Corpus Troporum Dataset: A Digital Catalog of Trope Elements in Medieval Chant

Abstract

We present a dataset of occurrences of so-called trope elements in manuscripts of European medieval chant. Trope elements are short melodic phrases interpolated in a fixed liturgical music repertoire and reflect changes and additions to liturgical chants shaped by regional aesthetic and political circumstances. The transmission of trope elements has been documented in the printed edition of Corpus Troporum (CT). We have digitized and consolidated the catalogs of seven printed volumes of CT. This dataset allows the comprehensive collection of individual trope elements to be analyzed using computational methods, such as network analysis, providing a clearer understanding of medieval music transmission.

Fabian C. Moss

Digital Music Philology and Music Theory

Fabian C. Moss is an assistant professor for Digital Music Philology and Music Theory at Julius-Maximilians University Würzburg (JMU), Germany.