Taking up questions and issues in early chant studies, this volume of essays addresses some of the topics raised in James McKinnon's The Advent Project: The Later Seventh-Century Creation of the Roman Mass, the last book before his untimely death in February 1999. A distinguished group of chant scholars examine the formation of the liturgy, issues of theory and notation, and Carolingian and post-Carolingian chant. Special studies include the origins of musical notations, nuances of early chant performance (with accompanying downloadable resources), musical style and liturgical structure in the early Divine Office, and new sources for Old-Roman chant. Western Plainchant in the First Millenium offers new information and new insights about a period of crucial importance in the growth of the liturgy and music of the Western Church.

List of Plates, List of Figures, List of Tables, List of Music Examples, Contents of the Compact Disc, Preface, Abbreviations, 1. Afterthoughts on The Origins of the Liturgical Year, 2. The Desert, the City and Psalmody in the Late Fourth Century, 3. Monastic Reading and the Emerging Roman Chant Repertory, 4. Songs of Exile, Songs of Pilgrimage, 5. The Geography of Martinmas, 6. Style and Structure in Early Offices of the Sanctorale, 7. From the Advent Project to the Late Middle Ages: Some Issues of Transmission, 8. Glosses on Music and Grammar and the Advent of Music Writing in the West, 9. Concerning a Chronology for Chant, 10. Tollite portas: An Ante-Evangelium Reclaimed?, 11. The Diagrams Interpolated into the Musica Isidori and the Scale of Old Hispanic Chant, 12. Old Roman Votive-Mass Chants in Florence, Biblioteca Riccardiana, MSS 299 and 300 and Vatican City, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Archivio San Pietro F 11: A Source Study, 13. Reading the Melodies of the Old Roman Mass Proper: A Hypothesis Defended, 14. 'Epulari autem et gaudere oportebat', 15. From Alleluia to Sequence: Some Definitions of Relations, 16. Some Notkerian Sequences in Germanic Print Culture of the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries, 17. Modal Neumes at Sens, 18. Singing the Nuance in Communion Antiphons, Bibliography, Index of Manuscripts, Incipits Index, General Index