| Paper 553-c | The Novalesa Hypothesis and the Origins of Pistoia, Archivio capitolare, MS C. 119
(Language: English)
James Maiello, Faculty of Music, University of Manitoba
Index terms: Ecclesiastical History, Liturgy, Manuscripts and Palaeography, Music |
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| Abstract | Paper -a:
This paper focuses on the characteristics of the passages specific for the earliest medieval period, with the topic of that time: the word. Words established a powerful generative aid, as the essence of a culture multifaceted in its expression, and the chant was definitely the exegesis of the text. Regional habits, together with inclusiveness also dictated by liturgy, are some themes in current debates, which is why this paper is an important clarification for understanding the developmemt inside Gregorian chant.
Paper -b:
Medieval liturgical manuscripts that contain the Matins celebration of the Marian Feast of the Assumption include texts and music from discrete historical moments and diverse sources. The Biblical readings, sermons and prayers, antiphon and responsory texts, visual and literary tropes, included in the Matins office attest to disparate sources and the changing understanding of the Feast over time. Despite the attempt to codify musical practice through fixed notation, study of office manuscripts reveals variations between manuscripts. My research will suggest that the elements that comprise the Marian liturgy cross temporal, theological, and geographical boundaries in the attempt by monastic communities to explain and transcend their own understanding of the boundaries between heaven and earth.
Paper -c:
Manuscript C. 119, a gradual, has remained in the cathedral archive at San Zeno in Pistoia since it was copied there in the early 12th Century. Although it has been assumed that the choirbook was copied for use at San Zeno, a legend passed down among the priest-archivists, there maintains that it was originally intended for the abbey church at Novalesa. Similarities in the trope and sequence repertories support a connection between the two ecclesiastical centres, and the existence of a coeval gradual in Pistoia raises doubts about the need for C. 119 to remain at San Zeno. Drawing on concordances between Pistoiese and Novalese sources and institutional histories, I will explore this hypothesis for the first time and suggest possible reasons why this manuscript never left Pistoia.
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