Chant texts used in Jerusalem from the fourth and fifth centuries onward imported into or shared with other Eastern and Western chant traditions, where medieval adaptations of the melodies survive. The medieval melodies associated with each text have many melodic and modal similarities, despite the wide chronological and geographic dispersal of the chant traditions that preserve them. These similarities are best seen as survivals of the lost Jerusalem melody, particularly because they are consistent with the mode(s) indicated in Jerusalem textual sources. Regardless of shared traits between many chant traditions that may point to a common Jerusalem chant element, each melodic survival reflects a later tradition in accordance with modal and formulaic preferences. The differences between Byzantine, Gregorian, Old Roman, Ambrosian, and Mozarabic melodies reflect extensive reworking and development, but they do not completely obscure essential melodic similarities common across traditions. These similarities are consistent with the modal assignments of now-lost Jerusalem melodies which are preserved in Gregorian and Greek sources. Graduals of the Roman mass and prokeimena of the Byzantine Divine Liturgy are particularly fruitful subjects for study based on the age of their texts and the apparent similarities of their melodies, suggesting a common ancestry in the ancient Jerusalem chant repertoire.

Works: Benedictus qui venit (160-72); Justus ut palma (173-85).

Index Classifications: Monophony to 1300

Contributed by: Elizabeth Stoner