“Arripui Hymnarium”: variant finals in hymns

Abstract

It is not unusual for a hymn to be found in a different mode in different manuscripts. Certain relationships are common: for example, hymns which are transmitted as mixolydian or dorian, and hymns which are transmitted with their finals a tone apart. There is also a correlation between hymns with variant finals and hymns with unstable cadence points: those that fit into more than one structural group in Szendrei's taxonomy of hymn melodies on the basis of their cadence degrees above, below or equal to the final, whatever that final shall be. This essay investigates a small group of eight hymns which are unstable by both taxomic criteria, and concludes that it is their lack of meaningful leaps upwards that causes their instability and enables them to migrate from one mode to another.

Keywords

• plainchant
• hymn
• modality