Chant circulation as an ecology of mind : considering neo-Gregorian super-regional diffusion as a communication system

While studies of chant transmission have historically focused on the variants as carrier of information, this project considers variants to be information in and of themselves. In addition to being the examination of how medieval plainchant traveled and transformed across Western Europe, the study of chant transmission in the Middle Ages is ultimately the study of variants and the information they carry. I draw on Gregory Bateson’s Ecology of Mind to reconceive transmission as a sophisticated information system made up of these variants. In Bateson’s sense of both information and system, I will use chant transmission to demonstrate not only an ecology of mind, but a new way of viewing the networks present within chant transmission. As well, I build on Greg Urban’s work on modern metaculture to theorize how metaculture functions in a medieval setting and how the metacultural factors that surround chant transmission contribute to such a system. My case studies consist of a subset of neo-Gregorian chants and their super-regional diffusion by considering multiple iterations of each chant throughout Western Europe. In doing so, I will examine what variants can tell us about the transmission of these chants and how these variants contribute to a wider system. By tracing the communication and transformation of these chants and their variants, I will demonstrate how the system of chant transmission functions, shedding light on the chants, the travel of information, and information systems more broadly.

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Philosophy

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Music

Grantor

The University of Texas at Austin

Year dc:date.issued

2025

Author dc:creator

• Klassen, Andrea Kate

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Nardini, Luisa

Committee member dc:contributor.committeemember

• James Gabrillo, Casey Boyle, Guido Olivieri, Andrew Dell'Antonio

• Liturgy
• Notation
• Plainchant

Identifier URI

https://doi.org/10.26153/tsw/62142

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:repositories.lib.utexas.edu:2152/134820