For the first time since the 1530s, monastic music is being heard at Buckland Abbey, a former Cistercian monastery in Devon. A partnership between the University of Exeter and the National Trust has facilitated the return of a rare 15th-century manuscript used by the monks. Known as the Buckland Book, this manuscript served as a vital guide for daily rituals and contains a collection of plainchant music. The manuscript is displayed in a new exhibition, with live performances scheduled in August.
Hardly any monastic music from medieval England survives, due to the widespread destruction of manuscripts during the Dissolution of the Monasteries.
Now part of the British Library's collection, the richly decorated Buckland Book (c.1450) was once a vital guide for the abbey's daily rituals.
The chants are written in plainchant style—single lines of music sung in unison—but what makes them stand out is their deviation from the expected liturgical structure.
Whoever compiled this collection seems to have been unusually creative, pulling together words and music from many different sources.
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