Chant and Urban Procession in Rouen 1150–1450

Abstract

A rich body of processional chants from Rouen cathedral, the metropolitan church of the province of Normandy, survives from the beginning of the thirteenth century, a period defined roughly by the fall of the duchy of Normandy and the first building campaigns of the Gothic edifice at Rouen. These processions, performed from within the cathedral choir to beyond the city walls, reveal a great deal about musical life at Rouen, not only the inner workings of the liturgy of the cathedral chapter, but also its ceremonial engagement with the archbishop of Rouen, monastic communities, lay confraternities, and the general public. Based on three sources in particular—gradual BnF lat 904, processional BmR A. 551, and ordinal BmR Y. 110—this study presents a range of processions from simple to complex: processions before Mass, after Vespers, and after Matins; archiepiscopal processions, particularly Palm Sunday; and the lengthy processions of the Rogation Days. Its culmination is a detailed examination of these three Rogation days, which in Rouen, as in many cities and towns, were rituals expansive in terms of time, distance, and participation. I discuss some unexpected particularities of Rouen: the marshy, mountainous topography encountered east of the city wall on Rogation Wednesday, the impact of topographical elevation on the function or experience of procession, and the culmination of the three Rogation Days in the ceremonial release, a privilege unique to Rouen, of one prisoner on Ascension Thursday during the singing of the hymn Salve festa dies.