Sequences suppressed by the Council of Trent
  • ProfKwasniewskiProfKwasniewski
    Posts: 247
    I have tried to find a past discussion here that would answer my question, but have not had luck so far.

    Does anyone know of a single book or place on the internet that would list (or better yet, give the texts for) the Sequences that were suppressed at the time of Trent by the decision to limit the number of Sequences in the Roman Missal?
  • DougS
    Posts: 793
    Would you be satisfied with a book that had some Sequences, since defining the Sequence as a singular genre is not how it is typically approached in the scholarship?
  • Protasius
    Posts: 468
    If you ask specifically for the suppressed Sequences in the Roman Missal, I suggest scanning through this pre-Tridentine Roman Missal (or another one, there were about 14 nonidentical editions at that time) to find the text of the sequences, then searching for these in a collection of sequences.

    EDIT: Fixed the link.
  • tomjaw
    Posts: 2,791
    There is no single book... or as far as I have looked a place on the web.
    But the Les Proses D'Adam of Saint-Victor has his sequences listed with music and can be found on google books.
    Cantus Vari also has many Sequences with music and also can be found on Google books
    The Analecta Hymnica, has several volumes on Sequences (only text).
    The Liturgical year, Dom Gueranger also has the text of many sequences...

    Looking at the number of Sequences, I don't think you will find one universal list, but many local variations, Some feasts have a number of Sequences written for them.

    PM me if you need any help finding a particular sequence.
  • Ruth Lapeyre
    Posts: 341
    A number of the medieval music singing groups like Anonymous 4 may have recorded some of these sequences, I know I have recorded examples of some of the troped kyries. I will look this morning to see if I can find some of the sequences.
    Thanked by 1Vilyanor
  • DougS
    Posts: 793
    Looking at a pre-Tridentine missal will only scratch the surface because most sequences were in graduals or other musical manuscripts, not missals. The 1570 missal was intended, in part, to curb the practice of writing all of the extraneous music in the first place, so it functions differently from previous missals.

    I agree with tomjaw that the repertory is so large and diffuse that it is unlikely you will find a universal list. There are, however, many other sources you could collate.
  • SalieriSalieri
    Posts: 3,177
    There are a few in the Cantus Selecti (Solesmes), and there are a number of Marian Sequences and Prose in Pothier's Cantus Mariales. (There is also a sequence for St Benedict in the 1974 Solesmes Graduale Romanum.)
  • Andris Amolins
    Posts: 154
    Sequences that were suppressed at the time of Trent by the decision to limit the number of Sequences in the Roman Missal


    Was there ever such decision by the Concil? In what 'Roman Missal'? The pre-tridentine (since 13th century) Missal of the Roman Curia and those following this use (Franciscans, most Benedictines, also many cities of Europe, even far from Rome) mostly had only those sequences "Victimae paschali", "Veni Sancte Spiritus", "Sancti Spiritus adsit nobis", later also "Lauda Sion". If we now look into the Analecta or other such collection we may admire the richness of this genre precisely because it has together them from all places and times. However, in the middle ages, any particular place (cities, convents) mostly used only a few of them.
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,988
    They didn't sing more sequences because the congregation had to get out in time to get to the ox cart races and the witch burnings. Sequences make masses longer. Some things never change. ;-)
    Thanked by 2Joseph Mendes Gavin
  • Abbot Jonathan CoelAbbot Jonathan Coel
    Posts: 167
    http://books.google.com/books?id=NicPAAAAIAAJ&dq="analecta+hymnica+medii+aevi"&printsec=frontcover&source=web&ots=u6MWHZ3Iq8&sig=eEIn9azOwvJziGtvzGH6v6k54PE#PPA47,M1
  • tomjaw
    Posts: 2,791
    This link below gives an contents index to all the volumes of the Analecta

    http://utopia.ision.nl/users/ikedl/chant/ike/literature/AH_lit.htm

    I prefer to use the Internet Archive to read the volumes rather than google books.

    Andris Amolins
    In 19th and 20th century liturgical books the following can be found,

    The Benedictines have at least two extra sequences, for St. Benedict and St. Scholastica

    One Franciscan book I have has Sequences to St. Francis and St. Clare as well as a number of other Saints. I do not have a Franciscan Graduale to check if they were in use recently.

    The Dominicans have a sequence for St. Dominic, and they used one of the ancient Christmas Sequences.

    I do not have information about the other Rites / usages.

    Pre-Trent we have of course (at least in some parts of France) the Adam of St. Victor Sequences in use and one book list over 70 Sequences.

    One Sarum book lists 16 sequences...

    I would suggest that most places would have used at least twice as many Sequences as we now use, but of course they would make Mass a lot longer!
  • DougS
    Posts: 793
    Isaac's Choralis Constantinus contains nearly four dozen sequences.
  • billmcjohn
    Posts: 14
    The book of sequences used at the Church of St Mary in Utrecht has been published in a modern edition as vol VI of the series Monumenta Musica Neerlandica, vol VI. It has 77 sequences.
  • ProfKwasniewskiProfKwasniewski
    Posts: 247
    Everyone, thank you for the learned advice and references. I never cease to be amazed at the collective knowledge of the CMAA folks. Gratias plurimas.
  • ProfKwasniewskiProfKwasniewski
    Posts: 247
    Protasius, your link didn't work. I'm very interested to see those pre-Tridentine Roman Missals.
  • WGS
    Posts: 301
    I haven't looked at the article recently, but the Summer 2007 issue of Sacred Music has an article entitled "The Life and Meaning of the Sequence" by Laszlo Dobszay. He perhaps has referred to some lesser known Sequences.
  • lautzef
    Posts: 69
    As far as I can see, musicologists have studied sequences more than any other mass proper. If you look at a musicology index of any sort you will find tons of references. Of course, it's hard to say how many of those article will include complete examples of sequences. When I am looking for one I go to the library and peruse the facsimile volumes of Paleographie musicale. These are photographs of the original pages and you have to copy them out, but for pre-Trent sequences I don't think there is one source (and usually not an easy source) and this is a good place to start. If you have a small schola on a feast day that falls during the week, for example Ascension (I am speaking of the Tridentine rite here as most of these fall on Sundays in the N.O.), you can use the appropriate pre-Trent sequence instead of a motet requiring multiple voices - for Ascension you can sing Summi triumphum after you have sung the proper communion verse. Some of the most famous pieces of medieval music were sequences written by known composers (e.g., Notker of St. Gall), and these usually predate any polyphony; they are beautiful and should be used where appropriate, in my opinion. People are always talking about the tradition of church for overr a thousand years - here's another place where we can use thousand-year-old music that has been neglected for the last 500 years or so.
  • Felicity
    Posts: 77
    At the following address you will find the book Lateinische Sequenzen des Mittelalters by Joseph Kehrein, 1873. It contains 895 Sequences, text only, no music notation.

    http://archive.org/details/lateinischesequ01kehrgoog
    Thanked by 2CHGiffen DougS
  • Priestboi
    Posts: 155
    Also try the Sarum missal Part I and II for text only (Vernon Stately ed.)1911, it has some beautiful sequences. Sometimes 2 or 3 per feast, but they were just that kind of crazy!
  • mahrt
    Posts: 517
    Lateinische Sequenzen des Mittelalters : aus Handschriften und Drucken / hrsg. von Joseph Kehrein (1873) an extensive collection of sequences.
  • Felicity
    Posts: 77
    Another resource is the book

    Les Proses D'Adam de Saint-Victor

    by L'Abbe E. Misset & Pierre Aubry, 1900.
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