| |
| How to use this page |
| |
The database can be searched in various ways:
(1) Simply entering the name of a saint produces a list of the chants
in that saint's office, in liturgical order.
(2) If you have a text incipit and want to know what office it comes from,
you can enter the incipit and see if it is in the database and which office
it belongs to.
(3) Searching in the database for a melodic incipit will produce chants
starting with the same notes. The notes must be keyed in as an unbroken
string, ignoring syllable breaks. The database under-stands the alphabetic
series associated with William of Volpiano and used in the famous manuscript
Montpellier H 159. To this series we have added bottom G. The series thus
runs from low G through two octaves to high a, with both b-flat ("b")
and b-natural ("h") in the middle. Key in notes according to
the following table.
|
| Guidonian |
G, |
A |
B |
C |
D |
E |
F |
G |
a |
b |
h |
c |
d |
e |
f |
g |
a' |
| Enter |
9 |
a |
b |
c |
d |
e |
f |
g |
h |
i |
j |
k |
l |
m |
n |
o |
p |
|
The computer sorts the melodic incipits alphabetically (without breaks
between note-groups), but by means of the Volpiano font displays them
on the staff, with original note-groups.
(4) Some basic bibliographical information about the saint and the office
can be found using the fourth search facility.
All abbreviations and references are given in the separate Bibliography. |
| |