Charles M. Atkinson (The Ohio State University and Universität Würzburg)
Discussants: Calvin Bower (University of Notre Dame), Susan Rankin (University of Cambridge), Alexander Lingas (City, University of London, EHRC Oxford, and Cappella Romana)
Abstract: This paper will focus on the discussions of modulation in Regino of Prüm's Epistola de harmonica institutione (ca. 900 C.E.), Manuel Chrysaphes' On the Theory of the Art of Chanting (1458 C.E.), and the anonymous 9th-century Scolica enchiriadis, and will present musical examples illustrating the techniques described in these works. Although these techniques are strikingly similar in East and West, the way modulation functions in relation to texts differs drastically in the two regions. As a result, while Regino characterizes modulating chants as nothae--degenerate and illegitimate--Chrysaphes can advance one type, the nenano, as "sweetest and finest."
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