Music and Meaning in Old Hispanic Lenten Chants

Music and Meaning in Old Hispanic Lenten Chants Psalmi, Threni and the Easter Vigil Canticles - Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Music

Hardback (17 Oct 2013)

Save $8.12

  • RRP $120.52
  • $112.40
Add to basket

Includes delivery to the United States

10+ copies available online - Usually dispatched within two working days

Publisher's Synopsis

The tradition of Old Hispanic liturgical chant is here examined through a new methodology, enabling striking new insights into its use. Medieval Iberian liturgical practice was independent of the Roman liturgy. As such, its sources preserve an unfamiliar and fascinating devotional journey through the liturgical year. However, although Old Hispanic liturgical chanthas long been considered one of the most important medieval chant traditions, what musical notation to survive shows only where the melodies rise and fall, not precise intervals or pitches. This lack of pitch-readable notation has prevented scholars from fully engaging with the surviving sources - a gap which this book aims to fill, via a new methodology for analysing the melodies and the relationship between melody and text. Focussing on three genres of chant sung during the Old Hispanic Lent (the threni, psalmi, and Easter Vigil canticles), the book takes a holistic view of the texts and melodies, setting them in the context of their liturgical and intellectual surroundings, and, for the Easter Vigil, exploring the relationship between different Old Hispanic traditions and other western liturgies. It concludes that the theologically purposeful text selections combine with carefully shaped melodies to guide the devotional practice of their hearers. Emma Hornby is a Reader in Music , University of Bristol; Rebecca Maloy is Associate Professor of Music, University of Colorado at Boulder.

Book information

ISBN: 9781843838142
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer Ltd
Imprint: The Boydell Press
Pub date:
DEWEY: 782.292
DEWEY edition: 23
Language: English
Number of pages: xi, 368
Weight: 950g
Height: 250mm
Width: 179mm
Spine width: 30mm