Comparing twenty thousand variants from three thousand chants helps to determine what components of chants change during their transmission, providing a starting point for comparisons when tracking the relationship of settings and liturgical practices between institutions, or the variants of a single tune over time, as well as other possible applications. The majority of the sources analyzed are Hungarian. Fields of comparison are text-melody combinations, antiphons with modal ambiguity, text variants, and variants of single notes. Many variants, modally ambiguous antiphons in particular, appear to be interpretations of older monophonic styles that are governed by stylistic coordination. This suggests a culture of musical borrowing between liturgical institutions during the period.

Index Classifications: General, Monophony to 1300

Contributed by: Elizabeth Stoner