Conflicting Assignments of Office Antiphons between Modes 3 and 8

Mori, Hiroko (2004) Conflicting Assignments of Office Antiphons between Modes 3 and 8. Studia Musicologica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae, 45 (1-2). pp. 179-188. ISSN 0039-3266

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Abstract

The conflicting assignments between modes 3 and 8 is found not only among sources, but also within a single source through erasures and revisions in different hands. Here the modal assignments of office antiphons are examined through a comparison of the sources of the monasteries in the region of Lake Constance. They are from the monasteries of Einsiedeln, St. Gallen, Rheinau, Weingarten, and Zwiefalten. For a singer, the most important matter in singing antiphons was not to end the melody on a specific note, but to select a suitable reciting tone. At a time in which musicians classified antiphons into several “differentia” groups, what characterizes each differentia group is surely the melodic incipit and the psalm tone. But over the course of time, medieval musicians became to consider the concept of mode, that is, the classification by the final note and range, and at that time the ending of the antiphon gained in importance. This change of thinking gave rise to the modal conflicting assignments.

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