Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1968, Side 293
LUX ILLUXIT . . . LUX ILLUSTRIS
granted that the Norwegian sequence author has, for the most part,
borrowed the melodies for the anthem for the tutelary saint of his
country from the musical production of his native land, whether
these were folk melodies already in existence, or were composed by
a monk or some other person well versed in the laws of music. The
“borrowing” from foreign music may be thought to have taken place
only for the verses where the author of the sequence felt himself
particularly attracted by the foreign melodies, or where he had no
better Norwegian music to put in its place.”
Before we go further into the question of the origin of the music
of our sequence, it may be appropriate to quote a little from the
oft-mentioned work of Moberg (I, p. 111), where some sequences
of supposedly Swedish authorship are mentioned. “Die Bestimmung
der Verfasser der meisten mittelalterlichen Gedichte ... scheitert im
allgemeinen ..., da diese Gedichte in ihrem Charakter und Bau ganz
mit den auslandischen iibereinstimmen. Vgl. Norlind, Latinska skol-
sånger etc., S. 141. In dieser Angelegenheit kann man auch betreffs
aller unserer vermuteten schwedischen Sequenzen mit Norlind sagen:
“Etwas typisch Nordisches ist unmoglich in ihnen wiederzufinden”.”
This is said of the texts, but it applies just as well to the music.
If the music of the other verses of “Lux illuxit” contrasted with
that of vv. 5 and 8 in character, and that in a national direction,
then we might be inclined to reckon it as an original home-made
product. But neither of the suppositions has any support. On the
contrary, much more than vv. 5 and 8 is furnished with music
found now here, now there, in foreign sequences.
To begin with, the first melody phrase, that of “Lux illuxit”,
short though it is, is mainly the same as that of “Letabundus”, the
first word of the sequence so named, a melody phrase which in
that sequence returns as a refrain often enough to impress itself upon
one’s mind.1 The following notes c, e, d, c, are also found here;
and in both sequences the first line ends with d(-c), d. (Cp. the
melody of the first five syllables of “Lumen vite sanctis datum”; also
1. Even a goodly spell after our sequence was composed (provided that this
happened before the end of the 12th century), this melody phrase was used as
the music of the last line of v. 9a and b of the Dominicus sequence “In celesti
lerarchia”, the entire melody of which appears in this collection as connected
with “Precursorem ... En baptista”.
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