Timothy Allen Striplin, Ph.D. 2005

Advisor: John Nádas

Dissertation Title: The Eighth- and Ninth-Century Frankish Alleluia

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Dissertation Abstract:

This dissertation is a study of the Alleluia of the Mass as it developed in the eighth and ninth centuries. It presents a reassessment of the earliest evidence for the growth, development, and transmission of the Mass Alleluia repertory within the Carolingian world. It is argued here that the Frankish program of “Romanization” involved not only the adoption of the cantus romanus but also the transformation and adaptation of that chant by the Franks. In the process of hybridization, the northern ecclesiastical reformers added a number of newly-composed Alleluias to the relatively small fund provided them by the Romans. This study explores these eighth- and ninth-century “Frankish Alleluias.” An examination of their melodies, texts, liturgical assignments, and patterns of transmission offers evidence with chronological significance. 

Comparative analysis of the Alleluias appearing in the three Old Roman gradualia and the six manuscripts edited in Hesbert’s Antiphonale Missarum Sextuplex results in the identification of fifty-seven early Frankish additions to the Alleluia repertory. Tracing the evidence of these Alleluias preserved in twenty-seven Frankish manuscripts of the eighth through the early twelfth centuries allows for the division of the sample into three distinct groups. Among the first group are Frankish Alleluias of local import that appear in isolated pockets of the Empire, or those chants presenting scant, scattered, or severely limited evidence of their existence (Alleluias of Limited Distribution). The second group comprises Frankish Alleluias with universally-known verses, but with widely divergent regional melodic traditions (Regional Alleluias). Only chants of the third group are stable textually and melodically (the Carolingian Core Alleluias). 

A study of melodic characteristics and liturgical assignments reveals two layers within the Core: one early layer, in place by the 790s, and a later group that entered the repertory over the course of the first half of the ninth century. The Compiègne Antiphoner, F-Pn lat. 17436, is the earliest surviving manuscript to include the Core in toto. I conclude that, rather than resulting from a single, unified reform effort, the Frankish Alleluias entered the repertory within the context of the ongoing reforms of Charlemagne, Louis the Pious, and Charles the Bald. 

Dr. Striplin has become a marketing technologist. He currently works as a Sr. Manager in Marketing Technology at Xylem, Inc., a global water technology company.