The responsory prosula in England.

Abstract

A prosula is usually regarded as a trope, thus a member of a large family of festal expansions of the plainchant repertory of the Roman church. Responsory prosulas are expansions of the responsory chant of the night office (or Matins) or of liturgical processions. The prosulas usually take the form of texts supplied for previously untexted melismas in the responsory, or newly composed insertions which mimic the style of the texted melismas. A catalogue of responsory prosulas was compiled a decade ago by Helma Hofmann-Brandt. She listed over 730 of them. Unfortunately, her catalogue of prosulas is not cross-indexed to show the number of prosulas in any single manuscript. It is not possible to see the repertory of a source. Since ray work was directed towards identifying the content and nature of English prosula repertories, I was first obliged to re-order the whole Hofmann-Brandt catalogue according to manuscript source rather than prosula. I have also been able to add a handful of English items not previously included in the catalogue. I have transcribed every prosula found in English manuscripts, translated its text and analyzed its structure. I have also studied the function of the prosulas, their performance conventions, and provided a brief account of their use in polyphonic settings in England. A major part of the thesis is devoted to analyzing the relationships between the repertories of prosulas, not just in English sources, but in every source covered by Hofmann-Brandt's and my own work. With computer assistance, I have identified which sources are most closely related repertorially. The results of this work are occasionally of assistance in localizing both prosulas, by observing their appearance only in sources from a restricted area, and sources themselves, by observing their interest in prosulas known only within a restricted area. It is therefore my hope that the thesis will further our knowledge not only of the prosula as used in the peripheral English area, but also of its wider European history.