Íslenskt tvísöngslag og Maríusöngur frá Monsterrat

Abstract

The Llibre vermell is a miscellany copied at the monastery of Montserrat no later than 1399. Among its contents are ten songs to Latin and Catalan texts, including three caccie, canons that can be sung in either two or three parts (21v–27r). One of these, Laudemus virginem, appears as a contrafactum (Ó Jesú sjálfs guðs son) with musical notation in four Icelandic manuscripts, of which three transmit the music in two-part polyphony: Rask 98 (ca. 1660–70), AM 102 8vo (ca. 1650–1700), and Lbs 495 8vo (ca. 1750). One further manuscript transmits the Icelandic text without notation. Unlike the original canon, the two voices sing together from start to finish in the Icelandic two-part version. Musically, Ó Jesú sjálfs guðs son is best described as a Stimmtausch piece with a voice-exchange between the first and second phrase. The third phrase bears the least resemblance to the original, and here each of the Icelandic manuscripts contains a different version. The Icelandic texts, while similar in content, also differ greatly in length and order of verses. Given the simplicity of the musical material, it seems plausible that the Icelandic two-part versions represent independent attempts by three different scribes to notate music and text that was part of an oral tradition. No documents have survived that would allow us to posit a connection between Iceland and the monastery of Montserrat in the 15th or 16th centuries. Although the monastery was a renowned site for pilgrims from all over the world, no Icelanders can be documented to be among them. Björn Einarsson (Jórsalafari) is known to have travelled from Venice to Santiago de Compostela in the first decade of the 15th century. One of the more common routes would have taken him through Montserrat and Barcelona only a decade after the writing of Llibre vermell. A simple piece of music such as Laudemus virginem could nevertheless have travelled via various intermediary routes, including France or Germany.