Schola Hungarica / Sequences from Nonantola

EMI-Quint "Quintana" QUI 903084
july, 1992
Calvinist Church, Ócsa



SEQUENCES FROM NONANTOLA
(Northern Italy)



1 - Pascha     [5 :36]
a. Sequentia : Ecce vicit radix David
b. Antiphona ante Evangelium: Laudate Dominum de caelis
c. Sequentia: Dic nobis quibus e terris

2 - Ascensio     [7 :55]
a. Introitus cum tropis: Quem creditis + Viri Galilaei
b. Antiphona ante Evangelium: Hodie secreta caeli
c. Sequentia: Summi triumphum regis

3 - Festum Trinitatis      [4:44]
a. Benedicamen: Benedicamus cum trinae vocis
b. Sequentia: Benedicta semper sancta

4 - Dominica XI post Trinitatem     [2:35]
a. Alleluja: Eripe me
b. Sequentia: Stans a longe

5 - Dominica XVII post Trinitatem     [2:47]
a. Alleluja: Exsultate Deo
b. Sequentia: Laeta mente

6 - Dominica XIX post Trinitatem     [2:03]
a. Alleluja: Confitemini Domino
b. Sequentia: O quam mira

7 - S. Silvester     [3:49]
a. Introitus cum tropis: Hic est Silvester + Statuit ei
b. Sequentia: Haec sunt sacra festa

8 - Inventio Crucis     [3:02]
a. Conductus: Sonet vox ecclesiae
b. Sequentia: Sanctae crucis celebremus

9 - Johannes Baptista     [4:15]
a. Alleluja: Justus ut palma
b. Sequentia: Alme mundi Rex Christe

10 - S. Petrus     [2:36]
a. Antiphona ante Evangelium: Petre amas me?
b. Sequentia: Pretiosa solemnitas adest

11 - S. Benedictus     [6:33]
a. Alleluja: Os justi meditabitur
b. Sequentia: Sancti merita Benedicti

12 - S. Laurentius     [3:40]
a. Antiphona ante Evangelium: Justum deduxit Dominus
b. Sequentia: Laurenti David magni

13 - Assumptio Beatae Mariae Virginis      [5:48]
a. Antiphona ante Evangelium: Beata es
b. Sequentia: Congaudent angelorum chori
c. Benedicamen: O lilium convallium

14 - Exaltatio Sanctae Crucis     [2:41]
Sequentia: Alme fulgens crux praeclara




sources:
The items are taken from the Nonantolan Proser-Troper, Rome, Bibl. Casanatense Ms. 1741, 11th century

with the following exceptions:

Nonantolan Troper, Rome, Bibl. Naz. Ms.1343, 11th century (2a)
Polyphonic manuscript, Bologna, Bibl. Univ. Мs.2216, 15th century (3a)
Graduale, Cividale, Museo Arch. Naz. LVIII, 14th century (8a)
Graduale, Cividale, Museo Arch. Naz. LVI, 14th century (13c)
Nonantolan Cantatorium, Nonantola, St. Silvester Abbey, Ms.I, 11-12th century (4a, 5a, 6a, 9a, 11a)
Ravenna Graduale, Modena, Arch, Capit.Ms.O.I.7, 11-12th century (Introitus of 2a & 7a)



SCHOLA HUNGARICA

Soloists:
Soós András, Mizsei Zoltán, Dobszay Ágnes

Conducted by

DOBSZAY LÁSZLÓ
(1a, 1b, 2a, 2c, 3a, 4, 7, 8b, 9b, 11b, 13c, 14)
SZENDREY JANKA
(1c, 2b, 3b, 5, 6, 8a, 9a, 10, 11a, 12, 13a, 13b)



Sung in Latin



SUNG TEXTS

Sequences from Nonantola


This recording presents the early sequence as preserved from the northern Italian monastery of St. Silvester in Nonantola. Lying on the trade routes between centers to the south and north of the Alps, St. Silvester became a thriving monastic center with an impressive library. Its surviving musical manuscripts from the 11th and early 12th centuries provide a window to the music sung there, especially such additions to the Mass as sequences and tropes. As a focal point for interchange, Nonantola adopted pieces from other centers into its repertory, allowing us to view a panorama of regional styles and approaches to the sequence and other genres. The fifteen sequences presented here are juxtaposed with other categories of chant that surround it in the Mass, including Alleluias, antiphons, and Introits with tropes, as well as three polyphonic pieces, which add to the pallet of styles.

The sequence (also known as a prose or prosa in Latin) in its earliest flowering from around 850 to 1000, was among the most significant types of music produced in medieval Europe. The history of the sequence is as complex as it is obscure. Following its emergence in northern France in the mid-9th century, two main and distinct regional repertories soon developed in the West and the East Frankish Kingdoms (roughly corresponding to French and German language areas). These collections had many melodies in common, but with different sets of texts, corresponding to regional tastes and liturgical demands. Notker of St. Gall (died 912) is the best known composer of early sequence texts, having written some forty prose texts in his Liber Hymnorum using melodies probably created west of the Rhine. Italian centers had a secondary role in shaping the genre, preserving pieces from both northern repertories, reworking some of this material and providing new texts. New works were also created, some consistent with northern styles, others strikingly original. Of the fifteen sequences recorded here, six are Italian works (Nos. 7b; 8b; 9b; 10b; 11b; 14); five are by Notker (Nos. 2c; 5; 6; 12b; 13b); three are West Frankish (Nos.1a; 1c; 4) and one of unknown origin (No.3b).

The music of the sequence is distinctly different than that of the earlier Gregorian pieces. Sequences use syllabic declamation (one note per syllable) almost exclusively and a form based on couplets, where a melodic phrase is repeated to the next line of text, producing a musical structure represented by aa-bb-cc...etc. (although single phrases, particularly at the beginning and end, are common). The simple, direct melodic movement, along with clear cadences emphasizing stable pitches, give the sequence a well-articulated form. Its strong sense of directed motion lies outside the more rhapsodic and meandering realms of most other chants. Since the text is in prose not poetry, phrase lengths may vary considerably and are often arranged to bring the whole piece - text and melody - into an ordered unity.

Attentive listening will reveal the wide range of styles used in the sequence, from the subtle differences between the West Frankish Dic nobis ( 1c) and Notker’s Laurenti David (12b), set to the same melody, called 'Romana' in medieval sources, to the striking departures from the northern styles in such Italian pieces as Alma fulgens (14) and Alme mundi rex (9b) with their neumatic and melismatic exuberance.

In the medieval Mass the sequence followed directly after the Alleluia, to which it bears a complex relationship, both with respect to style and origin (in this recording five sequences are paired with Alleluias: (4-6; 9;11). In shorter sequences that do not rely on parallel phrase structure like Laeta mente (5) and O quam mira (6b) the relationship to, and possible derivation from the preceding Alleluia is quite obvious; whereas, a large piece like Sancti merita Benedicti (11b) bears little resemblance to the Alleluia with which it is paired, indeed to the early Alleluia in general. Like sequences, tropes (additions of new text and music to a standard chant) relate to their base chants in various ways. Hic est Silvester (7a) opens with the same wide leap as Statuit-Introit, but the remaining trope verses resemble one another more closely than the Introit phrases with which they are paired. This lack of connection between trope melody and base chant is fairly typical of the northern Italian repertory. The introductory trope Quem creditis (2a) which represents a very different approach, was imported from France.

In Nonantola and certain other northern Italian and French centers, an Antiphona ante Evangelium followed the sequence on important feasts. These antiphons, which are very ancient, contain remnants of early regional repertories, including the Gallican, Mozarabic and Ambrosian. For example Laudate Dominum (1b) also sung before the gospel in Milan originated before the imposition of Gregorian chant in northern Italy; Hodie secreta (2b) probably descends from a Byzantine sticheron. Because of their diverse origins Antiphonae ante Evangelium vary considerably in length; some include verses (12a;13a), but most do not. Displaying a range of musical styles from neumatic (1b) to highly melismatic (13a) they have few traits in common, except perhaps repetition; the first two phrases of Hodie secreta (2b) are set to virtually the same music; in Laudate Dominum (1b) the cadence of all three phrases and the closing Alleluia share the same figure; in Iustum deduxit (12a) the same opening gesture heightens the rhetorical drive of the text (Et ostendit..., Et dedit..., Et complevit...).

Very little information survives about how any of these chants were performed, although the couplet structure of the sequence suggests some type of alternation between performance forces, whether that be solo versus choir (i. e. responsorial) or divided choirs (antiphonal). In the presentation of the sequences the conductors here explored a variety of solutions in juxtaposing voices of children, women and men. Several pieces employ techniques either hinted at in medieval sources or suggested by folk traditions. Stans a longe (4) for example employs a prosula-style performance that has the children singing the text while the men sing the melody on the syllable 'a'. In Summi triumphum (2c) two groups of male voices alternate using a Balkan folksong technique of having the second group begin on the last note of the first group and alternating in this way so that the whole piece progresses without a break. In Laeta mente (5) the jubilus (the melismatic extension of the Alleluia) from the preceding Alleluia is used to close the sequence, as it returns the melody to the final pitch. Performance decisions were informed by the music itself with the intention of revealing and highlighting its varied structures.

Lance Brunner & James Borders