January 31, 2014
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Responsible for all info on the page, not the links.
We’re focusing on Time:
 In the Middle Ages, time is amorphous, didn’t have clocks back then o They didn’t keep time like we do now, to the minute.
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Institutions were responsible for time keeping o Not individuals, but groups of people o Would recognize the passage time and would keep it using music.
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Liturgical Calendar o Measured according to 2 propers:
 1. The proper of time
 2. The proper of saints o In the middle ages, the Liturgical year starts at Advent.
 The concept of a day, starts at vespers (dusk, 6pm)
 The day starts at dusk
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When they say “… at the 22 nd hour…” they mean the 22 nd hour after dusk, so that would be 4 pm o The proper of time has 2 cycles
 1. The Christmas cycle
 2. The Easter cycle
 Timekeeping happens when two cycles overlap
 Christmas is a fixed feast
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Will always be dec. 25 th
 Easter is a movable feast
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Actually determined the date based in a pagan way, lunar cycles
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All dates associated with Easter move
 The period of time between Christmas or Easter can be shorter or longer depending on when Easter comes o Both have the preparation, celebration, prolongation
 Christmas
 Preparation: Advent
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Celebration: Christmastide o Dec 25-jan6 (epiphany)
 Prolongation: Epiphany
 Easter
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Preparation: Lent
 Celebration: Eastertide and the 7 weeks that follow

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Prolongation: Pentecost o It is the prolongation of both cycles that can be made longer or shorter depending on the placement of Easter
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The proper of the Saints o Each saint has his/her own special day
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Inevitably, there are conflicts between the two propers, o So the church came up with a way of ranking saints
 Triplex feasts are for the most important saints
 If two things happen to fall on the same day, the more important event being celebrated takes precedence for that day.
 Mass and Divine office o Mass is a celebration everyday
 Happens at noon o Divine office keeps track of time by week
 Purpose of divine office o Recitation of the psalter
 To present the psalms for singing each day
 In some monastic settings, the presentation of the psalter can take place every day
 That’s 150 songs all day
 Continuous solemnity o Someone in the monastic house will keep singing the psalter all day so in a 24 hour cycle all 150 songs will be sung
 Most monastic houses repeat the psalter every week
 Cycling through rituals helps keep time in the Middle Ages
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Monastic rite o Divine office consists of hours
 Greater hours and lesser hours
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Greater because they have more music in them
 Lesser has less music
 Divine office starts with vespers
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Vespers is a greater hour
 Greater hours:
 vespers
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Complice (bedtime)
 Matins (2-3 am)
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Lauds (around dawn)

 Lesser hours
 Prime (around 6 am)
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Terce (9am) o Vespers presents psalms
 5 psalms, reading responsery, hymn, and the canticle “magnificat” o Complice
 3 psalms, hymn, reading, short responsory, the canticle “nunc dimitis” o Matins
 Introduction
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Recreationa chants “Donnie ladia crea
 Nocturn: look online for info o 31 psalms in one day
 = 5 days of the week being sung
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Psalms o Poetic structure: paired versicles o Always begin with an antiphon
 Then the psalm
 Then the antiphon again
 Sometimes the antiphon is repeated between versicles
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Will always begin and end with an antiphon
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After concluding antiphon, you will always get the Gloria patri o Psalm tones are the pitches used to identify the psalm
 Each mode contains 8 psalm tones
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Antiphon: o Choir sings the antiphon
 All antiphons close on the final of the mode,
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Does not always begin in the same place
 It is easy to get from the end of the antiphon to the beginning of the psalm ,
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But not as easy to get from the end of the psalms back to the antiphon
 How does the manuscript notation works: o Know where things are supposed to happen o Analysis:
 2. D= dorian mode
 Used for the Christmas period
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Note, begins on f ends on d.
 Clef notates the f line
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Intonation gets you from the final note of the antiphon up to the psalm tone

o Mediant cadence
 Cadence at the end of the first line
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There is an asterisk o Matches asterisk in another place o There are italics that will indicate where you put the pitch
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There is a dagger-like thing o That applies to the 4 th and 5 th verses
 Means that those versicles are comprised of 3 phrases, not 2 like the others.
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Not added to then end, but get squeezed in the middle.