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624BOOK REVIEWS Western Plainchant: A Handbook. By David Hiley. (New York: Clarendon Press, Oxford University Press. 1993. Pp. xcvii, 661; 25 illustrations [19 plates, 6 maps, 1 diagram]; 38 tables; 205 musical examples; 3 indices.»75.00.) In this important study, Hiley arranges a vast array of material into eleven chapters. Chapter 1 provides the details necessary to understand the structure ofthe major liturgical services, the Church's calendar, and some special aspects of Christian worship. The next chapter describes and differentiates among the principal genres ofchant, their forms and styles, and their place in the complex scheme ofworship in the Roman rite; and Chapter 3 gives an overview of the liturgical books themselves. The first and third chapters in particular, with their up-to-date liturgical perspective, will be of assistance to musicologists and others who work with manuscripts and the chants they contain, but who may not have had the opportunity to take systematic training in liturgy. The second chapter, by examining and documenting thoroughly the many kinds of pieces within the chant repertoire, serves as a kind of encyclopedic catalogue : over 240 pages long, this section is in itself a valuable resource for the standard medieval chant repertoire for Mass and Office, as well as other genres such as liturgical drama and Latin liturgical songs. Hiley examines next the matter of notation, its origins, and its evolution into the various families used in the manuscripts ofWestern Europe. He gives careful attention to the controversial issue of rhythmic elements in notation, and elaborates on notational systems, from those given in theoretical treatises of the Middle Ages to that used in printed chant-books from the fifteenth century onward. The discussion is supplemented by fine plates of chant manuscripts which demonstrate the diversity of notation in different regions and periods of development. A group of chapters focuses particularly on the historical dimensions of chant and its development. In Chapter 5, Hiley reviews the major theoretical writings of the Middle Ages which apply to chant, especially in regard to how chant repertoire related to the Greek system ofpitch and in regard to modality. Chapter 6 sketches aspects surrounding the emergence of chant up to the earliest recorded sources of the eighth century, and Chapter 7 recounts some of the stages in the establishment of Roman chant in the Frankish kingdom during the Carolingian period. A comparative survey of chant repertoires of the various liturgical families occupies Chapter 8, and a group of richly informative historical vignettes called "Persons and Places" comprises Chapter 9. The final two chapters provide a synopsis and evaluation of the numerous attempts at the reform ofchant over the centuries and its restoration in modern times. The musical examples in this volume are transcribed onto modern five-line staves; the music itself is given a nuanced commentary throughout Hiley's text. A great asset for the reader is that the manuscript sources from which BOOK REVIEWS625 chants are taken are precisely identified (not all publications on chant in the past named their sources). Hiley's book reflects the breadth of scholarly activity in chant study during the past decades, both in regard to varied aspects of the author's own research, and also in his recognition of the work of other scholars from many countries. The volume includes an exhaustive bibliography consisting of the usual published items along with numerous unpublished studies, such as dissertations. Subsequently, throughout the work, Hiley lists and often alludes to relevant writings on each specific topic, so that his volume genuinely fulfills the function of a scholarly handbook by providing direct, accessible reference information both on the subject itself and on primary and secondary sources. As such, this bookwill be ofinterest both to new scholars and to those with long experience in the study of chant. Another salient and welcome characteristic of Hiley's volume is its contextualization of the music: chant is treated not only as a musical phenomenon, but is seen in its relationship to liturgy, as well as in its historical and cultural setting (and Hiley's own studies have previously made an excellent contribution to that field). For instance, the attractive—and deceptively simple— sketches in Chapter 9...

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