Винчестерский тропар: Древнейшие английские музыкальные рукописи XI века

English music manuscript, dated c. 1000

The Winchester Troper refers to two eleventh century manuscripts of liturgical plainchant and two voice polyphony copied and used in the Old Minster at Winchester Cathedral in Hampshire, England. The manuscripts are now held at Cambridge, Corpus Christi College 473 (Corpus 473) and Oxford, Bodleian Library Bodley 775 (Bodley 775). The term "Winchester Troper" is best understood as the repertory of music contained in the two manuscripts. Both manuscripts contain a variety of liturgical genres, including Proper and Ordinary chants for both the Mass and the Divine Office. Many of the chants can also be found in other English and Northern French tropers, graduals, and antiphoners. However, some chants are unique to Winchester, including those for local saints such as St. Æthelwold and St. Swithun, who were influential Bishops of Winchester in the previous centuries. Corpus 473 contains the most significant and largest surviving collection of eleventh century organum (i. e. polyphony). This polyphonic repertoire is unique to that manuscript (Bodley 775 contains no polyphony).

In the late nineteenth century, Walter Frere and the Solesmes monks were the first to refer to these manuscripts as the "Winchester Troper." Despite the implications of the name, the manuscripts are not identical, not part of a set (such as Volume 1 and Volume 2), and contain liturgical genres other than tropes. The term "Winchester Troper" can refer to either manuscript or to the repertory of the two as a collective.

The dating of the two manuscripts has been subject of debate. The core repertory of Corpus 473 was likely copied in the 1020s 1030s. Bodley 775 was possibly copied in the 1050s. However, scholars disagree about the dating of the possible exemplars on which Bodley 775 was based. Perhaps Bodley 775 was copied directly from a now lost exemplar dating from the late 970s or 980s. Therefore, the manuscript is retrospective because it reflects practices different than those at the time it was copied. On the other hand, Bodley 775 may have been copied from two preexisting manuscripts: a late tenth century gradual and a troper of a possibly later date. This hypothesis considers both the retrospective characteristics of Bodley 775 and its status as a later manuscript than Corpus 473. Bodley 775 was not modeled after Corpus 473. Each manuscript contains additional chants copied by scribes throughout the eleventh century. Although the core of each manuscript reflects a connection to Northern France, the supplementary chants copied by scribes in the latter half of the eleventh century exhibit a very strong Norman influence. In 1066, William, Duke of Normandy, conquered England, strengthening the cultural connection between northern France and England. As a result, chant in England began to reflect this new political reality. This influence is especially strong in the later sequences of the Winchester Troper; increasing Norman influence did not impact the Alleluia series. Thus, while the core of each manuscript dates to Anglo Saxon England, they also contain some post Conquest music.

Corpus 473 contains 199 folios of parchment with dimensions of 140/145 x 90/93 mm. The final folio dates to the sixteenth century and is not original to the manuscript. The complete manuscript was rebound and conserved in 2004. It is written mostly in dark brown ink with colored capitals; the handwriting is Caroline minuscule. Corpus 473 may have been used by the succentor or cantor of the Old Minster and Bodley 775 by its cantor. The first quire (ff. 1 7v, col. 1 seven) is a later eleventh century addition and is misbound, with the original sequence of leaves being 1 3, 5, 6, 4, 7. The remainder of the book is organized in quires of 8, with half sheets appearing in quires 3, 12, 14, 16, 20 and 23. It is written in black and brown ink with red rubrics and colored initials. Some proses were subsequently erased and cannot be recovered. Although Wulfstan the Cantor was once thought to have a direct role in the copying of these manuscripts (and perhaps even composing the organa of Corpus 473), more recent dating makes this impossible because the manuscripts are now believed to have been copied after Wulfstan's death. The organa were possibly composed by several people at Winchester and represented the best attempts at improvised polyphony that were deemed worthy of memory.

The Winchester Troper is partly a troper (i. e. a book of tropes). It contains Gregorian chant and tropes, which are musical or textual (or both) expansions of Gregorian chant. Corpus 473 and Bodley 775 contain several introit tropes for feasts of St. Swithun, a ninth century Bishop of Winchester. Some of the introit tropes for St. Swithun are unique to this repertory. St. Swithun is also represented in Offertory and Communion tropes. Both manuscripts contain tropes for various Sanctorale and Temporale feasts, including Christmas, Advent, Epiphany, Pentecost, All Saints, St. Stephen, St. Gregory, and the Innocents. Other local saints, like St. Æthelwold and St. Justus (Iustus), are also represented. The two manuscripts contain nearly the same proper tropes with some significant exceptions. Bodley 775 contains fewer Communion and Offertory tropes than Corpus 473. Between the two manuscripts, 37 tropes are almost certainly English in origin, while another 48 are of probable English origin. Some of these tropes are also found in other English or North French sources, but many are unique to Winchester. It is often difficult to determine the origin of a specific chant and is subject to interpretation. The gatherings of Corpus 473 dedicated to organa contain only the voces organalis. Singers would have performed the principal voice from a different gathering, another manuscript, or, more likely, from memory. Among the genres that receive organal treatment are troped and untroped Mass Ordinary chants, tracts, sequences, Mass Proper tropes, Alleluias, and Office Responsories. Because the notation consists of adiestematic neumes, which indicate the melodic contour but not precise pitches, the organal voices were long considered to be indecipherable. However, Andreas Holschneider and, more recently, Susan Rankin have published reconstructions of some of the organa. To reconstruct the organa, Rankin matches the organal voice with a chant melody. To determine the best match, she examines the notation of the organal voice against various chant melodies that use the same text. Theoretical rules found in treatises, such as Musica enchiriadis and Guido of Arezzo's Micrologus, are necessary to reconstruct the organal voice. Significantly, the neume shapes and contour of the organal voice sometimes break from the theory. Because Corpus 473 contains multiple organal harmonies to the same melodic gesture, the monks at Winchester exercised a certain degree of compositional freedom when writing organa.

"Christmas in Royal Anglo Saxon Winchester," Herald AV Publications , HAVPCD151, sung by the Schola Gregoriana of Cambridge, directed by Mary Berry. "Music for a King: The Winchester Troper," AECD 1436, sung by Discantus, directed by Briggite Lesne.

Cambridge, Corpus Christi College 473. Oxford, Bodleian Library Bodley 775.

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