Lost score revives sound of music and voices from centuries past

Academics from Belgium’s Edinburgh College of Art and the University of Leuven have been studying the origins of the musical notation – which contains just 55 notes – in a bid to shed new light on pre-Reformation Scottish music in the early 16th century.

Researchers say the tantalizing find is a rare example of Scottish religious institution music from 500 years ago and is the only surviving piece from north-east Scotland.

Scholars made the discovery in a 1510 copy of the Aberdeen Prayer Book, a collection of prayers, hymns, psalms and readings used in daily worship in Scotland, which includes detailed writings about the lives of Scottish saints . It is known as the ‘Glams Copy’ because it was formerly kept at Grams Castle in Angus and is now located in the National Library of Scotland in Edinburgh.

Although the score has no text, title or attribution, researchers still view it as a unique musical harmony. a person who worships goda nightly hymn sung during Lent.

The Aberdeen Prayer Book grew out of an initiative by King James IV, who issued a royal patent to print books containing orders of service according to Scottish religious custom, without having to rely on the import of texts from England or Europe.

Researchers say the work comes from the Aberdeenshire area and may be related to St Mary’s Church and Aberdeen Cathedral in Rattray, in the northeastern corner of Scotland.

The discovery was made when researchers examined numerous handwritten notes in the margins of a copy of Glamis.

Of greatest interest to scholars is a musical fragment spread over two lines, the second roughly half the length of the first, on a blank page in the book dedicated to the early morning liturgy..

The existence of the music is a mystery to the team. It was not part of the original printed book, but the fact that it was written on a page bound within the structure of the book rather than being inserted later suggests that the author wanted the music and the book to go together.

Without any textual annotation on the page, it’s unclear whether the music is sacred, secular or even sounds at all, researchers said.

Upon investigation, they deduced that it was polyphonic—two or more independent lines of melody sung or played simultaneously. Sources from the time state that this technique was common in Scottish religious institutions, but few examples have survived to this day.

Upon closer inspection, one team member discovered that the music fit perfectly with the melody of a Gregorian chant, Especially it’s the tenor part Fabuldena piece of harmonic music in three or four parts, in a hymn a person who worships god.

David Coney of Edinburgh College of Art, who discovered the identity of music, said: “Recognizing a piece of music is a real ‘eureka’ moment for musicologists. Even better, Our tenor part is in harmony with The Well’s hymn, a small but precious artifact of Scottish musical theater for nearly five centuries.

As well as discovering the missing voices within its pages, researchers also traced how the Aberdeen Prayer Book was used throughout its long history and by whom. The book, which at one time served as a personal service book for the illegitimate son of a senior vicar of Aberdeen Cathedral, himself a country priest, became a treasured heirloom for a Scottish Catholic whose travels Taking him from post-Reformation Scotland to the capital of the Habsburg and Ottoman Empires.

Lead author Dr Paul Newton-Jackson of KU Leuven said: “The conclusions we draw from this fragment highlight the key role of marginalia as a source of new insights into musical cultures, for which there are few annotated sources. survived.

In 2023, Dr. Newton-Jackson will also serve as a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities at the University of Edinburgh.

Dr James Cook, of Edinburgh College of Art, said: “Pre-Reformation Scotland has long been thought to be a barren wasteland in terms of sacred music. Our research shows that despite the upheavals of the Reformation era destroying much of Scotland’s more obvious evidence It shows that Scotland’s cathedrals, churches and chapels have a long tradition of high-quality music production, just like elsewhere in Europe.

The research was published in Musical and literary magazine.