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ORIGINS 131
plainsong repertory less submission, in fact, to the modal formulas
which were employed in antiphons and responsories.
In general these long melismatic additions were used mainly at the
great festivals, such as Easter, Christmas, or the commemoration of
the patron of a particular church. The use of these embellishments
was thus comparable to the application of polyphony to the tradi
tional church melodies (see p. 361).
PROTOTYPES IN AMBROSIAN CHANT -
We must first consider the use of these melismata in Ambrosian
chant, since this is probably the oldest type
of ecclesiastical chant
preserved in the West. In the oldest extant Ambrosian antiphonary,
written in the twelfth century, we find in the supplement some
Alleluia melodies. 1 The first two evidently belong to the Alleluia verse
'Praeveniamus*, which is several times mentioned but not included
in the manuscript (we must remember that the manuscript is incom
plete and contains only the winter part of the ecclesiastical year). Yet
we find this verse in the Antiphonale Missarum juxta ritwn sanctae
ecclesiae Mediolanensis (1935) 2 as the first of the Alleluias for Sun
days; it is followed by the first of our melodies, while the Alleluia
which precedes the verse is shorter but still related to both the
melodiae. Both melodies, as given in the Paleographie musicale? are
related to each other, the second still being longer than the first. Each
has the same beginning and the same close (we must, of course, add
the last twenty-two notes of the first melody to the second, this kind
of abbreviated notation being a common feature in manuscripts).
The first melodiae consist of five parts (this division, indicated in the
manuscripts, is preferable to that used in the Antiphonale Missarum),
each of which ends on g; and these in turn may be subdivided. If we
represent the five parts by Roman numerals and the subdivisions by
letters, we get the following scheme:
I = a, b c
II - d, e
III = f, g (ending like e), g
IV = h, g' (in substance a transposition), e'
V = i, k (ending like e or g), 1
4
The melodiae primae run as follows :
1
Paleographie musicale, vi, p. 321.
3
p. 292.
*
Loc. cit.
4
Paleographie musicale, vi, p. 321 and v, p. 268. The notation of the examples in this
chapter is non-mensural, unless the contrary is stated. The quavers represent only
melodic values, and their combination in groups corresponds to the ligatures in the
original.