The Function of Music in the Bursfelde Congregation Reforms

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Andreas Waczkat
• Subject Area: Musicology
• Term: from 2011 to 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 180429292

What does the Bursfelde Liber ordinarius tell about liturgical chant in the Bursfelde congregation, with special focus on the praxeological aspects of their performance? The project will pursue an extensive research into the Bursfelde Liber ordinarius, as it is represented in the Ordinarius ordinis sancti Benedicti de observantia Bursfeldensi, printed in 1474/75. This print has been the official guideline for the celebration of mass and office in the Bursfelde congregation that has consisted of nearly 100 monasteries in the year 1500. First of all, the research will investigate the incorporated striking hints concerning the performance practices of liturgical chant in the Bursfelde congregation - specifications about vocal techniques, participation of singers, the singers' postures and gestures. To evaluate the position of the text as part of the framework of the Bursfelde liturgical practice, the mentioned chants have to be compared with the corresponding liturgical books. There are at least 25 manuscripts between 15th and first half of the 16th century containing the Bursfelde Ordinarius that have to be examined if they preserve the text of the print, if they have local adaptations or present a substantially different text. To find out what is particular of this text or typical for the genre, and what might be originating from a different tradition, the Bursfelde Ordinarius will be compared to Libri ordinarii of other tradtions. The results will be published as a monography including a critical edition of the Bursfelde Liber ordinarius. Additionally, a digitalisation of the print as well of some of the manuscripts with relevant variants will be presented as searchable PDF-files, using the software Transkribus. Transkribus is part of the tranScriptorium project that is concerned with the automatic recognition of handwritten text (HTR). The highly diverse scripts, however, cannot be recognized ad hoc. First, it is necessary to tag a relevant amount of areas within images files and reference them with transcriptions. Output formats are - besides searchable PDF-files - also TEI and METS. When using Transkribus as part of the Liber-ordinarius-project, as a side effect the automatic text recognition for 15th and 16th century scripts will be improved according to the HTR-engine's training.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants