ABSTRACT
It is well known that in the first half of the twelfth century, the Cistercian Order strove to find or arrive at the best possible edition of contemporary Roman Catholic chant. To attain this aim, the Cistercians first adopted an existing tradition, then, unsatisfied, created their own. To understand the Bemardine reform of Cistercian chant, the logical thing to do is to study its motivations and musical underpinnings together with the melodic end-result. Apart from unpublished or minor contributions from Maur Cocheril, François Huot and myself, the few surviving musical documents dating from before the end of the second reform of Cistercian chant were seriously studied only by Francois Kovacs and Chrysogonus Waddell, more than five and three decades ago, respectively. Waddell’s article, however brilliant, is one of synthesis, lacking details, tables, musical illustrations, and the scientific apparatus which facilitate musicological discussion.
