Gripla - 2021, Side 302

GRIPLA300
Jacobus Clemens (non Papa), fyrst prentaður í Leuven árið 1567 en í Nürnberg
ári síðar við þýskan texta, Gott ist mein liecht. Aðeins í síðarnefndu útgáfunni eru
síðustu tvær hendingar lagsins endurteknar, sem einnig er raunin í Rask 98. Því
er þýska prentið að öllum líkindum fyrirmyndin að íslensku gerð lagsins. Textinn
Englar og menn og allar skepnur líka senn er ekki þýðing frumtextans heldur frjáls
útlegging á 148. Davíðssálmi. Rask 98 (og JS 138 8vo, yngra handrit sem virðist
beint afrit) geymir aðeins tenórrödd lagsins. Líklega gilti hið sama um þetta lag og
önnur sem þegar er vitað um, það var sungið hér á landi í fjórum röddum meðan
unnt var að halda uppi slíkum söng, en neðri raddir voru enn skrifaðar upp í
handrit heilli öld síðar.
S U M M A R Y
Yet another “foreign tune” in Rask 98
Keywords: Musicology, singing, polyphony, Rask 98, Melódía, Jacobus Clemens
(non Papa)
The manuscript Rask 98, also known as Melódía (in the Arnamagnæan Collection,
Copenhagen), was written ca. 1660–70 by an unknown scribe and contains 223
notated songs. The manuscriptʼs heading states that it contains “foreign tunes to
Icelandic poetry.” Since none of the songs in Rask 98 carries an attribution, tracing
their origins has proved to be an arduous task.
In an article published in this journal in 2012, the present author identified
models for five “foreign tunes” in Rask 98, extending our knowledge of musical
repertoire and transmission in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Iceland. One
further piece can now be added to the collection: Jacobus Clemens (non Papa)ʼs
four-part song Godt es mijn licht, first published in Leuven in 1567 but in Nuremberg
a year later to a text in German, Gott ist mein liecht. Only the latter version repeats
the songsʼs last two phrases, a repeat that is also found in Rask 98. Thus the
Nuremberg print can be identified as the source for the version in Rask 98. The
Icelandic text, Englar og menn og allar skepnur líka senn, is not a translation, but seems
to be a free paraphrase of Psalm 148. Rask 98 (and JS 138 8vo, a later manuscript
that seems to be a direct copy) contains only Clemensʼs tenor part in a non­rhyt-
hmic notation. Like the other polyphonic pieces that were brought to Iceland in the
second half of the sixteenth century, Englar og menn was presumably sung in four
parts while vocal resources allowed, and its lower parts were still transmitted on
their own a century later.
Árni Heimir Ingólfsson
Nesbala 38
170 Seltjarnarnes
arniheimir@lhi.is