14th Century Book of the Hours chant?
  • unfatmatt
    Posts: 29
    Our priest is doing a presentation at the local art museum on a rare 14th century Breviary from France. He would like me to sing something which would have been sung in 14th century France, possibly from the breviary. However, the breviary is on display in the museum and is worth about the same as my pickup truck, so I doubt they'll let me take it home and thumb through it.

    Do you have any suggestions as to which chants to sing? I don't believe the monks of Solesmes included the approximate date of composition in their books. Would those found in the Liber Usualis be old enough?

    Thanks in advance.
  • eft94530eft94530
    Posts: 1,577
    I think the questions you are trying to ask ...
    What was the organization of the 1300s liturgical calendar in France?
    What chants were used on which days?
    Where can I find those chants in recent books?

    First, why not call the museum and make an appointment?
    At least get all the historical info about that particular Breviary.
    I am sure things varied from place to place,
    and without that basic info you will wander aimlessly.

    If you want to gamble ...

    I am guessing that Holy Week chants would be more stable.
    And if you wanted the "latest addition" to the calendar of that day, try Corpus Christi
    http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04390b.htm

    Do a little more research, create a list of chants, print a copy of each,
    then make an appointment at the local art museum.
    Armed with your samples, you can look for their presence or absence.

    Kind of off-topic (because the museum book is a Breviary not a Missal) ...

    The differences between the Liber Usualis and the current Solesmes books
    is that the chants got re-located (or ignored?) according to the new calendar.
    The Graduale Romanum (GR), published 1974,
    is organized according to the Ordinary Form calendar.
    The Graduale Triplex (GT), published 1979,
    is identical in layout to the GR,
    manuscript-family markings from the 900s are over-layed,
    one above (black Laon MS), one below (red St Gall MS), the square-notes.

    The Gregorian Missal (GM), published 1990,
    http://www.musicasacra.com/books/gregorianmissal-eng.pdf
    contains a subset of the GR chants.
  • mjballoumjballou
    Posts: 994
    The Office of the Dead in the Liber Usualis is a good bet. It has great antiquity and great beauty. Remember, none of the people hearing you were alive then either.
  • Michael O'Connor
    Posts: 1,637
    Well, if you want to be really authentic you would need to find out where the Breviary was used as each cathedral city certainly had its own chant traditions. Without knowing that you could certainly default to the Roman chants, since they were used in some locations. You might check the Hiley book to see if there are any examples that might be useful.
  • dvalerio
    Posts: 341
    Why don't you check the Poissy antiphonal on-line here: http://0-www.lib.latrobe.edu.au.alpha2.latrobe.edu.au/MMDB/localmss.htm?
    It's French, and it's from the 14th century!
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