Arti musices, Vol. 39 No. 1, 2008.
Original scientific paper
Examples of the Simple Liturgical Polyphony from Croatia in European Context
Hana Breko Kustura
orcid.org/0000-0002-3104-3682
; Odsjek za povijest hrvatske glazbe HAZU, Zagreb, Hrvatska
Abstract
This paper presents some of the hitherto rather little-known examples of liturgical polyphony, the so-called «simple poliphony» - from the Croatian regions. The research presented here follows on from the first systematic examination of these sources by Rudolf Flotzinger: «Mittelalterliche Mehrstimmigkeit in Dalmatien und Slowenien», Revista de musicología, vol. XVI, Nr. 3, Madrid, 1993, pp. 29-49.
Occurrences of the «simple polyphony» in the Croatian liturgical practice are to be found in the liturgical manuscripts from the period between the late 13th and the 19th centuries. Among about one hundred - mostly two-part - liturgical chants, a predominant number are those for the mass ordinary.
The author focuses on her own insights into some of the earliest examples of simple polyphony from Dalmatia: a two-part troped Sanctus from the Cartulary of the Benedictine monastery of St Mary in Zadar (late 13th century) and a group of two-part Benedicamus domino chants, now kept in the Dominican monastery in Stari Grad on the island of Hvar, and compares them with the chants from similar Italian sources.
Other examples discussed here are: a two-part chant Tota pulchra es from the manuscript by the friar Frane Divnić from Zadar (17th century) and a Requiem from the codex now kept in the Benedictine monstery at Cres (18th century). In addition, the paper contains a brief discussion of the sociological context of these sources.
A preliminary conclusion may be reached that the monastic communities in Croatia, in particulary those of the Franciscans, Dominicans and Benedictines, were the main bodies responsible for the long survival of this medieval phenomenon in the Croatian regions.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
24629
URI
Publication date:
2.6.2008.
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