ABSTRACT
This chapter offers a few observations about features of structure and musical style that may help toward keeping one's bearings while exploring the territory. The music for a new office for Wolfgang has been composed by Hermannus Contractus of the Reichenau. Three of the characteristics that make the Trinity office of Stephen of Liege so important for its date are also present in the Cuthbert office: verse text, modal order and progressive musical style. James McKinnon's magnificent achievement in mapping out stages in the development of the Proper of the Mass evokes more than admiration for that work in itself. It gives one hope that other areas of the chant repertory may prove susceptible to similar methods of investigation and inspires one with courage to attempt the task. The chants of the Divine Office, to which the following remarks are addressed, offer a particularly daunting challenge, since their number is so great and their transmission relatively late.
