Clear and concise, the book is designed for both those to whom the subject is new and those who require material for advanced studies. It begins with an explanation of the liturgies that plainchant was created to serve and moves on to describe all the chief genres of chant, differing types of liturgical book and plainchant notation.

After an exposition of early medieval writing on plainchant, a historical survey follows the constantly changing nature of the repertory from the earliest times to the restoration of medieval chant a century ago. Includes 206 music examples, 18 plates with commentaries and transcriptions, and six maps. David Hiley is a professor at the Institut für Musikwissenschaft at the University of Regensburg in Germany.

ISBN 0-19-816572-2 [661 pp, 7 1/2 x 9 5/8, softcover]

"I began to marvel, after a little reading, that he had managed to discuss so many aspects of the subject so clearly and in such apparent depth. ...For anyone interested in the history of Western music, beginning at the beginning and not, as usual, in the middle, this is now the best possible introduction."
--Peter Phillips, The New Republic