Christmas in the Middle Ages
In the early days of
Christianity, the first and only celebrations held
were of the events around Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection, the
Easter cycle of holy days. Already in the third century, when attention
extended to the birth of Jesus Christ, the date of December 25th began
to be mentioned. This date, which was the Roman religious holy day Dies
natalis Solis invicti (The Day of Birth of the Undefeated
Sun) linked
to the Solstice was Christianised. Until the early Middle Ages,
however, the important day was the festival of Epiphany on January 6th.
Apart from that day, the arrival of the Magi from the East (the
legendary Three Kings) described in the St. Matthew gospel, the birth
of Our Saviour was commemorated. Also remembered, along with the
beginning of Jesus’ earthly life was the beginning of his public
activities when John the Baptist immersed Jesus in the waters of the
Jordan and the Holy Spirit as a white dove descended upon Him. The sign
manifesting His power to change human lives, such as turning water into
wine at the wedding at Cana in Galilee was recalled as well.
The music on this CD comes exactly from the time when Christmas
celebrations were
being extended and each single event celebrated individually. By this
time, the days of Christmas acquired similar content to those of our
own times. The day before the festival known nowadays as Christmas Eve
was then celebrated as the holy day of Adam and Eve, the first people.
To that festival was added an octave, a kind of eight day extension
(along with other festivals of similar importance). The whole Christmas
period led towards January 6th, and from the 13th century all the
Twelve Days of Christmas between the main Christmas festivals were
emphasized. The Christmas period ended with the traditional festival of
Epiphany and through to the following Sunday. In the high Middle Ages,
however, the fortieth day after the main holy day of Christmas was
still a holy day with roots in eastern Christianity called the
Purification of the Virgin Mary, later named The Presentation of the
Lord (better known to us as Candlemas). The Incarnation, then the Word
became flesh and God became man was given more and more importance.
A
spiritual preparation for the Christmas cycle was the forty days of St.
Martin, from St. Martin’s day on November 11th to Christmas Eve. It was
known as the St. Martin’s Lent. By the 16th century today’s Advent
cycle was formed. This starts four Sundays before the birth of Our Lord
and continues through the following weeks (the Christian week starts on
Sunday). The last week is often incomplete and sometimes the fourth
Sunday of Advent is Christmas Eve, with the fourth week being only this
one day. The first part of Advent focuses on the expected arrival
(adventus is arrival in Latin) of Jesus Christ as we read in the Jewish
Bible. The prophecies are cited and stories about the main characters
of the Old Testament are read. In the second part (from December 17th)
the liturgical texts are reminding us of what happened prior to Jesus’
birth, the announcement by the angel to the Virgin Mary (which is also
celebrated separately nine months before Christmas on March 25th) and
other events described in the first chapters of the Gospels of Matthew
and Luke. The attention becomes focused upon the Virgin Mary, who will
become the Mother of God made flesh, and upon John the Baptist.
From
the 13th century, Christmas was becoming a folk festival as well. The
tradition of the crib is connected with the Franciscan Order, which was
founded in 1209. Alongside the dignified chorale, a theological
meditation put to music with text written down in a breviary and
missal, there exist songs in simple Latin and later in vernacular
languages describing the events and expressing humble feelings of
penitence, gratefulness and joy.
doc. ThDr. Ivan Štampach
Christmas music in gothic Bohemia
Music of the Bohemian high
Middle Ages and early Renaissance is so unique that it is hard to find
anything similar in other countries. The political tension in the world
at the turn of the 14th and 15th century (the papal schism and the
Hundred Years War) as well as in Bohemia (the drowning of Jan z Pomuku,
the Kutnohorsky decree) which, after the burning at the stake of Master
Jan Hus, culminated in the Hussite wars. These paralised the life of
the Czech lands for two decades and deeply afflicted the cultural
development of the whole of the 15th century. While, mainly in France,
musical development continually moved from Ars Antiqua
(13th century and the beginning of the 14th century) to Ars
Nova (second and third quarter of the 14th century) and Ars
Subtilior (last quarter of the 14th century and first third
of the 15th century) up to the transient style mixing progressions of
the high Middle Ages and the dawning Renaissance
(until the middle of the 15th century), musical development in Bohemia
was interrupted by the Hussite wars. We can find many works that are
reflections of the European music of Ars Antiqua
and Ars Nova in Bohemian musical sources, while the
original Bohemian works of the Ars Subtilior are missing. We know from
documents linked with Prague University that significant compositions
of this style were performed in the circle of Prague University (see CD
"The Music of Charles University II" Studio Matouš – MK 0005).
Part of the Bohemian repertoire in the Ars Antiqua and Ars Nova manner
"survived" the Hussite wars. At the time of the Czech Reformation, when
the activity of the Utraquist Brethren grew in abundance, there
originated quite a number of beautifully illuminated hymn-books, mostly
at the end of the 15th century and in the first half of the 16th. They
record not only contemporary (new) repertoire but also many old
chansons in either one- or multiple parts. To the original Latin songs
were set new Czech texts (so-called contrafactum).
These were either translations of the original Latin words, distant
variations or sometimes even completely new texts. The music was as
well changed more or less. Some versions were only very remotely
similar to the original. Despite all that, many works were still being
sung in their archaic medieval form in the 16th century. This longevity
over several centuries, particularly of the chansons and motets, is
characteristic in the Czech lands between the 14th and 16th centuries.
Many compositions were really very popular. Evidence of this is in the
larger number of diverse versions and many completely different
contrafacta.
In many cases on this CD older medieval compositions and their early
Renaissance versions or Czech contrafacta are arranged next to each
other. With the exception of the Kyrie Virginitatis amator
(#3), all pieces are nonliturgical and are placed so as to evoke the
periods before, during and after Christmas. Thus we begin here with the
Announciation to the Virgin Mary (25th March) and
conclude with the Epiphany, known also as the holy
day of Three Kings (6th January).
The author of the song Mittitur archangelus (#1) is
thought to be the educated and musically active archbishop of Prague,
and patriarch of Alexandria, Cardinal Janu z Jenštejna
(1350-1400). From the 14th century it was handed down in several
manuscripts. In the 15th century it was newly translated into Czech and
was still well known by the second half of the 17th century. Then one
of the Czech versions, Poslal Bůh Anjela
(#2) was included by Jan Ámos Komenský in his Kancionál
český (Bohemian Cancional) in 1659 under the title The
History of the Incarnation of Christ. Among the oldest works
on this CD comes, for example, a chanson in two parts In hoc
anni circulo (#40) from the Jistebnice Cancional.
The original chanson is in one part and comes from the monastery of St.
Martial in the 12th century. It is known as well in northern Italy,
Switzerland and The Netherlands, and in a later version in Bohemian
manuscripts from the 16th century it is written in three parts (#41). A
student "macaroni" (bilingual Latin-Czech) carol More
festi (#39), from pre-Hussite times was tied not only to
Christmas but also served well various different student caroling
errands. Next here are early polyphonic works echoing the compositional
principles of Ars
Antiqua: Ave maris stella (#16), Stala
sě jest (#34), Dietky mladé i staré (#35)
and a song Ježíš náš spasitel (#32) that comes as
rotulum Salve lux fidelium (#6) from the similar
melodic circle as the most famous Bohemian Christmas carol Narodil
se Kristus pán. This carol has its roots already in the 15th
century as has its Latin "model" En virgo parit filium
(#33). Among older compositions we can also include those in an obvious
Ars Nova style: Pangat odas
(#4), multilingual motets Ave coronata… (#5), Gaude
Dei… (#21), Unde gaudent… (#28) with its
Czech contrafactum Anjelé radost jměli… (#29), Tria
sunt munera… (#42) and a Czech contrafactum Radujme
se
všickni… (#27) to an older motet Omnis nunc
microcosmos.
Interesting as well are those works where, despite the strong
connection with waning medieval thinking, the first signs of some early
Renaissance principles start to appear, for example
the song Angelis
cantantibus (#22) with changing metrum or Insignis
infantule
(#23). Musically richer is Ave virgo, castitatis
(#14) which may remind us of chansons by Guillaume Dufay and his
contemporaries by the melodic line of its individual voices. Perhaps it
is a Latin sacred contrafactum to an originally secular song. An
important figure of that time is the Polish composer and poet Petrus
Wilhelmi de Grudencz (about 1392-after 1465). Most of his
musical output is found in Czech sources. Petrus' works probably formed
a part of the popular repertoire, because they were found in various
versions with many Czech contrafacta – for example Prelustri
elucencia
(#11) with a contrafactum Přečistá panno Marya
(#12) or Zdávna prorokové… (#43) which is a
contrafactum to a famous motet Paraneuma eructemus.
We can find a more prominent inclination towards the new style in a
carol Fulgent nunc
natalitia (#31) from a Silesian manuscript Glogauer
Liederbuch which is perhaps linked to Petrus de Grudencz, in
the overall structure of Magnum miraculum (#26) or
in a simple motet Velice přeutěšený den… (#36).
Some monophonic songs from the 14th and 15th centuries still served as
a base for polyphonic songs in the 16th century. On our CD they are: Pulcherima
rosa (#9 and 10), De promemus (#37) and Zvěstujem
vám radost (#38) or Dies est laetitiae
recorded here with its Czech contrafactum Přišel nám
den veselý (#24). The original Latin version together with
other Bohemian medieval works found its way even to Finland. These
compositions (first published in Finland in 1582 as Piae
cantiones) are still known and sung there today. An anonymous
composer of a three-part version of the song Dies est
laetitiae (recorded in the Glogauer Liederbuch)
wrote his own variation on the original tune (#25). Similarly, a song Cedit
meror eminus (better known set to the Easter lyrics of Cedit
hiems eminus) is composed in two completely different
versions (#17 and
18). In a category of multi-part compositions written to a well-known
melody is Zdrávas
císařovno (#15) and Sicut cedrus (#13),
recorded in two different versions from an single manuscript, codex
Speciálník from about 1500. A chanson Solis praevia
(#30) recorded here in three parts is known from several manuscripts as
a monophonic chanson. A motet Stirps regalis… went
through an interesting transformation. In the version in two parts (#7)
the inner metrum is in three while in the three parts version (#8)
(probably the later one) it is in two. We can hear very well the three
beats two beats interplay towards the end of motet Congaudemus
pariter… (#19) and in its Bohemian contrafactum Radujme
se vespolek… (#20).
Lukáš Matoušek
