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The musical contents of two Danish pontificals from the late Middle Ages

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 July 2009

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Extract

Musicologists are in a very unsatisfactory position as regards liturgical chant from medieval Denmark because the sources are so exceedingly few, even by comparison with Sweden. No graduals, antiphoners or similar specifically musical manuscripts are preserved, but they must have been in use as various textual sources mention them and occasionally name individual chants. There are some exceptional manuscripts containing at least some notation: Erik Abrahamsen, one of the few to have written on the subject before, lists ten items in his dissertation:

1. Liber daticus (Lund, 12th c.) – Lund, Universitetsbibliotek, Mh. 7 (sequences)

2. Ordinal of St. Knud, original dated 1170 (Denmark, 13th c.) – Kiel, Universitatsbibliothek, SH 8.A.8° (Office of St. Knud)

3. Liber scholae virginis (Lund, 14–16th c.) – Lund, Universitetsbibliotek, Mh. 14 (antiphons, sequences, masses)

4. Sammelhandschrift (Ryd or Løgum, Schleswig, 13th c.) – Copenhagen, Royal Library, Gl. kgl. no 54 Fol.

5. Lund Pontifical – Uppsala, Universitetsbibliotek, C.441 (discussed in this article)

6. Lund Missal (Paris, Wolfgang Hopyl, 1514) (manuscript intonations)

7. Liber agendarum ecclesiae Sleswicensis (Paris, Wolfgang Hopyl, 1512) (manuscript intonations). Ed. J. Freisen: Liber agendarum ecclesiae et diocesis Sleszwicensis: katholisches Ritualbuch der Diozese Schleswig im Mittelalter (Paderborn, 1898)

8. Canon Roschildensis (Nyborg, Fyn: Paul Raeff, 1522) (manuscript responses)

9. States (1485) of community of Ramsø Bjaeverskov (Zealand, Denmark) – Copenhagen, Royal Library, Ny kgl. no 1346 4° (Collects)

10. Helgesen manuscript (16th century) – Copenhagen, Royal Library, Gl. kgl. no 1551 4° (Responses)

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© The Plainsong and Medieval Music Society 1984

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References

Notes

[1] Abrahamsen, E.: Éléments romans et allemands dans le chant grégorien et la chanson populaire en Danemark, Publications de l'académie grégorienne de Fribourg (Suisse) 11 (Copenhagen, 1923), pp.30–1Google Scholar.

[2] Strömberg, B.: The Manual from Bystorp: Lund University Library Medeltidshandskrift 43a, Bibliotheca liturgica Danica 2 (Copenhagen, 1982)Google Scholar

[3] See Andersen, M. Geert and Raasted, J.: Inventar over Det kongelige Biblioteks fragmentsamling [Inventory of the Fragment Collection in the Royal Library], Hjaelpemidler 6 (Copenhagen, 1983)Google Scholar.

[4] The reader is reminded that Lund, which is in present-day Sweden, belonged to Denmark until 1658; it was the archiepiscopal see of Denmark until the Reformation in 1537, and of the whole of Scandinavia and Finland during most of the 12th century.

[5] Studia theologica Lundensia 9 (Lund, 1955)Google Scholar.

[6] Vogel, C. and Elze, R.: Le pontifical romano-germanique du dixième siècle, Studi e testi 226–7 and 269 (3 vols., Vatican City, 19631972)Google Scholar.

[7] Strömberg, op.cit. (note 4), pp.37–54.

[8] See Weibull, L.: Diplomatarium danicum, 1st ser., 2: 1053–1169 (Copenhagen, 1963), no.88, pp.165–70Google Scholar.

[9] Strömberg, op.cit. (note 4), pp.55–72; see also Jørgensen, E.: ‘Fremmed Indflydelse under den danske Kirkes tidligste Udvikling’ [‘Foreign influence during the earliest development of the church in Denmark’], Det kongelige danske Videnskabernas Selskabs Skrifter, 7th ser.: historisk og filosofisk Afdeling 1 (Copenhagen, 1908), pp.121243 Google Scholar.

[10] Andrieu, M.: Le Pontifical Romain au moyen âge: 3. Le pontifical de Guillaume Durand, Studi e testi 88 (Vatican City, 1940)Google Scholar.

[11] Strömberg, op.cit. (note 4), pp.55–72.

[12] Strömberg, op.cit. (note 4), p.64.

[13] Strömberg, op.cit. (note 4), pp.76–92.

[14] Tournai and Berne, 1889-). Facsimiles of parts of manuscripts GB-Lb1 12194 and 462 appear in Graduate Sarisburiense (London, 1894, repr. 1966)Google Scholar, and manuscripts GB-SB 152 and GB-Cu 9 were used in Antiphonale Sarisburiense (london, 19011924)Google Scholar, both edited by W.H. Frere. I would like to thank Dom Jean Claire, Solesmes, for drawing my attention to the manuscript D-BAs 53.

[15] All chants in the tables are antiphons unless otherwise stated.

[16] Strömberg, op.cit. (note 4), pp.43–8.

[17] Hesbert, R.-J.: Corpus Antiphonalium Officii: III. lnvitatoria et antiphonae, Rerum ecclesiasticarum documenta: series major, fontes 9 (Rome, 1968)Google Scholar.

[18] Strömberg, op.cit. (note 4), pp.55–72; see also Lindbladh, N.H.: Anointing as an Ordination Problem (Lund, 1984), pp.75–9Google Scholar.

[19] Strömberg, op.cit., pp.56–8.

[20] Op.cit. (note 17).

[21] Strömberg, op.cit., p.51.

[22] Op.cit. (note 6), vol.1, pp.240–1; all of the manuscripts date from the period 950–1000.

[23] Landwehr-Melnicki, M.: Die Gesänge des altrömischen Graduate (Vat.lat.5319), Monumenta monodica medii aevi 2 (Kassel, 1970)Google Scholar, with introduction by B. Stäblein.

[24] Andrieu, M.: Le Pontifical Romain au moyen âge: 1. Le pontifical romain du Xlle siècle, Studi e testi 86 (Vatican City, 1938)Google Scholar.

[25] According to a rough count of the pontificals containing musical notation mentioned in Leroquais, V.: Les pontificals manuscrits des bibliothèques publiques de France (Paris, 1937)Google Scholar.

[26] Huglo, M.: ‘Les antiennes de la Procession des Reliques: vestiges du chant vieux-romain dans le Pontifical’, Revue grégorienne, 32 (1952), pp. 136–9Google Scholar.

[27] See Stenzl, J. (ed.): ‘Symposium: “Peripherie” und “Zentrum” in der Geschichte der ein- und mehrstimmigen Musik des 12. bis 14. Jahrhunderts’, Gesellschaft für Musikforschung: Bericht über den internationalen musikwissenschaftlichen Kongress, Berlin 1974, ed. Kuhn, H. and Nitsche, P. (Kassel, 1980), pp.13170 Google Scholar.

[28] See for instance Gjerløw, L.: Ordo Nidrosiensis ecclesiae, Libri liturgici provinciae Nidrosiensis medii aevi 2 (Oslo, 1968)Google Scholar; ibid.: Antiphonarium Nidrosiensis ecclesiae, Libri liturgici provinciae Nidrosiensis medii aevi 3 (Oslo, 1979)Google Scholar; Helander, S.: Ordinarius Lincopensis och dess liturgiska förebilder [The Ordinal of Linköping and its Liturgical Models], Bibliotheca theologicae practicae 4 (Lund, 1957)Google Scholar; Kroon, S.: Ordinarium missae, Lunds universitets årsskrift, new series, pt.1, vol.39 (Lund, 1953)Google Scholar; and the works by Strömberg mentioned above.