Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1968, Page 300
29TH JULY. DE S. OLAVO - iST AUG. DE S. PETRO AD VINCULA
the first 3 verses in the redaction of the Missal — to judge from
the style — not improbably originated from the 14th, or perhaps
from the 15th century, while the last two verses and the half-verse
“Predicasti—gracie” of our MS. probably date from the classic period
of the sequence poetrv. the conclusion of the 12th, or the 13th
century... We may take it for granted that our MS. contains in
fragmentary form the Wednesday sequence for St. Olaf in its original
form.”
It is tempting to guess who the author of “Predicasti” was. As we
have seen (p. 120), there is a sequence De Corpore Christi “Hodierne
lux diei / sacramenti vere rei”, the text of which we know only
from the Missale Nidrosiense, and which presumably is the product
of a Norwegian author. And the melody is unquestionably that of
the Maria-sequence “Hodierne lux diei / celebris in matris dei”
(and of the Thomas-sequence “Spe mercedis et corone”). This Corpus-
Christi-sequence contains 5 verses (as the other two do), and therefore
uses the entire melody. The author of “Predicasti”, certainly a Nor-
wegian (i. e. a divine of the Norwegian Church), used the same
metre, although he contented himself with 3 verses; and for these
he made a very happy selection of the 5 verse melodies. Could he
be the same as the author of the Norwegian Corpus-Christi-sequence?
We may also ask why the sequence was remodelled. Here also
we can only guess at the answer. As a starting-point we can take
the faet that “Predicasti”, with music from “Hodierne” and the
like, uses only 3 of the 5 verses. This “defeet” the remodeller may
have felt himself called upon to mend. But he did not content
himself with simply adding 2 new verses in the beginning, and
letting the 3 older ones make the conclusion (which, by their
contents, they must do), but he also made a substitute for the first
of the 3 older verses. Thus his product comprised 3 verses; and
with the first of the 3 older verses dropped, the result was a sequence
of 5 verses, although the 3rd of his verses contrasted with the
others in metre. As a result, if the whole sequence “Postquam calix
Babilonis” was to be sung to the music of “Hodierne”, the melody
of v. 3 had to be altered somewhat.
As to the text of the new-made verses the writer probably began
with the 3rd one. And since it dif fers from the others in metre, it
was possibly written singly, and then adopted in the sequence.
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