| Program Notes on:
Miracles of Sant’Iago
Medieval Chant & Polyphony for St.
James from the Codex Calixtinus
[After James was martyred in Jerusalem] His disciples spirited away
his body and … his head, placed his earthly remains in a boat, and set
sail from Jaffa. In only seven days the ship, propelled miraculously by
wind and waves, arrived at the coast of Galicia. As the ship neared the
land, a horseman, riding beside the sea, was carried by his bolting horse
into the waves, but instead of drowning, horse and rider came to the surface
covered with scallop shells. Henceforth, the scallop shell became the symbol
of St. James and the badge of the pilgrim to his shrine.
— Marilyn Stokstad, Santiago de Compostela: In the Age of the Great
Pilgrimages
Copyright C 1978 by the University of Oklahoma Press
During the Middle Ages, three holy places — Jerusalem, Rome, and Compostela,
a remote Galician village in northwestern Spain — were visited by countless
pilgrims from all over Europe, often in fulfillment of a lifelong dream.
Compostela was the legendary burial place of St. James the Greater, Jacobus
Major, the first apostle, and the first to die a martyr. For medieval Spain,
under Moslem siege, St. James became a heavenly champion and symbol of
the Christian Reconquista. His power as a miracle worker was renowned,
and visitors to his tomb sought both physical and spiritual healing, as
they do to this day.
Since the late twelfth century the Cathedral of Santiago in Compostela
has possessed a manuscript entitled Jacobus (and also called Liber Sancti
Jacobi or Codex Calixtinus). Its five books contain sermons on St. James,
chants and lessons for his feasts, accounts of his miracles and legends,
an epic tale of Charlemagne in Spain, an informative travel guide to the
pilgrimage routes through France and Spain, and a contemporary “supplement”
of polyphonic music. How it found its way to Compostela is not known for
certain, but it is undoubtedly a French product, probably compiled or written
in Cluny around 1150. Although its author was obviously erudite, Jacobus
contains many ridiculous errors in grammar, rhetoric, and dogma, which
scholars have tried for centuries to rationalize. It has recently been
shown that the non-musical portions containing these errors were actually
texts to be corrected by French schoolboys as Latin exercises, and
that the music (which is not defective) was meant to be sung by the boys
on feasts of St. James.
About ninety percent of the music in Jacobus is plainchant for the Vigil
and Feast of St. James (25 July) and for the Translation of his body from
Palestine to Galicia (30 December). Most of it is specifically liturgical:
hymns, antiphons, responsories, and versicles for the Divine Office and
Mass propers and ordinaries. Many, if not most, of these were contrafacts
(i.e., adapted from existing chants), such as the invitatory antiphons
Venite omnes and Regem regum, the processional hymn Salve festa dies, and
the antiphon Ad sepulcrum beati Iacobi. Other chants, like Agnus dei: Qui
pius ac mitis, were expanded, or “troped” with additional text and music,
and it was perhaps as an educational gesture that Greek, Hebrew, and Galician
words were added to the ancient double-versicle “prosa” Alleluia: Gratulemur
et letemur.
Although they represent a mere ten percent of the music in Jacobus,
the polyphonic works (nineteen for two voices, one for three voices) have
received more attention from scholars than the plainchant has because they
are among the earliest such pieces to have been written down. Some, like
the conductus In hac die and Jacobe sancte tuum, are not strictly liturgical,
but are perhaps meant to accompany a reader’s walk to the lectern. Several
others are settings or tropes of the Benedicamus domino, a closing formula
of the Office and Solemn Mass, such as Vox nostra resonet, Nostra phalanx,
Ad superni regis,Gratulantes celebremus, and Congaudeant catholici. This
last piece was originally notated in two voices, with a third voice added
in a different hand — making it one of the earliest surviving three-voice
pieces. Because this third voice creates many dissonances, some scholars
say that only two voice parts should be sung at a time. We think, however,
that it makes a very satisfying three-voice piece, just daring enough for
an “avant-garde” work of its time.
Most of the musical works in Jacobus are attributed in the manuscript
to specific (usually French) authors — clerics and other notables, some
famous and others unknown. Until recently it was thought that these
attributions were fanciful, but research has verified many of them. For
plainchant works based on existing melodies, these authors probably wrote
new texts, often drawn from St. James’s copious miracle literature rather
than from scripture. For polyphonic works, these authors may have been
responsible for the music and text, or for the music alone. The greatest
number of polyphonic settings by a single composer, including the monumental
responsory O adiutor and its trope Portum in ultimo, are those of Bishop
Ato of Troyes, who retired to Cluny in 1145 — just about the time when
Jacobus was assembled.
There are two distinct textures for the polyphonic works: a “discant”
style, in which the two voice parts generally move together (as in the
conductus and the Benedicamus tropes), and an “organal” style in which
the upper voice part sings a rhapsodic melody against the long-held notes
of a lower tenor voice based on a liturgical chant (as in O adiutor and
the troped Kyrie: Cunctipotens). The plainchants most commonly set in this
way are the soloists’ portions of the Gradual and Alleluia of the Mass,
and the Matins Responsory of the Divine Office. In hindsight, it is possible
to see this style, with its relatively simple textures and limited liturgical
repertoire, as a primitive precursor of more sophisticated developments
to come. But the polyphonic compositions that survive in Jacobus are representatives
of a highly developed musical language. Just about a generation after the
appearance of Jacobus, the basic elements of this language — its
vocal textures and its repertoire — came together again in the first Notre
Dame school of sacred polyphony, led by Leoninus.
The notation in Jacobus is ambiguous as to rhythm and meter, as well
as to alignment of pitches between the voice parts in the polyphony. Scholars
have proposed a variety of rhythmic solutions for the polyphony and the
non-liturgical songs, ranging from an unmeasured chant-like style to strictly
regular “modal” rhythm. Instead of adhering to any previously existing
theory, we have come to our rhythmic interpretations by considering not
only melodic, harmonic, and notational patterns, but also the nature and
poetic structure of the texts themselves. In imitation of contemporary
instrumental practice, we have occasionally added vocal drones as well.
As our guiding principle we have tried to be true to the infectiously joyful
and exuberant melody that pervades this remarkable collection, made for
and performed by the young treble voices of a medieval French grammar
school.
-- Susan Hellauer
|
CD to hear a RealAudio sample of that track. If you don't have a RealAudio
player, Click 