Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1968, Page 298
29TH JULY. DE S. OLAVO
and the music of the last verse of “Predicasti” that of the fifth verse
of the others. We see that 3 verse melodies out of 5 have been chosen
as music for “Predicasti”, and these are the lst, 3rd, and 5th. The
conclusion is that “Predicasti” never comprised more than 3 verses,
and that with “Predicasti” the latter half of v. 1 begins. The first
half naturally used the same melody as this, so that we have the
music of this sequence complete, while lacking the words of the
first half-verse.
(3) The leaf has not been wrongly copied. It has been cut hori-
zontally into 3 parts, of which only the two upper ones are extant.
The recto (fac. 100) contains in its surviving part 6 lines of text
with music, followed by a line of music, the words of which stood
at the top of the now missing third fragment. This line was the
final one of the sequence “Regis et pontificis”.
Below this stood the first half-verse of “Predicasti” occupying a
single line, i. e. the missing part of our sequence. As we learn from
the verso (fac. 101), a half-verse of this sequence exactly filis a line.
What puzzled Reiss was that he saw that there was not enough
room for the 2 half-verses which, according to his assumption, ought
to have been at the bottom of this side, if it was the recto (because
he supposed this sequence comprised 5 verses).
Because the beginning of the sequence is missing, we are compelled
to name it after the first words of it which we know, namely
“Predicasti dei care”. There is no reason for naming it “Postquam
calix Babilonis” (about this text, see below).
Although, as already stated, we have the music of the three
verses which our sequence comprises, in the lst, 3rd, and 5th verse
of the sequences “Spe mercedis” and “Hodierne lux”, a transcrip-
tion will nevertheless be given here, because it presents the form in
which it was sung, at least in some religious communities. Also,
this shortened form of the music seems to be an improvement of
the composition, because the selected verse melodies mav be held
more valuable than the omitted ones, and the musical coherence
between them better. Indeed, after Reiss published this melody, it
became so popular among the Norwegian people that it has been
incorporated in their hymn-book with words in the vernacular
which freely paraphrase the Latin texts both of “Lux illuxit” and
“Predicasti”.
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