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| Liturgy as Performance | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Jan 21 2015, 11:37 AM (274 Views) | |
| Kati Ihnat | Jan 21 2015, 11:37 AM Post #1 |
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Something that could be of interest to some composers is that fact that the Old Hispanic liturgy, like all liturgical traditions, was a performance that went beyond just music. There was constant movement, different players taking up different places within the structure of the church, processions within the church and without, and almost all done to the accompaniment of chant. One of the most common of processional chants was the psallendum - it was an antiphon after which a psalm was intoned, all this rounded off by a prayer. It was sung at the end of vespers and matins, and would have been performed while processing to a particular chapel or the tomb of a martyr. The oldest manuscript of the Old Hispanic rite, the Verona Orational (late-seventh century), has an instruction that at the end of matins on the last Sunday before Lent, a procession is to be made to the main cathedral and specifically to the tomb of Saint Fructuosus, all the while singing the psallendum antiphon and its psalm. The important thing about these processions is not just that they provided additional variety through movement, but marked out the significant areas of the church. A procession to a saint's tomb would have emphasised the importance of that saint for the community, affirming his/her belonging to the community and also reflecting the community's desire for the saint's support and protection. Movement in the liturgy helped to achieve this and was therefore crucial to the liturgy's meaning for the community. You can see a really interesting attempt to reproduce a medieval liturgical ritual here, although it does not reflect what was happening in Spain in the period we're looking at (see here for more info). But it does capture some of the movement that was a part of the rite. I'll continue to include other examples from the Hispanic rite specifically. |
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8:26 PM Jul 11