Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1968, Qupperneq 268
24TH JUNE. IN NATIVITATE S. IOHANNIS B.
onwards the texts of these two sequences are different, ours beginning
“En baptista ...”, and the other: “Huius ortum ..
The melody of our sequence is the same as that of the s. Dominicus
sequence “In celesti ierarchia”, which also was connected with the
adaptation of that sequence on s. Thorlacus, of which our source
unfortunately contains a little less than half (4 verses out of 10).
Of the St. John sequence in hånd, however, our source presents all
the music, except a few notes at the end (supplied here from Moberg
No. 2).
In the following transcription the music has been transposed down
a fifth, viz. from final c with b natural to final F with b flat. The
reason for this is not only that in our source the level of the melody
is uncommonly high, rising to c5 in v. 9, but also that in our source
of “In superna ierarchia” it is actually written in F with b flat,
which makes the level more comfortable.
Curiously enough the same situation is found in Moberg’s presenta-
tion of the Dominicus sequence. Of the 18 sources which he collates,
16 write the melody in the higher level, as our source does, and only
2 in the lower level, as in our source of “In superna ierarchia”.
Against the majority of his sources, he presents the melody in the
lower level, which he seems justified in doing. His example has
therefore been followed here.
In some places, viz. from v. 7 on, Moberg writes “(b?)” before e
and E. Since E(e) flat is not admissible, the query must apply to the
melody in the higher level, and indicate b(b’) flat, — that is to say
that the flat sign ought perhaps to stand (at least in these places)
in the music of the higher level, which then would change its mode
from Ionian to Mixolydian. Now, if the melody in the higher level
contained b flat in its original form, we might from that faet guess
why it has been placed so high: if placed a fifth lower, it would
necessitate the unlawful e(E) flat.
It is possible that, when sequences were performed, the musical
pitch according to the notes was not always observed (except when
the singing was led by an instrument with a fixed pitch, such as an
organ, but outside greater church centres this certainly happened
so seldom that we may ignore it), and that the singers freely placed
the melody level where it would be most comfortable. If so, this
sequence, although written with final c, might have been sung with
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