Oral and Written Transmission in Chant

This volume deals with the materials of chant from the point of view of transmission. The early history of chant is a history of orality, of transmission by mouth to ear, and scholars of medieval music have taken up the ideas and techniques of scholars of folklore, of oral transmission, of ethnomusicology; for the chant is, in fact, an ancient music transmitted for a time in oral culture. Ironically, the use of written documents is also vital for the study of chant, involving analysis of oral issues in the writing of music.