ANTIPHONARY. - The name derives etymologically from antiphon (v.); today, however, when one speaks of an a., what is meant is the liturgical book containing all the chants used for the divine office: therefore not only antiphons, but also hymns, versicles, etc. Not infrequently, especially by scholars of Gregorian chant, the term is used to designate the body of liturgical chants traditionally traced back to St. Gregory the Great, and this especially when the epithet Gregorian is added to it. The name and content have undergone various vicissitudes over the centuries. In the Middle Ages one finds the designations: Liber antiphonarius, Antiphonarium, Antiphonale, with various meanings depending on times and places. In the 8th century, for example, a. meant the collection of chants used for the Mass, while the body of chants for the office was called Liber responsal. But from the time of Amalarius, that is, from the 9th century onward, the book of the chants of the Mass is called Graduale as today (or also Antiphonale Missarum), and that of the chants of the office a. This, however, in turn came to be split into two distinct books: the body of chants used for the daytime offices retained the name of a., to which the epithet diurnal is often added, while the collection of chants for the nighttime offices took the name of Responsorial. This is also the current terminology. Between the 10th and 13th centuries a process analogous to the one undergone by the Sacramentary, which became the Missale plenarium, was also carried out for the a. To the primitive a.-responsorial were added the Psalter and the Hymnal, then also the Lectionary and Alcuin's Homiliary, and thus the a. plenarium came into being. When, later, copies of it were made without notes, the Breviary was born from it, so called because in its relatively small bulk it appeared much reduced and abbreviated compared with its predecessor.
Ancient and modern authors attribute the a. to St. Gregory the Great. The question has been much debated among sala F. Curto, C. Cuomo, C. Frati, Attuale mitragia benactiativa, Torino 1899
ANTIPHONARY - Liber de l'eteritibus Sanctorum, copied by Damiano Borelli of S. Damiano (Asti), in the year 1332. Asti, library of the Seminary.
with F. Curia, C. Caputo, C. I. Caro, Attaque patrographo-attistica, Turin 1899
ANTIPHONARY - A. with miniatures of the Ferrarese school (15th cent.). Ferrara, Chapter of the Cathedral.
scholars, especially at the end of the last century. Auguste Gevaert set himself decisively against tradition, although others before him had raised doubts and difficulties against the common opinion, and he took away the authorship of the a. from St. Gregory the Great in order to attribute it to Pope Gregory II (715-31). G. Morin replied to Gevaert, examining in a brief but acute analysis all the arguments for and against, and concluded by affirming the claims of tradition. A whole series of scholars ranged themselves with Morin, and so the traditional opinion soon prevailed. It cannot, however, be asserted that the controversy is definitively closed in favor of St. Gregory the Great, and there have not been lacking even recent attempts in the anti-Gregorian sense. In any case, the traditional thesis has excellent arguments in its favor, and the difficulties opposed to it are for the most part of a negative character. No one, moreover, has ever claimed to affirm that St. Gregory is the author of the a., as he is the author, for example, of the Regula pastoralis or of the Dialogues: his personal work in this regard must have been analogous to that commonly admitted for the Sacramentary that bears his name. He must have taken the body of the chants of the 4th century with the additions and modifications of the two following centuries, chosen those that seemed to him most suitable, recast them "impressing upon them," as Morin well says, "the characteristic notes of his genius: naturalness and description, simplicity and harmony," and then distributed them throughout the liturgical year as he had reordered it. Probably he also added something of his own, according to the needs of the new feasts; but the pieces composed by him must not be many. Even reducing the personal activity of the great Pontiff to these proportions, we believe that the a. does not wrongly bear his name. This work of revision and retouching was, at least in part, definitive: no one afterwards dared to lay hands on what was believed to have been inspired in the holy Pope by the same divine Spirit. The authentic a. of Gregory was preserved for many years, according to John the Deacon who wrote his life, in the Lateran, bound with a little chain to the high altar of the basilica. The Schola cantorum, instituted by the same Pope, considered it as one of the dearest and most precious relics of its founder.
The popes in the course of the 7th, 8th and 9th centuries occupied themselves with the chants of the a.; among them is to be remembered Boniface IV
a pupil of the schola and a Greek by birth. From his pontificate date the offices of the Holy Cross, of the Annunciation and of the Nativity of the Madonna, and in part also of the Purification. It is easy to notice that these chants present a style quite different from the Gregorian ones. Some are taken outright from the Greek liturgy, both as regards the text, which was translated into Latin, and as regards the melody. Other popes who took an active interest in chant were Gregory II and Adrian I (772-93), who sent to Gaul, at the request of the Frankish kings, copies of the Roman liturgical books, which thus had a new diffusion. There are also known to us the names of three abbots of monasteries near St. Peter's in Rome, who worked diligentissime on the repertoire of chants: Catalenus, Maurianus and Virbonus.
The oldest manuscripts of the a. for the office are represented by the codex of the National Library of Paris, Lat. 17. 436, of the second half of the 9th century, coming from the abbey of St. Cornelius of Compiègne, and by cod. 399 of St. Gall of the 10th century, called the a. of the blessed Hartker, from the name of the monk who wrote it. From the 9th century until the 14th, manuscripts of the a. abound which reproduce the oldest body, but with all the additions of new offices created from the 11th century onward. The new pieces, however, are easily recognizable, and they become increasingly different from the Gregorian style, even if they are not lacking in artistic value. To be noted in particular is the type of a. that became fixed between the 11th and 12th centuries in Rome, in the two basilicas of the Lateran and of St. Peter. This was the a. of the Curia, which then passed into the breviary of Pius V and therefore also into the present breviary and a. The most notable illuminated a. are those of the 13th century, in the Civic Library of Padua, and that of Girolamo da Cremona in the Piccolomini Library of Siena.
From the 13th century onward, the musical interest in the nascent polyphony, ignorance of the ancient rules, carelessness and other causes prepared the decadence of sacred chant. Nevertheless, until the 16th century, despite the bad taste of the performance, the structure of the chant remained unaltered, and the ancient melodies continued to be reproduced as far as possible. But in 1582 appeared the famous Direktorium chori of G. Guidetti (v.), who had the unfortunate idea of correcting the chant according to the tastes of the time, in particular reserving all the groups of notes to the accented syllable. The way was now open to every sort of contamination. In 1614-15, the printing house of Card. de' Medici published the edition of the a., afterwards called the Medicea, in which the ancient chant was subjected to a veritable mutilation, suppressing the melismas or shortening them, changing, shifting and even composing something new. There remained only a bare and lifeless skeleton. An attempt was made to pass off this disfigurement of art under the name of Palestrina, but more accurate research has debunked this legend. In 1871 the publisher Pustet of Regensburg reprinted the Medicea, which in 1873 was declared official by the Holy See. But meanwhile the times of restoration were maturing. Liturgical studies, chiefly through the work of Dom Guéranger, were flourishing with new life. Many scholars began to take an interest in the ancient Gregorian melopoeia and to consult the ancient manuscripts that presented it as it was in its golden age. Among these we recall the names of G. Pottier and of A. Mocquereau, both monks of Solesmes, who placed themselves at the head of the restoration movement.
The favor of Leo XIII first, and the accession to the papal throne of Pius X afterwards, marked the triumph of the Gregorian cause. Pius X instituted a special commission to restore the chant ad fidem codicum. As the fruit of so many studies, there appeared in 1908 the Graduale and in 1912 the a. for the daytime offices. It cannot be said that this official Vatican edition responds to all the demands of Gregorian paleographical criticism; but it is certain that it marks an enormous step forward compared with the Medicean edition. More accurate and up to date from the critical standpoint is the Antiphonale Monasticum, published in 1934 under the care of the monks of Solesmes. v. CORALE and NOTAZIONE MUSICALE.
Bibliography9 works
It is not possible to determine the origin of these a.: they certainly go back to very remote times. The oldest documents that make them known to us are the responsorial (2nd half of the 9th century), published by the Maurist Fathers among the works of St. Gregory the Great (PL 78, 732-33), and some later Roman antiphonaries, edited by Cardinal G. M. Tommasi (Opera omnia, IV, ed. Vezzosi, Rome 1749, pp. 1-360). They are also mentioned by Amalarius, Berno of Reichenau, Honorius of Autun, Durandus, etc. Amalarius of Metz (780-850) states explicitly that they are of Roman origin and that they were introduced into Gaul in the century preceding his own. One may therefore hold that they originated in the 7th-8th century, perhaps even shortly after the death of St. Gregory the Great (604). They open the week of immediate preparation for Christmas, which has a particular liturgical importance. These last ferias, in fact, from 17 to 25 December form as it were the core of Advent, and probably also present the primitive nucleus of this season, because already one of the earliest documents we possess on Advent, the Council of Saragossa of 380, has special prescriptions for the period from 17 December to 6 January. It is easy to understand, therefore, how these ferias came to be enriched with special liturgical pieces. The author almost always draws his inspiration from Sacred Scripture, but chooses and combines the texts with great freedom. All seven a. are addressed to the Messiah, who is invoked with the most beautiful epithets and the most expressive symbols. Each ends with veni!, an ardent, almost anguished cry, followed by a petition in relation to the titles attributed to Christ.
The singing of these a. has always been held solemn and was often accompanied by particular ceremonies and great external pomp. The customs, however, vary from place to place. It is known, for example, that in the 11th century the faithful flocked in crowds to hear them. Today they are almost entirely ignored by the people. The rubrics still consider them solemn, because they prescribe that they be sung always standing, even by canons, and performed in full, before and after the Magnificat. For no reason may they be omitted, but all must be sung, and each on the appointed day.
Characteristic is the melody with which they are clothed, of good Gregorian workmanship, which also indicates their considerable antiquity. It is the second mode, the same for all, albeit with the differences imposed by the diversity of the texts. One notices in it a feeling of intense longing for the Messiah, which harmonizes very well with the sense of the words.