Abstract
Although monastic rules and the extant liturgical sources offer a documentary view of the ideal musical practices in medieval English nunneries, such additional sources as visitation injunctions, records from the dissolution, architectural remains, and the charting of extant books from nunnery libraries provide a realistic corrective. The size of monastic houses (ranging from tiny to well populated), the social class of the nuns, the relative wealth and poverty of the establishment, and the quality of leadership all impact the character of the liturgy. While some contemporary authors express concerns about the ability of nuns to fulfill their basic liturgical duties1, the extant information strongly suggests that despite poverty and the lack of a comprehensive education, most medieval choir nuns sing the office regularly, their piety formed daily by the texts of the psalms, the poetry of the hymns, and the music of both the core Gregorian chant repertoire and later medieval additions. The ceaseless round of worship, this central duty of monastic life, is both burden and blessing to the medieval nun, not an ideal but a reality.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Notes
David N. Bell, What Nuns Read: Books & Libraries in Medieval English Nunneries, Cistercian Studies Series 158 (Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 1995), pp. 33–37.
J.B.L. Tolhurst, ed., The Ordinale and Customary of the Benedictine Nuns of Barking Abbey, Henry Bradshaw Society, vol. 45 (London: Harrison and Sons, 1927), p. 67.
Nicholas Watson, “Censorship and Cultural Change in Late Medieval England: Vernacular Theology, the Oxford Translation Debate, and Arundel’s Constitutions of 1409,” Speculum 70:4(October 1995):822–64.
Eamon Duffy, The Stripping of the Altars: Traditional Religion in England 1400–1580 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992), pp. 9–130 passim.
F. C. Hingeston–Randolph, The Register of John de Grandisson, Bishop of Exeter (AD 1327–1369) Pt. I 1327–1330 (London: George Bell and Sons, 1894), p. 214.
A. Jessopp, ed., Visitations of the Diocese of Norwich, A.D. 1492–1532, Camden Society, n.s. 43 (Westminster: Nichols and Sons, 1888), p. 209.
Edward Peacock, “Injunctions of John Longland, Bishop of Lincoln, to Certain Monasteries in his Diocese,” Archaeologia: Or Miscellaneous Tracts relating to Antiquity 47(1882):55–56.
A.T. Bannister, ed., Registrum Thome Spofford Episcopi Herefordensis, A.D.MCCCCXXn–MCCCCXLVin, Canterbury and York Society, vol. 23 (London: 120 Chancery Lane, 1919), p. 81.
A. W. Goodman, ed., Registrum Henrid Woodlock Diocesis Wintoniensis (A.D. 1305–1316), Canterbury and York Society, vols. 43 and 44 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1940–41), pp. 516–17.
Susan Boynton, “The Liturgical Role of Children in Monastic Customaries from the Central Middle Ages,” Studia Liturgica 28(1998):197–99.
F.C. Hingeston–Randolph, ed., The Register of Walter de Stapledon, Bishop of Exeter (A.D. 1307–1326) (London: George Bell and Sons, 1892), pp. 316–17.
Margot E. Fassler and Rebecca A. Baltzer, eds., The Divine Office in the Latin Middle Ages: Methodology and Source Studies, Regional Developments, Hagiography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000), p. 10.
W. H. Blaauw, “Epsicopal Visitations of the Benedictine Nunnery of Easebourne,” Sussex Archaeological Collections 9(1857):12.
William Dugdale, Monasticon Anglicanutn, reved., ed. John Caley, Henry Ellis, and Bulkeley Bandinel, 6 vols. (London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Browne, 1817–20), 3:424–25.
For more complete discussions of this topic see Frank LI. Harrison, Music in Medieval Britain (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1963), pp. 202–218 and Francis Routh, Early English Organ Musicfiom the Middle Ages to 1837 (London: Barrie and Jenkins, 1973), pp. 1–19.
MacKenzie E.C. Walcott, “Inventories and Valuations of Religious Houses at the Time of the Dissolution, from the Public Record Office,” Archaeologia: Or Miscellaneous Tracts relating to Antiquity 43(1871):245.
Marjorie J. Harrison, The Nunnery of Nun Appleton, Borthwick Papers 98 (York: University of York, 2001), pp. 17–18.
Copyright information
© 2006 Anne Bagnall Yardley
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Yardley, A.B. (2006). The Reality of Musical Life. In: Performing Piety. The New Middle Ages. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-137-05733-4_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-137-05733-4_4
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-73175-6
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-05733-4
eBook Packages: Palgrave History CollectionHistory (R0)