Studies in Gregorian Chant

Manuscript sources and the diversity of the musical traditions they preserve form the focus of this collection of eighteen essays on Gregorian Chant. Ruth Steiner investigates chants of various types: invitatory tones and antiphons, responsories and prosulae, Mass chants and chants of the Divine Office. In one of the studies here, she examines the collection of chants sung in the Divine Office at Cluny for the feast of St Benedict, telling how they were incorporated into a narrative describing the theft of the relics of St Benedict from the Abbey of Montecassino by monks from France. In another, she examines chants composed on texts taken from the parable of the Talents, linking their use to the ways in which ideals of stewardship have been presented in ancient and modern times. Numerous illustrations showing pages from chant manuscripts are included.