The Case of the Chants of the So-Called Missa Graeca
Nina-Maria Wanek
Byzantina Australiensia vol. 27 (2023 forthcoming)
ISBN: 978-90-04-51307-5
E-ISBN: 978-90-04-51488-1
ISSN: 0725-3079
Cultural Transfer of Music between Byzantium and the West?: The Case of the Chants
of the so-called Missa Graeca provides for the first time a comprehensive study of
the Greek-texted ordinary chants (Gloria/Doxa, Credo/Pisteuo, Sanctus/Hagios
and Agnus Dei/Amnos tu theu) in Western manuscripts of the 9th–14th centuries.
These chants – known under the name “Missa Graeca” – have been the subject
of scientifc research for over a hundred years. So far, however, research has been
undertaken almost exclusively from a Western point of view, without knowledge of
the Byzantine sources. The book presents an in-depth analysis of these chants and
their historical, linguistic and theological-liturgical environment from a Byzantine
perspective for the first time. It is thus able to refute numerous and largely
contradictory theories on the origin and development of the Missa Graeca and
provides new answers to old questions.
Mag. Dr. Nina-Maria Wanek (1974), Vienna University, is a senior researcher in
Byzantine and Modern Greek music from the middle ages until the 20th century,
Western plainchant as well as 20th century Austrian music. She has published
numerous monographs and articles on these topics, including a book on
Sticheraria in Late- and Post-Byzantine Times as well as on the Byzantine music-
liturgical manuscripts at the Austrian National Library.