Comparative studies of medieval chant traditions in western Europe, Byzantium and the Slavic nations illuminate music, literacy and culture. Gregorian chant was the dominant liturgical music of the medieval period, from the time it was adopted by Charlemagne's court in the eighth century; but for centuries afterwards it competed with other musical traditions, local repertories from the great centres of Rome, Milan, Ravenna, Benevento, Toledo, Constantinople, Jerusalem, and Kievan Rus, and comparative study of these chant traditions can tell us much about music, liturgy, literacy and culture a thousand years ago. This is the first book-length work to look at the issues in a global, comprehensive way, in the manner of the work of Kenneth Levy, the leading exponent of comparative chant studies. It covers the four most fruitful approaches for investigators: the creation and transmission of chant texts, based on the psalms and other sources, and their assemblage into liturgical books; the analysis and comparison of musical modes and scales; the usesof neumatic notation for writing down melodies, and the differences wrought by developmental changes and notational reforms over the centuries; and the use of case studies, in which the many variations in a specific text or melodyare traced over time and geographical distance. The book is therefore of profound importance for historians of medieval music or religion - Western, Byzantine, or Slavonic - and for anyone interested in issues of orality and writing in the transmission of culture. PETER JEFFERY is Professor of Music History, Princeton University. Contributors: JAMES W. McKINNON, MARGOT FASSLER, MICHEL HUGLO, NICOLAS SCHIDLOVSKY, KEITH FALCONER, PETER JEFFERY, DAVID G.HUGHES, SYSSE GUDRUN ENGBERG, CHARLES M. ATKINSON, MILOS VELIMIROVIC, JORGEN RAASTED+, RUTH STEINER, DIMITRIJE STEFANOVIC, ALEJANDRO PLANCHART.

"In this study in 'musical archeology, ' James McKinnon reveals one of the most important layers in the early development of Gregorian chant. With equal attention to musical and ritual practicalities, McKinnon applies an unusual combination of scholary skill and sensitivity to reconstruct how words and melodies might have been assigned to the whole church year, beginning with Advent. If liturgy is 'people doing things for which they have forgotten the reasons, ' McKinnon shows us some of the reasons for the creation of the Gregorgian Proper chants of the mass."--Richard Crocker, author of "An Introduction to Gregorian Chant

"[It] is so richly imagined and so well supported with facts and argument that the reader is compelled by its plausibility even while remembering that (s)he is peering behind what has often been depicted as an impenetrable curtain. McKinnon uses his exceptional knowledge of the sources of late antiquity, common sense, imagination and persistent belief that the story ought to make sense to piece together the history of Christian chant from 200 to 800 as one might piece together the shards of a hopelessly smashed ancient artifact. The results are simply stunning."--Edward Nowacki, University of Cincinnati

"Simply one of the half-dozen most important works of chant scholarship in the entire twentieth century. The scholarship in the book is not just superior. It borders on the inspired."--Alejandro Planchart, editor of the "Beneventanum Troporum Corpus"

This book provides a collection of some 400 passages on music from early Christian literature - New Testament to c. 450 AD - newly translated from the original Greek, Latin, and Syriac. As there are no musical sources of the period, music historians must rely upon remarks about music in literary sources to gain some knowledge of early Christian liturgical music. This volume makes a large and representative collection of the material conveniently available. The passages are arranged chronologically and regionally in eleven chapters with brief commentary. An introduction sets out the major subjects and themes of the original source material.