Mori Hiroko

Modal Assignments are usually notated in the medieval manuscripts of antiphons to show the psalm tone and <saeculorum amen> formula with which the melody of antiphon is to be linked. The selection the the mode of antiphon was one of the most important concerns for the medieval singers after they began to sing divine office together in a choir. As Regino of Prun, a music theorist around 900, reported, however the psalmodies were often sung without harmony because of disagreement in the modal decision among musicians. Looking at the conflicting modal assignments, one can trace, or at least imagine, the struggles and efforts of medieval musicians with which they tried to reconcile the practice of antiphonal singing with the modal theory that came into their practice long after their origin.