Oral-Formulaic Theory: Annotated Bibliography

Leo Treitler. "Transmission and the Study of Music History." In Transmission and Form in Oral Traditions. Ed. Leo Treitler et al. In International Musicological Society: Report of the Thirteenth Congress (Berkeley 1977). Kassel: Barenreiter. pp. 202-11.

Proposes a new paradigm for the historical study of music as the study of its transmission. Taking medieval chant as evidence, he argues that "music was produced... through the repeated generation of melodies on the basis of a common set of underlying structures, and that this resulted in collections united by strong family resemblances" (209). Feels that an oral versus written model is simplistic, describing how generation and dissemination are really a single category and how the overall medieval paradigm must regard transmission both synchronically and diachronically.
Area: MU