Trope (Gregorian chant)

In connection with Gregorian chant , the trope is an addition and an extension to the established liturgical texts and melodies. This complements the template both lyrically and melodically, but without changing its own quality. Tropics can appear as purely melodic additions ( melisms ), as text poems on top of existing melisms or as additional texts with their own melodies that are placed in front of, inserted or appended to the underlying song.

A special case of the trope is the ( classical ) sequence .

Word origin

The term tropus is derived from Latin from ancient Greek τρόπος ( trópos ), which means something like "turn, reversal, reversal".

historical development

The first tropics emerged in the Carolingian period . The Council of Trent eliminated the tropics in liturgical chants, the beginnings of the text in the Kyrie can still be recognized today in the Latin names of several chorale masses .

See also

• Quem quaeritis trope
• Tropar

literature

• Franz Karl Praßl : trope. In: Oesterreichisches Musiklexikon . Online edition, Vienna 2002 ff., ISBN 3-7001-3077-5 ; Print edition: Volume 5, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 2006, ISBN 3-7001-3067-8 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ August Gerstmeier: Kyrie. II. Church music . In: Walter Kasper (Ed.): Lexicon for Theology and Church . 3. Edition. tape 6 . Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau 1997, Sp. 553 .