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The versus Rex caeli – another look at the so-called archaic sequence

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 July 2009

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Extract

The changes in the chant and liturgy which took place in northern Europe during the eighth and ninth centuries affected not only those portions of the rite based on biblical texts, but also included modifications of portions using non-biblical texts. These texts were generally in the form of poetry or rhythmic prose – such as the hymns of the office, processional chants for Sundays and feast days between Terce and Mass, and (in the ninth century) the sequence following the alleluia of the mass.

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Research Article
Copyright
© The Plainsong and Medieval Music Society 1982

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References

Notes

1 On Gallican hymnody, see Huglo, Michel: ‘Gallican Rite, Music of the’. The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (London, 1980), vol.7, p.121 Google Scholar. On the Irish-Celtic hymnody, see Analecta hymnica, vol.51, part 2. For the change of hymnody during the Carolingian era, see Analecta hymnica, vol.51, p.x, and also The Canterbury Hymnal, ed. Wieland, Gernot R. (Toronto, Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies, 1982), pp.45 Google Scholar.

2 Such as the hymns for Maundy Thursday “ad pedes lavandos” used in the Columbanian and Benedictine monasteries even after the Capitulary of 817. See also Bischoff, Bernard: ‘Caritas Lieder’, Mittelalterlichen Studien (Munich, 1967), II, p.73 Google Scholar. A study of one of these monastic hymns, Salve Abba mitissime, contained in the fragments from Echternach, Paris, Bibl.nat., lat.9488, is in preparation by the authors of the present article.

3 “Nihil poetice compositum in divinis laudibus”, (Agobard), Florus: De divina psalmodia in Migne, , PL, civ, 327AGoogle Scholar. “… in quibusdam ecclesiis hymni metrici non cantentur”, Strabo, Waiafrid: De rerum ecclesiasticarum exordiis, 25, in Migne, , PL, cxiv, 954 Google Scholar.

4 Hesbert, René-Jean: Antiphonale Missarum Sextuplex (Brussels, Vromant, 1935), nos.201–214 (Commentary, p.cxxi)Google Scholar. The processional antiphon for February 2, no.29a, should be added to this series.

5 The versus of Ratpert (d.884), Hartmann (d.925), and Waldramm (d.c.900) are found in Analecta hymnica, 50 (Hymnographi latini), p.237ff. See also Stotz, Peter: Ardua spes mundi (Bern and Stuttgart, H. Lang Verlag, 1972)Google Scholar.

6 As an example of a processional antiphon adapted from a longer poem, compare the processional chant for Palm Sunday, Gloria laus, with the complete text of Theodulf, in Analecta hymnica, 50, p.161 Google Scholar.

7 von den Steinen, Wolfram: Notker der Dichter und seine geistige Welt (Bern, 1948)Google Scholar.

8 Notker's collection is also called a “Liber hymnorum”, but this title may have been a scribal addition.

9 Stäblein, Bruno: ‘Sequenz’, Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, vol.12, col.526ffGoogle Scholar. Kohrs, Klaus Heinrich: Die aparallelen Sequenzen, Beiträge zur Musikforschung, vi (Munich, Katzbichler, 1978)Google Scholar.

10 von Winterfeld, Paul: ‘Rhythmen- und Sequenzstudien I, Die lateinxsche Eulaliensequenz und ihre Sippe’, Zeitschrift für deutsches Altertum und deutsche Literatur, 45 (1901), pp.133147 Google Scholar.

11 Handschin, Jacques: ‘Über Estampie und Sequenz’, Zeitschrift für Musikwissenschaft, 13 (19301931), p.114 Google Scholar.

12 Handschin, Jacques: ‘Über Estampie und Sequenz’, Zeitschrift für Musikwissenschaft, 12 (19291930), pp.120 Google Scholar, and 13 (1930–31), pp.113–132. See also Handschin, : ‘Über einige Sequenz Zitate’, Acta musicologica, 15 (1943), pp.1523 and 9394 Google Scholar, where citations of sequences in the ninth- and tenth-century treatises are discussed. Stäblein has written four articles on the question; the last reviews all the bibliography on the subject and makes an inventory of the known melodies: ‘Einiges Neue zum Thema “archaïsche Sequenz”’, Festschrift Georg von Dadelsen zum 60. Geburtstag (Stuttgart, Hänssler Verlag, 1978), pp.352383 Google Scholar.

13 von den Steinen, Wolfram: ‘Die Anfänge der Sequenzendichtung’, Zeitschrift für schweizerische Kirchengeschichte, 40 (1946), pp.241ffGoogle Scholar. See Stäblein's criticism in ‘Einiges …’, p.359.

14 For the structure of Cantica virginis Eulaliae (no.2), we have based the text analysis (with some alterations) on the system proposed by Suchier, Hermann: ‘Zur Metrik der Eulalia-Sequenz’, Jahrbuch für romanische und englische Literatur, N.S., 1 (18731974), p.390 Google Scholar. For the analyses of nos. 1, 5, 6, 7 and 8 we have followed those of Prof. Dag Norberg (letter of October 13, 1982), for whose assistance we are especially grateful.

15 Handschin, : ‘Über Estampie …’ pp.1920 Google Scholar.

16 Winterfeld, : ‘Rhythmen- …’, p.146 Google Scholar.

17 Paris, Bibl.nat., lat.1154, f.129v (“Versus de sco Paulo”), f.130v (“Versus de sco Mauricio”). On this manuscript see Richter, Lukas: ‘Die beiden ältesten Liederbücher des lateinischen Mittelalters’, Philologus, 123 (1979), pp.6368 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

18 Winterfeld, : ‘Rhythmen- …’, pp.136 and 141 Google Scholar.

19 The best edition of the text of Rex caeli is that of Schmid, Hans, ed.: Musica et Scolica enchiriadis, una cum aliquibus tractatulis adiunctis recensio nova post Gerbertinam altera ad fidem omnium codicum manuscriptorum (Munich, Verlag der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1981), pp.218219 Google Scholar. For the word “malum” see p.218, line 2b, and p.219, line 6c. Dag Norberg's comments on “mala” are from the letter of October 13, 1982. The final pitch of Rex caeli (D or E) is uncertain; see Phillips, N. in Journal of the American Musicological Society, 36 (1983), p.136 Google Scholar.

20 Winterfeld: ‘Rhythmen- …’, p.144. For a contemporary description of the siege of Paris by Abbo of St.Germain see Waquet, Henri: Le siège de Paris par les Normands: poème du IXe siècle (Paris, Les Belles Lettres, 1942)Google Scholar.

21 de Goede, N.: The Utrecht Prosarium, Monumenta musica neerlandica, vi (Amsterdam, 1965), p.lxiii Google Scholar; Winterfeld, ‘Rhythmen- …’, p.144, and Stäblein, in MGG: ‘Sequenz’, col.527Google Scholar.

22 The author does not indicate where in the office it was to be used, just as he does not indicate the position of the antiphons or psalm tones. The musical examples are from Matins, Lauds and Vespers.

23 Agobard, : Liber de correctione antiphonarii, in Migne, , PL, civ, 334BGoogle Scholar.

24 Schmid, : Musica, p.56, line 49Google Scholar.

25 Boethius, : De institutions musica, IV, 3 (ed. Friedlein, , p.309, lines 6–10)Google Scholar: “… adscribere super versum rhythmica metri … ut non tantum carminum verba, quae litteris explicarentur, sed melos quoque ipsum, quod his notulis signaretur …”; Musica enchiriadis (ed. Schmid, , p.11, lines 3–4)Google Scholar: “… carmen, quod superscriptae syllabis notae musicae modulantur, ipsarum desuper notarum appellationibus adsignatis …”.

26 The opening word of the first poem of De consolatione philosophiae is “carmen”; in poem III, 12, the word is twice used in the sense of song.

27 Schmid, : Musica, p.216, lines 43, 50, and descr. 2Google Scholar.

28 Crocker, Richard: The Early Medieval Sequence (Berkeley, University of California Press, 1977), p.382 Google Scholar. See also Crocker, : ‘The Sequence’, Gattungen der Musik in Einzeldarstellungen, I: Gedenkschrift Leo Schrade, ed. Arlt, Wulf (Bern, Franke, 1973), pp.289 and 307 Google Scholar. Stäblein, Bruno in ‘Psalle symphonizando’, Festschrift Walter Wiora (Kassel, 1967), p.228 Google Scholar, also recognized this metrical structure and cited it as a reason the ‘archaic sequence’ was eventually to disappear from the liturgy of the mass. Stäblein assumed as a given in all his writings that the eight examples were sequences following the alleluia of the mass.

29 Thus the description of Paris, Bibl.nat., lat. 1154 as a “Liederbuch” (see note 17 above) would seem to be very appropriate.

30 In the collection of liturgical dramas of Fleury (Orléans, Bibl.mun., 201), the first four plays were composed in honour of S.Nicholas. The first, Tres filiae (‘The Three Girls), borrows all the material of its ‘dramatic action’ from a poem of German origin which has come down to us in three manuscripts: Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibl., clm.14834 (Regensburg, 12th c.), f.26v; London, B.L., Add.22414 (Hildesheim, 12th c.) a student's libellus, or booklet, of eight sheets; Brussels, Bibl.Royale II.2556 (Villers en Brabant, 13th c.), f.192v. This hagiographical poetry, whose primary destination was not liturgical use, still less ecclesiastical ‘theatre’, was transformed into sung liturgical drama by the compiler of the Fleury collection. Cf. Young, Karl: The Drama of the Medieval Church (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1931), pp.316321)Google Scholar.

31 See for example Stäblein: ‘Sequenz’, cols.527 and 540; also ‘Psalle …’, pp.222–223 and 228.

32 For Stäblein's analysis of Virginis virginum and the hymn derived from portions of its text, see ‘Einiges …’, pp.365–368.

33 This is a problem which must be deferred to a subsequent study in which a different analytical procedure will be proposed.

34 Einsiedeln 79, p.5. The antiphon Laudabo Deum (Schmid, p.17) begins on G in the manuscript tradition of the Enchiriadis texts, but the chant tradition most often reads F at this point. In the Einsiedeln source, this first pitch has been ‘corrected’ to F. (This is omitted from Schmid's critical apparatus, but the page from Einsiedeln 79 is reproduced in Stäblein, Bruno: Schriftbild der einstimmigen Musik, Musikgeschichte in Bildern, III/4, p.225 Google Scholar, where the alteration is visible.) The Einsiedeln and other copies of the Enchiriadis treatises contain many similar alterations of musical examples to correspond to the local practice or the melodies the scribes knew. Einsiedeln 79, however, has both the text and melody of Rex caeli wrong. Where attempts were made to correct Rex caeli, they seem to derive from a comparison with its second appearance in the Enchiriadis treatises, or by simple logic, i.e., the text makes sense only when it begins with the words Rex caeli.

35 As in Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibl., clm.14372, f.2, and a number of other manuscripts. The Handschin edition of the complete text and music of Rex caeli (‘Über Estampie …’, p.19) uses this reversed text order for the first two lines, probably because he wished to incorporate the organal setting of Musica enchiriadis. But Stäblein, Dronke and Jammers, though only concerned with text, or text and melody, followed Handschin rather than the manuscript reading of the complete text. (Dronke does state that he follows Handschin.) The new Schmid edition, however, gives the text as it is found in the sources.

Probably the earliest copy of Musica enchiriadis to have the text and dasia correct in Rex caeli is Cambridge, Corpus Christi Coll., 260, f.5. Whether this is a result of a scribal correction, or a thoughtful copy of a model with the example sideways cannot be determined, for this manuscript is from a text family different from that of the manuscripts cited above. The Inchiriadon (Schmid, pp.187–212) also has the first Rex caeli example correct, but this treatise treatise seems to be derived from an earlier text state of Musica enchiriadis. Only Bamberg Var.1 has the second example correct, but this is to be expected, for the manuscript contains the complete text.

36 In addition to Rex caeli and the dialogues on organum, the principal contents of Bamberg Var.1 are Musica and Scolica enchiriadis, the Commemoratio brevis, and De cantu (Schmid, pp. 220–221), a tract which in purpose somewhat resembles an abbreviated ordo. These contents can be contrasted with those of another manuscript from Bamberg, Class. 9, which in addition to the Enchiriadis treatises contains the Boethius Musica and the ninth book of Capella's De nuptiis. This latter manuscript is obviously not focussed on the contemporary practice of music.

37 Schmid, pp.49 and 51 (Rex caeli), and 215–216 (Caput artibus). This particular style of organum uses not only parallel motion at the fourth, but also oblique motion (as with a drone) and even contrary motion at the cadences. On page 51 of the edition, the oblique stroke connecting li to mo was omitted (the interval series at that point is third, unison, third, etc.). Similarly in the following line, the stroke is omitted between tant and va.

38 Gerbert, Martin, ed.: Scriptores ecclesiastici de musica sacra potissimum (3 vols., St. Blasien, 1784), I, p.107: “quod consuete organizationem vocant”Google Scholar.

39 The two dialogues are separated in this manuscript by excerpts of Musica enchiriadis and Isidore, but they read as a single unit and probably were such in the archetype – as the concluding sentence of the first suggests (cited above in the text). Bamberg Var.1 is notable for its disorganization: the Commemoratio is divided into two separate sections; Musica and Scolica enchiriadis are also separated, and Scolica opens the manuscript as it now stands; Musica is cut into three sections separated by other texts. A study of this manuscript by the present authors is in preparation. The organal techniques described in the Bamberg dialogues apply only to organum at the fourth, and they permit parallel, oblique, and even contrary motion. Thus strict parallel organum – at the fifth as well as the octave – may already have been freely accepted in the practice.