After the victory of Clovis I over Alaric II in 507, Septimania remained in the
Visigothic kingdom of Spain as the province of Septimania (sometimes also called Gallia
or Gallia Narbonensis) and often exhibited strong separatist feelings. The Muslims did
not conquer Septimania when they took the rest of the Visigothic kingdom in 713, but it
was exposed to frequent attacks until it was taken over by Pepin the Short in the 750s. Its
nobility and population continued to see itself as Gothic and Gothic law was enforced
there. Under the Carolingians, the name “Gothia” came to be used for the region,
although for over a century “Septimania” continued to be used as well.
Steven Fanning
[See also: GOTHIA]
Abadal y de Vinyals, Ramón. “El paso de Septimania del dominio godo al franco a través de la
invasión sarracena, 720–768.” Cuadernos de historia de España 19(1953):7–54.
Rivert, A.L.F. Gallia Narbonensis. London: Batsford, 1988.
Rouche, Michel. L’Aquitaine des Wisigoths aux Arabes, 418–781: naissance d’une région. Paris:
École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, 1979.
Thompson, E.A. The Goths in Spain. Oxford: Clarendon, 1969.
SEQUENCE (EARLY)
. Sequences, also known as “proses,” were long chants sung at Mass on high feast days
after the singing of the Alleluia and before the intoning of the Gospel. They were
apparently first conceived as verses to be set to long melismas (textless vocalizations
upon a single vowel sound, called melodiae or sequentiae in the sources) sung at the end
of the Alleluia. Although sequences quickly became an independent genre, whose
melodies were sometimes related to a “parent” Alleluia and sometimes not, early-
medieval sequences always looked as if they were texted melodiae. Manuscripts both east
and west of the Rhine consistently preserved sequences in two forms, with and without
texts; the untexted form probably aided in reading the notation of the texted form, which
required that the neumes be broken down into simple virgae and puncta to accommodate
individual syllables. The music of early sequences, except in beginning and closing lines,
is often made up of repeating couplets, which cause the text to unfold in paired versicles:
a, bb, cc, dd, ee, ff, g.
Although the origins of the early-medieval sequence are still in dispute, most scholars
believe that the genre began in West Frankish lands, especially in what is now northern
France, probably during the first half of the 9th century, with models later inspiring poets
and musicians in other regions; the East Frankish repertory was established in the second
half of the 9th century, with Notker of Saint-Gall (ca. 840–912) a major creative force.
Sequence repertoires in southern France and in England, both of which developed in the
10th century, were dependent primarily upon the northern French tradition, whereas
Italian sequences, also developing in the 10th century, drew upon both East and West
Frankish traditions. Manuscripts are extant in each tradition from one or two generations
after the repertoires were first created: the earliest complete, liturgically ordered
Medieval france: an encyclopedia 1654