Eya Pueri: Christmas songs
Eya Pueri: Christmas songs
As the psalmist says, 'Ex
ore infantium et lactentium perfecisti laudem' (Psalm 8,
verse III). It is precisely the mouths (ex ore) of
those who are not yet capable of speaking (in-fantium),
and who are still fed on their mother's milk (lactentium)
which produce the most perfect praise. Why did children have such a
prominent place in early Christian liturgy? Perhaps it was in a search
for innocence first and foremost that the liturgy exalted these 'small
angels' and associated them, far more than other musicians with
celestial choirs - an image which has never since lost its fascination.
Early Christian tradition was also aware of the existence of underlying
human poverty; once this need had been dealt with, prayer consequently
gained in strength and persuasion.
So, this CD reminds us of one aspect of mediaeval society that is all
too often forgotten: here is a program of music the texts of which,
inspired by holy scripture or written during the Middle Ages, exalt
childhood. Furthermore, in mediaeval monastic communities and
cathedrals, the special timbre of children's voices was used to enhance
adult voices. One should not forget that during the Middle Ages
professional liturgical singers underwent a long training,
participating in liturgical ceremonies in monasteries which were
responsible for the education of choristers from the age of eight
onwards. This was the case of Hildegard von Bingen. It certainly
explains the formidable powers of memory attributed to those singers
who, having learned their craft from an early age in a privileged
musical setting, were well equipped to hand down the tradition.
At the time of the year, when evenings were long, the participation of
children within the cloistered life was acknowledged at major festivals
such as the children's feast, the Feast of Innocents, as well as at the
Feast of Fools, so called because of the excesses it provoked. Roles
were exchanged, children taking over adult responsibilities. Everything
was allowed on that day, even bringing a donkey into church, which gave
rise to the title 'Feast of the Donkey'. These feast days were
connected with Christmas and so took place on the Feast of Holy
Innocents (28th December) or on 1st January, the Feast of the
Circumcision, within the octave of Christmas. The date gained in
importance because of the new year (mentioned in some of the
contemporary texts) and its associated atmosphere of hope. However,
Christmas and the Feast of Holy Innocents were not the only festivals
linked to childhood. The story of St Nicholas gained a considerable
reputation fairly early during the Middle Ages. In some regions this
feast day was even more important than Christmas itself, at least as
far as the giving of presents and the inevitable symbolism were
concerned. These presents existed to remind one of the gold,
frankincense and myrrh with which the wise men, guided by a star, came
to worship the child in the manger on the feast of the Epiphany,
sometimes referred to as 'Theophany', or the manifestation of God.
The CD program has been inspired by biblical texts as well as poetry
written for these clerical celebrations. Several times during the
twelfth century the excesses and disorderly behaviour provoked by such
festivities were condemned, Paris being one example among many. Pierre
de Corbeil was a chapter canon there before becoming archbishop of
Sens, the seat on which Paris then depended. There, celebrations were
somewhat better under control during religious services (the
organisation of the offices at Sens is attributed to Pierre de
Corbeil), the unusual ceremony enhancing the traditional proceedings.
So it was that the music performed here comes from the Offices of Sens,
Beauvais, Notre-Dame de Paris, the schools of St Martial at Limoges,
Moosburg (Germany) and Cividale (Italy), and was taken from the liturgy
of the appropriate feast day or from fashionable musical compositions
(conductus, motets and Benedicamus Domino) included
to heighten the solemnity of the Office. What, at this period, could
make a finer contribution to the solemnity of the liturgy than
extending it with new vocal music inserted at key points without
interrupting the traditional ceremony itself? Conductus sung during
processions were particularly well adapted to this function, and
included settings of Benedicamus Domino occurring
at the end of the office. The entrance was underlined with great
solemnity, including a pause 'in ianuis ecclesiae'
specially for singing Lux hodie. In the Office of
Sens a conductus (Orientis partibus) was sung ad
tabulam, that is to say with the celebrant turned towards the
tablet on which ceremonial duties had been listed. As explained by
Henri Villetard, the celebrant read aloud the instructions for the
Office so that each participant knew what he was expected to do.
Liturgical rites in the Middle Ages took place according to an
established order where nothing was left to chance and where even the
most minute details were listed in books called Ordinaries or
Ceremonials (just as one can observe the unfolding of a fully-blown
solemn liturgical feast today in church or by following it on
television). In the context of a religious service during which
children took over adults' roles, it is not difficult to imagine one of
the choristers adopting a mock-serious air of authority, no doubt
tinged with a certain degree of malicious humour, as he told the others
what they had to sing. Nor should one forget the meaning of Eia,
itself an abbreviation of the Latin invitation recita,
'go on children, sing'.
The clerks who wrote these texts were thoroughly steeped in biblical
and liturgical allusions. Antiphons (refrains which established the
mode, as well as supplying the musical and biblical atmosphere)
preceding the singing of psalms remind one of Christmas, in particular Hodie
which announces 'Gloria', the song of the angels,
and Ecce Maria which ends with John's announcement
of the baptism of Christ: Ecce Agnus Dei. The hymns
with a refrain lend themselves to being sung by children, for example
the antiphons, including Magnum nomen Domini Emmanuel
and the rondeau Nicholaus pontifex, the form of
which is derived from psalmody with a refrain taken from Verbum
caro factum est. Even those chants the structure of which,
like the proses (or sequences), did not usually include a refrain, were
rewritten to include recurring formulae; for example the prose Beata
tu Virgo contains a refrain-like repetition of O
alma semper Maria.
When they were not actually engaged in singing, either at school or in
church, the choristers (nutriti) of the monastic
communities and cathedrals were not just fed with chestnuts, beans,
milk and honey; they were also fed a copious diet of grammar, making
them, as it were, veritable students of literature. The music they
later wrote was thoroughly permeated with linguistic devices: the
trope, a commentary interpolated in liturgical chant, like the one in
the gradual Viderunt Emmanuel, and the motet, into
pre-existing plainchant, because it duplicated it as well, using
polyphonic technique (Serena virginum). Chants in
several vocal parts are documented as early as the ninth century, when
they were considered an important addition to the solemnity of the
liturgy, and from that time on they were elaborated, leading up to the
organum of the Notre Dame school (Benedicamus Domino).
The choristers also revelled in verbal sonorities, for example Hec
est clara dies, clararum clara dierum... dierum, the French
language being unable to reproduce quite so clearly the same clarity of
daylight as is possible in Latin. And while they were busy playing with
words, they evidently felt the need to weave linguistic spells around
their Latin declensions: Nicholaus, Nicholae..., Annus novus,
anne nove, anni novi... and enhance the subtlety of
word-endings by creating suitable assonance: Patris eterni
filio, utero, thalamo, homo, Benedicamus Domino. The
composer, who was obviously party to these verbal games, took pleasure
in creating short melismatic phrases to draw attention to them.
A set of bells, one of the rare musical instruments we know to have
been employed in churches at this early period, is used to punctuate
the chants and provide the Pitch rather like the wordless melodies used
in schools to familiarise choristers with the appropriate style of
modes and the formulae then employed in church music.
Marie-Noël Colette
Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Paris
(Translation and adaptation: Geoffrey Marshall)
Bibliographie:
Henri VILLETARD. Office de Pierre de Corbeil (office de la
Circoncision) incorrectly known as the 'office des foul'. (Paris,
Picard, 1907.)
Text and chants published from a thirteenth-century manuscript in Sens.
(Bibliothèque musicologique, no. 4).
Wulf ARLT. Ein Festoffizium des Mittelalters aus Beauvais in
seiner liturgischen und musikalischen Bedeutung.
(Köln, A. Volk, 1970. 2 vols.)