Ruth Ellis Messenger

“ True, the procession is older than Christianity and wider in observance. It seems to be a natural impulse of humanity in all ages and in all lands to make orderly progress from one place to another for the expression of communal joy or lamentation or to seek the aid and blessing of supernatural power in the activities and vicissitudes of life.
Processional ceremonies as they were observed in ancient oriental civilizations or in the culture of Greece and Rome are not considered here, except as they may have affected Christian origins. ”

“ To close this somewhat rambling account of the Latin hymn and sequence in the later medieval centuries, which is necessarily discursive even as the civilization itself was everywhere expanding, the characteristics of this poetry should be reviewed in comparison with those of earlier Latin hymns.
An increasing variety of subject matter is first to be noted, to accompany the diversification of worship brought about by new feasts and the appearance of new religious agencies. Hymns for the festivals of saints provide the best illustrations of this tendency which has been amply treated above. ”

“ Turning to the processional hymns which were rendered in these centuries, one is impressed by the gradual disappearance of hymns typical of the efforts of the St. Gall school and its contemporaries. A tremendous vogue of the original Salve festa dies of Fortunatus which had never been lost sight of, together 71 with its centos, variants and copies, takes possession of the field. There were in all, perhaps, from one hundred to one hundred and fifty true processional hymns in circulation throughout the whole medieval period, if one enumerates those which are edited in the Analecta Hymnica. ”

“ The Epiphany hymn, O sola magnarum urbium, “Earth hath many a noble city,” is also well known. [8]
Considered merely as Latin poetry, the hymns of Hilary, Ambrose and Prudentius are transitional in their literary character. They belong neither to the poetry of the Silver Age of Latin literature nor do they represent the medieval literary tradition. Of the metrical aspect something will be said presently. By some the Ambrosian hymn is regarded as a daring innovation and the model from which vernacular European verse was later to develop. In that case, it constitutes a class by itself. ”

“ The Ninth Century Revival: Hymns I. Background of Carolingian Culture
To explain fully the origin of a great literary movement must always be difficult, for the subtle influences affecting its beginnings elude a scientific analysis of facts. One observes the revival of Latin hymnology between 750 and 900 A.D. with amazement. The voices of Ambrose, his contemporaries and his immediate imitators had been silenced for centuries. Venantius Fortunatus had stood forth, a solitary survival of the old Latin poetic genius or, perhaps more accurately, a solitary herald of the new medieval awakening. ”

“ Although the earliest liturgical manuscript with musical notation dates from the ninth century, the Greeks had already given their neumes to the west. As for the hymn melodies which are crystallized in these manuscripts when they do appear, theories of origin abound. A definite 28 system of notation was in existence from the seventh century but hymns had been sung from the fourth century.
In modern times through the consecrated efforts of Benedictine students of the chant, working chiefly at Solesmes, a collation of the existing musical manuscripts produced in the Middle Ages, has been made. ”

“ II. Evolution in the Early Middle Ages
That the Latin processional hymn appeared first in Gaul should surprise no one. It has already been suggested that the hymns among the Carmina of Fortunatus were created in the atmosphere of freedom enjoyed by Gallic hymn writers in accordance with contemporary canons. Always a poet of the occasion, Fortunatus wrote three hymns for the reception of a relic believed to be of the true Cross, which was presented to Rhadegunda, his patron, by the Byzantine Emperor, Justin II and his wife Sophia, for the convent at Poitiers. ”

“ It is a problem for specialists among whom opinions are now divergent. Toward a practical understanding of the metrical values of the hymns of Hilary, Prudentius, Ambrose and Fortunatus, the pragmatic test of what is singable may be applied. The ancient balanced rhythms of Semitic poetry as illustrated in the Hebrew psalms had been sung for generations. The metrical lyrics of ancient Greece were sung to an instrumental accompaniment as were the Latin lyrics of the Golden Age of Rome. These highly polished classical forms were for the elite. ”

“ The writings of men familiar with Roman civilization and trained in classical culture would naturally be presumed to retain the flavor of a non-Christian literature. Christianity had already appropriated from the pagan philosophers those teachings which were congenial to its own. Ambrose reveals both in his poetic and prose writings his acquaintance with classical 8 thought and literary models. Prudentius mingles the classical and the Christian. Fortunatus was inspired by classical poetry to a Christian expression of beauty in form and content. ”

“ Anonymity is the rule and known authorship the exception for the hymns produced in the fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth centuries. This continued to be the rule during the whole medieval period since the names of those who wrote the non-scriptural parts of religious rites were lost or unknown or perhaps of little importance in communal worship. The fact that the hymns which survive have been gathered from liturgical manuscripts and not from the work of individual authors except in rare cases, should make anonymity more intelligible. ”

“ Today the results of their scholarship are available to the public and the great hymns which they have fostered may be heard as well as read in their medieval form.
The assimilation by the Franks, of alien cultures whether through conquest or peaceful interchange, may have been to a certain extent inevitable and involuntary. Such phenomena occur in every period of history. It is the conscious appropriation by the Carolingian leaders of a cultural heritage and its organization through existing institutions which reveals their true genius. ”

“ The popular trochaic meter familiarized by Hilary, Prudentius and Fortunatus, when transformed by stress accent and rhyme, is easily recognized both in Latin and the vernaculars. Fortunatus popularized the elegiac meter in hymns for a thousand years by demonstrating its use in Tempora florigero. Prior to the ninth century revival of hymnody, the Ambrosian hymn, considered as a metrical model, in comparison with all other existing models, dominates the field equally with its prestige as an expression of Christian theology and devotion. ”

“ Gall manuscripts, as Gautier noted, were furnished with musical notation. This is occasionally true of later manuscripts, especially as we enter the closing medieval centuries. The traditional melodies of certain hymns, like the Salve festa dies and Gloria laus et honor are known to-day. Musicologists and students of liturgical music are currently engaged in bringing this music to present-day knowledge. For example, the hymn used in procession before the reading of the Gospel appears in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries as a conductus or conductum which, in turn, is related to the cantio. ”

“ Later, Thomas Aquinas, Professor of Theology at the University of Paris, created a poetical counterpart in his hymns, to the prose exposition of dogma. No one else reached his stature in this particular but hundreds of European clerics having theological degrees or a partial preparation for them, were active in the church and in secular life. It is only fair to suppose that they must be included in the great anonymous group which assisted in making that unique contribution to medieval literature which was preserved in contemporary liturgical collections. ”

“ The direct influence of Celtic culture upon the new hymn cycles must be associated with the introduction of biblical and liturgical works containing hymns into Frankish territory. Later, hymns were written by Celtic scholars, for instance, Samson, Sedulius Scottus (enumerated above) and possibly others who are anonymous. Blume’s theory of the Anglo-Irish hymn cycle, originally sponsored by Gregory the Great and finally transferred to the continent, illustrates the most decisive form which Celtic influence has so far been presumed to have exerted. ”

“ We owe the preservation of the earliest Latin hymns to monastic practice. When the founders of monasticism in the west, Caesarius and Aurelian who were famous bishops of Arles (6th C.) , and Benedict (d. 543) , founder of the Benedictine Order, organized the regulations and routine for the communities under their charge, they incorporated Latin hymns already existing into the daily worship of the monastery. [1] These were sung at the services of the canonical hours and were known as hour hymns or office hymns.
A continuity can be traced, although faintly, from primitive Christian observances. ”

“ Perhaps it was a natural desire to emulate the splendor and ornament of eastern rites which led Charlemagne to favor Greek elements in western observance at the expense of the Gallican.
In the midst of Gallic, Celtic, Italian, Byzantine and oriental influences mingled in Carolingian culture, the presence of native genius is strongly felt. Charlemagne has been criticized for his devotion to classical rather than Germanic culture. Sacred poetry as produced in the Carolingian literary circles, was written in Latin and clothed in classical garb. ”

“ Studies of medieval Spanish music and musical instruments have failed to demonstrate that the ecclesiastical chant in Spain was thereby affected. Such novelties as it may have possessed have been traced to influences similar to those which had long before affected the Ambrosian chant and been transmitted to the west. As for the tentative assumption that Arabian lyric poetry influenced contemporary hymn writers in Spain, the evidence narrows to the mono-rhyme or repeated end-rhyme common to Arabian poetry and to several Mozarabic hymns. ”

“ Metrical parallelism, which is characteristic of the Latin sequence and contemporary Greek hymns, in Gastoué’s opinion, can be accounted for only by reference to Hebrew poetry as the ultimate inspiration of liturgical poetry. [19] Thus a Byzantine theory of origin breaks down when metrical sources are subjected to closer scrutiny. After all, the sequence is unknown in the Byzantine ritual and therefore the Byzantine influence could never have been direct.
A third theory emphasizes the metrical form of the alleluia melody as the determining factor in creating a new poetical rhythm. ”

“ The Bangor Antiphonary, the hymns of which have already been considered, came to the continent at this time. Among the famous teachers of music was Marcellus [14] who, at St. Gall, instructed Notker, Tutilo, Waltram and Hartmann, a fraternity devoted to finer ecclesiastical music and hymnody.
The role of Byzantine influence cannot be ignored in any account of the cultural and historical background of ninth century literature. One should recall that the Carolingian period was an era of general European intercourse which could not fail to have an effect upon society. ”

“ Since Christ is born, the mighty king,
let the whole earth rejoice.
Processional hymns for saints are represented by Radbert’s hymn honoring St. Gall,
R. Annua, sancte Dei, celebramus festa diei,
Qua, pater, e terris sidera, Galle, petis. (A. H. 50. 241)
We celebrate, O Saint of God, our yearly feast on this day
When thou, father Gallus, dost leave the earth for heaven.
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To celebrate the life and miracles of a patron saint was frequently the inspiration of a medieval procession, which, in the case of St. Gall, passed beyond the precincts of the monastery into the streets of the town. ”

“ Latin hymnology, moreover, is an aspect of ecclesiastical studies following the history of the Church through the classical and medieval ages into modern times.
A wider cultural background than the immediate interest of theology and religion is reflected in the hymns of any age. Here often lie secrets of interpretation which make possible an appreciation of contemporary thought. ”

“ The process went steadily onward as Latin hymns for the offices continued to be written to the end of the Middle Ages. A few have been added since the sixteenth century but, with certain exceptions, the great body of office hymns of the medieval church was permanently established by 1100, the date which Mearns selected as a boundary line. The same sources enriched the present-day Roman breviary which by a paradox of history, has preserved to modern times the representative hymns to which the Roman liturgy of that early period was so inhospitable. ”

“ The biblical narratives and the symbolism connected with the various offices 16 and feasts add substance and character to the cycles and to the concept of the liturgical year.
In the heart of the Dark Ages, popularly considered, western European civilization was in confusion and its fate problematical. One could scarcely expect the fruits of peace and security to flourish. Yet in these very centuries there were created and circulated many of the best loved hymns of Christianity, a number of which have been in unbroken use to the present day. ”

“ As the result of the literary and liturgical movement initiated by these leaders, supported by the councils and schools, the Mozarabic hymnology was rapidly developed. The canons of the IV Council of Toledo, for which Isidore may have been personally responsible, require uniformity of the rites and offices throughout Spain and Gaul. The thirteenth canon upholds the validity and appropriateness of hymns by Christian authors against those who would restrict the hymnody of the Church to the Psalms of the Old Testament. ”

“ It should be remembered that these centuries embraced a period of the greatest political, economic and social confusion in western Europe during which we know relatively little about Christian worship in widespread congregations except for the rite of the mass. Yet in the sixth century the opposite tendency toward greater freedom in writing and singing hymns was apparent. The Council of Tours, 567, permitted the secular clergy to use Ambrosian and other hymns. ”

“ Arguing from the appearance of the trope, some 36 have suggested that the iubilus is a musical interpolation just as the trope is a textual interpolation. This is quite possible but perhaps too simple for an adequate solution. A much more tempting hypothesis has appealed to a variety of scholars,—that of the introduction of Greek melodies. [3] To these students it has seemed more than probable that the intercourse between western Europe and the Byzantine realms in the reign of Charlemagne constitutes a sufficient explanation for the appearance of fresh musical themes. ”

“ Many others in keeping with his style and inspiration have been preserved and subjected to critical study with the result that eighteen hymns on varied themes are generally conceded to be Ambrosian. Had Ambrose never conferred upon the church his gift of hymnody he would still remain one of the great Latin Fathers of the fourth century, in his functions as statesman, organizer and scholar. His contribution to ecclesiastical poetry and music have made him influential century after century. ”

“ The Latin school flourished everywhere. There is evidence that every social class participated to some extent in the new education although illiteracy must at the same time have been common. It seems clear that the layman who had received these early educational advantages could understand Latin hymns or read them if the texts were available. Both sexes shared elementary education and lay women as well as nuns occasionally had access to advanced instruction. ”

“ He likens the iubilus to a trope which Amalarius called a sequentia. The original divisions created by the musical phrases in the iubilus now appear in a series, each repeated a certain number of times with introduction and conclusion and thus the completed sequence structure comes into being. The germ of its formal construction, Gastoué finds in certain Gregorian sources. The ancient alleluia, Justus ut palma florebit, shows such characteristics and reveals the liturgical Latin origin of the sequence, its melody going back to the versus alleluiaticus. ”

“ Gregory’s adoption of Greek novelties forms the starting point of this theory, while Charlemagne’s well-known enthusiasm for Greek innovations carries its proponents still further. The fact that the original Greek melodies which are assumed to have been used in the west, have never been produced in evidence, is not a proof of their non-existence. An extensive study of certain sequence melodies has been made in order to determine whether they are modeled upon Greek originals, since the Greek names for these melodies and features of notation point to such an origin. ”

“ The influence of the Eastern upon the Western Church seems to have been cumulative, with Charlemagne in his day acting as the agent for its diffusion throughout the Frankish Church.
In matters concerning the church and its worship the Greeks were an acquisition not only as musicians but as scholars and as experts in the fine arts. Their scholarship was in demand in New Testament studies. Illustrations of Greek and of oriental inspiration in general are numerous in architecture, painting, sculpture, ivories, work in precious metals and the decoration of manuscripts. ”