Composition of The Manuscript
The Tonary of Saint-Bénigne of Dijon is organized in a very rare form of a fully notated tonary, which serves like a fully notated music manuscript for mass (gradual) and office chant (antiphonary).
The first division of the chant book is between the book's gradual (fol. 13r-155v) and an antiphonary fragment (fol. 156r-162v) which has the Matins for Palm Sunday, St. Blasius and St. Hylarius in the conventional liturgical order, but with tonal rubrics. The last leaf was added from another book to use the blank versoside for additions on the last pages written by other hands, chant notated in adiastematic neumes but without alphabetic notation and even diastematic neumes with alphabetic notation (fol. 160r-163r).
The gradual itself with proper mass chant is divided into six parts: The first are antiphons (introiti and communions) (fol. 13r-53r). The next three parts are chant genres which precedes lessons: alleluia verses for gospel readings (fol. 53v-69r), the benedictiones (hymnus trium puerorum) for prophetic readings (fol. 75r-76v), and the graduels for epistel readings (fol. 77r-98v). The last two parts are an offertorial (fol. 99r-151r) and a tractus collection (fol. 69r-74v; 151v-155v), dedicated to the genre which replace the alleluia verses during fasten time for all kinds of scriptural readings.
The third level of division are the eight parts according to the oktoechos in the order of autentus protus, plagi proti, autentus deuterus etc. In the first part, every tonal section has all introits according to the liturgical year cycle and then all communions according to the liturgical order. The whole disposition is not new, but it is identical with tonaries from different regions of the Cluniac Monastic Association. The only difference is that every chant is not represented by an incipit, it is fully notated in neumes and in alphabetic notation as well, so that even cantors who do not know the chant can memorize it with this tonary together with its tonus.
As an example might serve the Introitus "Repleatur os meum" used as a refrain for psalm 70 during the procession into the church, at the beginning of the morning mass on Saturday before Pentecost. The introit was written in the first part of the antiphons and is quite at the beginning of the deuterus section (written as heading on each page), hence an introit in the 3rd tone or "autentus deuterus":
The beginning with the psalm incipit and the ending of the psalmody, here called differentia no. "ii", follows the antiphon. The antiphons of the entrance (introits) have the gradual order of the mass as a rubric at the margin (on a verso page as here: left), i.e. the serial for the day with gradual (R), alleluia (All) or tractus (TR), offertory (OF), and communio (CO). A conventional tonary with the list of differentiae was also attached to the beginning of the manuscript. It was used as an index to find the differentia no. ii or melodic ending used during the recitation of the psalm - here the incipit refers to psalm 70 of the Vulgata. This tonary is preceded by an alleluia collection written in central French neumes in campo aperto.
The style of William of Volpiano's tonary which follows, is very unique, and Michel Huglo called it one of the finest tonaries which survived in the manuscript collections today. The scribe used red ink for the chant text and different colours to decorate its initials, while the neume and the alphabetic notation was written in black ink.
Read more about this topic: Antiphonary Of St. Benigne
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