulate in the Franco-Roman, Old Hispanic and Milanese traditions, arguing that all existing versions derive from an earlier, Gallican tradition. 1 The extent of these exchanges and their implications for the early history of liturgical chant have not been fully explored. Here we expand the evidence for connections between liturgical traditions, identifying nearly two dozen Franco-Roman responsories that are shared with the Old Hispanic rite and may be
ABSTRACTAside from Don Randel's study of the responsory verse tones, there have been few comp... more ABSTRACTAside from Don Randel's study of the responsory verse tones, there have been few comparative analyses of Old Hispanic chant melodies. Such comparison requires new methods because of the paucity of surviving manuscripts, the limited sharing of repertoire between them and the nature of the notation. This article examines variants in specific opening and cadential contexts, across the Old Hispanic corpus. In these contexts, cantors chose from a system of interchangeable melodic shapes, which vary by manuscript. Some manuscripts cluster in their choices of these shapes, in ways that confirm Randel's findings, with four melodic dialects in evidence (‘Leon’, ‘Rioja’, ‘Toledo A’ and ‘Toledo B’). Other manuscripts, however, do not fit securely into any of these four dialects, instead showing a certain degree of permeability between the dialects. Although the types of variants we have identified, including differences in notation and melody, may appear ‘insignificant’ in comp...
Chant editing and analysis program: a tool for analyzing liturgical chant
Journal of Medieval Iberian Studies, 2022
Until recently, Old Hispanic chant was rarely subjected to close musical analysis, in part becaus... more Until recently, Old Hispanic chant was rarely subjected to close musical analysis, in part because it is preserved in unpitched notation. Although we can read the contours of the melodies—the up and down movements—they cannot be reliably transcribed into modern notation. This paper introduces the Chant Editing and Analysis Program and shows how it facilitates analysis of the repertory.
Until recently, Old Hispanic chant was rarely subjected to close musical analysis, in part becaus... more Until recently, Old Hispanic chant was rarely subjected to close musical analysis, in part because it is preserved in unpitched notation. Although we can read the contours of the melodies—the up and down movements—they cannot be reliably transcribed into modern notation. This paper introduces the Chant Editing and Analysis Program and shows how it facilitates analysis of the repertory.
This document provides supplemental examples for the article “Revisiting ‘Toledo, Rome, and the L... more This document provides supplemental examples for the article “Revisiting ‘Toledo, Rome, and the Legacy of Gaul’: New Evidence from the Divine Office” Plainsong and Medieval Music 31 (2022): 1-35.
Over the past century, scholars have identified examples of liturgical chant belonging to more th... more Over the past century, scholars have identified examples of liturgical chant belonging to more than one Western liturgical tradition, including Franco-Roman, Old Hispanic, Old Beneventan and Milanese. In a seminal study, Kenneth Levy identified a set of offertories that circulate in the Franco-Roman, Old Hispanic and Milanese traditions, arguing that all existing versions derive from an earlier, Gallican tradition. This article expands the evidence for connections between the Franco-Roman and Old Hispanic traditions, identifying nearly two dozen Franco-Roman responsories that are shared with the Old Hispanic rite and may be of Gallican or Iberian origin. The diversity of their liturgical assignments and circulation patterns suggests that the exchange of repertory took place at different times and through different routes. Many of these responsories are assigned to the later layers of the Roman liturgy. Others were added to the Old Hispanic liturgy between the eighth and tenth centuries.
Just over half of these responsories show enough melodic connections between the Franco-Roman and Old Hispanic versions, in contour and melismatic density, to imply a shared melodic ancestor. Each version, however, uses the formulas associated with its own tradition, indicating that the melodies have been assimilated to the style and formulaic content of the receiving tradition. Despite the resulting melodic differences, we identify certain commonalities between Franco-Roman and Old Hispanic chant, such as text-setting strategies and common cadential contours, that facilitated the exchange of repertory.
Aside from Don Randel's study of the responsory verse tones, there have been few comparative anal... more Aside from Don Randel's study of the responsory verse tones, there have been few comparative analyses of Old Hispanic chant melodies. Such comparison requires new methods because of the paucity of surviving manuscripts, the limited sharing of repertoire between them and the nature of the notation. This article examines variants in specific opening and cadential contexts, across the Old Hispanic corpus. In these contexts, cantors chose from a system of interchangeable melodic shapes, which vary by manuscript. Some manuscripts cluster in their choices of these shapes, in ways that confirm Randel's findings, with four melodic dialects in evidence (‘Leon’, ‘Rioja’, ‘Toledo A’ and ‘Toledo B’). Other manuscripts, however, do not fit securely into any of these four dialects, instead showing a certain degree of permeability between the dialects. Although the types of variants we have identified, including differences in notation and melody, may appear ‘insignificant’ in comparisons of individual chants, they emerge as significant markers of melodic dialects in comparisons of large data sets.
Old Hispanic (Mozarabic) chant was sung on the Iberian Peninsula until the 11th century. Although... more Old Hispanic (Mozarabic) chant was sung on the Iberian Peninsula until the 11th century. Although thousands of notated chants survive, for the whole liturgical year, almost all of them are in unpitched notation. The meaning of this music is best accessed first through its texts, reading them in the light of the other liturgical elements that surrounded them, and through the traditions of biblical exegesis that were known on the Iberian Peninsula. This better positions us to analyse the notation and how it might relate to the text. Through this method, as we show in a case study of one simple Lenten Office, we can begin to form a picture of what the chant texts meant to participants in the liturgy and how the melodies helped to convey this meaning.
Old Hispanic (or ‘Mozarabic’) chant bears witness to a transmission that was rather different fro... more Old Hispanic (or ‘Mozarabic’) chant bears witness to a transmission that was rather different from that of the Franco-Roman mass Proper. Despite evidence for the use of notated exemplars from the late ninth or early tenth century, many Old Hispanic melodies did not attain the fixity associated with the Franco-Roman mass. The present essay presents evidence that these chants continued to change in an oral tradition that interacted with the written one from the ninth to the eleventh century. Close analysis makes it possible to pinpoint some features of the melodies that seem to have been fixed in the written tradition, some that varied regionally, and others that could change on an apparently casual basis.
These appendices accompany our article "Melodic Dialects in Old Hispanic Chant", Plainsong and Me... more These appendices accompany our article "Melodic Dialects in Old Hispanic Chant", Plainsong and Medieval Music 25 (2016)
Journal of the American Musicological Society, May 2014
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, a... more JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].
Resumen: En este trabajo mostramos las metodologías que hemos desarrollado para estudiar los psal... more Resumen: En este trabajo mostramos las metodologías que hemos desarrollado para estudiar los psalmi y threni cuaresmales viejo-hispánicos y para comparar las melodías de diferentes manuscritos viejo-hispánicos. Comenzamos examinando cómo el texto de cada canto se relaciona con temas más generales de la Cuaresma viejo-hispánica. Tenemos en cuenta cómo se entendía el texto dentro de la liturgia viejo-hispánica y en la tradición de exégesis bíblica que habrían conocido sus recopiladores. Posteriormente analizamos el papel que juegan las melodías en la articulación de esos textos, llegando a la conclusión de que los psalmi y threni cuaresmales viejo-hispánicos fueron cuidadosamente escogidos, y que las melodías transmiten elocuentemente el significado de esos textos. En la segunda parte del trabajo exponemos nuestra metodología para comparar las versiones de los cantos en E-L 8 y E-Tc 35.5. Para concluir, mostramos que E-Tc 35.5 conserva versiones de las melodías que están relacionadas con las de E-L 8 y que demuestran su importancia para el estudio del canto viejo-hispánico.
Analyzing the Old Hispanic Responsories: Toward a Methodology. In Cantus Planus: Papers Read at the Sixteenth Meeting, Vienna, Austria, 2011, ed. Robert Klugsederm 242-49. Purkersdorf: Verlagsbuchhandlung Brüder Hollinek, 2012.
Understanding the Old Hispanic Office Texts, Melodies, and Devotion in Early Medieval Iberia
Cambridge University Press, 2023
Based on highly original archival and palaeographical research, this is the first methodological ... more Based on highly original archival and palaeographical research, this is the first methodological and factual primer in English on the distinctive liturgical tradition of early medieval Spain. It provides clear and approachable blueprints for future work on the description and analysis (musical, theological and cultural) of this and other liturgies. For non-specialists, the authors introduce the main features of Old Hispanic liturgy, its manuscripts, its services and its liturgical genres. For specialists, they model a variety of ways to work with the Old Hispanic materials in depth, incorporating notational, musical, theological and historical perspectives. For those interested in musical notation, the book lays out a method for working with unpitched neumes, with illustrative results, that will inspire and challenge others working on monophonic chant. For historians and liturgists, the texts and melodies are analysed in combination with the theological context that informed their creation.
Songs of Sacrifice: Chant, Identity, and Christian Formation in Early Medieval Iberia
Oxford University Press, 2020
Between the seventh and eleventh centuries, Christian worship on the Iberian Peninsula was struct... more Between the seventh and eleventh centuries, Christian worship on the Iberian Peninsula was structured by rituals of great theological and musical richness, known as the Old Hispanic (or Mozarabic) rite. Much of this liturgy was produced during a seventh-century cultural and educational program aimed at creating a society unified in the Nicene faith, built on twin pillars of church and kingdom. Led by Isidore of Seville and subsequent generations of bishops, this cultural renewal effort began with a project of clerical education, facilitated through a distinctive culture of textual production.
Rebecca Maloy's Songs of Sacrifice argues that liturgical music--both texts and melodies--played a central role in the cultural renewal of early Medieval Iberia, with a chant repertory that was carefully designed to promote the goals of this cultural renewal. Through extensive reworking of the Old Testament, the creators of the chant texts fashioned scripture in ways designed to teach biblical exegesis, linking both to patristic traditions--distilled through the works of Isidore of Seville and other Iberian bishops--and to Visigothic anti-Jewish discourse. Through musical rhetoric, the melodies shaped the delivery of the texts to underline these messages. In these ways, the chants worked toward the formation of individual Christian souls and a communal Nicene identity. Examining the crucial influence of these chants, Songs of Sacrifice addresses a plethora of long-debated issues in musicology, history, and liturgical studies, and reveals the potential for Old Hispanic chant to shed light on fundamental questions about how early chant repertories were formed, why their creators selected particular passages of scripture, and why they set them to certain kinds of music.
Containing substantial new studies in music, liturgy, history, art history, and palaeography from... more Containing substantial new studies in music, liturgy, history, art history, and palaeography from established and emerging scholars, this volume takes a cross-disciplinary approach to one of the most celebrated and vexing questions about plainsong and liturgy in the Middle Ages: how to understand the influence of Rome? Some essays address this question directly, examining Roman sources, Roman liturgy, or Roman practice, whilst others consider the sway of Rome more indirectly, by looking later sources, received practices, or emerging traditions that owe a foundational debt to Rome.
Over the past century, scholars have identified examples of liturgical chant belonging to more th... more Over the past century, scholars have identified examples of liturgical chant belonging to more than one Western liturgical tradition, including Franco-Roman, Old Hispanic, Old Beneventan and Milanese. In a seminal study, Kenneth Levy identified a set of offertories that circulate in the Franco-Roman, Old Hispanic and Milanese traditions, arguing that all existing versions derive from an earlier, Gallican tradition. This article expands the evidence for connections between the Franco-Roman and Old Hispanic traditions, identifying nearly two dozen Franco-Roman responsories that are shared with the Old Hispanic rite and may be of Gallican or Iberian origin. The diversity of their liturgical assignments and circulation patterns suggests that the exchange of repertory took place at different times and through different routes. Many of these responsories are assigned to the later layers of the Roman liturgy. Others were added to the Old Hispanic liturgy between the eighth and tenth centuries. Just over half of these responsories show enough melodic connections between the Franco-Roman and Old Hispanic versions, in contour and melismatic density, to imply a shared melodic ancestor. Each version, however, uses the formulas associated with its own tradition, indicating that the melodies have been assimilated to the style and formulaic content of the receiving tradition. Despite the resulting melodic differences, we identify certain commonalities between Franco-Roman and Old Hispanic chant, such as text-setting strategies and common cadential contours, that facilitated the exchange of repertory. Over the past century, scholars have identified examples of liturgical chant belonging to more than one Western liturgical tradition, including Gregorian (hereafter Franco-Roman), Old Hispanic, Old Beneventan and Milanese. In a seminal essay, Kenneth Levy identified a set of offertories that circulate in the Franco-Roman, Old Hispanic and Milanese traditions, arguing that all existing versions derive from an earlier, Gallican tradition. 1 The extent of these exchanges and their implications for the early history of liturgical chant have not been fully explored. Here we expand the evidence for connections between liturgical traditions, identifying nearly two dozen Franco-Roman responsories that are shared with the Old Hispanic rite and may be
ABSTRACTAside from Don Randel's study of the responsory verse tones, there have been few comp... more ABSTRACTAside from Don Randel's study of the responsory verse tones, there have been few comparative analyses of Old Hispanic chant melodies. Such comparison requires new methods because of the paucity of surviving manuscripts, the limited sharing of repertoire between them and the nature of the notation. This article examines variants in specific opening and cadential contexts, across the Old Hispanic corpus. In these contexts, cantors chose from a system of interchangeable melodic shapes, which vary by manuscript. Some manuscripts cluster in their choices of these shapes, in ways that confirm Randel's findings, with four melodic dialects in evidence (‘Leon’, ‘Rioja’, ‘Toledo A’ and ‘Toledo B’). Other manuscripts, however, do not fit securely into any of these four dialects, instead showing a certain degree of permeability between the dialects. Although the types of variants we have identified, including differences in notation and melody, may appear ‘insignificant’ in comp...
Chant editing and analysis program: a tool for analyzing liturgical chant
Journal of Medieval Iberian Studies, 2022
Until recently, Old Hispanic chant was rarely subjected to close musical analysis, in part becaus... more Until recently, Old Hispanic chant was rarely subjected to close musical analysis, in part because it is preserved in unpitched notation. Although we can read the contours of the melodies—the up and down movements—they cannot be reliably transcribed into modern notation. This paper introduces the Chant Editing and Analysis Program and shows how it facilitates analysis of the repertory.
Until recently, Old Hispanic chant was rarely subjected to close musical analysis, in part becaus... more Until recently, Old Hispanic chant was rarely subjected to close musical analysis, in part because it is preserved in unpitched notation. Although we can read the contours of the melodies—the up and down movements—they cannot be reliably transcribed into modern notation. This paper introduces the Chant Editing and Analysis Program and shows how it facilitates analysis of the repertory.
This document provides supplemental examples for the article “Revisiting ‘Toledo, Rome, and the L... more This document provides supplemental examples for the article “Revisiting ‘Toledo, Rome, and the Legacy of Gaul’: New Evidence from the Divine Office” Plainsong and Medieval Music 31 (2022): 1-35.
Over the past century, scholars have identified examples of liturgical chant belonging to more th... more Over the past century, scholars have identified examples of liturgical chant belonging to more than one Western liturgical tradition, including Franco-Roman, Old Hispanic, Old Beneventan and Milanese. In a seminal study, Kenneth Levy identified a set of offertories that circulate in the Franco-Roman, Old Hispanic and Milanese traditions, arguing that all existing versions derive from an earlier, Gallican tradition. This article expands the evidence for connections between the Franco-Roman and Old Hispanic traditions, identifying nearly two dozen Franco-Roman responsories that are shared with the Old Hispanic rite and may be of Gallican or Iberian origin. The diversity of their liturgical assignments and circulation patterns suggests that the exchange of repertory took place at different times and through different routes. Many of these responsories are assigned to the later layers of the Roman liturgy. Others were added to the Old Hispanic liturgy between the eighth and tenth centuries.
Just over half of these responsories show enough melodic connections between the Franco-Roman and Old Hispanic versions, in contour and melismatic density, to imply a shared melodic ancestor. Each version, however, uses the formulas associated with its own tradition, indicating that the melodies have been assimilated to the style and formulaic content of the receiving tradition. Despite the resulting melodic differences, we identify certain commonalities between Franco-Roman and Old Hispanic chant, such as text-setting strategies and common cadential contours, that facilitated the exchange of repertory.
Aside from Don Randel's study of the responsory verse tones, there have been few comparative anal... more Aside from Don Randel's study of the responsory verse tones, there have been few comparative analyses of Old Hispanic chant melodies. Such comparison requires new methods because of the paucity of surviving manuscripts, the limited sharing of repertoire between them and the nature of the notation. This article examines variants in specific opening and cadential contexts, across the Old Hispanic corpus. In these contexts, cantors chose from a system of interchangeable melodic shapes, which vary by manuscript. Some manuscripts cluster in their choices of these shapes, in ways that confirm Randel's findings, with four melodic dialects in evidence (‘Leon’, ‘Rioja’, ‘Toledo A’ and ‘Toledo B’). Other manuscripts, however, do not fit securely into any of these four dialects, instead showing a certain degree of permeability between the dialects. Although the types of variants we have identified, including differences in notation and melody, may appear ‘insignificant’ in comparisons of individual chants, they emerge as significant markers of melodic dialects in comparisons of large data sets.
Old Hispanic (Mozarabic) chant was sung on the Iberian Peninsula until the 11th century. Although... more Old Hispanic (Mozarabic) chant was sung on the Iberian Peninsula until the 11th century. Although thousands of notated chants survive, for the whole liturgical year, almost all of them are in unpitched notation. The meaning of this music is best accessed first through its texts, reading them in the light of the other liturgical elements that surrounded them, and through the traditions of biblical exegesis that were known on the Iberian Peninsula. This better positions us to analyse the notation and how it might relate to the text. Through this method, as we show in a case study of one simple Lenten Office, we can begin to form a picture of what the chant texts meant to participants in the liturgy and how the melodies helped to convey this meaning.
Old Hispanic (or ‘Mozarabic’) chant bears witness to a transmission that was rather different fro... more Old Hispanic (or ‘Mozarabic’) chant bears witness to a transmission that was rather different from that of the Franco-Roman mass Proper. Despite evidence for the use of notated exemplars from the late ninth or early tenth century, many Old Hispanic melodies did not attain the fixity associated with the Franco-Roman mass. The present essay presents evidence that these chants continued to change in an oral tradition that interacted with the written one from the ninth to the eleventh century. Close analysis makes it possible to pinpoint some features of the melodies that seem to have been fixed in the written tradition, some that varied regionally, and others that could change on an apparently casual basis.
These appendices accompany our article "Melodic Dialects in Old Hispanic Chant", Plainsong and Me... more These appendices accompany our article "Melodic Dialects in Old Hispanic Chant", Plainsong and Medieval Music 25 (2016)
Journal of the American Musicological Society, May 2014
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, a... more JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].
Resumen: En este trabajo mostramos las metodologías que hemos desarrollado para estudiar los psal... more Resumen: En este trabajo mostramos las metodologías que hemos desarrollado para estudiar los psalmi y threni cuaresmales viejo-hispánicos y para comparar las melodías de diferentes manuscritos viejo-hispánicos. Comenzamos examinando cómo el texto de cada canto se relaciona con temas más generales de la Cuaresma viejo-hispánica. Tenemos en cuenta cómo se entendía el texto dentro de la liturgia viejo-hispánica y en la tradición de exégesis bíblica que habrían conocido sus recopiladores. Posteriormente analizamos el papel que juegan las melodías en la articulación de esos textos, llegando a la conclusión de que los psalmi y threni cuaresmales viejo-hispánicos fueron cuidadosamente escogidos, y que las melodías transmiten elocuentemente el significado de esos textos. En la segunda parte del trabajo exponemos nuestra metodología para comparar las versiones de los cantos en E-L 8 y E-Tc 35.5. Para concluir, mostramos que E-Tc 35.5 conserva versiones de las melodías que están relacionadas con las de E-L 8 y que demuestran su importancia para el estudio del canto viejo-hispánico.
Analyzing the Old Hispanic Responsories: Toward a Methodology. In Cantus Planus: Papers Read at the Sixteenth Meeting, Vienna, Austria, 2011, ed. Robert Klugsederm 242-49. Purkersdorf: Verlagsbuchhandlung Brüder Hollinek, 2012.
Problems of Modal Structure in the Gregorian Offertory.” In The Offertory and Its Verses: State of Research and Guidelines for Further Exploration, ed. Roman Hankeln, 67–88. Trondheim: Tapir Academic Press, 2007.
Offertory Melodies at Rome, Francia, and Milan.” In Cantus Planus Niederaltaich, ed. Barbara Haggh and László Dobszay, 427–40. Budapest: Hungarian Academy of Sciences, 2009
The Word-Music Relationship in the Gregorian and Old Roman Offertories
Studia Musicologica Academiae Scientiarum …, Jan 1, 2004
... Although the Grego-rian melodies are less sensitive to these factors, at times they respond m... more ... Although the Grego-rian melodies are less sensitive to these factors, at times they respond more sensitively to the ... 18 Susan Rankin, “Carolingian Music”, in Carolingian Culture: Emulation and Innovation, ed. Rosa-mond McKitterick (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press ...
Seventh-century Hispania has left us a legacy of work that was widely read and cited in the middl... more Seventh-century Hispania has left us a legacy of work that was widely read and cited in the middle ages, with the writings of Isidore of Seville assuming pride of place. These texts were the products of a cultural renewal among a handful of bishops in seventh-century Hispania, whose ultimate goal was to form a society unified in Nicene belief under the Visigothic kings. Central to these aims was Christian formation through the education of clergy. Isidore, Ildefonsus, and other bishops collected, compiled, and glossed a vast corpus of patristic writings for this purpose. But we know too little about the reach of this project, or how the normative ideals reflected in the bishops’ project relate to social reality. Liturgical texts can yield valuable insights into the project: both its aims and intellectual foundations and how it was put into practice. Although it had earlier roots, much of the Visigothic (or Old Hispanic) liturgy was a product of the seventh-century renewal and was carefully designed to work toward its goals. This essay examines liturgical texts as a product of the distinctive culture of textual production that emerged in seventh-century Hispania, beginning with overview of the textual culture itself, then examining how the liturgy relates to it. I then address how the experience of these texts was mediated through melody.
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Books by Rebecca Maloy
Rebecca Maloy's Songs of Sacrifice argues that liturgical music--both texts and melodies--played a central role in the cultural renewal of early Medieval Iberia, with a chant repertory that was carefully designed to promote the goals of this cultural renewal. Through extensive reworking of the Old Testament, the creators of the chant texts fashioned scripture in ways designed to teach biblical exegesis, linking both to patristic traditions--distilled through the works of Isidore of Seville and other Iberian bishops--and to Visigothic anti-Jewish discourse. Through musical rhetoric, the melodies shaped the delivery of the texts to underline these messages. In these ways, the chants worked toward the formation of individual Christian souls and a communal Nicene identity. Examining the crucial influence of these chants, Songs of Sacrifice addresses a plethora of long-debated issues in musicology, history, and liturgical studies, and reveals the potential for Old Hispanic chant to shed light on fundamental questions about how early chant repertories were formed, why their creators selected particular passages of scripture, and why they set them to certain kinds of music.
Papers by Rebecca Maloy
Milanese. In a seminal study, Kenneth Levy identified a set of offertories that circulate in the Franco-Roman, Old Hispanic and Milanese traditions, arguing that all existing versions derive from an earlier, Gallican tradition. This article expands the evidence for connections between the Franco-Roman and Old
Hispanic traditions, identifying nearly two dozen Franco-Roman responsories that are shared with the Old Hispanic rite and may be of Gallican or Iberian origin. The diversity of their liturgical assignments
and circulation patterns suggests that the exchange of repertory took place at different times and through different routes. Many of these responsories are assigned to the later layers of the Roman liturgy. Others
were added to the Old Hispanic liturgy between the eighth and tenth centuries.
Just over half of these responsories show enough melodic connections between the Franco-Roman and Old Hispanic versions, in contour and melismatic density, to imply a shared melodic ancestor.
Each version, however, uses the formulas associated with its own tradition, indicating that the melodies have been assimilated to the style and formulaic content of the receiving tradition. Despite the resulting
melodic differences, we identify certain commonalities between Franco-Roman and Old Hispanic chant, such as text-setting strategies and common cadential contours, that facilitated the exchange of repertory.
Rebecca Maloy's Songs of Sacrifice argues that liturgical music--both texts and melodies--played a central role in the cultural renewal of early Medieval Iberia, with a chant repertory that was carefully designed to promote the goals of this cultural renewal. Through extensive reworking of the Old Testament, the creators of the chant texts fashioned scripture in ways designed to teach biblical exegesis, linking both to patristic traditions--distilled through the works of Isidore of Seville and other Iberian bishops--and to Visigothic anti-Jewish discourse. Through musical rhetoric, the melodies shaped the delivery of the texts to underline these messages. In these ways, the chants worked toward the formation of individual Christian souls and a communal Nicene identity. Examining the crucial influence of these chants, Songs of Sacrifice addresses a plethora of long-debated issues in musicology, history, and liturgical studies, and reveals the potential for Old Hispanic chant to shed light on fundamental questions about how early chant repertories were formed, why their creators selected particular passages of scripture, and why they set them to certain kinds of music.
Milanese. In a seminal study, Kenneth Levy identified a set of offertories that circulate in the Franco-Roman, Old Hispanic and Milanese traditions, arguing that all existing versions derive from an earlier, Gallican tradition. This article expands the evidence for connections between the Franco-Roman and Old
Hispanic traditions, identifying nearly two dozen Franco-Roman responsories that are shared with the Old Hispanic rite and may be of Gallican or Iberian origin. The diversity of their liturgical assignments
and circulation patterns suggests that the exchange of repertory took place at different times and through different routes. Many of these responsories are assigned to the later layers of the Roman liturgy. Others
were added to the Old Hispanic liturgy between the eighth and tenth centuries.
Just over half of these responsories show enough melodic connections between the Franco-Roman and Old Hispanic versions, in contour and melismatic density, to imply a shared melodic ancestor.
Each version, however, uses the formulas associated with its own tradition, indicating that the melodies have been assimilated to the style and formulaic content of the receiving tradition. Despite the resulting
melodic differences, we identify certain commonalities between Franco-Roman and Old Hispanic chant, such as text-setting strategies and common cadential contours, that facilitated the exchange of repertory.