Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1968, Síða 211

CONCEPCIO MARIE VIRGINIS - STIRPE ANNA REGIA
hat; durch den Orden wurde sie dann in alle Lander des Abendlandes,
allerdings in beschrånktem Masse, verbreitet. — Spater ward sie in
Deutschland vom 14. Jahrh. an fur das Fest Mariae Empfangnis
verwendet (daher der Anfang “Conceptio” statt “Nativitas”), drang
aber in dieser Fassung scheinbar nicht in das mittlere und westliche
und nordliche Deutschland vor” (AH).
It is, then, consistent with this, when the Swedish sources have
“Nativitas”, which Missale Nidrosiense has, too. But how can we
explain that the Icelandic ones have “Concepcio”? Perhaps it is a
result of the connection between Iceland and the Archbishop of
Bremen, which connection was established in the llth century, and
which may, to some extern, have continued in the following cen-
turies, although archbishoprics were established both in Denmark
and Norway in the 12th century. If this was the channel through
which it reached Iceland, we might presume that the sequence had
— at least sporadically — penetrated to North Germany.
But then a new enigma arises. Both of the Icelandic MSS. (which
are so similar that one may have been copied from the other, or
both from the same original) end with an “Amen” whose melody
is not of the Romano-German kind, but of the Franco-English (and
Norwegian) type.
A solution might be that the original was a French one, whose
first word “Nativitas” was — under German influence — commuted
to “Concepcio”, while the music, including that of the “Amen”,
was preserved.
There is also the possibility that the original was a Norwegian
MS. because of the Amen-melody, although no trace of such a MS.
has as yet been found; for as the text was adopted in the Norwegian
printed missal, the sequence must have been sung in Norway from
MSS. But whether one of these actually began with “Concepcio”
instead of “Nativitas”, is not known.
STIRPE ANNA REGIA
MS: O. Fac. 124, 11. 2 ff.
Text printed in AH 40, No. 147.
Textual differences from AH: 1 ex] -f-, 2a Iesu] iesum, 2b digna]
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