RHETORIC
. See LIBERAL ARTS
RHYMED OFFICE
. Poetic texts and chants were written in the thousands during the later Middle Ages, both
for newly instituted feasts of the Lord and for saints’ feasts. The development of this
genre of liturgical poetry and music reflects the increasing use of rhymed, accentual texts,
until after the 12th century, when this style predominated. This vast repertory of poetic
texts and music, although often reflective of the most intense spiritual or political drives
of individual regions, religious orders, monasteries, and churches, is not comprehensively
catalogued, edited, or even much studied.
The versified texts are primarily antiphons and great responsories as sung in First and
Second Vespers, Matins, and Lauds; the little Hours commonly repeat the antiphons of
Lauds, and new material is not usually fashioned for Compline. The long series of
antiphons and responsories sung at Matins was often compiled so that the chants, which
were commonly adapted for the new texts from earlier sources, were arranged in modal
order.
Margot Fassler
[See also: DIVINE OFFICE]
Crocker, Richard. “Matins Antiphons at St. Denis.” Journal of the American Musicological Society
39(1986):441–90.
Dolbeau, François. “Hagiographie latine et prose rimée: deux exemples de vies épiscopales
rédigées au XII siècle.” Sacris erudiri 32(1991):223–68.
Epstein, Marcy J. “‘Ludovicus decus regnantium’: Perspectives on the Rhymed Office.” Speculum
53(1978):283–333.
Hughes, Andrew. “Late Mediaeval Rhymed Offices.” Journal of the Plainsong and Mediaeval
Music Society 8(1985): 33–49.
——.“Modal Order and Disorder in the Rhymed Office.” Musica disciplina 37(1983):29–52.
——. “Word Painting in a Twelfth-Century Office.” In Beyond the Moon: Festschrift Luther
Dittmer, ed. Bryan Gillingham and Paul Merkley. Ottawa: Institute of Mediaeval Music, 1990,
pp. 16–27.
Jonsson, Ritva. Historia: études sur la genèse des offices versifiés. Stockholm: Almqvist and
Wiksell, 1968.
Medieval france: an encyclopedia 1502