In his Epistola de harmonica institutione (c.900 CE), Regino of Prüm names fourteen antiphons that he calls nothae – that is, ‘degenerate and illegitimate – that begin in one mode, are yet another in the middle, and end in a third’. These antiphons represent two different types of modulation: one diatonic, the other resulting from systemic transposition brought about by chromatic alteration. A rationale for both types of modulation is offered by the Musica and Scolica enchiriadis, respectively, both dating to the second half of the ninth century, with the Scolica providing a theory of vitia, or ‘corruptions’, to accommodate chants modulating by means of chromatic alteration. Modulation likewise played an important role in Eastern chant. Gerda Wolfram has shown that both diatonic and chromatic modulation can be documented in the earliest manuscripts of Byzantine chant, namely those dating to the tenth century. Indeed, the Hagiopolites, the oldest preserved Byzantine treatise on music (twelfth century CE), discusses chromatic modulation via what are called phthoraí (‘corruptions’), like the vitia in the West, and the papadikaí, or singers’ manuals, explicate the theory of diatonic modulation called ‘parallagḗ’. This article illustrates both phthorá and parallagḗ with an exercise from the treatise on church music by Akakios Chalkeopulos (c.1500 CE), and concludes that not just the nomenclature and intonation formulas of the Byzantine modes, but also the technique of modulating within a single chant were features shared by both Eastern and Western chant already in the earliest stages of their respective written traditions.

Egon Wellesz’s Eastern Elements in Western Chant (1947, repr. 1967) is outdated but topical in that the resemblances he adduced between Eastern and Western chant continue to invite explanations. An assessment of his book and research since then on the topics of simple vs. complex melody, melodic resemblance, historical frameworks, musical communities and Semitic antecedents of Christian chant lead to the conclusion that the comparative study of medieval Christian chant repertories and of Jewish melodies from post-medieval sources cannot be shaped by simplistic assumptions, such as that simpler melodies are earlier or more primitive than more complicated ones, or that Christian practices must have had Jewish origins. Nor can melodies that resemble each other be assumed to be historically related. Studies of oral traditions show that what is transmitted is often a more abstract contour that can be realised in more than one way. Most importantly, no music can be studied apart from the community that makes or made it, and musical evidence must be interpreted within a framework of verifiable historical fact, especially when contacts between different communities are alleged.

The tropologion is considered the earliest known extant chant book that has preserved layers of Jerusalem hymnography and liturgy from the fifth or sixth century and was in use until about the twelfth century. Recent study has shown its very wide dissemination: in Byzantium it was known as a tropologion, in Syria as a tropligin and in Armenia as a šaraknoc. Arguments are given that the book was probably known in Bulgaria in the Glagolitic alphabet. Three issues are studied for the purpose of revealing the entire history of this book: the content of the repertory, its arrangement and the liturgical calendar. Their study unquestionably confirms the earlier stage of the compilation of the book, possibly in Jerusalem or its outlying region, and it outlines its uninterrupted development of the book from Jerusalem to the Studios monastery and beyond in different languages. In all probability, John of Damascus rearranged this book, editing the yearly and weekly cycles for the liturgical purposes of his time and arranging the Resurrection repertory for eight consecutive Sundays and for the Common Offices in a consecutive modal order. This rearranged book might be the tropologion we know from its version in the Georgian iadgari, the Syriac tropligin and the Armenian šaraknoc: it contains chants presented in a single succession for the fixed and movable feasts and, at the end of the book, the cycles arranged in the eight modes. The latter cycles constitute the earliest known oktoechos as a chapter of a book.

This article assesses the state of research on the Tropologion of late antique Jerusalem. It is argued that the external and internal evidence points to a date of its redaction not before the later sixth century; this pertains both to the annual cycle, which presupposes the definitive introduction of Christmas in Jerusalem under emperor Justinian, and to the Oktoechos part of ordinary Sundays; also the famous chants for the veneration of the Cross, in part received in East and West, may be relatively late creations. While the reference of the book title to the ‘canon of the Anastasis’ implies a certain canonicity of the repertoire, its contents was subject to significant change; the role of particularly the Armenian tradition still requires further investigation. In any case, the history of the Hagiopolite Tropologion and its influence can only be written as a decidedly regional history.

This article reconsiders ‘Marty’s tune’ (La note Martinet), a texted dance song of the thirteenth century that survives in two sources, one with musical notation. It evaluates older understandings of the song’s form and generic designation, attempting to use poetic variants between the texts to understand the factors that might have preceded the writing down of this rarely notated song type.

Crux de Telcz (Crux of Telč, or Kříž z Telče) was one of the most prolific scribes of late medieval Bohemia, active in the second half of the fifteenth century. In various roles, Crux contributed to several dozen manuscripts, which present an extraordinarily broad range of contents in various genres. This study analyses items with musical notation and the texts of sacred and secular songs in manuscripts copied or used by Crux. These are chiefly notated records of monophonic and polyphonic cantiones with texts in Latin and Czech, and to a lesser extent plainchant melodies belonging to the realm of Latin liturgical repertoire. Yet one of Crux’s manuscripts (Třeboň A 4) also bears witness to an early use of white mensural notation in Bohemia. In recent years, it has been possible to refine Crux’s biography substantially, with the result that most of his musical copying activities can be shown to have been made in the period while he was active as a teacher. His manuscripts thus offer important insights into ways in which sacred songs and new polyphonic works were disseminated in the fifteenth century, chiefly within literate and pedagogical circles.