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There are two prosas for the Aredius feast in Pa903. 36 The texted part (the prose)
of the first of these two is given in Table 5-7 as an example following the alleluia verse.
It is written in pairs of irregular lines of approximately equal number of syllables per line.
A separate single line begins and ends the prosa. Each line closes with a word ending in
(-a), following a well-established convention for this genre.
The poetic treatment of the prose begins with a rhetorical phrase interrupting the
alleluia and beginning the text as shown in the Table, invoking beautiful songs, a troop of
thirty lyres, and festive noise. Florid metaphors end the text evoking Aredius in luminous
splendor bringing the message of the Lord, arising from the watery void to establish an
altar, and releasing the oppressed from bondage. The prose ends with musical imagery in
threefold adoration of God.
The text and music for this example (Figure 5-2d) are in typical syllabic style with
punctum notation throughout. The puncta alone (without the semitone marker neumes)
do not provide information on specific pitches as provided in the neumation of the other
chants. Further reference to the mode of the alleluia or other external information
regarding conventional cadential formulas is required for transcribing the pitch of the
prosa.
The alleluia incorporated in this prosa (beginning with the opening phrase) is
written in the manuscript (Figure 5-2d) in text and music following the opening line; but
this alleluia melody does not match that of the Aredius Mass, Speciosum fecit.
36 Alle-vox promat and Astra hodie are found in Pa903 for Aredius; neither appears in
concordances with the Aquitanian graduals or the Limousin prosulas of Wo79 in Odelman, Les Prosules de
la messe 2 Corpus Troporum (1996). (See Appendix A4-3 of Chapter IV).
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