The Service-Books of the Royal Abbey of Saint-Denis: Images of Ritual and Music in the Middle Ages

by Anne Walters Robertson

Overview

A study of the music and ritual at Saint-Denis from the sixth to the sixteenth century, this book is based on an examination of the liturgical books and archival sources relating to the abbey, in particular the surviving service-books, which tell us much about the history of the music and of the Divine Office at Saint-Denis. Robertson also looks at the tropes and sequences proper to the office for Saint Denis, provides information on the performance practices, instruments, musicians, and liturgists from the abbey, and offers an account of the history of the liturgy from the Council of Torus in 567 to the pillage of the abbey by the Huguenots in 1567, thus explicating the extant liturgical codices from Saint-Denis. A fascinating and wide-ranging study, Robertson finds that the ritual and history of the abbey is also inextricably linked to the reconstruction of its various buildings, the decorations of the church, and even the monks' ambitions.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780193152540
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	09/26/1991
Series:	Oxford Monographs on Music
Pages:	608
Product dimensions:	6.38(w) x 9.50(h) x 1.64(d)

About the Author

University of Chicago

Editorial Reviews

"Will fascinate students of liturgy and indeed anyone else who needs to know in as much detail as possible what happened inside that remarkable building....The astonishing amount of hard research which has gone into it is unlikely ever to be repeated for this institution and will surely provide a model for studies of many more."—Times Literary Supplement

"She displays an impressive mastery of the manuscript sources and a truly formidable documentation, not only of the other medieval materials, but especially of modern scholarly research."—Speculum

"Important and impressive book...Outstanding contribution to music history. The author has an easy style which carries the reader through the most intricate discussions. This is a great work, which treats its subject with scholarly magnificence."—Choir and Organ

From the Publisher