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314 MUSIC IN FIXED RHYTHM
A large collection of similar date, though its notation is mensural, is:
9. Burgos, El C6dex de Las Huelgas.
This has been published in facsimile, with transcription and notes,
by Higini Angles (Barcelona, 1931).
THE GENERAL PICTURE
In our mental picture of musical activities in western Europe from
the end of the twelfth century
advanced innovators working in isolated places. This might be nearer
it would be a mistake to think of a few
to the truth for the year 1000 or even 1100; but the scene has shifted
a good deal since that time. The extensive and well-defined collections
ofmusic which are available for use here and in the next two chapters
are no mere experiments by local groups of composers. On the
contrary, they are the materials with which many of the cathedrals
and larger monastic choirs of England, France, and Spain enriched
their services. The list of churches where harmonized music is known
to have been sung, whether we compile it from contemporary refer
ences or from actual remains, is a long one: so long, indeed, that we
should be justified in saying that the practice was universal. The great
minsters of those days were the scenes of extended activities by
numerous bodies of clerics. Many of them have already been men
tioned in these pages Winchester, Chartres, Worcester, Notre-Dame
in Paris, Compostella, St. Martial at Limoges, and St. Gall. Some were
staffed by monks, others by a body of canons and minor beneficiaries.
To the functions in the choir they devoted a good part of the day's
work, especially on Sundays and festivals. Splendour of ceremonial
and of ornament was matched by elaboration of music. The un
adorned Gregorian chant, however protracted the melismata of
Gradual and Alleluia, of Antiphon and Respond, was not enough for
them: they sought new ways of enlarging the opportunities of the
singers.
In England alone there is ample evidence of the practice of poly
phony. We have seen already (p. 280) that Winchester had a complete
collection of organa by the beginning of the eleventh century. In
1217 the General Chapter of the Cistercian Order noted that at Abbey
Dore and Tintern they were singing in three and four parts, after the
manner of the secular clergy. 1 Robertsbridge Abbey in Sussex, from
which comes the earliest known piece of organ music, written in the
following century, was also a Cistercian house; and so was Thame,
1 *Triparti vel quadriparti voce, more saecularium, canitur' (Statuta Cap. Gen. Ord.
Cist., ed. J. M. Canivez, i, p. 472, n. 31).