The Plainsong and Medieval Music Society (PMMS), also spelled as the Plainsong and Mediæval Music Society, is an English music society. Founded in 1888, the PMMS primarily researches, promotes and produces publications on

medieval music Medieval music encompasses the sacred music, sacred and secular music of Western Europe during the Middle Ages, from approximately the 6th to 15th centuries. It is the Dates of classical music eras, first and longest major era of Western class ...

, particularly the liturgical

chant A chant (from French ', from Latin ', "to sing") is the iterative speaking or singing of words or sounds, often primarily on one or two main pitches called reciting tones. Chants may range from a simple melody involving a limited set of no ...

from that time to the present. A registered charity since 1987, it has been particularly influential in encouraging the revival of

Anglican chant Anglican chant, also known as English chant, is a way to singing, sing Meter (poetry), unmetrical texts, including psalms and canticles from the Bible, by matching the natural Prosody (linguistics), speech-rhythm of the words to the notes of a s ...

. Musicologists associated with the PMMS include H. B. Briggs, Anselm Hughes, G. H. Palmer, and

George Ratcliffe Woodward George Ratcliffe Woodward (27 December 1848 – 3 March 1934) was an English Anglicanism, Anglican priest who wrote mostly religious verse, both original and translated from ancient authors. The best-known of these were written to fit traditio ...

, and more recently

Gustave Reese Gustave Reese ( ; November 29, 1899 – September 7, 1977) was an American musicologist and teacher. Reese is known mainly for his work on medieval and Renaissance music, particularly with his two publications ''Music in the Middle Ages'' (1940 ...

, D. H. Turner, John Stevens,

Christopher Page Christopher Howard Page (born 8 April 1952) is an English expert on medieval music, instruments and performance practice, together with the social and musical history of the guitar in England from the sixteenth century to the nineteenth. He h ...

and

Margaret Bent Margaret Bent CBE , (born Margaret Hilda Bassington; 23 December 1940) is an English musicologist who specialises in music of the late medieval and Renaissance eras. In particular, she has written extensively on the Old Hall Manuscript, Engli ...

. The society is best known for its publications, which number over a hundred; most of them are either essays on, or editions of, plainchant. Through

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press was the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted a letters patent by King Henry VIII in 1534, it was the oldest university press in the world. Cambridge University Press merged with Cambridge Assessme ...

, it publishes the journal '' Plainsong and Medieval Music'' twice a year, previously known as the ''Journal of the Plainsong & Mediaeval Music Society''.

History

The Plainsong and Medieval Music Society (PMMS) was founded in London in November 1888 to promote the study of

and plainchant in general. This is recounted in a March 1889 issue of ''

The Musical Times ''The Musical Times'' was an academic journal of classical music edited and produced in the United Kingdom. It was originally created by Joseph Mainzer in 1842 as ''Mainzer's Musical Times and Singing Circular'', but in 1844 he sold it to Alfr ...

'': An early 1896 PMMS publication gives the President as the '

Bishop of Salisbury The Bishop of Salisbury is the Ordinary (officer), ordinary of the Church of England's Diocese of Salisbury in the Province of Canterbury. The diocese covers much of the counties of Wiltshire and Dorset. The Episcopal see, see is in the Salisbur ...

', which would have been

John Wordsworth John Wordsworth (21 September 1843 – 16 August 1911) was an English Anglican bishop and classical scholar. He was Oriel Professor of the Interpretation of Holy Scripture at the University of Oxford from 1883 to 1885, and Bishop of Salisbury ...

at the time. The Vice-Presidents listed included several musicians and clergymen, including the Bishop of Argyll and The Isles (

Alexander Chinnery-Haldane James Robert Alexander Chinnery-Haldane (né Haldane, sometime Haldane-Chinnery; 14 August 1840 – 16 February 1906) was an Anglican bishop in the last decades of the 19th century and the first decade of the 20th century., ''Scottish Episcopal C ...

), Hickman Beckett Bacon,

Frederick Bridge Sir John Frederick Bridge (5 December 1844 – 18 March 1924) was an English organist, composer, teacher and writer. From a musical family, Bridge became a church organist before he was 20, and he achieved his ambition to become a cathedral ...

Edward John Hopkins Dr. Edward John Hopkins FRCO (30 June 1818 - 4 February 1901) was an English organist and composer. The organist and composer John Larkin Hopkins was his cousin. Life He was born on 30 June 1818 in Westminster. He was the eldest son of George ...

George Martin Sir George Henry Martin (3 January 1926 – 8 March 2016) was an English record producer, arranger, composer, conductor, and musician. He was commonly referred to as the "fifth Beatle" because of his extensive involvement in each of the Beatle ...

Henry Fleetwood Sheppard Henry Fleetwood Sheppard (London, 5 February 1824 – November 1901) was an English clergyman who collaborated on the collection ''Church Songs'' (1884) with Sabine Baring-Gould. Born in London on 5 February 1824, Sheppard graduated from Cambridge ...

John Stainer Sir John Stainer (6 June 1840 – 31 March 1901) was an English composer and organist whose music, though seldom performed today (with the exception of ''The Crucifixion (Stainer), The Crucifixion'', still heard at Passiontide in some Angli ...

and

Arthur Sullivan Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan (13 May 1842 – 22 November 1900) was an English composer. He is best known for 14 comic opera, operatic Gilbert and Sullivan, collaborations with the dramatist W. S. Gilbert, including ''H.M.S. Pinaf ...

, among others. The honorary secretary from the founding until 1901 was H. B. Briggs. Among the society's many council members at the time were W. J. Birkbeck, Arthur Henry Brown,

Somers Clarke George Somers Clarke (1841–1926) was an architect and English Egyptologist who worked on the restoration and design of churches and at a number of sites throughout Egypt, notably in El Kab, where he built a house. He was born in Brighton. ...

Walter Frere Walter Howard Frere (23 November 1863 – 2 April 1938) was an English Anglican bishop and liturgist. He was a co-founder of the Anglican religious order the Community of the Resurrection, Mirfield, and Bishop of Truro (1923–1935). Biogr ...

John Thomas Micklethwaite John Thomas Micklethwaite (3 May 1843 – 28 October 1906) was an English architect and archaeologist. He had a long association with Westminster Abbey, and was noted for his criticisms of the current practices of church restoration. Biography He w ...

, George Herbert Palmer,

Athelstan Riley John Athelstan Laurie Riley (10 August 1858 – 17 November 1945) was an English Hymnwriter, hymn writer and hymn translator. Biography Riley was born in Paddington, London, and attended Pembroke College, Oxford, where obtained his BA in 1881 ...

, Charles Francis Abdy Williams and

. The PMMS began with a choir, which lasted a few decades. The society was an important step for the growing late 19th-century interest in singing

Gregorian chant Gregorian chant is the central tradition of Western plainsong, plainchant, a form of monophony, monophonic, unaccompanied sacred song in Latin (and occasionally Greek language, Greek) of the Roman Catholic Church. Gregorian chant developed main ...

in the

vernacular Vernacular is the ordinary, informal, spoken language, spoken form of language, particularly when perceptual dialectology, perceived as having lower social status or less Prestige (sociolinguistics), prestige than standard language, which is mor ...

. It was thus influential in encouraging the development of

. Since 27 August 1987, the PMMS has been a registered

charity Charity may refer to: Common meanings * Charitable organization or charity, a non-profit organization whose primary objectives are philanthropy and social well-being of persons * Charity (practice), the practice of being benevolent, giving and sha ...

with the

Charity Commission for England and Wales The Charity Commission for England and Wales is a non-ministerial government department, non-ministerial department of Government of the United Kingdom, His Majesty's Government that regulates Charitable organization, registered charities in En ...

; its charity number is 297147. The musicologist Anselm Hughes was a major figure of the society; he was secretary from 1926 until 1974. Among the more recent academics associated with the PMMS are

, D. H. Turner,

Frank Llewellyn Harrison Francis Llewellyn Harrison, FBA, better known as "Frank Harrison" or "Frank Ll. Harrison" (29 September 1905 – 29 December 1987) was one of the leading musicologists of his time and a pioneering ethnomusicologist. Initially trained as an or ...

, John Stevens,

and John Harper. The society is currently led by a team of Officers, Executive Trustees, Advisory Trustees and Honorary Officers; chief among these are the Officers: the Chair Helen Deeming of

Royal Holloway, University of London Royal Holloway, University of London (RH), formally incorporated as Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, is a public university, public research university and a constituent college, member institution of the federal University of London. It ...

, the Secretary Thomas Schmidt of

University of Huddersfield The University of Huddersfield is a public research university located in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England. It has been a University since 1992, but has its origins in a series of institutions dating back to the 19th century. It has made te ...

, and the Treasurer Christian Thomas Leitmeir of

Magdalen College, Oxford Magdalen College ( ) is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford. It was founded in 1458 by Bishop of Winchester William of Waynflete. It is one of the wealthiest Oxford colleges, as of 2022, and ...

Publications

Since its inception, the society has aimed to be a central resource its disciplines, publishing facsimile manuscripts, translating non-English documents, and creating a comprehensive catalogue of all pre-

Reformation The Reformation, also known as the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation, was a time of major Theology, theological movement in Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the p ...

plainsong and measured music composed in England. Its chief objective has always been academic scholarship, for which it is best known. By the mid-20th century, the PMMS had published around 70 items, split between plainsong essays and editions of plainsong. Among the more notable publications was a partial translation of Peter Wagner's ''Einführung in die gregorianischen Melodien'', Frere's ''Graduale Sarisburiense'' (1892–1894), the ''Antiphonale Sarisburiense'' (1901–1924), the ''Bibliotheca Musico-Liturgica'' (1894–1901) catalogue, ''Early English Harmony'' by Harry Ellis Wooldridge and Hughes, an

Old Hall Manuscript The Old Hall Manuscript (British Library, Add MS 57950) is the largest, most complete, and most significant source of English sacred music of the late 14th and early 15th centuries, and as such represents the best source for late Medieval English ...

edition, ''Worcester Mediaeval Harmony'' by Hughes and ''Polyphonia Sacra'' by Van den Borren.

Selected publications

* * * * * Originally published in German as ''Einführung in die gregorianischen Melodien''. * * *

''Plainsong and Medieval Music''

The PMMS publishes the academic journal Plainsong and Medieval Music (PMM; or Plainsong & Medieval Music) twice a year. It is published by

, with a scope that covers medieval music, and plainchant from the Middle Ages to the present. Renamed in 1992, it is a continuation of the Journal of the Plainsong & Mediaeval Music Society (1978–1990). The journal consists of new scholarship, book reviews and both an annual bibliography and discography concerning chant-related publications and recordings. Its current editors are Catherine A. Bradley of

Ohio University Ohio University (Ohio or OU) is a Public university, public research university with its main campus in Athens, Ohio, United States. The university was first conceived in the 1787 contract between the United States Department of the Treasury#Re ...

and Daniel J. DiCenso of the

College of the Holy Cross The College of the Holy Cross is a private Jesuit liberal arts college in Worcester, Massachusetts, United States. It was founded by educators Benedict Joseph Fenwick and Thomas F. Mulledy in 1843 under the auspices of the Society of Jesus. ...

. The more frequently cited articles of the journal include: * * * *

References

Citations

Sources

* * * * * * *

External links

*
''Plainsong and Medieval Music''
journal
Customary
as amended on 26 April 2008 {{Authority control 1888 establishments in the United Kingdom Learned societies of the United Kingdom Text publication societies Music-related professional associations Anglican church music Music education organizations Music education in the United Kingdom