The later Trecento repertoire contains many short, monostrophic ballatas with philosophical or moralising texts. Why should the poets and composers, mostly Florentine, have preferred the ballata over the madrigal when exploring serious subjects, and why did they employ the monostrophic form?

It turns out that the text structure of the monostrophic ballata is, in its essentials, comparable to the pattern of the geometric demonstration from Euclid's Elements, comprising premise, argumentation and return to the enhanced, proved premise (quod erat demonstrandum). Considered in light of Florentine Humanism's engagement with philosophy, including Ockham methods of demonstration, this article examines the possibility that Francesco Landini and other composers were sufficiently influenced by philosophy to view the structure of the monostrophic ballata as a means of logical demonstrations of refined arguments.

The recent discovery of several fragments of an antiphoner in the Archive of the Cathedral of Sigüenza (Guadalajara) with repertoire for the feast of St James the Apostle sheds new light on the origin of the monophonic chants of the Codex Calixtinus. The dating of the fragments to c.1100 demonstrates the existence of an officium proprium prior to the writing of the famous Compostelan codex, a fact hitherto unknown. Part of the repertoire collected in the Sigüenza manuscript, particularly the antiphon Honorabilem eximii and the responsory Alme perpetue, evidence textual and melodic concordances with Calixtinus. Moreover, some chants in the Sigüenza Antiphoner, and not in Calixtinus, were widely known across the Iberian Peninsula before the Tridentine liturgical unification. This evidence suggests that the compilers of the monophonic Office in the Codex Calixtinus knew the version transmitted in the recently discovered fragments. The consequent remodelling of the St James Office was probably due to the fact that it incorporated many legendary elements. At the beginning of the twelfth century, the Church of Compostela was actively seeking to legitimise its apostolicity, which Rome seriously questioned. To do so, it was essential to offer a liturgical corpus of proven authority, based on the Bible and the patristic literature.

The Chantilly manuscript, probably compiled in the 1410s, is thought to have lost an original first sestern early in its history, as the folio numbers start at 13. Because the table of contents matches the order of pieces in the manuscript and starts with the present first item and at fol. 13, it has been assumed that it post-dates the sestern's loss. But the folio numbers were added to that table not by its original hand, but by a later (Italian) one, and that same hand wrote the foliation for the manuscript; table and foliation were therefore almost certainly provided in the same operation. If the table of contents was post factum, why is its foliation in a hand different from the incipits? This article argues that the table of contents was in fact prescriptive, drawn up by a different (French) person before the contents were copied, and that the foliation was added both to the index and the body of the manuscript after copying, allowing for a new planned gathering to be added at the beginning, perhaps including the two Cordier rondeaux. This was never completed; what we have is what there was, and nothing was lost. This hypothesis raises further questions about the codicological and chronological relation of the Cordier songs to the index, to that planned gathering, and to the early history of the manuscript, questions to which provisional answers are suggested.

This article focuses on the so-called ordinary Cherubikon/Cherubic hymn (Οἱ τὰ χερουβίμ/Oi ta Cherubim) found in Byzantine manuscripts in connection with the Divine Liturgies of St John Chrysostomos and St Basil throughout the church year except for Lent and Easter. The Cherubikon is not, however, restricted to Byzantine codices, but can be found in various Latin manuscripts transliterated into Western letters and written with Western neumes.

On first glance, Machaut's Tans doucement/Eins que ma dame/Ruina (M13) is a typical motet with few musical or textual anomalies. Perhaps this is why, with the exception of a brief article by Alice V. Clark, little extensive, individual study of M13 has been conducted. This article examines the musico-poetic cues for Fortune found in M13’s many forms of reversal, duality and upset order. The discovery of a new acrostic which references the Roman de Fauvel, whose interpolated motet Super cathedram/Presidentes in thronis/Ruina (F4) is the source of M13’s tenor, further supports a Fortune-based reading of this motet. M13 may therefore be included among the Fortune-prominent motets proposed by Anna Zayaruznaya and Jacques Boogaart (M12, M14 and M15). Understanding that Machaut intentionally ordered his motets, M13 fills a sequential gap, suggesting that M12–15 may serve as a meaningfully ordered group of Fortune-based motets. The acrostic's Fauvel reference also provides additional connections between M13 and F4, offering insight into ways Machaut may have responded to and cleverly cited his sources.

The foundation of the solmisation system, attributed to Guido d'Arezzo, is based upon the application of the syllables ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la, to the musical notes C D E F G A. Later, this system was expanded to incorporate a series of overlapping hexachords made up of these six syllables. These overlapping hexachords could allow a singer to move seamlessly across the regular musical space (the gamut) using only the six syllables (voces) via ‘mutations’. Even though the extent to which this system underpinned diatonic conceptions of musical space is being reconsidered, it seems clear that, at least for some musicians, it played an integral part in music education.

Although many theorists discussed the process of hexachordal mutation in their treatises, the approaches towards its exemplification and demonstration were far from uniform, given its conceptual rather than notated function. Johannes Tinctoris's Expositio manus (c.1472) includes a number of musical examples showing hexachordal mutation. His examples, rather unusually, include syllabic annotations to label the points of mutation within the musical notation, a practice that is almost without precedent. This article takes Tinctoris's treatise as a point of departure and compares the approaches taken towards the exemplification of hexachordal mutation in some theoretical texts from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, tracking the influence of their approaches forward into the sixteenth century. It considers what some different approaches can tell us about the conceptual function of the hexachord in pedagogy, and what the motives might have been for adopting specific exemplification practices.

This issue sees the last Liturgical chant bibliography prepared by Dr Günther Michael Paucker. Having inherited this position from Peter Jeffery in 1996, he has produced, year after year, a total of twenty-one bibliographies, all with an admirably comprehensive coverage of studies on chant across the full range of languages. The journal could not have imagined a more meticulous, thorough and loyal editor. We remain truly thankful to him for all the Herculean efforts he has put into his Liturgical chant bibliographies from 1997 to 2017. They have been tremendously useful to chant scholars and will remain a lasting monument to his generosity of spirit.

The Editorial Committee extends its heartfelt thanks and warmest wishes to Rev. Jerome F. Weber, who is retiring as PMM's Audio Review Editor effective this issue. For a quarter century, Father Weber has regularly contributed reviews of hundreds of plainchant recordings to this journal, casting his net widely to capture Gregorian and post-Gregorian repertoires, monastic and regional traditions including Byzantine Chant, and chants on recordings devoted mainly to polyphony. Having published A Gregorian Chant Discography in 1990, addenda et corrigenda in PMM 19/1 (2010), he launched the website chantdiscography.com in November 2010, a relational database of sound recordings in formats ranging from shellac 78s and vinyl LPs to cassette tapes and compact discs. An enormously useful resource for scholars and music lovers alike, the online discography analyses well over a thousand new and re-issued CD recordings produced since 1990 along with data from the 1990 discography. We wish our colleague the very best in his well-earned retirement!