the first of these conducti, to the verse Astra tenenti/cunctipotenti, which accompanies the entrance of
King Belshazzar at the very beginning of the play, and then Daniel’s lyrical petition after King Darius
sentences him to die in the lions’ den. (In order to accompany the actual procession of actors more
effectively in performance, Noah Greenberg decided on the basis of the wordaccents to impose a regular
compound-triple meter on the five-syllable lines of text in the conductus; there is no evidence to gainsay
him.) Between them, these two samples will give an idea of the extraordinary range of poetic and musical
style encompassed by post-Gregorian versus settings.
MARIAN ANTIPHONS
The very latest genre of medieval chant to be incorporated (in some part) into the canonical liturgy was
the votive antiphon. Votive antiphons were psalmless antiphons—that is, independent Latin songs—
attached as riders onto the ends of Office services to honor or appeal to local saints or (increasingly) to
the Virgin Mary. As a human chosen by God to bear His son, Mary was thought to mediate between the
human and the divine. One fanciful image casts her as the neck connecting the Godhead and the body of
the Christian congregation. As such she was the natural recipient of personal prayers or devotional vows
(and it is from “vow” that the word “votive” is derived). From the cult of Mary arose the Marian antiphon
or “anthem to the Blessed Virgin Mary.” Our English word “anthem,” meaning a song of praise or
devotion by now as often patriotic as religious, descends (by way of the Old English antefne) from
“antiphon.” These ample songs of salutation to the Mother of God appear in great numbers in written
sources beginning early in the eleventh century. By the middle of the thirteenth, a few had been adopted
for ordinary use in monasteries to conclude the Compline service (hence the liturgical day itself). At
English cathedrals they enhanced the Evensong service, which lay worshipers attended. It was to keep
these prayers for intercession going in perpetuity that the “choral foundations”—endowments to fund the
training of choristers—were set up at English cathedrals and university chapels. They have lasted to this
day.
EX. 3-11A The Play of Daniel, Astra tenenti (conductus)