Question about Global Chant Database
  • rjawad
    Posts: 14
    Hello,
    On this website
    http://www.globalchant.org/about.php
    You can search for plainchants. Does anyone know what the number after 'hy' means?
    For example, if you search for Aeterna caeli gloria, you get:

    hy 4, am 72 ar 168
    hy 1, am 72
    hy 3, st 214
    etc.

    The am, ar, and st are page numbers for different sources where the chant can be found. These are defined on the home page. But what does 'hy 3' or 'hy 1' mean? Is that the mode?

    Thank you,


    --Ryan
  • Incardination
    Posts: 832
    If I had to guess, it would be the mode.

    Gregobase has three versions of the hymn, one a mode 4, one a mode 1, one undefined (which could well be a mode 3 - it has a tonic of MI).
    Thanked by 1CHGiffen
  • tomjaw
    Posts: 2,704
    The hy means it is a hymn as the search will usually find the same pattern of notes in Antiphons etc. the number after the hy is the mode.
    Other abbreviations are listed here, http://www.globalchant.org/about.php

    N.B. Please note that this database while very useful is missing more than a few chant manuscripts, e.g. Dominican books.
    Thanked by 2Incardination CHGiffen
  • rjawad
    Posts: 14
    great, thank you.
  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,157
    By the way, the site does say that those numbers refer to mode. If you click on the "magnifying glass" icon for each entry, you'll see a detail page that makes this clear: e.g.
    http://www.globalchant.org/chant.php?id=350
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