Anselm Hughes - Böcker

Looks at ancient and oriental music and traces the history of western music from medieval times to the twentieth century.

The MSS, from the abbey of Bec (Le Bec-Hellouin), written c. 1265-1272 is not strictly a missal, since it lacks an ordo missae and the canon, but in other respects it is close to a missale plenum in its contents, though it includes all the chants. It may have been a precentor's book, but equally well may have been designed for use of the altar. The plainchant melodies are not reproduced here. The English interest of Bec, home to Lanfranc and Anselm, archbishops of Canterbury, and with other strong cross-channel connections, is obvious.

The earliest surviving example of a primitive breviaryThe second volume includes the private prayers (some of which are in Old English), and contains a brief introduction and full indices. It concludes with a separate work issued by the Plainsong and Mediaeval Music Society: Pre-Conquest Antiphons from the Portiforium of Saint Wulfstan, Edited by Dom Anselm Hughes, Nashdom Abbey, Plainsong and Mediaeval Music Society, [London], 1958. This small work gives the music of 22 antiphons whose words are found in Corpus Christi manuscript 391, drawing upon pre-Conquest sources. Combined with material available in existing published editions this permits an almost complete reconstruction of the music of the Portiforium of St Wulfstan.