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On Thu, 11 July you wrote: >Music played a central role in the services of the church. The >Divine Office of the monks was chanted and sung, with the Psalms >as a central component. The mass and other liturgical services >included chants, antiphons, as well as lyrics especially written >for the services. Of the many hymns written in the medieval >period, a group of seven are considered classics. One of the >seven great hymns is reprinted below, with a literal translation. > All of these hymns were composed in Latin. Latin, like Greek, is >an inflected language: it uses endings on words to indicate >grammatical function (subject, direct object, indirect object) >rather than position in the sentence, as with modern English (Man >bites dog? or Dog bites man? It makes a big difference where you >put the words). Consequently, Latin sentences are leaner and can >get by with less helper words (such as "by" and "with"). Latin >poetry then has a clean simplicity in its appearance, in which >each word bears a great deal of weight and often multiple >meanings. The structure of the sentences are >aesthetically satisfying and can serve to enhance meaning. > Although no translation does justice to another language, it is >possible to examine the original side-by-side with a literal >translation and see how the poetry works. No effort has been made >in the translation on the right to invent English rhyming or >meter. To hear the patterning of this poem, read the Latin on the >left side. This hymn, and the other classic hymns, are also available >in innumerable versions by later composers, including.... Karen, I realize that the above is a draft but allow me to suggest some revisions and additions that may be helpful. To begin with, chanted and sung mean the same thing, why use both. The variety of songs include psalms, antiphons, hymns, sequences and so on. A web site that I'm sure would be useful for you is Cantus, which you can reach through the Medieval Labyrinth site at Georgetown University and has an extensive document file on plain chant that describes the types and their uses in the Divine Office. There is also a book on medieval music by Yunkin (?). I also agree with the suggestion to use the correct nomenclature for parts of speach rather than "helper words" (also, the adjective "fewer" should be used in reference to numbers rather than "less"). Finally, the hymn _Veni creator spiritus_ is traditionally ascribed to Rauban Maurus, the great ninth century abbot of Fulda, and the "praeceptor germania." As a result of my research I have found that the Fourth Lateran Council (1215) required the hymn to be sung by the cathedral chapter when it convened to elect a new bishop. Good luck with your book. ===================== Dale R. Streeter Department of History University of Wisconsin-Madison %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%