10.20381/ruor-12085
Bazinet, Genevieve Barbara
London, British Library, Egerton 3307: Passions, patronage, carols and music for Holy Week
Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa
2007
Music.
Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa
Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa
2013-11-07
2013-11-07
2007
2007
en
Thesis
Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 46-03, page: 1194.
http://hdl.handle.net/10393/27443
The manuscript Great Britain, London; British Library, Egerton 3307 has never been studied in its entirety. The majority of literature which pertains to the manuscript is primarily concerned with questions of original location of compilation and all but ignores the codicological aspects. Discussion of the music in the book has generally approached the constituent parts of the Egerton manuscript separately, dealing either with one or the other. This thesis revises the assessment of the source; following a complete codicological and palaeographic examination, undertaken here for the first time, the thesis addresses questions regarding the compilation of the MS, among them the physical similarities between the Holy Week music and the carol music, the original location of compilation, it re-examines the literature on the carol and it proposes for the first time that the two sections of the Egerton manuscript contain between them a repertory of liturgical music representative of a specific ceremonial. A musical stylistic analysis, focused mainly on the two Passions, suggests a probable musical stylistic link between many of the pieces, which parallels the continuity in the physical aspects of this historically important manuscript and affirms the unity proposed on physical and thematic grounds. The adherence to the lay rite of Sarum and the inclusion of the carols within the ceremonial point to a secular institution, for which St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle, during Lancastrian rule in the 15th century, seems eminently qualified both in situation as a royal institution and as a centre for musical innovation.