About musical notations in the Tyniec Antiphonary

Irina Chachulska

Instytut Sztuki PAN

Abstract

Antiphonary of abbot Mścisław (Pl-Wn 12720 V) dating from before 1409 year and being one of the oldest surviving Tyniec books, documents not only its own history but also the history of the musical script in the Tyniec scriptorium from the turn of the 14th/15th century until the end of the 16th century. The manuscript testifies both one of the musical notations used in the scriptorium of the time, and the evolution of the musical notation in the scriptorium, including apart from the basic square notation various notation forms – both in the original and later layer (palimpsest fragments, margin entries, added cards) – which had been forming in this scriptorium over many years. In the scriptorium, first we can follow the changes of neumatic forms leading to square notation, and at the moment of its full formation, return to Gothic neumes. This study presents all the forms of musical record present in this book.

Keywords:

antiphonary, Tyniec, an antiphonary from Tyniec, antiphonary of abbot Mścisław, the Benedictine antiphonary, the Tyniec scriptorium, the Benedictine sriptorium, Benedictines, musical notaion, staff notation, square notation, Messine-Gothic notation, Gothi- cized Messine-German mixed notation, system of “contact neumes”