| Contents |
Part I. The changing language of the liturgy -- The study of liturgical change in the Middle Ages: problems and potential -- Liturgical commentators, within the liturgy and without -- Early medieval sequences as Alleluia commentaries -- An introduction to the twelfth-century sequence -- Part II. The rise of the late sequence in twelfth-century France -- Chartres and Nevers -- Late sequences in southern France during the twelfth century -- Part III. The rise of the late sequence in Paris -- Paris: first major center for the late sequences -- Contrafacta in the Parisian sequence repertories: an introduction -- Part IV. The political and theological contexts of the Parisian sequences -- The Augustinians of Paris and the politics of reform -- Hugh of St. Victor's vision of the church -- Part V. The church, the ceremony, and the sequences at St. Victor in the late twelfth century -- Themes of reform in the Victorine church and the sequence repertory -- Sequences for the temporale: unity through the cornerstone -- The Victorine sequence music: an art of memory -- Mary and the microcosm -- Epilogue. Sacred history and the common life -- Appendix 1. Three Norman sequence repertories from the first half of the twelfth century -- Appendix 2. Three sequence collections of the third quarter of the twelfth century from Nevers and the vicinity -- Appendix 3. Five southern French Benedictine sequence libelli from St. Martial of Limoges: late eleventh to the early thirteenth century -- Appendix 4. Two late-twelfth- or early-thirteenth-century sequence repertories from southern France -- Appendix 5. The earliest sequence repertories of Paris compared: status of Parisian sequences in the first major collections of late sequences -- Example A.1 "Laudes crucis" -- Example A.2 "Mundi renouatio" -- Example A.3 "Zima uetus" -- Example A.4 "Prunis datum" -- Example A.5 "Gaude Roma" -- Example A.6 "Gaude, sion, que diem recolis" -- Example A.7 "Iocundare plebs fidelis" -- Example A.8 "O Maria, stella maris" -- Translations. |
| Abstract |
Because the liturgy stood at the very heart of medieval religious experience, the study of liturgical change is basic to understanding the Middle Ages, its religious life, and its art. In this far-reaching study, Margot Fassler explores currents of liturgical change in twelfth-century France and the extent to which Augustinian canons regular contributed to them. Concentrating upon the late sequence, Professor Fassler first restores credibility to the medieval myth that this poetic and musical genre was first championed at the Abbey of St. Victor in Paris. Placing these magnificent chants in the context of the twelfth-century Victorine church and liturgy, she explains how the texts were joined through the unique use of symbolic melodies, some of which were composed by the Victorines themselves. Through this interrelationship of text and music, designed to stimulate the collective memory of the worshiping community, the Victorines attempted to create a model of the church. This model, based on the writing of Hugh of St. Victor, magnifies the priestly office and the role of liturgy in unifying the church. The highly developed biblical typology commonly found in twelfth- and thirteenth-century church decoration has a counterpart in these religious songs; like sequences, the art works were designed primarily to inspire and instruct the clergy. Professor Fassler thus proposes that the sequences provide crucial evidence both for explaining new attitudes towards the liturgy during the twelfth century and for defining those principles in the arts commonly called "Gothic." |
