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Cantus Index

From medieval manuscripts...

Graz, Universitätsbibliothek, 29

14th-century antiphoner in two volumes (with A-Gu 30) from the Abbey of Sankt Lambrecht (Steiermark, Austria). Monastic cursus. 382 fols.

Cantus Index

Manuscript Databases

  • Each record (chant) is related to a specific source and folio
  • No relation to a specific manuscript / source

Responsory: Ecce dies veniunt dicit dominus et suscitabo David germen justum et regnabit rex et sapiens erit et faciet judicium et justitiam in terra et hoc est nomen quod vocabunt eum dominus justus noster

...to an online research network

How has this responsory been catalogued?

  • Fields:
  • Cantus ID (unique key)
  • Full text (standardized)
  • Genre

An Index of Gregorian Chant by J. R. Bryden & D. G. Hughes (Cambridge, 1969)

  • Fields:
  • Source
  • Folio
  • Sequence
  • Cantus ID
  • Full text (MS version)
  • Genre
  • Feast
  • Liturgical position
  • Mode
  • Differentia
  • Final pitch
  • Melody (Volpiano font)

How are the melodies encoded?

  • Numerical coding system
  • Melody incipit = the first eight changes of pitch
  • The chants are ordered by numerical melodic codes

CANTUS Database

http://cantus.uwaterloo.ca

University of Waterloo, Canada

Project Manager: Debra Lacoste

Project Developer: Jan Koláček

2 main problems:

  • not possible to find melody fragments inside the melodies
  • long and demanding search process

176 indices of sources

  • Founded in 1980s
  • The Catholic University of America (1980-97)
  • The University of Western Ontario (1998-2010)
  • The University of Waterloo (2010-now)

436.000+ chants

  • Chant record in Cantus Index:

  • General information to classify chants in manuscripts
  • Chant record in manuscript databases:
  • Accurate description of a specific chant in a specific manuscript

Global Chant Database

(founded 2009, developed by Jan Koláček)

  • www.globalchant.org
  • digitized Index of Gregorian Chant + references to the Cantus Database melodies
  • Biological parallel

MS Databases represent

Exact description of a

  • specific animal (chant)
  • found in a specific nature reserve (source)

Cantus Index represents

Catalogue of animal species

  • with their Latin names (Cantus IDs)
  • and general description (Full text of a chant)

12 sources compared by Hesbert in CAO:

Cantus ID numbers based on:

Hesbert, Dom René-Jean

Corpus Antiphonalium Officii

(CAO) 6 vols. Rome: Herder, 1963-79

Volpiano font

Encoding of the melody Ecce dies veniunt:

Simplified:

1--g-f-g-c-d-f-g-h-g

Standard melody:

1--g-gfg--c-d--fghg-fg-g--k-kl

How to deal with the chants which are not found in Hesbert's CAO?

  • Used in the Cantus Database

They need new Cantus IDs!

http://cantusindex.org

Founded in 2012

  • Debra Lacoste (University of Waterloo)
  • Jan Koláček (Charles University in Prague)
  • Elsa De Luca (Universidad Nova de Lisboa)

SECONDARY FUNCTIONS:

  • System for searching in external manuscript databases
  • Analysis tools (similarity of sources, liturgical traditions)
  • Suggestions of chants in indexing tools of the manuscript databases

PRIMARY FUNCTION:

  • System for automatic assigning of Cantus IDs
  • Database of all Cantus IDs
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