Music in the English Episcopal Liturgy: A Survey and Analysis of Melodies in Prestandard Pontifical Manuscripts.

In my PhD, I will explore the intersection of chant, liturgy, manuscript production, and
transmission in early medieval England through the lens of pontifical manuscripts written in the tenth to
thirteenth centuries. Little scholarship has been undertaken on early pontificals and their musical content.
Thus, their potential as a vehicle for understanding cultural transmission through music and episcopal
liturgy in medieval England has not been fully explored. Through a survey of notated chants in
approximately 20 surviving pontificals from this period, accompanied by a detailed case study of chants
in three pontifical rites, I will identify melodic variants and situate these within the context of
sociopolitical factors arising from their place of production, place of use, and the impact of the Norman
Conquest. This will provide insight into the significance and development of music in the Anglo-Saxon
and Anglo-Norman episcopal liturgy.