The Forms and Orders of Western Liturgy from the Tenth to the Eighteenth Century: A Historical Introduction and Guide for Students and Musicians

Rating:
Summary: An excellent introduction
Review: Harper's book is the best in-print general introduction to medieval Western Liturgy. Harper does an excellent job of explaining complex liturgical matters in the simplest way possible, but quite accurately. The tables showing the contents of the rites are particularly useful, as are the bibliographies and the glossary. The book is of special interest to those who generally like to ignore what happened to the liturgy of the Roman Catholic Church in the 1960's and 1970's. And for Anglo-philes quite a bit of information is given about medieval English liturgy as well as the reformed English liturgies from 1549 to 1662. Overall, a fantastic introduction and an indispensable resource for those interested in traditional Western liturgies.

Rating:
Summary: An excellent introduction
Review: Harper's book is the best in-print general introduction to medieval Western Liturgy. Harper does an excellent job of explaining complex liturgical matters in the simplest way possible, but quite accurately. The tables showing the contents of the rites are particularly useful, as are the bibliographies and the glossary. The book is of special interest to those who generally like to ignore what happened to the liturgy of the Roman Catholic Church in the 1960's and 1970's. And for Anglo-philes quite a bit of information is given about medieval English liturgy as well as the reformed English liturgies from 1549 to 1662. Overall, a fantastic introduction and an indispensable resource for those interested in traditional Western liturgies.