The primary purpose of this chapter is to outline what can be understood of the melodic language of the Old Hispanic Lenten psalmi. The analysis of this repertory presents some large challenges. One cannot identify a single formal principle underpinning the genre: some psalmi are responsorial; others are sung as direct psalmody without refrains. Some have melodic repetition; others do not. Different psalmi have different numbers of verses. Another challenge is presented by the fact that, in contrast to the threni, the psalmi are idiomelic – that is, each has an individual melody. In Chapter 2 we were able to deduce general structural and procedural principles for the threni by comparing the different expressions of the single threni melody in different chants. In the psalmi, by contrast, each melody has its own logic. Despite these difficulties, we have been able to identify common musical features and strategies in the genre.

By outlining the melodic norms of the Old Hispanic Lenten psalmi this chapter provides a conceptual foundation for Chapter 4. We define the melodic density characteristic of each chant – that is, how many notes are found per syllable. Capturing the normal pacing of text through melody for each chant within phrases and at cadences is the first step towards understanding how the psalmi melodies constitute readings of their texts, which is the primary focus of Chapter 4. To this end, we have developed methodologies for finding cadences, despite the lack of pitch-readable notation.