The Kyrie trope is a Kyrie with independent text and melody inserted between phrases, in contrast with a texted Kyrie, which is a lengthy chant with a syllabic text. The most common forms of Kyrie trope contained one, three, or eight phrases. The texted Kyrie seems to be the older form and is more common in western Europe. It is possible that the Kyrie and trope were composed together, as may also be the case for the sequence, due to the presence of a more purely melismatic style. The longer Kyrie trope is more common east of the Rhine, uses shorter chant melodies, and has more formal and structural similarities to Kyrie melodies in general. Complete musical independence is the only universal characteristic of all Kyrie tropes. Tables list fourty-four Kyrie tropes and their sixty-one manuscript sources.

Works: Eia chorus clamans (12, 16, 20-22); Rex regnum domine (14, 23-26, 37); Omnipotens genitor lumenque (10, 13, 15-16, 17, 26-31); Deus solus et immensus (12, 31-36).

Index Classifications: Monophony to 1300

Contributed by: Felix Cox