Gripla - 01.01.2003, Síða 17

THE BUCHANAN PSALTER AND ITS ICELANDIC TRANSMISSION
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suggests that the scribe had received considerably less musical training than
the scribes of other major sources of post-Reformation polyphony, such as
Rask 98 or AM 102 8vo. It is no exaggeration to describe the notation in JS
643 4to as being crammed with mistakes. One is often inclined to view the
scribe’s work as a purely visual (though often highly inaccurate) reproduction
of a graphic design rather than an intelligible attempt to reproduce a musical
text. Even though the Olthof pieces are among the scribe’s fíner efforts, many
of them make little sense as they appear here. Rhythmic values are rarely
consistent between the two parts, and in “Liðugan lofgjörðar vír”/Ut exta
flammis the bass part randomly altemates rhythmic and non-rhythmic nota-
tion. In “Minn andi, guð minn, gleðst í þér"/Secum insania the tenor part is
written a step lower than Olthof s setting, effecting a modal switch similar to
that observed in Rask 98 (in this case from A-Aeolian to G-Mixolydian). Yet
in the bass part that follows, this transposition is maintained only for the first
half of the piece. In the second half the bass is transposed a whole step
upward, which results in bizarre intervals both melodically (diminished
fifths) and harmonically (parallel seconds between the two parts).
Seven texts to Olthof s music appear without notation in Lbs 837 4to, a
536-page manuscript hymnal probably written around 1700.23 Five of these
also appear in JS 643 4to, with two-part notation. Lbs 837 4to is the only
source that attributes authorship to these texts. Here they are preceded by the
annotation “Now follow the minor poems of the late Guðmundur Ólafsson.”24
Guðmundur Ólafsson (b. ca. 1590-1600) was the son of the Rev. Ólafur Jóns-
son of Sandar in Dýrafjörður in Vestfirðir (1560-1627). He is said to have
been leamed in music and to have taught singing. One of his students was the
Rev. Guðbrandur Jónsson of Vatnsfjörður, who may have been the scribe of at
least part of AM 102 8vo, a major source of post-Reformation polyphony that
also includes two Olthof settings (see below).25 Guðmundur Ólafsson’s poems
23 Skrá um handritasöfn Landsbókasafnsins vol. 1, 367-368. The first part of the manuscript is
a copy of Ólafur Jónsson’s song-book. Páll Eggert Ólason states in his catalogue that this part
of the manuscript, as well as the poetry of Guðmundur Ólafsson that follows it, is written by
two hands, one from ca. 1680-1700, the other considerably younger.
24 Lbs 837 4to, p. 334: “Nu epter fylgia quedlingar sal. Gudmundar Olafs sonar.” The con-
clusion of this section of the manuscript is marked on p. 404: “Hier endast quedlingar Gud-
mundar Olafs sonar.”
25 Lbs 186 4to (The genealogies of Bishop Steingrímur Jónsson [1769-1845]), p. 1860: “hann
er ógiptur, var minn Skolameistare til Söngs (svona skrifar Sra Gudbrandr Jonss. i Vatns-
firdi).” See also MM vol. 4, 616.