Medieval Sacred Chant: from Japan to Portugal

This book presents a collection of unpublished essays on religious music, specifically one-voice (sacred monody) music during the Middle Ages, and the notation used to transmit it between the 12th and 16th centuries. Written by various specialists, the essays cover Buddhist chanting (in Japan), Orthodox Christian chanting of Byzantine origin (from Greece to Russia), and Christian chanting of the Western European Catholic Church (Hispanic, Gallican, Old Roman, and Roman-Frankish liturgies). These essays derive from some of the presentations given at the colloquium Medieval Sacred Monody / Monodia sacra medieval (Lisbon/Évora, 2–5 June 2005), which aimed to draw attention in Portugal to the academic fascination with the oldest musical repertoires.”