Old Hispanic musical and notational practices in Toledo

: a study based on the manuscript Toledo, Cathedral Archive, MS 35-4

Abstract

The manuscript Toledo, Cathedral Archive, MS 35-4 (T4) preserves chants, readings, and prayers of the Old Hispanic rite. It is one of approximately 40 surviving manuscripts that contain this liturgy and almost a quarter of these are associated with the city of Toledo. While Anscari Mundó used palaeography to re-evaluate the dates of the Toledo corpus and José Janini produced editions of most of its manuscripts, rarely has any study sought to understand the contents or contexts of these manuscripts. As such, little is known about the practices contained in the Toledo manuscripts and how they relate to the rest of the Old Hispanic corpus. In this thesis, I begin to explore the Toledo corpus through a close investigation of T4. My interdisciplinary approach, which incorporates scribal, notational, and musical evidence, demonstrates that T4 preserves practices that are different to those found in manuscripts from the north of Iberia. A codicological and palaeographical approach allows me to suggest a revised dating for T4 while also exploring scriptorium practices at the time of its original compilation. My palaeographical study of the notation not only clearly defines the musical script contained in T4 (horizontal notation), but also allows for speculation about the development of the Old Hispanic rite more broadly. Through musical analysis, I nuance understandings of the regional practices (dialects) present in the manuscript’s chant melodies. This thesis also sheds light on T4’s relationship with the other Old Hispanic manuscripts from the north of Iberia, as well as with the other manuscripts associated with Toledo, thereby helping to establish the local practices of Toledo and to situate T4 within them.

Date of Award	3 Oct 2023
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Bristol
Supervisor	Sarah Hamilton (Supervisor) & Emma C Hornby (Supervisor)