Wild Strawberries from Reichenau: Ruminations on Authority and Difference in Eleventh-Century “Gregorian” Chant
Henry Parkes
One of the paradoxes Gregorian chant is way in which written sources become ever more plentiful across Middle Ages while commentaries on its cultural and intellectual status take opposite direction, becoming rare after ninth century. An exception to that trend essay De varia psalmorum atque cantuum modulatione (On Varied Modulation Psalms Chants), a substantial yet little known offering from music theorist liturgist Berno Reichenau (d. 1048). Previously considered be uncertain authorship doubtful musical value, work now shown an authentic witness, part through evidence provided by rediscovered manuscript (Berlin, Staatsbibliothek, Mus.ms.theor. 95). This permits new appreciation author's unique revealing agenda—to soothe many tensions reportedly incited textual content chant. With resonances contemporary theory, testifies divergent practices need theoretical underpinning, as well previously unstudied cultures correction existing between twelfth centuries. In so doing it offers insight into liturgical traditions post-Carolingian age, both Berno's native Germany further afield.
Journal of the American Musicological Society