"Figurata ornamenta in laudibus Domini": gramática, retórica y música en los repertorios de canción litúrgica conservados en España

Abstract

With the aid of a series of representative examples, the objective of this article is to highlight the connections between the teaching of, and speculation about, disciplines including grammar, rhetoric and biblical exegesis, and the creation, transmission and assumption of new “extra-official” liturgical repertories at different moments and places during the Middle Ages. Using resources such as ornatus, and with a view to providing a better understanding, composition and proclamation of the truths of Christian faith shown during its celebration, liturgical song (text and/or music) was frequently understood and treated as a genuine liturgical commentary on the very evolution of the liturgy.Thus, the relationship between the old and the new,“sung liturgical commentary” and comments made outside the liturgy, and between the official Gregorian and “extraofficial” repertories of tropes, sequences, prosulas, etc. will be examined from the point of view and in the context of liturgical action.