Doctor Bernard de Gordon: Professor and Practitioner
View publication
Book Series
Studies and Texts, vol. 140
Ludus de decem virginibus
Recovery of the Sung Liturgical Core of the Thuringian 'Zehnjungfrauenspiel'
Renate Amstutz
- Pages: 412 p.
- Size:150 x 230 mm
- Language(s):English, German
- Publication Year:2002
- € 100,00 EXCL. VAT RETAIL PRICE
- ISBN: 978-0-88844-140-9
- Hardback
- Available
Summary
This study focuses on the Latin remnants
of the play and what they reveal of the nature of the Latin chants.
Comprehensive research into the liturgical repertoire as known in the
fourteenth century in the Province of Mainz has restored what is
essentially the entire liturgico-musical dimension of the drama. Even
more, once the recovered Latin chants are placed in sequence and
connected through the pertinent stage directions, they emerge as a
lively - a Latin liturgical play that may have preceded the
mixed-language drama that survived. In the process of the inquiry,
basic concepts and forms of medieval liturgy and music are discussed as
needed. The study pays particular attention to the 'German
dialect' of plainsong and to the special form of recitation in the
Mainz Church (Accentus Moguntinus) - regional variations of Roman
chanting that are postulated for the chants in the Thuringian play. A
few facsimiles from manuscripts complement the musical transcriptions
and the discussions of some palaeographical problems. Comparative
studies of the peculiar Silete calls and their melodies as well as the
so-called travel stanzas 'B' in Easter plays extend in scope
and significance to medieval drama in general. Correlated to the book
is a Catalogue on microfiche which provides extensive documentation for
the liturgical and dramatic sources investigated.