Sounding the Word of God

Susan Rankin

Description

Drawing on a wide context of bookmaking, this sweeping study traces fundamental changes in books made to support musical practice during the Carolingian Renaissance.

During the late eighth and ninth centuries, there were dramatic changes in the way European medieval scribes made books for singers, moving from heavy reliance on unwritten knowledge to the introduction of musical notation into manuscripts. Well-made liturgical books were vital to the success of the Carolingian fight for Christian salvation: these were the basis for carrying out worship correctly, rendering it most effective in petitions to the Christian God. In Sounding the Word of God, Susan Rankin explores Carolingian concern with the expression and control of sound in writing—discernible through instructions for readers and singers visible in liturgical books. Her central focus is on books made for singers, including those made for priests. The emergence of musical notations for ecclesiastical chant and of books designed to accommodate those notations, Rankin concludes, are important aspects of the impact of Carolingian reforming zeal on material culture.

The book has three sections. Part 1 considers late antique and early medieval texts, which deal with the value of singing and its necessary regulation. Part 2 describes and investigates techniques used by Carolingian scribes to provide instructions for readers and singers. The extant books themselves are the focus of part 3. Rankin’s analysis of over two hundred manuscripts and extensive supporting images represents the work of a scholar who has spent a lifetime with the sources; her explication of the images, particularly those of the earlier manuscripts, changes the way in which musicologists and liturgical scholars will view the images. Indeed, it will change the way in which they approach the unfolding history of chant and liturgy in the Carolingian period.

The proper chants of the mass and office were not communally sung: in large enough institutions, a choir and cantor would be responsible for these. How this element of the liturgy was handled in smaller and poorer situations is quite unknown. The justification for the incorporation of such a sensuous medium as music into the liturgy was its power: it should promote understanding of the word of God, and move worshippers to greater devotion. In such ideals, Carolingian ambitions for music were no different from those of the Roman church in earlier periods: but the Carolingians construed those aims in accordance with their more general concern with the quality and correctness of Latin texts. Therefore concern with the primacy of the words of chants directed their work on the texts, while concern with audibility and projection of meaning governed new levels of musical control. With new intellectual means (in the form of music theory) and materials (in the form of well-made books, some with musical notation) to manage the delivery of chant texts, Carolingian singers could be expected to perform eloquently, so that, in the words of Hrabanus Maurus, their singing might “turn the mind of the people upwards to heavenly things and direct it to divine contemplation.”

For Carolingian liturgical writers, such expectations rested entirely on the view that good performance depended on correctness: that correctness further depended on following instructions – at the minimum the chant text – which could be verified against a written record when necessary. It now became unacceptable for individual singers to express themselves freely, except through the delivery of set texts, singing these using melodic shapes considered appropriate for that delivery. There is no implication in the surviving manuscript sources that musical notation was introduced as a means of regulation of musical delivery: nevertheless, once available, it could function in that way. The very detailed notations written into a small number of late ninth-century music books (above all, Laon 239 and SG 359) show how far good musical scribes could go in offering information about how to sing texts distinctly and with eloquence.

The primary objective in terms of the practice of liturgical chant circa 800 had been the availability of an approved repertory, and its appropriate, corrected, expression. In terms of repertory and text versions, that objective had been fulfilled by the middle of the century: it is likely that musical delivery had also been brought under control by that time, using standardized melodic formulations and a shared melodic grammar, based on newly-rationalised music theory. By circa 900, the singing of “Roman” or “Gregorian” liturgical chant had been stabilised, its forms of expression widely transmitted in written texts with musical notations. An early Carolingian aspiration had reached ample fulfilment. Cutting across this narrative of the history of chant, however, patterns of its codification are less stable: the changeover from books containing texts to books containing notated texts is but one element in a more complex picture. Where, from the late eighth to the late ninth century, priests were expected to have books of chant, it is unclear whether this expectation was maintained into the tenth century, and how it was then met. Books containing chants integrated with prayers, rather than copied in a separate section of a codex, were becoming available: the many examples from Italy are mostly fragments but there is one extant full “integrated” plenary missal (Milan D 84 inf.), with chants, prayers and readings set out in the order in which they would be required in the mass. From northern Europe, the examples are more limited, and there is none in which this integrated layout has been adopted.

List of Illustrations

List of Music Examples

List of Tables

Note on Musical Examples

Note on Manuscript Citations

Preface

Abbreviations

Introduction

Making Chant Books

Part I. Reforming and Regulating

1. Musical Persuasion

2. Musical Eloquence

3. The Provision and Ownership of Chant Books

Part II. Displaying Pronuntiatio

4. Making Instructions Visible

5. The Delivery of Festal Readings and Prayers

6. Singing the Psalms

Part III. Making Chant Books

7. Books for Priests and Books for Singers

8. Purple, Gold, Silver and Ivory

9. New Directions

10. Fulfillment and Transformation

Appendix. Feasts with chants included in the second sacramentary in Paris BnF lat. 9430 and Tours 184

Bibliography

Index of Manuscripts

General Index

Sujets

• Musique
• Histoire de la musique
• Religion
• Christianisme
• Medieval
• HISTORY
• Histoire
• MUSIC
• Edad Media
• Multiple signal classification
• Christian Church
• Middle Ages
• Christianity
• Europe

Informations

• Publié par: University of Notre Dame Press
• Date de parution: 15 novembre 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780268203429
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 3 Mo

Extrait

Sounding the Word of God
THE CONWAY LECTURES IN MEDIEVAL STUDIES 2013
The Medieval Institute gratefully acknowledges the generosity of Robert M. Conway and his support for the lecture series and the publications resulting from it .
Previous titles published in this series:
Rosamond McKitterick
Perceptions of the Past in the Early Middle Ages (2006)
Jonathan Riley-Smith
Templars and Hospitallers as Professed Religious in the Holy Land (2010)
A. C. Spearing
Medieval Autographies: The “I” of the Text (2012)
Barbara Newman
Medieval Crossover: Reading the Secular against the Sacred (2013)
John Marenbon
Abelard in Four Dimensions: A Twelfth-Century Philosopher in His Context and Ours (2013)
Sylvia Huot
Outsiders: The Humanity and Inhumanity of Giants in Medieval French Prose Romance (2016)
William J. Courtenay
Rituals for the Dead: Religion and Community in the Medieval University of Paris (2019)
Alice-Mary Talbot
Varieties of Monastic Experince in Byzantium, 800–1453 (2019)
Anne D. Hedeman
Visual Translation: Illuminated Manuscripts and the First French Humanists (2022)
Roberta Frank
The Etiquette of Early Northern Verse (2022)
Peter Adamson
Don’t Think for Yourself: Authority and Belief in Medieval Philosophy (2022)
SOUNDING THE WORD OF GOD

Carolingian Books for Singers

SUSAN RANKIN
University of Notre Dame Press
Notre Dame, Indiana
University of Notre Dame Press
Notre Dame, Indiana 46556
undpress.nd.edu
Copyright © 2022 by the University of Notre Dame Press
All Rights Reserved
Published in the United States of America
Library of Congress Control Number: 2022945243
ISBN: 978-0-268-20343-6 (Hardback)
ISBN: 978-0-268-20345-0 (WebPDF)
ISBN: 978-0-268-20342-9 (Epub)
This e-Book was converted from the original source file by a third-party vendor. Readers who notice any formatting, textual, or readability issues are encouraged to contact the publisher at [e-mail]
For David
CONTENTS List of Illustrations List of Music Examples List of Tables Note on Musical Examples Note on Manuscript Citations Preface Abbreviations Introduction Making Chant Books PART I Reforming and Regulating 1. Musical Persuasion Training and Status Singing with Understanding 2. Musical Eloquence Reforming Chant Repertories and Texts Evidence of Emendation in Chant Books 3. The Provision and Ownership of Chant Books Books Owned by Elite Individuals Books Owned by Religious Communities Books Owned by Parish Churches Carolingian Episcopal Legislation about Chant Books PART II Displaying Pronuntiatio 4. Making Instructions Visible Scripts Pauses and Effects The Introduction of Musical Notations Script and Sound 5. The Delivery of Readings and Prayers Genealogies and Other Festal Readings Prayers 1: Scripts, Colors, Punctuation Prayers 2: Notation for the Benedictio fontis Prayer Prayers 3: Exultet iam angelica turba Conclusion 6. Singing the Psalms The Dagulf Psalter Verse Divisions in the Psalter 1: Textual Traditions Verse Divisions in the Psalter 2: Layout Marking Verse Divisions Singing Psalms 1: Musical Procedures Singing Psalms 2: Memorization PART III Making Chant Books 7. Books for Priests and Books for Singers Sacramentary-Antiphoners 1: Extant Examples Sacramentary-Antiphoners 2: Types and Grades Cantatoria Graduals Office Antiphoners Combining Chants with Prayers: The Missal Office Books with Chants and Prayers From Luxury to Ordinary 8. Purple, Gold, Silver, and Ivory Purple Cantatoria An Antiphoner for an Emperor The Cantatoria Tradition Epilogue: Singing Ivories 9. New Directions Notated Chant Books: Survivals Adding Musical Notation: Preparing the Materials Tonaries Other Kinds of Chant Book The Codification of New Compositions A Cantor’s Book Epilogue: New Collections 10. Fulfilment and Transformation Appendix. Feasts with chants included in the second sacramentary in Paris BnF lat. 9430 and Tours 184 Notes Bibliography Index of Manuscripts Index of Chants Index of Biblical Citations General Index
ILLUSTRATIONS
PLATES
Pl. 2.1. Chants for the beginning of the liturgical year, five Sundays before Christmas, in Zurich Rheinau 30
Pl. 2.2. The Introit In nomine Ihesu in Sárospatak Analekta 4814
Pl. 2.3. Incipits for chants in Paris Sainte-Geneviève 111 and Paris BnF lat. 2291
Pl. 2.4. The Introit Ad te leuaui in Paris BnF lat. 12050
Pl. 2.5. The beginning of Psalm 128 in the Dagulf Psalter, Vienna cod. lat. 1861
Pl. 3.1. Liturgy for the divine office copied by Reginbert of Reichenau, in Nuremberg 536/SD 2816
Pl. 4.1. Matthew 27:39, with foregrounding of “UAH,” in London Harley 1775, London Harley 2788, and Paris Arsenal 599
Pl. 4.2. The use of different scripts, sizes of script, and colors in a gospel book Paris BnF lat. 250
Pl. 4.3. The use of Caroline minuscule and half-uncial scripts in a passage from the baptism liturgy, in Paris BnF lat. 2296
Pl. 4.4. Uncials, Caroline minuscule, and half-uncial script in a Tours sacramentary, Paris BnF lat. 9430
Pl. 4.5. Liturgy for baptism in a sacramentary made at St. Amand, Paris BnF lat. 2290
Pl. 4.6. A passage from a copy of Alcuin’s Liber comitis , showing careful punctuation, in Paris BnF lat. 9452
Pl. 4.7. The beginning of the Tract Deus deus meus in Laon 266
Pl. 4.8. Melodies for tract verses in Laon 266

Pl. 4.9. The beginning of the Canticle Attende caelum in Tours 184, Sankt Gallen 359, and Laon 239
Pl. 4.10. Question marks in Godesscalc’s Gospel Lectionary made for Charlemagne, Paris BnF n.a.l. 1203
Pl. 4.11. Question marks in an early ninth-century book made at Corbie, Paris BnF lat. 13373
Pl. 4.12. Question marks in a Tours gospel book, Williamstown 7
Pl. 4.13. Question marks in a gospel book made at Metz, Paris BnF lat. 9388
Pl. 5.1. The sacramentary made for Hildoard of Cambrai in 811/812, Cambrai 164
Pl. 5.2. The beginning of the Exultet prayer, with contemporary musical notation, in Paris Arsenal 227
Pl. 6.1. A page from the Irish Cathach , Dublin 12 R 33, showing adjustment of script size
Pl. 6.2. Psalm 30 in the Dagulf Psalter, Vienna cod. lat. 1861
Pl. 7.1. Brussels 10127–10144, showing the work of three different text scribes
Pl. 7.2. Pages from a mid-ninth-century office antiphoner list in Trier 1245-597 8 o
Pl. 7.3. Fragments from a book copied by Winithar, Sankt Gallen 1399.a.2
Pl. 7.4. Liturgy for Christmas Eve in a Tours sacramentary, Tours 184
Pl. 7.5. Liturgy for the first Sunday of Advent in a Tours sacramentary, Tours 184
Pl. 8.1. The Gregorius presul preface in Monza 88
Pl. 8.2. The antiphoner made for Charles the Bald’s new abbey at Compiègne, Paris BnF lat. 17436
Pl. 9.1. Chants notated in Frankish music script, showing the movement of neumes for melismas in upward diagonals, in Graz 748 and Vienna cod. lat. n.s. 3645
Pl. 9.2. Text layout with space for the Alleluia iubili in Milan D84 inf.
Pl. 9.3. The Offertory Intonuit de celo in Valenciennes 407 and Laon 239
Pl. 9.4. Sequence melodies in Autun S28 (24)
Pl. 9.5. Passages from Notker’s Sequence Hanc concordi in Paris BnF lat. 10587

Pl. 9.6. Responsories and antiphons for the second Sunday of Advent, in Leipzig Rep. I 93
FIGURE
Fig. 9.1. The ruling scheme in Paris, BnF lat. 10587
MUSIC EXAMPLES
Ex. 1.1. The Introit In medio ecclesie
Ex. 1.2. The Introit Rorate caeli
Ex. 1.3. The Gradual Exiit sermo
Ex. 1.4. Alleluia V Qui timent dominum
Ex. 1.5. The opening of the Gradual Adiuuabit
Ex. 1.6. Passages from the Gradual Ego autem
Ex. 4.1. The Communion Pascha nostrum , as notated in Laon 239
Ex. 4.2. The beginnings of verses from three tracts, as notated in Laon 266
Ex. 4.3. The Communion Oportet te , as notated in Laon 239
Ex. 4.4. The opening of the Introit Domine refugium , as notated in Laon 239
Ex. 4.5. The opening of the Antiphon Videntibus illis , as notated in Zurich Rheinau 26
Ex. 4.6. The opening of the Antiphon Aelena sancta dixit , as notated in Zurich Rheinau 26
Ex. 4.7. The opening of the Antiphon Ascendo ad patrem meum , as notated in Zurich Rheinau 26
Ex. 4.8. The opening of the Responsory O crux benedicta , as notated in Zurich Rheinau 26
Ex. 4.9. Passage from the Canticle Attende caelum , as notated in Tours 184, Laon 239, and Sankt Gallen 359
Ex 4.10. Quilisma-pes neumes written s. ix 4/4, s. ix ex or ca. 900: (a) West Frankish; (b) West Frankish; (c) East Frankish; (d) Lotharingian; (e) Breton; (f) Palaeofrankish

Ex. 5.1. The “AAB” recitation pattern for the Matthew genealogy in the Flavigny Gospels
Ex. 5.2. The recitation pattern for the Benedictio fontis prayer in Vienna 1815 cod. lat. 1815
Ex. 6.1. Mode 1 psalm tones for the office in the Commemoratio breuis and for the mass Introit in Sankt Gallen 390 (binding strip)
Ex. 6.2. The mode 1 psalm tone as written out for three psalm verses in Sankt Gallen 390 binding strips and Sankt Gallen 381
Ex. 9.1. Verses 6, 8, and 10 from Notker’s Hanc concordi with a West Frankish parallel
TABLES
7.1. Books of mass chants
7.2. Books of mass chants bound with other material
7.3. Measurements of unnotated mass antiphoners and cantatoria
7.4. Measurements of chant manuscripts made in a long thin format
7.5. Measurements of notated graduals
7.6. Books with office chants 200
7.7. Measurements of unnotated office antiphoners
7.8. Integrated plenary missals (unnotated and notated)
7.9. Sacramentaries with chants
7.10. Feasts with chants in the Tours sacramentary not represented in AMS
7.11. Feasts with chants in AMS but not in the Tours sacramentary
9.1. Notated office books (up to ca. 900)
9.2. Notated mass books (up to ca. 900)
9.3. Antiphons in “mixed modes” cited in Regino’s Epistola
9.4. Leipzig Rep. I 93: chants between the tonary and the office antiphoner
9.5. Tracts in Leipzig Rep. I 93
NOTE ON MUSICAL EXAMPLES
Many of the examples showing passages written in neumatic notations include versions of the same melodies written on staves. These diastemat