Activities of the Project
Ongoing research
As of summer 2009, work continues on the collection and proofreading of texts and melodies from some 400 witnesses of the liturgical office for Becket, and on the description of the manuscript and printed sources. Analysis routines in several electronic databases are being tested in advance of their imminent application to the main body of data. Current results from some projects are being presented in August (see below); these offer a good cross-section of the studies being undertaken.
Papers for the Gregorian Institute of Canada, funded by SSHRC
Research reports from the Project will occupy three sessions at this year's Colloquium of the Gregorian Institute of Canada. Methods of dating and geographical situation of the manuscript sources and the varying structures of the proper material to Becket contained in them will be discussed; first reports on the analysis of variants in the chants and in the lessons will be presented; and two papers, one on the custos and another on variants in melismas, will demonstrate the commitment of the Project to the exploitation of minute but observable details as indicators of wider patterns.
Forthcoming publication
Cataloguing Discrepancies: the printed York Breviary of 1493
by Andrew Hughes, Heather Robbins, Matthew Salisbury
This study reviews the description and cataloguing, from the early eighteenth century to the present day, of an early English printed Breviary. The book exists in photographic and digital facsimiles; the relative merits and shortcomings of these methods of reproduction are also described. Dissatisfied with the accommodations in current descriptive bibliography for liturgical books, and based on the discrepancies and errors in the existing catalogues, many of which, including the most recent, repeat erroneous and unintentionally misleading information for generations, the authors suggest practical means for the future description of early printed books of this kind.
Publications
Click for a list of publications based on recent work on the Becket Project and related matters.
Work in Progress
The York Antiphonal at Arundel Castle
This manuscript, probably used in the chapel of St Mary and the Holy Angels once attached to York Minster, appears to be the only extant antiphonal of the use of York. With the generous permission of Lady Herries of Terregles and with assistance from the library of the Duke of Norfolk, in late 2008 the Becket Project commissioned digital photography of the entire codex by DIAMM. While evidence from the Antiphonal contributes to a number of ongoing investigations, it is also our intention to make this resource available to researchers at a later date.
As of summer 2009, work continues on the collection and proofreading of texts and melodies from some 400 witnesses of the liturgical office for Becket, and on the description of the manuscript and printed sources. Analysis routines in several electronic databases are being tested in advance of their imminent application to the main body of data. Current results from some projects are being presented in August (see below); these offer a good cross-section of the studies being undertaken.
Papers for the Gregorian Institute of Canada, funded by SSHRC
Research reports from the Project will occupy three sessions at this year's Colloquium of the Gregorian Institute of Canada. Methods of dating and geographical situation of the manuscript sources and the varying structures of the proper material to Becket contained in them will be discussed; first reports on the analysis of variants in the chants and in the lessons will be presented; and two papers, one on the custos and another on variants in melismas, will demonstrate the commitment of the Project to the exploitation of minute but observable details as indicators of wider patterns.
- The Becket Project: Introducing goals and scholars (KH)
- The Manuscript and printed sources of the office (MCS)
- The Contents of the offices (BR)
- Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? Musical custodes and their function (TM)
- Melodic variants in the office (EB)
- Reconstructing the original form of the lessons for Matins (RGetz)
- Melismas in the office (RGiles)
- The European dissemination of the office (PD)
Forthcoming publication
Cataloguing Discrepancies: the printed York Breviary of 1493
by Andrew Hughes, Heather Robbins, Matthew Salisbury
This study reviews the description and cataloguing, from the early eighteenth century to the present day, of an early English printed Breviary. The book exists in photographic and digital facsimiles; the relative merits and shortcomings of these methods of reproduction are also described. Dissatisfied with the accommodations in current descriptive bibliography for liturgical books, and based on the discrepancies and errors in the existing catalogues, many of which, including the most recent, repeat erroneous and unintentionally misleading information for generations, the authors suggest practical means for the future description of early printed books of this kind.
Publications
Click for a list of publications based on recent work on the Becket Project and related matters.
Work in Progress
- A book-length text on the poetry of late medieval versified offices (AH)
- A substantial investigation of the vigil rubric for Becket in British sources (AH)
- LA4 & LA5 of the Becket office: a thorough analysis of the melodic, textual, and notation variants through some 78 sources (AH & MCS)
- "Singing and semantics: an unorthodox conversation" A paper about analysing the first responsory of Matins, submitted to Intersections (KH, EB, AH)
The York Antiphonal at Arundel Castle
This manuscript, probably used in the chapel of St Mary and the Holy Angels once attached to York Minster, appears to be the only extant antiphonal of the use of York. With the generous permission of Lady Herries of Terregles and with assistance from the library of the Duke of Norfolk, in late 2008 the Becket Project commissioned digital photography of the entire codex by DIAMM. While evidence from the Antiphonal contributes to a number of ongoing investigations, it is also our intention to make this resource available to researchers at a later date.