Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1968, Page 13
great St. Olavus-sequence “Lux illuxit letabunda”, the words of which
are printed in Missale Nidrosiense. He told the composer Johannes
Haarklou of his discovery; and in 1904 the latter published in the news-
paper Dagbladet an enthralling article, in which he demanded that the
relics of Norwegian medieval music manuscripts be thoroughly inves-
tigated.
As luck would have it, the right man stood ready to undertake the
task: the organist Georg Reiss. And through grants — first from the
Fridtjof Nansen Fund, and later from the Stor-ting (parliament) - he
was enabled to devote himself to this work for several years.
Previously, the vellum fragments had only to some extent been loos-
ened from the tax lists. In 1906 the loosening was completed; the frag-
ments then numbered altogether about 2300. (Later on, more have
turned up). Mr. Reiss segregated for his research those which con-
tained ecclesiastic liturgy, and grouped them according to their differ-
ent musical notation. Then, in the spring of 1907, he set forth, in a
leeture to the Society of Science, a survey of The Medieval Music Manu-
scripts of the Norwegian State Archives, which the Society printed the
following year.
Afterwards he concentrated upon the music of the medieval Olavus-
cult in Scandinavia; and in 1911 he completed his researches. The
Society of Science printed his book on this matter1, for which the Uni-
versity of Oslo bestowed a doctor’s degree upon him in 1913.
Among other things the book presents - in faesimile and modern tran-
scription - the majority of 3 sequences; two on St. Olaf, and one on
St. Hallvard, which are, of course, incorporated in the present book.
It was a great loss to Norwegian musicology that Dr. Reiss died in
the following year.
And now again, for many a year, very little was done with the frag-
ments, apart from adding new ones and a certain re-grouping.
Then - in 1947 - the State Archivist Dr. Asgaut Steinnes asked the
present writer if he were willing to undertake a registration of the frag-
ments. The task attracted me; and in the beginning of the next year I
set about doing it, and have carried on, more or less continually, during
the ensuing years, without, however, having completed it so far.
Now it soon appeared that not a few fragments contained parts of
1. “Musiken ved den middelalderlige Olavsdyrkelse i Norden”, 1912.
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