ABSTRACT
By the end of the thirteenth century, the round of daily services in much of western Europe had become characterized by a fundamental similarity, so that the liturgy in places as far apart as Llandaff and Lincoln, Rheims and Rome could have seemed little different in terms of overall ceremonial and content. The great feasts of the Christian year were celebrated within a common hierarchical structure, the overall pattern of Mass and Office was virtually identical, and for the most part it seems that the chant that adorned the liturgy varied only in detail. The archival and historical sources that shed light on the music of the liturgy in Wales are also relatively varied. The highly centralized mode of government within the Cistercian order embraced a closely regulated liturgical pattern, while the secular cathedrals and large churches of England and Wales followed a series of slightly different liturgical 'Uses', chief among them those of Salisbury (or Sarum), York and Hereford.
