Analysis

Abstract

Abstract Chapter 5 takes a broader analytical perspective, using material and insights from the four case studies of Chapters 1 to 4 to consider questions that arise when comparing individual rituals. Did commonalities exist? To what extent did specific geographical areas and institutions maintain local versions of the deathbed rituals? Conversely, to what extent did standardization occur? The chapter also uses evidence provided by the musical material to revisit questions scholars have previously posed. Is there a particular ritual (and accompanying chant repertory) that seems to have originated in Rome? Were the rituals’ chants borrowed from other liturgies, or were they created specifically for the time of an individual’s death? Additionally, Chapter 5 considers how deathbed rituals intersect with issues of current interest in scholarly discourse: medieval conceptions of the afterlife and the relationships among melody and text in medieval plainchant.