Ulrike Hascher-Burger

Music and Meditation: Songs in Johannes Mauburnus's Rosetum exercitiorum spiritualium

The Rosetum exercitiorum spiritualium et sacrarum meditationum of Johannes Mauburnus is considered the most extensive and influential treatise on meditation in the circles of the late Devotio Moderna. It was printed in five editions from the late fifteenth to the early seventeenth century. Besides instructions for numerous meditations of varying length, this treatise contains seven religious songs which were intended to stir up the emotions and facilitate the correct disposition for meditation. These songs were created as contrafacts, meaning that the newly composed texts were sung to well-known melodies of liturgical hymns and religious songs. In song rubrics, Mauburnus gives precise instructions about their function as an aid to summoning the motivation for the great number of spiritual exercises that had to be accomplished by the adherents of the Devotio Moderna every day. A unique feature of the Rosetum is the combination of a concrete meditation with a corresponding written song. These songs have not yet been examined systematically. The texts were edited by Guido Maria Dreves in Analecta hymnica on the basis of the edition printed in Paris in 1510. The melodies have not yet been reconstructed. In this article, the seven contrafacts are studied for the first time from the point of view of their structure and function, and their melodies are reconstructed on the basis of liturgical sources associated with the Devotio Moderna.

In omnibus essent conformes? Windesheimer Reform und liturgische Erneuerung in niedersächsischen Frauenkonventen im 15. Jahrhundert

An important source for the monastic reform movement in fifteenth century North Germany has been the Liber de reformatione monasteriorum of the Windesheim canon Johannes Busch. In this book, he gives more attention to the liturgical reform of nunneries than to that of monasteries. In introducing the new liturgy, Busch took the first step himself by singing and celebrating with the communities. The liturgical reform primarily aimed to separate the monastic liturgy, celebrated by the nuns, from the liturgy of the secular clergy of the churches. The separation resulted from the introduction of enclosures in female convents. Part of the liturgical reform was the implementation of a uniform liturgy, which was realized to a great extent. It failed, however, with regard to the liturgical use of the organs, which was forbidden in reformed circles, but nevertheless practiced to a great extent in late medieval cloisters in North Germany.

Zwischen Liturgie und Magie: Apotropäischer Zaubergesang in niedersächsischen Frauenklöstern im späten Mittelalter

In the late Middle Ages, the liturgical antiphon Media vita in morte sumus, a well-known chant for compline and the Liturgy of the Dead, was also frequently used as a charm. In the fifteenth century it was sung in three northern German nunneries against the threats of monastic reform and military plundering. In all three cases, a close connection between magical use and liturgical background can be recognized. This connection was essential for the efficacy of the incantation. As the ethnologist Dieter Harmening has pointed out, magic worked on the basis of analogy, and this can be clearly seen from the reports of magical singing from the nunneries.

Een klein obituarium, een gebed voor een dode en een Willibrord-sequens uit de Utrechtse abdij Oostbroek. Studie en editie van een tekst- en muziekfragment uit de late twaalfde eeuw.

This contribution concerns a study and new edition of a source that was written around 1200 in the ancient diocese of Utrecht and contains interesting necrological and musical information. The document (Het Utrechts Archief, Rijsenburg Collection, 396) comes from St Laurence abbey near the city of Utrecht, a Benedictine house that was founded around 1122 (initially a double monastery, since 1139 a mens monastery) and is better known as Oostbroek Abbey. The document, of which only a strip of parchment (210 x 69 mm) remains, is written on both sides. The folio may have originally formed part of the chapter book of Oostbroek. The recto side contains a small obituary. In the sequence of the calendar nineteen names are mentioned, preceded by some general provisions about the vigils of the office of the dead and the funding of a caritas for the monks in the refectory. It is presumably the oldest list of names of deceased persons whose anniversaries were to be liturgically commemorated in the diocese of Utrecht that has been handed down in its original form. The verso side contains an oration for a deceased brother of Oostbroek, the text of which is reconstructed here, as well as the first eight lines of the Willibrord sequence Sit tibi laus. Insofar as known this chant survives in only one other manuscript (Graduale of Echternach; Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale, fonds latin 10510, fol. 71r-72r), which is complete but with neumes without lines so that the melody cannot be retrieved. In the Oostbroek fragment, however, this is the case so that a gap can be partly filled here. The musical notation shows characteristics of a Lorraine-oriented notation which, in the Low Countries, is otherwise only known from the southern part of the Netherlands. The fragment casts light on the development of the liturgical memoria in the diocese of Utrecht in the twelfth century. It testifies to the fact that, in these regions too, the perpetual commemoration of a select group of deceased persons was gaining in importance. In addition, it contains unique musical information on the hitherto dut melody of the Willibrord sequence Sit tibi laus.