A Collegiate Church on the Divide

The church of Our Lady in Tongeren, probably founded in the later fourth century, is the oldest church in the Low Countries and the oldest Marian church north of the Alps. After the church's rededication in the early ninth century, its chapter of twenty canons continued to celebrate its liturgy until the dissolution of the chapter in 1797. A collection of fifteen medieval liturgical and chant manuscripts (tenth-fifteenth century) has been preserved almost entirely in its original location, the present-day Basilica of the Nativity of Our Lady - a collection unique in the former diocese of Liege and in the Low Countries in general, containing important portions of local and regional traditions and repertory, such as historiae. The aim of this book is to set out more precisely the specificity of chant in Tongeren, i.e. to frame its chant repertory within the broader repertory and history of chant. Given Tongeren's location in the kingdom of Lorraine (843-869) and in the homonymous 'transitional' zone that was marked by influences from both East- and West-Francia into the late Middle Ages, this specificity resides in a particular combination of various parameters. Therefore, this book undertakes an analysis of the chant repertory in Tongeren with regard to its global profile and the composition of its repertory. Dr. Pieter Mannaerts works at Resonant, the Flemish Center for Musical Heritage; he is a research fellow at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Belgium) and lecturer at the Center for Plainchant in Drongen (Ghent). The PhD dissertation that forms the basis of the book (Musicology, Leuven, 2008) was awarded the Mgr DeClercq Prize of the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Science and the Arts. Pieter Mannaerts edited Beghinae in cantu instructae. Musical patrimony from Flemish Beguinages (Late Middle Ages - 18th C.) and published on the symphonic music of Flemish composers and on various aspects of plainchant and (early) music in the Low Countries.