Worcester, Cathedral - Music Library, F.160 (olim 1247) (facsimile)

Cantus Siglum

GB-WO F.160 (olim 1247) (facsimile)

Holding Institution

Worcester, Cathedral - Music Library (GB-WO)

Manuscript/Printed

Manuscript

Summary

Compendium of liturgical material, including an antiphoner, from Worcester Cathedral, England. Dated c. 1230, with fourteenth-century additions. Quadratic notation on four red line staves. Monastic cursus. 354 folios. One lacuna.

Liturgical Occasions

F. 1: Philip and James, Finding of the Cross, Alexander. Ff. 2r-95v: Temporale. 2r, First Sunday of Advent; 13r, Christmas; 16v, Stephen; 30r, Ferial Office; 41v, Ash Wednesday; 58v, Maundy Thursday; 63v, Easter; 75v, Pentecost; 79r, Trinity; 82r, Summer Histories; 93v, Sundays after Pentecost.
Ff. 96r-99v: Invitatory Tones. Ff. 100r-115v: Processional (103v- 105v, Palm Sunday; 106v, Antiphons "ad Mandatum"). Ff. 121r-130v: Visitation of Mary. Ff. 135r-142v: Corpus Christi. Ff. 147-148v: Kalendar. Ff. 149r-164v: Psalter. Ff. 164v-169v: Hymnal.
Ff. 182r-270r: Sanctorale. 182r, Andrew; 187v, Lucy; 190r, Wulfstan; 197r, Conversion of Paul; 206v, Oswald; 212r, Cuthbert; 220r, Dunstan; 223v, Dedication of a Church; 232v, Mary Magdalene; 238r, Laurence; 261r, Feast of Relics; 262r, All Saints.
Ff. 270r-282v: Common of Saints. Ff. 282v-284v: Office for the Dead. Ff. 285v-286r: Tonary.

Description

The manuscript Worcester F.160 contains a monastic antiphoner, processional, calendar, psalter, hymnal, collectarium, tonary, kyriale, gradual and a fragmentary proser; the antiphoner and processional were reproduced in facsimile in Paleographie musicale 12 (Tournai: Desclee, 1922). The volume includes a tonary of the antiphons that was drawn up by Laurentia McLachlan, who also wrote the introduction.

The Cantus inventory exists in two forms. One includes all the chants in the antiphoner, processional, and hymnal, including the Offices of the Visitation of Mary and Corpus Christi, which were added in the fourteenth century. (Though not included in the facsimile edition, these two Offices are discussed in the introduction to it.) The location numbers in this version of the index are the folios of the manuscript. A second version of the index includes only the chants of the antiphoner and this version's location numbers are the pages of the facsimile edition. In the index with the facsimile page numbers, the folio numbers of the manuscript are found in the Addendum field, and likewise in the version with the manuscript folio numbers, the Addendum field contains the facsimile pages.

A number of rare Offices for Anglo-Saxon saints occur in Worcester F.160, namely Cuthbert, Dunstan, Oswald, and Wulfstan; texts for the antiphons in Cuthbert's Office may be found in Analecta hymnica, vol. 13, p. 102. (It should be noted that the Analecta hymnica edition follows a source that presents the secular cursus, so not all the Worcester antiphons are to be found in it.) The Offices for Cuthbert and Wulfstan are briefly discussed by Andrew Hughes in "British Rhymed Offices: A Catalogue and Commentary" in Music in the Medieval English Liturgy, Susan Rankin and David Hiley, eds. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993), pp. 257 and 279f, respectively. The Office for Corpus Christi also appears in Arras 893.

Differentiae follow the numbering of the tonary of the manuscript (as prepared for the facsimile edition) with one important modification: certain differentiae occur both with and without liquescent notes, and these distinctions were not taken into account by the compiler of the tonary. However, they are reflected in the Cantus inventory by an "a" added to differentiae with liquescent notes. The differentia labelled 8.5 in the tonary (the tonus peregrinus) is labelled "8 P" in the Cantus inventory.

About the Invitatory tones of Worcester F.160

Invitatory tones are represented in Worcester F.160 in two different ways. All of the tones are written out in full on ff. 96r-99v (pp. 192-99 of the facsimile edition); elsewhere in the source they are referred to only by incipit. The repertory of thirteen invitatory tones includes many standard ones: 2 for some mode-2 invitatory antiphons; FE for use in the ferial Office; CH for Christmas and Epiphany; the tone NE; 3 for a small number of mode-3 antiphons; BL for antiphons of mode 2 or mode 4; as well as the tones named 5 and 7.

Worcester F.160 does record one unusual tone, labelled WR, which is used throughout the liturgical year, in both temporale and sanctorale. Although rarely encountered, this tone is not unique to Worcester; it appears in various other sources, even in Toledo 44.1 (though there only as an incipit).

The invitatory tones labelled PA and IN, usually associated with Paschal time and the feast of the Holy Innocents respectively, occur in Worcester, but each also has a variant labelled PX or IX. These four tones all occur at the end of the series (98v-99r), and may indicate some confusion on the part of the scribe: the tone IN is assigned to Easter Sunday; the tone IN was originally assigned to Easter Monday, erased, and the PX tone added by a later hand; and an invitatory antiphon sung during Pentecost week (77r; p. 154) is followed by the incipits for the IN, PX, and PA tones. (The PA tone incipit appears only twice, here and after the invitatory antiphon for the feast of Wulfstan.)

Selected Bibliography

• Bishop, E. "An Old Worcester Book." Downside Review 25 [new series, 6] (1907): 174ff.
• In a Great Tradition: Tribute to Dame Laurentia McLachlan, Abbess of Stanbrook. Edited by the Benedictines of Stanbrook, 152-77. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1956.
• Underwood, Peter J. "Melodic Traditions in Medieval English Antiphoners." Journal of the Plainsong and Mediaeval Music Society 5 (1982): 1-12.
• Hiley, David. "Thurstan of Caen and Plainchant at Glastonbury: Musicological Reflections on the Norman Conquest." Proceedings of the British Academy 72 (1986): 57-90.

Notes on the Inventory

The inventory for GB-WO F.160 (Facs) was prepared at The Catholic University of America by Keith Glaeske, Denise Gallo, and Lila Collamore.

Full Texts Entered by

Jacob deGroot-Maggetti

Full/Partial Inventory

Full Inventory

Complete Source/Fragment

Complete source