Chant as Sermon: The office of the Presentation of Mary at the Temple and the Feast’s Promotion

Resumen

When on November 1372 the office of the Presentation of Mary at the Temple was celebrated for the first time in the Franciscan church of Avignon, in the presence of the papal court and co-celebrated by the Dominican bishop Benedict Vallati and the Franciscan Province Minister Francis de Fabrica, this was most certainly a great accomplishment for its author Philippe de Mézières. He had created the office with the purpose of promoting the feast of Mary’s Presentation to the Temple, particularly in France, and Europe-wide. A first section of this joint paper focuses on Philippe de Mézières’ effort in promoting the feast of Mary's presentation in some of his main works, furthered by the analysis of the structure of the office with emphasis on the incorporated Marian apocryphal material besides other religious or ecclesiastic sources. The second section with musical analyses will look into the chant-cycles for the Liturgical hours (First Vespers, Matins, Lauds and Second Vespers) and the Mass, especially on melodies that are based on chants from St Dominic’s office, created after his canonization in 1234. Through representati ,ve examples, relationships between texts and melodies are to be demonstrated and particular features underlined.