AMS Philadelphia 2009 Abstracts - American Musicological Society

Friday afternoon, 13 November
chAnt toPics
Manuel Pedro ferreira, university of lisbon, chair
COMPOSITIONAL PLANNING AND “PROPERIZATION”
IN THE OLD HISPANIC SACRIFICIA
Rebecca Maloy
University of Colorado
In the past thirteen years, three major studies on Roman chant (Bernard 1996, McKinnon
2000, and Pfisterer 2002) have proposed hypotheses about the repertory’s origins through
considering its patterns of organization and its relationship to the readings and prayers that
form its performance context. In terminology developed by James McKinnon, “properization”
refers to the assignment of chants to specific festivals. “Compositional planning”
describes other structural features of the repertory, such as unity of thematic focus and the
appropriateness of chants for particular liturgical occasions. Perhaps the best-known example
of compositional planning is the Lenten weekday communions, which draw their texts from
the psalms in ascending numerical order.
Although the Old Hispanic chant is considered one of the earliest and most important
plainsong traditions, the full Old Hispanic repertory has not been subject to such a study.
By exploring compositional planning among the offertory chants known as sacrificia, this
paper takes a step toward filling this gap. The sacrificia exhibit organizational traits similar to
those long observed in the Roman repertory. Those for the quotidiano Sundays, for example,
draw their texts from the Old Testament salvation stories, told in chronological order, with a
prominent theme of offering and sacrifice. The choices of text reflect an allegorical approach
to exegesis, in which the events of the Old Testament are seen to prefigure Christian salvation.
A closer look at the texts, however, suggests that they are chronologically stratified products
of gradual formation. The texts draw both from the Vulgate and from the pre-Vulgate translations
collectively known as the Vetus Latina. Many sacrificia, in fact, can be tied to Biblical
versions of late antiquity.
Although the Biblical versions alone are not a reliable chronological index, they become
useful evidence when considered in the context of other findings, such as patterns of unique
and shared chants and the degree of consistency in liturgical assignment. Based on these types
of evidence, I propose several hypotheses about the origins of the sacrificia. Despite its thematic
unity, the repertory was created gradually. Because the texts referred to clearly defined
topics and widely understood exegetical themes, a long period of compilation produced pieces
that were very similar in theme and character. In many cases, moreover, the creation of these
chants preceded their assignment to specific festivals: their composition and properization occurred
in separate stages. Finally, the properization of the sacrificia seems to have proceeded
according to the solemnity of festivals: the most important feasts had proper chants composed
for them, whereas most lesser festivals were supplied with sacrificia for general use.