“Le Puy Manuscript”
Vespers: “Veni Redemptor Gencium”.
Available on YouTube at
Recently, not only has the Manuscript unexpectedly re-appeared, but a second book, containing the same New Year’s Office, has come to light. This second book also contains a large number of polyphonic pieces, both simple two-parts textures and four-part settings, made in the 16th-Century by the Clerks of Le Puy, on the basis of older melodies.
No other Manuscript has been found which brings together such a range of older and newer material. It not only reflects the specific ritual Celebrated in this Cathedral, but also vividly illustrates the way Liturgy could evolve over hundreds of years, particularly its artistic, musical aspects, from the Chants found in the oldest notated sources to pieces inspired by the new arts of poetry and song composition in The High Middle Ages, and, finally, the polyphonic writing of The Renaissance.
“Le Puy Manuscript”.
“Psallat Vox Ecclesis”.
Available on YouTube at
It was the custom in The Middle Ages for each individual Clerical rank to Celebrate its own Feast on a specific day following Christmas: The Pueri (boys), as the youngest, would come first, followed by the Deacons and Sub-Deacons, and then the Priests. On their Feast, those concerned would embellish the Liturgy with as much ingenuity as possible, making additional Processions and singing new compositions at the communal meal.
In the 12th-Century and 13th-Century, special books were compiled for such Celebrations, and it is to this Tradition that The Festal Office for New Year’s Day at the Cathedral of Le Puy belongs.
“Le Puy Manuscript”.
Vespers: “O Admirabile Commercium”.
Available on YouTube at
The basis for The Feast was The Liturgy, Proper to The Day, stretching from Vespers on the preceding day through The Night Offices to the end of Vespers on The Feast, itself, almost without a break for more than twenty-four hours.
As in Monastic practice, the Clerks met in the Chancel of the Cathedral every three hours to sing Psalms, to Pray, to read Lessons, and recite their associated Chants, and, of course, to say Mass.
They would also make Processions to the impressive frescoes and paintings in the vast Church and its surrounding buildings high over the Town. The Feast Day ended with dancing by “The Pueri”.
“Le Puy Manuscript”.
Vespers: “Annus Novus In Gaudio”.
Available on YouTube at
As with all High Festivals, Christmas was ‘re-Celebrated’ eight days later, on New Year’s Day. Thus, the principal theme, of both the older and the newer texts in The Le Puy Manuscript, is the Christmas Miracle, the coming of The King of Kings, entering into His Dominion. And, with The Redeemer, was Celebrated – especially in The Middle Ages – Mary, The Mother of God. The Feast is, thus, full of The Joy of Christmas, but, also, that of The New Year, which is greeted by the Clerks in a song addressed to the Cantor.
[ . . . ] a song transports us immediately into the characteristic sound world of The Le Puy Office. It is a 16th-Century Setting for four voices of a monophonic song, notated circa 1100. We then follow the order of pieces in the first part of the Manuscript, with the entire Vespers Liturgy, followed by later stages of The Feast (1424). [. . . ] (see end of Article).
In the book’s old monophonic Chants for Vespers, the characteristic sounds of a Liturgical Tradition stretching back far before The Middle Ages can be heard. Their Texts are drawn mainly from The Psalter and other books of The Bible.
The Structure of a Mediæval Manuscript.
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Examples of Choral Psalmody, sung Antiphonally, are the Psalm and the Magnificat, both framed by Antiphons. Other parts of The Vespers Office, which belong to this early material, are the Ambrosian Hymn, and the closing Prayer.
To this basic structure, are added a Blessing by The Priest before The Reading, and a Response sung after it. A short Psalm Verse is then inserted, and The Office concludes with poetically-extended versions of the usual Thanksgiving, “Benedicamus Domino”, and its Response, “Deo Gratias”.
The Le Puy Vespers were enhanced by the addition of other Chants: A Solemn introduction taken from the main Night Office of Matins; Verses from a Hymn composed by the 6th-Century A.D. poet, Venantius Fortunatus, for New Year’s Day; the song addressed to the Cantor, already mentioned, composed circa 1100; and a Response to The Reading, in the form of a series of skilful hexameters, written in the 11th-Century by Bishop Fulbert of Chartres.
“Le Puy Manuscript”.
Vespers: “Magnum Hereditatis Misterium “D” Magnificat”.
Sung by: Ensemble Gilles Binchois and Dominique Vellard.
Available on YouTube at
The monophonic Chants exhibit considerable variety, both in the alternation of participants – Priest, Readers, Cantor, Soloists and Choir – and, particularly, in musical texture: the delivery of Text on a single pitch, then more ornamental recitation patterns – formulas specific to the beginning, middle, and end of a phrase – and, finally, actual melodies.
Further variety is provided by the different possibilities of polyphonic sound, and especially the contrast between monophonic and polyphonic textures within single pieces. Along with full four-part textures created by adding chords to pre-existing melodies, we find two-part textures in which the second voice is added in accordance with long-standing simple oral techniques. In the final piece, a “Melisma” is sung over a held Pitch, a procedure which hardly needed to be notated.
In the following parts of The Office, this sound world becomes even more diverse. After a request for Blessing addressed to The Bishop, followed by The Blessing, itself, a Processional Chant (Conductus) takes us from the Chancel to the Chapter House.
There, after another Blessing, the Reading is given as a “Farsumen”, a technique widely practised in the time of the great Cathedrals, whereby Text is alternately read and sung. This piece, composed in the Late-11th-Century, is based on The Prologue to The Gospel of Saint John.
“Le Puy Manuscript”.
Selected Chants: “Serpentia amonicio”.
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Then, singing another “Conductus”, the Clerks move on to the meal in the Refectory, where another ceremony takes place, with a Reading and Farsumen. The "Toast" is followed by Psalm 50, with its Antiphon. On the way back into the Church, through the Cloister, the Choir divides: at this point a four-part Kyrie is sung, a Setting probably composed in The Late Middle Ages. Once back in the Chancel, the Clerks sing more polyphonic acclamations, a Versicle and a further Prayer, ending with a final “Benedicamus”.
It is in this part of the Manuscript that the new songs, with which The Liturgy had been elaborated since the turn of the 12th-Century, are most prominent. This strophic art is the Liturgical counterpart of early-European "Courtly Song", an art in which verse, rhyme and musical structures are organised in an astonishing variety of patterns, and in which every Text has its own specific melody.
It is here that the origins of European song, in the full sense of the word, lie. This new type of song could be heard in the Church, above all as “Conductus”, or, in the place of The Benedicamus, or, at the Cathedral of Le Puy, as “Farsumen”.
“Le Puy Manuscript”.
“Exultantes In Pertu Virginie”.
Available on YouTube at
Le Puy has possessed a revered image of The Virgin Mary since its earliest days, but, unfortunately, all that survives today is a replica from the Late-18th-Century. The original statue was a Black Virgin statue from circa 1000 A.D. This was Venerated by Pilgrims for eight Centuries until its violent destruction by Revolutionaries on 9 June 1794, when the wooden image was publicly burned on “Le Place du Martouret”.
As the statue burned away, a secret door in its back was revealed, the door opened, and a roll of parchment fell out. Tragically, no attempt was made to read the parchment before it was consumed by the flames. The replica statue is carried in procession on Feast Days, just as the original was throughout The Middle Ages.
[ . . . ] concludes with three of the most beautiful compositions in this part of the Manuscript: Two polyphonic pieces of the 16th-Century, in full and clear harmonies, and, between them, a “Conductus”, itself, an example of one of the most elaborate forms used in monophonic song in The High Middle Ages.
Here, a strophic pattern is linked with the older structure of The Sequence, based on repetition. This led to the creation of very long and intricately-woven melodic designs, and is one of the most impressive aspects of 12th-Century song. With the development of new forms of musical expression and structures, this special art was lost.
The “Conductus”, heard here, survives only in The Le Puy sources, and its style shows that The Office, itself, originated in the period when this song art was in full flower. The Cathedral of Le Puy lay on one of the great Mediæval Pilgrim Routes leading to Santiago de Compostela, but, after The Middle Ages, the Town was somewhat remote from historical events taking place in the outside World.
The Cathedral building, itself, constantly modified , with its frescoes dating from the 11th-Century to the 13th-Century, presents a parallel to the pattern of continuous Liturgical expansion reflected in this Festal Office. Yet, the different kinds of music in this Office – the old Liturgical Chants, the new Mediæval songs, pieces in which a second voice is added, following simple oral techniques, and, finally, the characteristic polyphony of The Late Middle Ages – go together, perhaps even more successfully than the Cathedral’s architectural elements, to make up a fascinating, unified whole.
Wulf Artl
(1992).
Translation by Susan Rankin.
