Chants, Hypertext, and Prosulas: Re-texting the Proper of the Mass in Beneventan Manuscripts

Nardini, Luisa

ISBN 10: 0197514138 / ISBN 13: 9780197514139

Published by Oxford Univ Pr, 2021

About this Item

272 pages. 9.40x6.40x1.10 inches. In Stock. This item is printed on demand.

Seller Inventory # __0197514138

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Chants, Hypertext, and Prosulas: Re-texting the Proper of the Mass in Beneventan Manuscripts
• Publisher: Oxford Univ Pr
• Publication Date: 2021
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0197514138
• ISBN 13: 9780197514139
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: Brand New
• Weight: 0.61 kilograms

About this title

Synopsis

The liturgical chant sung in the churches of Southern Italy between the ninth and thirteenth centuries reflects the multiculturalism of a territory in which Romans, Franks, Lombards, Byzantines, Normans, Jews, and Muslims were all present with various titles and political roles. Chants, Hypertext, and Prosulas examines a specific genre, the prosulas that were composed to embellish and expand pre-existing liturgical chants. Widespread in medieval Europe, prosulas were highly cultivated in southern Italy, especially by the nuns, monks, and clerics of the city of Benevento. These texts shed light on the creativity of local cantors to provide new meanings to the liturgy in accordance with contemporary waves of religious spirituality, and to experiment with a novel musical style in which a syllabic setting is paired with the free-flowing melody of the parent chant. In their representing an epistemological 'beyond', and in their interconnectedness with the parent chant, these prosulas can be likened to modern hypertexts.

In this book, author Luisa Nardini presents the first comprehensive study to integrate textual and musical analyses of liturgical prosulas as they were recorded in Beneventan manuscripts. Discussing general features of prosulas in southern Italy and their relation to contemporary liturgical genres (e.g., tropes, sequences, hymns), Nardini firmly situates Beneventan prosulas within the broader context of European musical history. An invaluable reference for the field, Chants, Hypertext, and Prosulas provides a new understanding of the phonetic and morphological transformations of the Latin language in medieval Italy, and clarifies the use of perennially puzzling features of Beneventan notation.

About the Author

Luisa Nardini is Associate Professor of Musicology at The University of Texas at Austin.