I am looking for a resource - book, website, pdf, etc that would provide a list of dates, showing when specific hymns/melodies were composed. Any suggestions?
There are two books by J. Vincent Higginson both were published by The Hymn Society of America that deal specifically with the history of hymns and hymnals (1850-1950). They are available through eBay, Amazon and hard to find online book stores such as AbeBooks. "History of American Catholic Hymnals-Survey and Background" pub. 1982 and "Handbook for American Catholic Hymnals" pub. 1976.
For the proper of the Mass, the GRADUALE TRIPLEX gives a list of the oldest manuscripts that a particular chant is found in. Though, of course this is only when it was written down, not how old any given chant actually is, but one can get an idea based on this information of the oldest layer of the Chant
Do any of the sources listed provide approximate dates of composition of the 18 settings of the Mass ordinaries? I tried but couldn't find them. I don't think the Gradual Triplex was in the resource page
The Triplex is under copyright, so it's not going to be on-line any time soon. And it doesn't show manuscript neumes for the Mass Ordinary anyway, but the 1974 GR does give a century indication for most of the chants.
If I'm not mistaken, the Liber, Gregorian Missal, and all editions of the Graduale all have century indications for the Kyriale. Those refer to the manuscripts from which the chants were taken, not necessarily the date of composition. If you want the adiastematic neumes, go here (work in progress).
Many thanks for that, Mad - I've often wanted reference to the adiastematic neumes of the ordinaries. One would think (in vain) to find them in Graduale Triplex!
To participate in the discussions on Catholic church music, sign in or register as a forum member, The forum is a project of the Church Music Association of America.
