Verbum patris humanatur (Medieval Christmas cantiones)

Details

Description

Christmas cantiones from 1360


capella antiqua Munich
Konrad Ruhland, Musical Direction.

In the library of the University of Munich is a large Gradual which belonged to the former Augustinian collegiate church of St. Castulus in Moosburg. This Gradual, containing, as is normal, all settings of the sections of the Mass for the whole liturgical year, was written or at least completed in the year 1360 by Ernst, the town scribe of Landshut, according to a detailed copyist's note.
It also contains a comprehensive Sequentiarium, a collection of feast-day hymns; a Cantionarium, which will concern us most here; and a Troparium, consisting of additions and intercalations to music and text, inserted at will into the Mass. The Cantionarium, containing 33 hymns or "cantiones," was created to displace the lascivious songs sung by the youths of the period by making available to them better and more spiritual alternatives. The young scholars of Moosburg ("plebs mospurge doctrinata") were to preserve some style on high days and holidays!
Most of these songs relate to the period around Christmas, up to the Epiphany.
Most of these hymns were known throughout Europe and are of great antiquity. Some of them were already in the St. Martial collection (Limoges, c9th-12th centuries); others come from the manuscripts of Notre Dame de Paris (c1150-c1240). The 10-verse setting of the well-known Christmas hymn "Resonet in laudibus" may have originated in Metz about the year 850. For a number of them no source is traceable, and they probably belong to Moosburg's own repertoire; but this cantionarium is unique as a collection of Christmas hymns.
As to their form, they are all hymns with a "burden" or refrain. This burden may take many forms, from a single word to a whole strophe.
While all Moosburg "cantiones" are monophonic settings, a large number of these hymns exist in different hands, some earlier and some later, in arrangements for several voices.
In performing these single-strand melodies, whose powerful, bitter-sweet appeal is still strong for us today, great care must be taken not to interfere with their tonal independence. All instrumentation around the melody must simply clarify or underline the rhythmic structure (percussion), or enrich the melody by doubling it, according to the medieval practice. This has meant deliberately foregoing all added ornamentation.