Gripla - 01.01.2003, Side 29

THE BUCHANAN PSALTER AND ITS ICELANDIC TRANSMISSION
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even if these pieces were not (as the earlier ones had been) “complete”
musical works.62
4. Lutheran Hymnals and oral transmission
The manuscript transmission of Olthofs melodies and texts to them ceased
around the tum of the nineteenth century, as musical literacy in Iceland
reached its nadir. Yet one melody from the Olthof/Buchanan psalter outlived
the others by at least a century, and enjoyed a much wider dissemination.
“Upp hef ég augun mín” — Rev. Þorlákur Þórarinsson’s (1711-1773) text to
the tenor part of Princeps stelliferis — first appears in JS 138 8vo, a manu-
script in the hand of Rev. Ásgeir Bjamason (1703-1772). Both melody and
text were printed in the 1772 Hymnal commonly referred to as Höfud-
greinabókin,63 A new text to this melody appeared in Magnús Stephensen’s
Enlightenment Hymnal of 1801 (“Grát, auga, guðs son dó”) and was printed
again, with musical notation, in Pétur Guðjónsson’s Hymnal of 1861.64 The
melody also appeared with letter notation in Ari Sæmundsen’s manual for
playing the monochordal langspil, published in 1855.65
As was common for hymn melodies in the nineteenth century, the melody
to “Grát, auga, guðs son dó"/Princeps stelliferis entered an oral tradition and
was sung in versions often far removed from the notated ones. Bjami Þor-
62 Another question — hardly less pressing — has to do with the rhythmic transmission of
Olthof s melodies, whether in one or more parts. Since the pedagogical effect of these pieces
depended on the exact rhythmic differentiation between breves and semibreves, one would
not expect to see the inconsistent application of rhythmic values found in AM 102 8vo, let
alone non-rhythmic notation, as is the case in Rask 98. Whether, and how, these rhythmic
values changed when the melodies were sung to Icelandic texts requires further study. It
should be noted, however, that Lbs 508 8vo, which contains four-part versions to Icelandic
poetry, as well as Lbs 1245 8vo and IB 323 8vo, each of which transmits a single part to
Buchanan’s Latin poetry, are impeccable in this regard.
63 Þeirrar lslendsku Psalma-Bookar Sijdari Partur (Hólar, 1772), 225-229. This source refers to
“Upphaf og hertoginn” (i.e. Princeps steltiferis) as the melody.
64 Evangelisk-kristileg Messu-saungs- og Sálma-bók, 69-70; Pétur Guðjónsson, Islenzk Sálma-
saungs-og messubók með nótum, 107; see also ÍÞ, 481-482. In an appendix, Pétur Guð-
jónsson stated that he had not found the melody in any of the foreign sources he had con-
sulted (íslenzk Sálmasaungs-og messubók, 164). Princeps stelliferis was also sung to the
texts “Skaparinn ljóssins skær” (by Þorsteinn Sigurðsson, printed in Daglegt Kvpld og
Morgun-Offur, 1-3) and “Kom sæl, mæt morgunstund” (IÞ, 482).
65 Ari Sæmundsen, Leiðarvísir til að spila á langspil og til að Isera Sálmalög eptir nótum, 67.