The Aquitanian Kyrie Repertory of the Tenth and Eleventh Centuries (review)

The powerfully creative impulses of tenth- and eleventh-century Aquitaine variously generated, collected, and circulated a wealth of new compositions in the forms of processional antiphons, tropes, sequences, versus, and troubadour songs. These musical expressions also include a body ofAquitanian Kyries, representing the earliest phases of the development of the Kyrie. David A. Bjork here collects and transcribes this repertory and offers analyses and classifications of its melodic features. Edited by Richard Crocker, the monograph is a revision of the author's doctoral dissertation, completed in 1975 at the University of California, Berkeley. His research enhances the small body of recent studies on regional Kyrie repertories, such as John Boe's work on Benevento and James Borders's research on Nonantola.

Bjork defines the Kyrie repertory in its broadest sense, including melismatic settings of the traditional Greek text, as well as syllabic settings of Latin elaborations. His book treats some themes similar to those to be found in his publications of the 1980s, such as the notion of trope, the function of the Kyrie, and aspects of text-music relationships. Here, however, he focuses mainly on the distinctive melodic identity of the Aquitanian Kyries as differentiated from other chant groups, and the particular melodic characteristics of related subgroups within the repertory. The volume contains a series of eight chapters oriented to this purpose, followed by tables of inventories and concordances, and musical transcriptions of the Aquitanian Kyries.

Bjork deals with a collection of twenty-two West Frankish sources, stemming from Aquitanian provenance and representing a tradition from c.950 to 1100. He argues that the high degree of relatedness among these sources, demonstrated by their melodic concordances and similar methods of notation, makes this group the largest body of closely interrelated musical sources from the late tenth and eleventh centuries. Likewise, the Kyries they contain represent the earliest extant documented phrase of Kyrie development (p. 5). In this respect, Bjork's work with the collection offers a useful baseline for comparison with other Kyrie repertories and for establishing a history of the Kyrie. Further, in suggesting modes of analysis that will enhance understanding of the melodies of this repertory, Bjork provides possible models for dealing with other collections that stem from the fertile Aquitanian region. While he does not address this broader context himself, his work, in part, could be used to establish regional stylistic practices with regard to melodic construction and also to investigate more fully the Aquitanian fashion for liturgical adornments during the tenth and eleventh centuries.

In the first chapter, Bjork reviews Kyrie sources, defines terminology, and posits some of his most broadly based conclusions regarding the use of Kyries. Reviewing the genre's original relationship to the litany, he distinguishes between the earliest open-form Kyrie, in which phrases were repeated a variable number of times by the people, and the more complex and structured ninefold Kyrie of the eighth and ninth centuries. He further speculates that later distinctions between simple and complex Kyries may speak to a difference in liturgical purpose, such as ferial versus festive use. Addressing performance practice, Bjork considers the notational tradition that preserves many Kyries in both melismatic and syllabic versions. He suggests that these versions would have been performed successively on a phrase-by-phrase basis, alternating between solo and choir, who would come together for the final phrase.

With regard to terminology, Bjork rejects the term 'trope' in describing Kyries that feature newly composed Latin texts. In particular, he expresses concern that this term implies the primacy and pre-existence of the melody, when in fact melody and text may have been composed simultaneously. He rejects the term 'prosula' for similar reasons. Instead, he simply advocates the use of the terms 'Kyrie' or 'Latin-texted Kyrie', as neither of these implies an origin in, or overt association with, other varieties of Gregorian chant. Bjork's desire to consider text and tune within the...