The oldest known Agnus Dei melody, Melody 226 in Martin Schildbach's Das einstimmige Agnus Dei und seine handschriftliche überlieferung vom 10. bis zum 16. Jahrhundert, appears with additional verses in its earliest sources, raising the question of whether these are tropes or whether all the music was composed at the same time. In the ninth century the function of the Agnus Dei became dissociated from an extended rite of Fraction, and its form became that of threefold repetition. As the Agnus Dei moved into Frankish regions, geographically distinct repertoires of associated verses came to be identified. The interior verses that appear with Melody 226 are more syllabic and differ from the Agnus Dei melody itself with regard to range, tessitura, and ductus, suggesting that the interior verses are in fact tropes.

Index Classifications: Monophony to 1300

Contributed by: Felix Cox