The set of manuscripts from the Benedictine Convent of St. George in Prague includes 69 codices with and without musical notation. Such a collection of manuscripts originating from a single institution is not usual anywhere in Europe. The present study focuses on twenty-three manuscripts containing staff notation that were written between the second half of the thirteenth and the first quarter of the fifteenth centuries. They show great diversity in types of staff notation and a very large number of different scribes: 55. For the most part they are written in Gothic-Messine notation, by contrast with other sources from the Prague diocese which use Czech notation. Comparison of notational symbols and of the hands of the scribes can help answer questions concerning the St. George scriptorium.
The hymn, one of the most frequently encountered songs in Western European sources, poses many questions with regard to the conflict between common and local traits. The Office hymns on which I focus were transmitted mainly in fourteenth- and fifteenth-century sources, which contain huge collections of hymns for different liturgical occasions, including those in honour of local saints. We still do not have a reasonable explanation of how or why the same tunes were adapted for different texts (or vice versa). The ‘Franciscan’ hymn melody Stäblein 752 (originally devoted to St Francis), for example, which occurs with different hymn texts in Austria, Germany, Bohemia, Poland and Spain, has many melodic variants reflecting regional characteristics. Why was this particular melody transferred to and adopted in other parts of Europe, where there was certainly no shortage of alternative hymn melodies? Is it a question of the adoption of favourite melodies in the Middle Ages? Were the same tunes used for hymns in honour of both male and female saints? What are the implications for us when the same ‘local’ tune can be identified in polyphonic hymn settings?
JavaScript is turned off in your web browser. Turn it on to take full advantage of this site, then refresh the page.