There could hardly be a more deserving honoree than the recipient of this collection of essays dedicated to the singular achievements of Joseph Dyer, not least among which is his distinguished editorship of this journal between 1997 and 2008. (I am delighted to confess that I was one of the happy beneficiaries of his editorship on several occasions in that period.) Dyer's interests range from the early history of plainsong through thirteenth-century music theory and the role of music as an intellectual discipline in the medieval universities, to a persistent concern with the practice of music in Rome throughout the Middle Ages, as his compendious bibliography documents (pp. 543–8). And the essays collected here from a distinguished group of medievalists echo those broad interests.

The editors have organised the essays into four areas: ‘Medieval Rome and Ancient Rites’, ‘The Liturgies of Italy’, ‘Books, Sources, and Reform in the Wake of Rome’ and ‘The Roman Foundations: Later Liturgical Developments’. The first section offers essays that make the most direct connection with the honoree's interest in Rome. Charles B. McClendon gives a thoughtful account of the transformations wrought to Old Saint Peter's in Rome over the millennium between its building and demolition as its function within the ecclesiastical life of the city changed. Catherine Carver surveys the topography of a corner of Rome to show how the parish churches established there contributed to urban life through their distinctive architecture and the sound of their bells. John F. Romano defines the office of archdeacon as administrative assistant to the bishop or, in Rome, the pope, in which capacity archdeacons played central roles in the governance of the diocese or papacy and in the liturgy; they were often leading candidates to succeed the bishops or popes they served. David Ganz explains the role of catechumens in Christian initiation rites of the early Middle Ages.

The other three essays in this first section focus more specifically on musical issues. Charles M. Atkinson's essay on the Missa graeca builds on his previous work concerning this fascinating amalgam of texts to show the remarkable stability of the melody for the Doxa, the Greek version of the Gloria in excelsis, from its earliest neumations in the West (in the ninth century) well into the thirteenth. Edward Nowacki documents the creation of a cycle of antiphons for the Divine Office in the Old Roman repertory that provides chants for the entire liturgical year, probably simultaneous with the production of proper chants for the Mass. Thomas Forrest Kelly outlines the constitution of the liturgy for Holy Saturday by surveying the surviving Roman sources for the rite from the Central Middle Ages.

The second section, ‘The Liturgies of Italy’, contains two essays, by Emma Hornby and Luisa Nardini, both of which principally treat Beneventan repertories: Hornby, the canticles for the Easter vigil, and Nardini, the prosulae. The first demonstrates the broad melodic variety that the Beneventan tracts evince, while the second shows how the addition of text to existing melodies offers many opportunities for commentary and exegesis. The essays in the third section, ‘Books, Sources, and Reform in the Wake of Rome’, move the frame of reference beyond Rome to the north side of the Alps and to developments in Carolingian and post-Carolingian Europe. Barbara Haggh-Huglo and James Borders focus on individual manuscripts, the former on a manuscript that transmits a large number of Offices with chants arranged in the order of the modes, and the latter a hitherto unknown noted witness of the twelfth-century Roman pontifical. Susan Rankin examines the role of the Psalms in education and the Divine Office as attested by sources from the sixth to ninth centuries, including a number of Psalter manuscripts that indicate their use in the liturgy. Daniel J. DiCenso provides a new assessment of the Admonitio generalis, the wide-ranging document of regulations issued by Charlemagne in 789, to evaluate its role in the Carolingian initiatives to institute what it calls Roman chant (cantum romanum).

The fourth and final section, ‘The Roman Foundations: Later Liturgical Developments’, treats a variety of subjects including institutional history, the significance of mode in chant and the emotional content of chant and chanting. Susan Boynton illustrates the profound sense of history the monks of Cluny cultivated by creating commemorative texts that celebrate the achievements of a distinguished group of abbots who contributed to the house's growth through the acquisition of dependencies. David Hiley shows the importance of the cult and its attendant liturgy for St George at the abbey of Prüfening by the combination of familiar chants from the Common of Saints with a handful of proper chants for the saint. Rebecca A. Baltzer compares the architectural and iconographic programmes of the cathedral of Notre-Dame in Paris and the newly built Sainte-Chapelle, alongside their distinctive liturgies, to assess the rivalry between the two neighbouring institutions in central Paris. Mary E. Wolinski examines musical and liturgical practices at two Parisian chapters of the Confraternity of Saint James, thereby demonstrating the importance of these churches not only for the pilgrims who departed for Santiago de Compostela from Paris but also for worship in their neighbourhoods.

William Mahrt analyses the distinctive melodic figures associated with the individual ecclesiastical modes; many of these figures revolve around melodic chains of thirds, sometimes interlocking. They help to establish a rhetorical ethos in the melody, sometimes reinforcing modal identity and other times producing modal ambiguity and contrast. Finally, Christopher Page reveals the textual and musical means by which musicians expressed deep emotion in chant, reflecting a continual engagement with chant's forms and melodic strategies.

In sum, this volume offers essays that cover a wide range of topics both within the urban confines of the Eternal City and outside. Were I to pick one that stands out from the group, it would probably be Page's sensitive treatment of the melodic expressiveness of chant, a topic often addressed but rarely prosecuted with this level of erudition. More than anything, this collection demonstrates unequivocally how rich the field of chant studies remains today, as scholars examine the field with ever more sophisticated ways of understanding it. The volume stands as a fitting tribute to Joseph Dyer, whose own accomplishments have contributed significantly to the ongoing conversation.