Citation/Abstract

The purpose of this work is to assess the contribution of the Carmelite Office liturgy to the medieval chant tradition. Chapter 1 discusses the development of liturgical practices within the Carmelite Order from the time of its inception in the early thirteenth century until the end of the fifteenth century, including the influence of papal legislation and the Order's own General Chapter Acts upon the Carmelite liturgy. The principal witnesses to the medieval Carmelite liturgy include a thirteenth-century Ordinal, probably of English origin, a fourteenth-century Ordinal of Sibert de Beka which was promulgated by the General Chapter of London in 1312 and remained in use for over two centuries, as well as a fourteenth-century set of Carmelite Antiphonals from Florence and a fifteenth-century set from Mainz. Chapter 1 includes a calendar comparing the feasts in Carmelite, Holy Sepulchre, Sarum, Dominican and Mainz diocesan uses.

Chapter 2 selects sixteen of these feasts for further investigation: Sts. Peter and Paul, Conversion of St. Paul, Chair of St. Peter, Annunciation, Conception of the Virgin, Visitation, Presentation of the Virgin, St. Nicholas, St. Catherine of Alexandria, St. Augustine, St. Thomas of Canterbury, Three Patriarchs, Transfiguration, St. Ann, St. Mary Magdalene and the Three Marys, and compares the liturgical ordering of their chants to those of Sarum, Dominican and Mainz diocesan sources, when the feasts occur in these non-Carmelite manuscripts. Chapter 3 discusses the textual and musical differences which prevail in the antiphons and responsories used for these feasts, both between Carmelite and non-Carmelite expressions of a particular chant, and within the Carmelite sources as well; the Mainz and Florentine rhymed offices of the Three Marys are discussed in detail. Chapter 4 defines to what extent we can speak of a particularly Carmelite chant tradition, while assessing as well the particular contributions of the Mainz and Florentine codices to the Carmelite chant tradition. Chapter 5 draws conclusions relating the character of the Carmelite Order and the impact of its liturgical legislation to its Office tradition. A second volume presents an edition of ten rhymed offices found within the Carmelite sources, along with a critical commentary.