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The Organ in the Medieval Latin Liturgy, 800–1500

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2020

John Caldwell
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Extract

In spite of the wealth of literature dealing with the history of the medieval organ, surprisingly little of this is concerned with the use of the instrument in a liturgical context. The subject is mentioned, of course, but usually only in passing, as a matter of subsidiary importance compared with the details of construction, names of organ-builders, and so on, which constitute the main part of such publications. Even so noteworthy an article as that by Apel on ‘The Early History of the Organ’ conveys its extremely valuable information on the liturgical aspects in the context of an overall survey which begins by considering the instruments of classical antiquity. It is part of my purpose to try to reverse the process and to think of the mechanical details as subservient to the main topic: how the organ was actually used in the services of the Church.

Type
Research Article
Information
Proceedings of the Royal Musical Association , Volume 93 , 1966 , pp. 11 - 24
Copyright
Copyright © 1967 The Royal Musical Association and the Authors

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References

1 Speculum, xxiii (1948), 191–216; see also J. Perrot, L'Orgue de ses origines hellénistiques à le fin du XIIIe siècle, Paris, 1965.Google Scholar

2 Duschesne, L., Christian Worship: its Origin and Evolution, 4th English edn London, 1912, pp. 46, 49.Google Scholar

3 Paris, 1960. Sec in particular pp. 199–203.Google Scholar

4 Degering, H., Die Orgel, ihre Erfindung und ihre Geschichte bis zur Karolinge zeit, Münster, 1905, p. 60.Google Scholar

5 Wellesz, E., A History of Byzantine Music and Hymnography, 2nd edn., Oxford, 1961, p. 108; G. Reese, Music in the Middle Ages, New York, 1940, p. 123.Google Scholar

6 Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS. 473. The famous organ at Winchester was built before the death of Bishop Elphege in 951; the monastic order was founded there in 964.Google Scholar

7 F. Ll. Harrison, Music in Medieval Britain, London, 1958, pp. 122–126.Google Scholar

8 New Oxford History of Music, iii, pp. 412–413.Google Scholar

9 What I heard gave me exactly the impression we usually get when people sing with the organ; namely that now the words are heard, and now they are not. Purgatorio, ix, vv. 142–145.Google Scholar

10 Young, K., The Drama of the Medieval Church, Oxford, 1933, i, p. 334; Harrison, op. cit., p. 206; F. Feldmann, Musik und Musikpflege in mittelalterlichen Schlesien, Breslau, 1938, pp. 113–123; J. Handschin, Orgelfunktionen in Frankfurt a. M. im 15. und 14. Jahrhundert', Zeitschrift für Musikwissenschaft, xvii (1935), 108–110.Google Scholar

11 Dart, T., ‘A New Source of Early English Organ Music’, Music and Letters, xxxv (1954), 201–205.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

12 Harrison, loc. cit.Google Scholar

13 e.g. ‘Non sunt plures concordancie nec alie preter istas duplicatas, triplicatas vel quadruplicatas etc. ut patet tam in vocibus quam in aliis instrumentis vel in cordulis lire vel organis’. Brit. Mus. Add. 21455, f. 9v.Google Scholar

14 Faenza, Bib. Comm., MS. 117. Facs. edn. by the American Institute of Musicology, Rome, 1963.Google Scholar

15 Plamenac, D., ‘Keyboard Music of the Fourteenth Century in Codex Faenza 117’, Journal of the American Musicological Society, iv (1951), 179–201.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

16 ‘New Light on Codex Faenza 117’, Kongressbericht Utrecht 1952, Amsterdam, 1953, 310–326.Google Scholar

17 ‘Keyboard Music of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries’, Corpus of Early Keyboard Music, i, American Institute of Musicology, 1963.Google Scholar

18 They are ‘Gaudeamus’ (f. 13), ‘Rorate celi desuper et nubes pluant’ (f. 14v) and ‘Salue sancta parens’ (f. 80). The last of these is followed in the MS. by ‘Kyrieleyson de S. maria v.’ and ‘Et in terra pax hominibus de Sa. Maria.’ (ff. 81, 81v). Das Buxheimer Orgelbuch, facs. edn. by B. A. Wallner, Kassel, 1955; transcr. and ed. Wallner in Das Erbe Deutscher Musik, xxxvii-xxxix, Kassel, 1958–1959.Google Scholar

19 Moser, H. J., ‘Eine Trienter Orgeltabulatur aus Hofhaimers Zeit’, Guido Adler-Festschrift, Vienna, 1930, p. 84; see also his contribution to Zeitschrift für Musikwissenschaft, xv (1932–1933), 127–138.Google Scholar

The following musical examples were played during the course of the Paper:Google Scholar

  1. a

    a Two-part Kyrie from Ad orgaman faciendum (11th century).

  2. b

    b Kyrie (Codex Calixtinus, f. 190).

  3. c

    c Clausula: Et gaudebit (MS Wolfenbfittel 677, f. 45).

  4. d

    d Motet: Firmissime/Adesto/Alleluia (Add. 28550, f. 43v).

  5. e

    e Magnificat? (Faenza Codex, f. 95).

  6. f

    f Kyrie (Faenza Codex, f. 88v).

  7. g

    g Glorificamus te (Breslau, Staatsbib., MS. I Qu. 438).

  8. h

    h O clemens (Lochamer Liederbuch, p. 73).

  9. i

    i Salve Regina (Buxheimer Orgelbuch, f. 40).

Items e, 8, and h were played by the author at the piano; the remainder were recorded at Bristol University by the author and a choir of undergraduates.