Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1968, Page 29

Theoretically, there should be no need to present in print the music
of the sequences, because it is to be found on the leaves or fragments
of liturgical manuscripts reproduced in the facsimile volume.
Nevertheless, it has been thought helpful for the reader if this were
done, and that for several reasons.
One is, that the music of the MSS. is often almost indiscernible;
another, that here we often have only fragments of it, one bit in one
source, another in another, and so forth, so that the reader would have
to gather the bits together in order to get the whole tune. And not
seldom it occurs that, even so, we are not able to get the whole; in such
cases, if what is wanting could be restored from other sources acces-
sible to the author, this has been done, in order to present so many of
the sequences as possible in their entirety. More reasons later on.
As to presenting the music of medieval manuscripts in print, diffe-
rent methods have been employed.
One is: copying it in its original form, which is generally done in
liturgical books published by the Roman Catholic Church, such as Gra-
duale Romanum, Manuale Missæ et Officiorum, and others. Also
“Sårum”, Misset-Aubry: “Les proses d’Adam de St.-Victor”, Peter
Wagner: “Einfiihrung in die greg. Mel.” and Analecta hymnica (when
occasionally gi ving examples of melody phrases) use it; likewise Moberg.
The other is: transcribing it to our modern notation, and an octave
higher, viz. as is the custom with tenor parts.
Among publications of this kind we have, for one, Schubiger: “Die
Sangerschule St. Gallens” (1858), who uses the minim, J, as the
normal note.
Another transcriber, Bjarni Porsteinsson, in “Islenzk PjoSlog” (1906
-1909), proceeds in the same way.
The Manuale Missæ et Officiorum (1920), although presenting its
music in medieval notation, says in an instruction for transcribing it
into modern notation, that one ought to use the quaver, J>, as the normal
note.
Hammerich, in “Mediaeval music relics of Danemark”, and Reiss, in
“Musiken ved den middelalderlige Olavsdyrkelse i Norden” (both
1912), use the crotchet, J, as the normal note.
When in the medieval notation two, three, or more notes stand over
a single syllable, Schubiger and Bjarni Porsteinsson transcribe each of
these notes with a minim, so that the duration of such a syllable be-
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