Leaf from a Choirbook. Initial M, showing the Annunciation, the figures and inscribed scrolls forming the shape of the letter; Germany or northern Netherlands; ca 1250

Leaf from a Choirbook. Initial M, showing the Annunciation, the figures and inscribed scrolls forming the letter. The Virgin Mary wears a blue robe and pink cloak with hood and green lining. The Angel Gabriel wears a red robe and grey cloak. He has red spots on his feet and grey wings. Both have a yellow halo and between them hold a scroll in V shape with the words, in red, 'AVE MARIA, ECCE A[N]CILL[A]'. The background is pale green and there is a red border, over which the figures slightly overlap.

Musical notation on a four line staff. The page is ruled for the music (equivalent to 66 lines for the page) but not for the text. Pricking is visible down the left hand side of the page. Text is written below the top line in a form of Carolingian script. Text of the musical chant is written to single staff line height and begins 'Ave Maria Gra[tia] plena'. The remaining text is written below each staff and takes up space approximately equivalent to two staff lines. On the recto is one 5-line red initial A and some additional rubrics of single line height, and one 5-line black initial A written as 'a'. On the verso is more text and music and a 5-line initial R and S, and additional single line rubrics, and three black 5-line initials (Q, E and P). Some irregular red underlining throughout. The recto is signatured top right as i66.

Part of a group of 'illuminations' bought from Spithower in Rome on 18 December 1860 (now Museum nos 1487-1537).

Background to Music and Christian Liturgy

Music was incorporated into the Christian Liturgy early on and had been influenced by the use of music in the synagogue. Plainchant (unison singing, originally unaccompanied) was the traditional music of the western Church and from about 1000, vocal polyphony (music with two or more melodically independent parts) was being practiced. Polyphony made certain chants of the Mass longer and more complex.

The notation of liturgical music initially appears in the form of neumes - graphic symbols written above the text and indicating the rise and fall of melodic movement or repetitions of the same pitch. From the 11th century they were commonly written on a four-line staff. Two hundred years later, eastern European music manuscripts adopted Gothic notation, produced with a thick, square-cut nib, with the points and curves of neumes being replaced by broader, more angular forms. A similar development in the Île de France gave rise to the use of square notation in the late twelfth century, especially in France and Italy.


Different Types of Liturgical Music Manuscripts

Liturgical manuscripts with musical components were either used in the celebration of the Mass or the Divine Office and included the following:

MASS (with the Divine Office the Mass forms the basis of Christian Liturgy. It centres on the Eucharist and was attended daily by those in religious orders, the clergy and, with varying frequency, by members of the laity):

Gradual - the principal choir book used in the mass.

Kyriale - the portion of a Gradual containing the ordinary chants of the Mass (i.e. the chants whose text remain unchanged throughout the ecclesiastical year).

Sequentiary - book (or portion of a Gradual or Troper) containing sequences (extended melodies) sung by a soloist between the alleluia and the Gospel lesson at Mass.

Troper - book containing tropes: musical and textual additions to the chants of the mass or divine office.

Missal - Service book containing the texts necessary for the performance of the Mass together with ceremonial directions (merging the Sacramentary, Gradual, Evangelary and, for the performance of high or solemn mass, the Epistolary).


DIVINE OFFICE (with the Mass this forms basis of Christian Liturgy. Cycle of daily devotions - the prayers of the canonical hours - performed by members of religious orders and the clergy):

Antiphonal (also called an antiphoner or antiphonary) - contains the sung portion of the Divine Office . It was often large in format so that it could be used by a choir.

Hymnal (also called a hymnary) - containing metrical hymns sung in the Divine Office and arranged according to the liturgical year. Could be included in a Psalter or Antiphonal as a separate section. Its contents were eventually incorporated into the Breviary.

Breviary - service book combining the various volumes used during the Divine Office (Psalter, Antiphonal, Lectionary, Colectar, Martyrology, Hymnal and others). Used from the 11th century onwards.


A Choir Book is the generic term for a service book containing the parts of the Mass or the Divine Office sung by the Choir.


The above is adapted from Brown, Michelle P. Understanding Illuminated Manuscripts: A Guide to Technical Terms. London, 1995.


Decoration

Medieval books had no contents page or index and as such decorative initials (and sometimes miniatures) were used as a means of signalling key divisions in the text or music. There was a hierarchy to the decoration - the important/major initials might be historiated (that is, with a figurative picture) or elaborately decorated while the lesser/minor initials might be made of coloured letters on coloured or gold grounds, often with flourishing in ink of a contrasting colour or even simply a letter slightly larger than the main body of text and picked out in a contrasting colour (e.g. red or blue).

This page comes from a choirbook used either in the celebration of the Mass or of the Divine Office, daily devotions practiced by the clergy and religious orders and split into the eight canonical 'hours'. The Annunciation scene here introduces one of the texts and songs for the Feast of the Annunciation, 'Missus est Gabriel Angelus'. Medieval books had no contents page or index and so there was usually a hierarchy of initials marking important divisions in the text or music. The initials introducing the most important divisions in the text might be historiated with a figurative picture (istoire being the term for a story), as in this case.

1519