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

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.

Table of Contents:
Foreword Acknowledgements Part 1 Chapter 1. Prosulas: General features, history and scholarship Chapter 2. Prosulas in manuscripts 2.1 Prosulas in Beneventan Manuscripts: The earliest stages 2.2 Manuscripts from Benevento 2.3 Manuscripts from Other Regional Centres 2.4 Other Fragmentary Sources 2.5 Extra regional concordances Part 2. Prosulas and their Formal Features Chapter 3. Formal Features and Notation 3.1 Prosulas and Their Texts 3.2 The Notating of Prosulas 3.3 Notation Chapter 4. Prosulas for Graduals and Tracts 4.1 The Gradual 4.2 The Tract Chapter 5. Prosulas for Alleluia and Offertories 5.1 The Alleluia 5.2 The Offertory Part 3. Prosulas and the Liturgical Year Chapter 6. General remarks Chapter 7. Feasts of the Temporal Chapter 8. Feasts of the Sanctoral 8.1 Prosulas of the Oldest Lombard Sanctoral 8.2 Prosulas and the Miliey of the Cathedrals and Urban Monasteries Index

About the Author :
Luisa Nardini is Associate Professor of Musicology at The University of Texas at Austin.

Review :
"This book allows us to hear the voices of medieval musicians and poets of southern Italy as they interpret and celebrate the texts and music of the liturgy, a fascinating window on medieval aesthetics. The definitive study of its subject." -- Thomas Forrest Kelly, Morton B. Knafel Research Professor of Music, Harvard University "This magisterial work promises to transform our understanding of how the medieval liturgy was embellished, glossed, and interpreted. Nardini takes us into the creative worlds of singers in medieval southern Italy, yielding vivid insights into their practice of liturgical exegesis, interactions between institutions, and engagement in oral and written modes of composition. As a model for future scholarship on related genres, this book should be eagerly read by all who are interested in the history of the medieval liturgy and medieval Southern Italy. Moreover, the companion website is an invaluable resource for performers." -- Rebecca Maloy, Professor of Music, University of Colorado Boulder