Abstract
The present study should be understood as a contribution to the disputed relationship of Byzantine to Old Roman and Gregorian chant. It is based on a study of offertory chants in the relatively little-known medial modes. The author discusses four Old Roman offertories in the second medial mode in the recently published book Inside the Offertory by Rebecca Maloy: In die sollemnitatis, Erit vobis, Confirma hoc and Oravi deum meum. Comparisons are made with chants based on Crucem tuam of the Old Roman repertory. In a previous article in Plainsong and Medieval Music the author demonstrated that the medial characteristics disappeared in the same texts in the Gregorian repertoire. In her comparisons of Old Roman and Gregorian sources Rebecca Maloy comes to a completely different conclusion. She argues that the so-called „Old Roman“ melodies are late medieval creations and she characterizes them with the negative term ‘formulaicism’. In this article her conclusions are called into question.
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