The Role of Recurrent Melismas in the Alleluias of the St Gall Cantatorium

Abstract

This thesis studies melodic construction in medieval chant by focusing on the highly melismatic genre of the alleluia. Limiting the corpus to the alleluias found in the tenth century adiastematic St Gall Cantatorium, the thesis explores the recurrent melismas within the manuscript by analyzing them in two contexts. First, recurrent melismas are examined in the context of Karl-Heinz Schlager's type melodies, where entire melodies are adapted to suit new texts. Schlager’s melodies 271, 27, and 205 are excellent examples of this practice, and serve as case studies in this thesis. Second this thesis adapts methodology developed by Emma Hornby and Rebecca Maloy for Old Hispanic chant to search the entire sample and find shared melismas between chants of otherwise different melodies. Both these methods of examining recurrent melismas demonstrate their melodic function within the alleluia repertory.