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The ‘restoration’ of plainchant in the Premonstratensian Order

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 September 2009

MARTIN J.M. HOONDERT
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Abstract

In 1910 the Premonstratensian Order acquired its own Graduale. Soon after the publication of this Graduale doubts were expressed about its authenticity. Still, to this very day the Premonstratensians stand by their ‘own’ chant and use the 1910 Graduale. In this article, I reveal that the Graduale is not a reconstruction of Premonstratensian chant of the twelfth or thirteenth centuries and I also attempt to explain why the Premonstratensians undertook the quest for their ‘own authentic’ Premonstratensian chant.

Type
Research Article
Information
Plainsong & Medieval Music , Volume 18 , Issue 2 , October 2009 , pp. 141 - 161
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

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References

1 Acts 2:42–7.

2 C.H. Lawrence, Medieval Monasticism. Forms of Religious Life in Western Europe in the Middle Ages (London, 1989), 149–52.

3 M. van Waefelghem, ‘Le graduel de Bellelaye’, Analectes de l'ordre de Prémontré, 10 (1914), 357–64.

4 L. Verheijen, La règle de saint Augustin (Paris, 1967), 2: 175–6.

5 I.J. van de Westelaken, ‘Premonstratenzer wetgeving, 1120–1165’, Analecta praemonstratensia, 38 (1962), 8–12. C. Dereine, ‘Le premier ordo de Prémontré’, Revue Bénédictine, 58 (1948), 84–92.

6 Van de Westelaken, ‘Premonstratenzer wetgeving’, 12.

7 Verheijen, La règle de saint Augustin, 1: 148–9. The liturgical regulations fall under point two of the Ordo Monasterii. O. Heiming shows that ‘antiphonae’ should be interpreted as antiphonal psalmody and ‘psalmi’ as responsorial psalmody. However, this does not mean that these terms were also interpreted as such in the twelfth century. See O. Heiming, ‘Zum monastischen Offizium von Kassianus bis Kolumbanus’, Archiv für Liturgiewissenschaft, VII/1 (1961), 219–27.

8 Van de Westelaken, ‘Premonstratenzer wetgeving’, 9–10. The Latin texts are provided by Dereine, ‘Le premier ordo de Prémontré’, 87 n. 2 and 88 n. 1.

9 The text of this papal bull is reproduced in Pl. Lefèvre, ‘Deux bulles pontificales inédites du XIIe siècle, relatives à l'ordre de Prémontré’, Analecta praemonstratensia, 12 (1936), 67–71. The dating is recorded in Pl. Lefèvre, La liturgie de Prémontré. Histoire, formulaire, chant et cérémonial, Bibliotheca analectorum praemonstratensium 1 (Louvain, 1957), 5.

10 Edition: Pl. Lefèvre, L'Ordinaire de Prémontré d'après des manuscrits du XIIe et du XIIIe siècle, Bibliothèque de la revue d'histoire ecclésiastique, 22 (1941).

11 Lefèvre, L'Ordinaire, xiii.

12 Lefèvre, L'Ordinaire, xxiii. In addition to LO-1200, there are two editions of the Liber Ordinarius: J. Lepaige, Bibliotheca praemonstratensis ordinis (Paris, 1633), 892–921. This edition cannot be used because the author does not indicate which manuscripts he used. The second edition is by M. van Waefelghem, Liturgie de Prémontré. Le liber ordinarius d'après un manuscrit du XIIIe/XIVe siècle de la bibliothèque de S.A.S. Mgr.le Duc d'Arenberg (Louvain, 1913). Separate editions of Analectes de l'ordre de Prémontré (the initials S. A. S. on the title page are wrong. These should be: S. A. R.). This concerns a fifteenth-century manuscript (according to Pl. Lefèvre, L'Ordinaire, vii). The text itself dates from the end of the thirteenth or the beginning of the fourteenth century. The footnotes contain much information on the development of the liturgy. Unfortunately, Van Waefelghem discovered the manuscript of Munich, Clm. 17174 much too late to be able to apply it effectively in his edition. The relationship he indicates between the various manuscripts is incorrect (according to Lefèvre, La liturgie, viii).

13 Lefèvre, L'Ordinaire, xiv–xvi.

14 These are the following four manuscripts: 1) Metz, Bibliothèque municipale, no. 469. Collectarium from Leffe. This manuscript was lost in a blaze in 1944. 2) Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, nouv. acq. lat. 9425. Antiphonale from Auxerre. 3) Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, lat. 833. Missal from Arne. 4) Berchem, St Willibrordus, no signature. Missal from Antwerp. This is the oldest authentic Premonstratensian missal known today.

15 Lefèvre, La liturgie, 8–9. The author makes a number of mistakes in his references to the chapters of LO-1200, which I have corrected. Lefèvre only mentions six sections in L'Ordinaire, xviii–xix.

16 Lefèvre, La liturgie, 12, n. 2. J. Borremans, Le chant liturgique traditionnel des Prémontrés. Etude illustrée de nombreuses reproductions de manuscrits du XIIe au XVIe siècle. Le graduel (Mechelen, 1914), 3–4, n. 3. This quote comes from a chronicle from the Abbey of Gottesgnaden. This abbey was founded in 1131. The Abbey of Magdeburg was founded in 1129.

17 Borremans, Le chant liturgique, 4. The author refers to the use of the word ‘indulsit’: he gave permission as a favour. In his opinion this indicates a concession.

18 W. Roscher, ‘Die Verbreitung, Pflege und Krisis der liturgischen Gesangkultur im Prämonstratenserorden’, Analecta praemonstratensia 36 (1960), 17. This article is an excerpt from his unpublished thesis, ‘Studien zum Gregorianischen Choral in der Prämonstratensischen Ordenstradition’, University of Erlangen (1951).

19 Roscher, ‘Die Verbreitung’, 19 and Borremans, Le chant liturgique, 9–10.

20 Lefèvre (La liturgie, 12) also suggests this.

21 R. van Waefelghem, ‘Les premiers statuts de l'ordre de Prémontré: le clm.17.174 (XIIe siècle)’, Analectes de l'ordre de Prémontré, 9 (1913), 1–74, here 34. This section follows the rule ‘De unitate abbatiarum’ (about the unification of abbeys). This prescribes that the rule should be interpreted and observed in the same way everywhere. There should also be uniformity in the books for the Office, clothing, way of life and practices.

22 Borremans, Le chant liturgique, 5–6. The texts of the papal bulls mentioned can be found in Lepaige, Bibliotheca praemonstratensis ordinis, 622–86.

23 Borremans, Le chant liturgique, 7–8.

24 Roscher, ‘Die Verbreitung’, 20. Pl. Lefèvre, Coutumiers liturgiques de Prémontré du XIIIe et du XIVe siècle, Bibliothèque de la revue d'histoire ecclésiastique, 27 (1953), vi.

25 H.P.H. Jansen and A. Janse, eds., Kroniek van het klooster Bloemhof te Wittewierum, Middeleeuwse studies en bronnen deel 20 (Hilversum, 1991). This and the following passage can be found on pp. 30–5.

26 ‘cum tunc temporis in tota Alemannia libri ordinis non invenirentur’ (Jansen and Janse, Kroniek, 298–9).

27 Borremans, Le chant liturgique, 8–11.

28 Borremans, Le chant liturgique, 9.

29 Collectionarium from Leffe: Metz, Bibliothèque Municipale no. 469. Missal of Paris: Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, lat. 833. Pl. Lefèvre compares these two manuscripts with LO-1200 with regard to the rituals for the consecration of the candles at Candlemas, the ash on Ash Wednesday and the palms on Palm Sunday. See: Pl. Lefèvre, ‘Un témoin nouveau pour la réconstruction des textes et des chants de la messe dans la liturgie de Prémontré au XIIe siècle’, Analecta praemonstratensia, 15 (1939), 9–16.

30 Pl. Lefèvre, ‘Un témoin nouveau de la liturgie de Prémontré du XIIe siècle: le missel d'Anvers’, Scriptorium, 9 (1935), 208–16.

31 R. van Waefelghem, Répertoire des sources imprimées et manuscrites relatives à la liturgie des monastères de l'ordre de Prémontré (Brussels, 1930), 349–61 includes a list of abbeys and priories in chronological order.

32 See in connection with this issue: B. Bischoff, Paläographie des römischen Altertums und des abendländischen Mittelalters, Grundlagen der Germanistik 24 (second, revised edition, Berlin, 1986), 232.

33 H. Hüschen, ‘Zisterzienser’, in Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, ed. F. Blume (Kassel, 1962), part 14, col. 1327. The model manuscript of the Cistercians can be found in Dijon, Bibliothèque municipale, no. 114. This manuscript, which is no longer complete, contained the breviary, epistolary, missal, collectar, calendar, rule, customs, psalter, cantoral, hymnary, antiphoner and gradual. It dates from the second quarter of the twelfth century.

34 See Protocollum Capituli Generalis sacri ac candidi ordinis Canonicorum Regularium Praemonstratensium, celebrati in Canonia Averbodiensi, diebus 22, 23 et 24 julii anni 1902. Sessio IV, pomeridiana (23 julii), no. 3: ‘Etiam exoptat Capitulum, ut Antiphonalia, Gradualia en Processionalia de novo edantur, quorum emendationi praeparandae cura Vicariorum praeficiantur viri in respectivis Circariis rei bene periti’.

35 P. Combe, Histoire de la restauration du chant grégorien d'après des documents inédits. Solesmes et l'Édition Vaticane (Solesmes, 1969).

36 See footnote 33.

37 See D. Delalande, Le graduel des prêcheurs. Vers la version authentique du Graduel Grégorien. Recherches sur les sources et la valeur de son texte musical (Paris, 1949). See also K.G. Fellerer, Der gregorianische Choral im Wandel der Jahrhunderte, Kirchenmusikalische Reihe, 3 (Regensburg, 1936), 84–5.

38 The description of the procedure involved in the realisation of the Premonstratensian Graduale comes from L. Wendelen, ‘Het premonstratenzer graduale’, Tijdschrift voor liturgie, 5 (1924), 237–45. The procedure used for the Graduale was later also adopted for the publication of other Gregorian chant books. For a thorough study of the Premonstratensian Antiphonale see D. van Huebner, Frühe Zeugnisse prämonstratensischer Choraltradition (1126–1331). Studie zu Offiziumantiphonen des Prämonstratenserordens. I. Kommentar; II. Tabulae; III. Exempla. (Munich, 2001).

39 Wendelen does not indicate precisely which edition of Solesmes was used. The most likely edition would seem to me to be Liber Gradualis dating 1883, published by Dom Pothier, or the Liber Usualis dating 1896. When the Graduale according to the Editio Vaticana appeared (1908), work on the Premonstratensian Graduale was well underway. Because of this it was not possible to use the Editio Vaticana by way of comparison.

40 Nowadays the tables can be found in the archive of the Abbey of Tongerlo, section F, box 33, no. 362.

41 Wendelen, ‘Het premonstratenzer graduale’, 239.

42 The manuscripts that were used for the compilation of the 1910 Graduale are mentioned in Borremans, Le chant liturgique, 8–9. The same list, although incomplete, is provided by Wendelen, ‘Het premonstratenzer graduale’, 237–8. In the Appendix I keep to the order according to the tables of the proprium de tempore. There are also other tables for the processionale, proprium sanctorum, commune sanctorum and kyriale. Other manuscripts are used in these that are not mentioned here.

43 The first codification of the statutes (1135–1143) was published in accordance with a manuscript that comes from the abbey of Schäftlarn (see Van Waefelghem, ‘Les premiers statuts’. Publication in accordance with manuscript Munich, Bavarian State Library, clm. 17174, f. 11–39v.) This was suggested to me by Mr L.van Dijck, archivist of the abbey of Tongerlo.

44 V. Leroquais, Les sacramentaires et les missels manuscrits des bibliothèques publiques de France (Paris, 1924), 1: 231.

45 Van Waefelghem, ‘Le graduel de Bellelaye’.

46 M. van Waefelghem, ‘Le manuscrit Cpl. 47/1 de l'abbaye de Schlägl’, Analectes de l'ordre de Prémontré, 6 (1910), 7–12.

47 D. von Huebner, ‘Kalendarium Praemonstratense in einer Schäftlarner Choralhandschrift des XII. Jahrhunderts’, in 1200 Jahre Kloster Schäftlarn, 762–1962, ed. S. Mitterer (Munich, 1962), 157–69.

48 Heverlee, archive Park Abbey, corpus 7 box 32. This document includes notes by M. van Waefelghem on a large number of Premonstratensian liturgical manuscripts. He discusses the missal clm. 23270 under number 18.

49 Quoted in N. Weyns, ‘Le missel Prémontré’, Analecta Praemonstratensia, 43 (1967), 205.

50 M. van Waefelghem mentions this in his notes on this manuscript.

51 Quoted in Weyns, ‘Le missel Prémontré’, 205.

52 N. Weyns, ‘Le graduel dit de Tongerlo’, Analecta praemonstratensia, 44 (1968), 311–19.

53 Berchem, Sint-Willibrorduskerk, no signature.

54 At the beginning of the manuscript the round ‘d’ as well as the straight one are used. The feet of the letters still are rounded.

55 LO-1200, xxiii. C. Caspers, De eucharistische vroomheid en het feest van Sacramentsdag in de Nederlanden tijdens de late Middeleeuwen, Miscellanea Neerlandica, 5 (Louvain, 1992), 42–4, 62–6.

56 Weyns, ‘Le graduel dit de Tongerlo’, 317.

57 B. Kruitwagen, Laat-Middeleeuwsche paleografica, paleotypica, liturgica, kalendalia, grammaticalia (The Hague, 1942), 173.

58 LO-1200, xxiii, n. 2.

59 Wendelen, ‘Het premonstratenzer graduale’, 242.

60 Within the Premonstratensian Order it was (and still is) assumed that Prémontré had issued even more ‘standard documents’. This is shown in the following: Van Waefelghem, ‘Le graduel de Bellelaye’, 360: ‘le graduel-type qui a existé certainement, et avec lequel concordent parfaitement tous nos livres de choeur à partir du XIIe siècle, et jusque dans les plus petits détails’; Weyns, ‘Le missel Prémontré’, 224: ‘le missel-type, dont l'existence est suggérée par les statuts de 1131–1134, reste lui-même un grand inconnu’.

61 B. Luykx is also of this opinion. See B. Luykx, ‘Notes sur l'étude de manuscrits liturgiques Prémontrés’, Analecta praemonstratensia, 28 (1952), 8–9.

62 N. Backmund, Geschichte des Prämonstratenserordens (Grafenau, 1986), 76–9.

63 W. van den Hurk, Het verborgen leven van de Abdij van Berne in haar parochies 1797–1857 (Tilburg, 1997), 177: ‘Ook het verlangen om een convent in een kloostergebouw te vormen was bij de Bernenses aanwezig. Dat correspondeerde met hun drang naar zelfbehoud! Een klooster stichten wilde voor hen allereerst zeggen hun eigen voortbestaan veilig stellen en een, voor hun gevoel, roemrijke traditie voortzetten.’

64 B. Ardura, Prémontrés. Histoire et Spiritualité (Saint-Etienne, 1995), 361–7. M. Koyen and L. Van Dijck, Tongerlo door de eeuwen heen. Premonstratenzer leven en spiritualiteit (Westerlo, 1984), 43–7. L. Blomme, De norbertijner abdij van Averbode (Averbode, 1920), 278–91. See also Backmund, Geschichte des Prämonstratenzerordens, 80–86. In Germany the Order did not restore itself until the 1920s. See with regard to this Backmund, Geschichte des Prämonstratenzerordens, 89–90.

65 Backmund, Geschichte des Prämonstratenzerordens, 80–1.

66 Ardura, Prémontrés, 214–16.

67 E. Hobsbawm and T. Ranger, eds., The Invention of Tradition (Cambridge, 1983). Hobsbawm wrote the introduction (pp. 1–14), in which he introduces the concept of the ‘invention of tradition’.

68 Borremans, Le chant liturgique, 1–2.

69 Wendelen, ‘Het premonstratenzer graduale’, 242. See also Borremans, Le chant liturgique, 11.

70 See for example J. Bielen, ‘Het praemonstratenzer gregoriaans’, Tijdschrift voor Gregoriaans, 14 (1989), 106–17 and 140–3. On p. 112 in response to the fact that the si/sa is replaced by the do and the mi by the fa in Premonstratensian chant: ‘This peculiarity is, at first sight perhaps a futility, yet it gives some chants sensitively more colour, a greater power of persuasiveness, too.’

71 A facsimile of f. 134v of this manuscript can found in Paléographie Musicale I/3, plate 161B.

72 See the facsimile of the manuscript : http://bellelay.enc.sorbonne.fr.

73 I. de Loos, ‘Saints in Brabant: a survey of local Proper chants’, Revue Belgique de Musicologie / Belgisch Tijdschrift voor Muziekwetenschap, 55 (2001 = Six Centuries of Musical Life in Brussels. Proceedings of the international conference, Brussels, 19–21 October 2000) 9–39, esp. 17–20. Weyns (‘Le missel Prémontré’, 204) mentioned St Sulpice in Diest as the origin earlier.

74 M. Hoondert, ‘Beschrijving van het handschrift 78 A 33 uit de Koninklijke Bibliotheek te Den Haag’, unpublished thesis, University of Leiden (1991), 8 and footnote 8.