Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1968, Side 93
EIA RECOLAMUS - LETABUNDUS EXULTET
The Icelandic sources h and i are largely the same as each other,
and they differ from the Norwegian fragments (not only C, which
has the keys, but also D, although it has had its keys cut away) as
regards the mode.
In C and D the music is in the Mixolydian mode, with final G.
In h and i, on the other hånd, it is in the Ionian, with final c.
In Moberg (No. 4), where a score of sources, Swedish and others, are
collated, we get a rather confused picture as to the mode, some using
the Mixolydian (G), others the Ionian (c), and others the Ly dian (F,
with b natural). The Ionian, transposed to F (with b flat), is pre-
sented as the norm. Hammerich, on the other hånd, gives a facsimile
of a Danish MS. (pp. 50—52) having the music in the Mixolydian
mode, as the Norwegian fragments have it.
As we see from the following transcription of the music, the Ionian
mode, used in the Icelandic MSS., results in a very high pitch in large
parts of the melody. The reason for using this mode is the want of a
leading note lying a semi-tone below the final, which the Mixolydian
mode does not present, a want which arose in the later Middle Ages,
although it was not permitted in regular chant. (The same result might
be achieved by transposing the Ionian mode down to F, with b flat,
as Moberg has it; but the English Sårum also uses the high-placed
Ionian mode.)
Nevertheless, the melody probably used one of the permitted
modes originally, e. g. the Ly dian or the Mixolydian; and because
our Norwegian fragments (and also the Danish MS. of the sequence,
published by Hammerich) use the latter mode, it is used in the fol-
lowing transcription in the construction of the part of the music
which is lacking in the said fragments.
D probably had in the refrain of all verses the long series of notes
on the 3rd syllable, and two on the 4th, as in that of the lst verse.
As this sequence was very popular (not least because of its attrac-
tive melody, which was used for a vast number of sequences), and
as the “refrain-melody” of it occurs so often, it is probable that
this part especially of the entire melody fixed itself in the mind and
memory of those who sung or heard it. We shall meet it again in
another connection.
In AH more than 80 MSS. are enumerated. The country of origin
is France in the llth century.
19