Gripla - 01.01.2003, Síða 21

THE BUCHANAN PSALTER AND ITS ICELANDIC TRANSMISSION
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lieved to have been written ca. 1780-90 by Guðmundur Magnússon and
Benedikt Gröndal.35 It contains a total of 32 poems for weddings and other
feasts (including nine to melodies from the Buchanan/Olthof psalter), as well
as five poems by Eggert Ólafsson to Olthof s songs that are not part of the
wedding cycle.36
Besides stipulating the performance of at least three of Eggert Ólafsson’s
wedding poems, the Wedding Instructions also allow for performances of two
Olthof settings to Buchanan’s original Latin poetry. As the bridal procession
moves towards the church, Eggert Ólafsson presents three choices regarding
the musical accompaniment. Felix o ter et amplius (Buchanan’s Psalm 128),
should only be sung if the groom has some knowledge of Latin.37 If this was
not the case, it could be substituted with either the hymn Hver sem að reisir
hæga byggð, or a Sanctus, “as was the custom in the old days.”38 He also
allows for the use of instruments to accompany the singing, so that the “dark
and heavy ones are in basso but in alto the bright and thin ones.”39 Following
the ceremony, as the bride and groom make their way out of the church, he
35 Skrá um handritasöfn Landsbókasafnsins vol. 2, 491.
36 JS 1 4to, 595-653 (“Nockr smá qvædi at st'ngja í brúdlaupum og ödrum samqvæmum á
íslandi”). Only 17 of these poems are printed in Eggert Ólafsson’s, Kvæði, 181-187. In JS 1
4to each of the wedding poems is given a heading that describes its function within the
ceremony as a whole: Söngur fyrir bónda-minni (“Að bónda minni biðjum vér”), Vina-full
(“Minn vinur, maklegt er”), Vinfengis-minni (“Vors góða vinar nú”), Virðingar-minni
(“Mörg eru mungáts orð”), Landstjórnar-minni (“Búeldur hlýr í skotunum skír”), and
Dauða-minni (“Ó, hvað maðurinn misjafnt sér”).
37 Eggert Ólafsson, Uppkast liiforsagna um brúðkaupssiðu, 30. Buchanan’s incipit is itself a
paraphrase of the concluding stanza of Horace’s Ode 1/13 (“Felices ter et amplius”); see also
Table 1.
38 Ibid.: ”... ellegarSanctus sem fyrrum var siður með tvfsöng eður fersöng af báðum raustum
með tempruðu hljóðsmagni.” This may well be a reference to the Stimmtausch Sanctus-
melody found in ÍB 323 8vo (to its original Latin text) and in a large number of other
manuscripts to an Icelandic trope (“Heyr þú oss himnum á”) by Rev. Ólafur Jónsson of
Sandar. The origins of this melody were traced by Róbert Abraham Ottósson in “Ein fogur
Saung Vijsa ...,” in Afmælisrít Jóns Helgasonar 30. júní 1969, 251-259. Stimmtausch, or
voice-exchange, is a medieval polyphonic technique that involves two voices of equal range
in a mutual altemation of phrases. It was most widely practiced during the twelfth and
thirteenth centuries, and its most common feature, aside from voice exchange, is counterpoint
moving in contrary motion (see Emest H. Sanders, rev. Peter M. Lefferts, “Voice-exchange,”
in NG2, vol. 26, 871).
39 Uppkast til forsagna um brúðkaupssiðu, 30: “svo að dimm og digur séu í basso en í alto hin
skæm og mjóu.” In a previous passage, he places homs, oboes, and langspil in the bass
category and assigns the alto part to clavier, viols, and flutes (Jbid., 27). It is highly unlikely
that instruments were generally available for wedding performances. A contemporaneous