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D. PROSULAS AND PROSAS
The terms prosula and prosa are often synonymous in eleventh-century sources,
but in modern literature they are used to refer to two different genres: prosulas are the re-
texting of pre-existing melismas, especially those of the alleluia and offertory; the
elaborate final melismas typical of the alleluia and of the offertory verses were a natural
source of music for the prosula. 65 On the other hand, the prosa (and the sequence)
generally refer to the chant sung after the alleluia of the Mass; it is a piece with new text
(often poetic in paired verses in this period) and new music.
In Pa903 the prosa and prosula chants were especially prominent in the most
solemn seasons and occasions of the liturgical year: Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Holy
Week, Easter, and Pentecost. Accordingly, the inclusion of prosas or prosulas in
sanctoral feasts lent additional weight to these Masses, emphazing occasions of particular
importance in the usage. Similar to the antiphons, a significant number of prosulas
appear in the main body of the gradual of Pa903, fully written out in text and music for
the alleluia and the offertory. The alleluia prosulas are rubricated as such in the gradual
of Pa903 (with five exceptions); all are classified as prosulas (prosules) in PM13. 66
A group of prosas is given in the final section of Pa903 following the gradual, in
which each text includes paired poetic verses. The treatment of the music is similar to
that of the prosula, but in the case of the prosa the music is not from a pre-existing
65 This is a restricted use of these terms, closest to Evans, Early Trope Repertory :8 n.14.
However, Planchart, Embellishing, :xi-xxi, applied the categories named by Huglo, “ Aux origins des
tropes d’interpolation: le trope meloforme d’introit,” Revue de Musicologie 64 (1978): 5-54 to derive
general definitions for the embellishing pieces applicable to tropes, prosa/prosulas, and sequences.
Planchart also discussed the irresolvably inconsistent terminology of the sources before the twelfth century.
66 PM13:61.
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