Old Roman Chant

Pes writes in response to my query:

David Hiley's Western Plainchant: A Handbook (Oxford, 1993) has a large chapter on Gregorian chant and other chant repertories. Helpful bibliography, too.

It seems the main sources of Old Roman melodies are three graduals and two antiphoners. The earliest of these is dated 1071, the latest from sometime in the 1200's. Hiley says broadly that Old Roman (OR) and Gregorian chant share many of the same formal characteristics; they differ mostly in "surface detail" (Hiley's words) in that OR chant is more ornate. It has more notes, not as many leaps, and its melismas tend to be longer. Hiley concludes: "one would hesitate to say the OR was a decoration of the G, or the G a simplification of the other. They are rather two realizations of the same basic idea, one in a rather restrained, the other in a more florid idiom" (533). The similarity extends to the office antiphon repertory as well.

In general, Hiley adds, the two repertories share the same texts very consistently.

Differences arise in the Offertories, where OR ones are more formulaic. The kinds of melismas diverge, too. Alleluias are also more formulaic, but in a way that really attracted comment on the Gregorian side. There is evidence of a continuing oral tradition in OR chant, right up to the point it fell to the wayside by the arrival of the written beauty of the Gregorians.

If you want to really get into the details, Hiley says the man to read is Helmut Hucke, but the bibliography is all in German.

The original post, Psallite sapienter: A Report for the NLM by Dom Christopher.

Books by Dom Daniel Saulnier:
Chant - Gregorian Chant, a guide, by Dom Daniel Saulnier The Abbey ...
Chant - The Gregorian Modes by Dom Daniel Saulnier The Abbey Shop ...

Other links:
Academy of St. Cecilia
INTERNATIONAL SACRED MUSIC CONGRESS
Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music
Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music - The Musical Offering in MP3

Misc.
CUA - Institute Of Sacred Music
PIAMS :: Pontifical Ambrosian Institute of Sacred Music
lulu: Gregorian chant; CMAA