Singing the Archives

Beginning in the Spring semester of 2023 under the direction of Associate Professor of Music History Sarah Williams, undergraduate and graduate students at the University of South Carolina School of Music recorded historically-informed performances of plainchant manuscripts in the collection dating from the 13th through the 16th centuries.
Experience the audible history of the medieval music manuscripts in the University of South Carolina’s Irvin Department of Rare Books and Special Collections.

Digital Resources

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Deus omnium

This chant is an antiphon, or musical setting of a psalm, in this case, Psalm 151. It was sung as part of services called the "Summer Histories," or the period after Pentecost (the 7th Sunday after Easter). "The responsories and Lessons for the period after Pentecost draw their texts from Kings, Wisdom, Job, Tobit, Judith, Esther, Ezra and Maccabees. During this time, the lessons and responsories build liturgical sets which are drawn exclusively out of one of these books at a time. These sets of responsories are then referred to by the book from which they come (i.e.;'From Kings,' 'From Judith,' etc.) and are often referred to as the 'summer Histories.'" Katherine Helsen, "The Great Responsories of the Divine Office: Aspects of Structure and Transmission" (PhD dissertation, Universitat Regensburg, 2008), 10.