1.18 — Gratuletur omnis caro

NotazioneDatazionesec. X
TipoDaseian
NoteThis notation, which is the oldest surviving example of a polyphonic hymn notation, appears amongst unique accretions to a version of the anonymous music treatise Musica enchiriadis usually dated to the late ninth century. The Daseian notation, so-called because most of the signs derive from the Greek aspirant sign (the daseia), is principally found within the Enchiriadis group of treatises - Musica enchiriadis, Scolica enchiriadis and Commemoratio brevis
TrascrizioneTrascrizioni
diplomatiche
 Gratuletur.Bamberg-2
Tavole
di confronto
 XGratuletur
MelodiaThe lower voice follows the principles outlined in chapter seventeen of the Musica Enchiriadis for adding an extra (organal) voice at the interval of a fourth, whereby the organal voice is forbidden to descend beneath the 'tetrardus' (in this case the initial 'c'). According to this rule, the lower voice remains on 'c' until movement in fourths can be established, returning to unison in the second half of the line since the interval of a fourth cannot be maintained there without descending beneath the 'tetrardus' tone.
Trascrizioni storiche
 Gratuletur-Ba Gratuletur_Schmid
Edizioni musicali
Stäblein, Monumenta monodica I, nr. 506; Schmid, Musica enchiriadis, p. 217
Transcription of the melody transmitted in Klosterneuburg 1000 is straightforward due to the two-line stave (f and c) and precise heighting of the neumes in relation to the other letters written between the two lines as part of the stave (d and a). Stäblein regularises the spelling of the text and records liquescences only in the accompanying commentary (Monumenta monodica I, p. 569). His edition is also neutral with respect to rhythm in so far as it presents noteheads without stems.
Schmid reproduces the relevant diagram from the version of the Musica Enchiriadis transmitted in the so-called Bamberg organum treatise. The diagram features Daseian signs aligned vertically, from which strings are extended and on which are placed the syllables of the first line of Gratuletur omnis; the vertical alignment of syllables indicates simultaneously sounding pitches. A transcription of the pitches indicated in the Bamberg organum treatise into modern notation using stemless noteheads is provided in Stäblein (Monumenta monodica I, 569).
Trasmissione
The similarities between the three melodies given for Gratuletur omnis are strong for the opening half line (syllables 1-8). In the Naples and Klosterneuburg manuscripts this opening melodic contour is repeated for the first eight syllables of the third line and similar melodic contours are again traced. Elsewhere within the strophe correspondences in melodic contour are harder to identify.
Stäblein noted that the melody for Gratuletur omnis recorded in Klosterneuburg 1000, which was only ever transmitted East of the Rhine, is identical in its opening half-line to the upper voice of the polyphonic hymn recorded in the Bamberg manuscript. The neumed version of Gratletur omnis in Napoli IV. G. 68, which appears to have been unknown to Stäblein, is identical in its opening contour to the opening of the melody recorded in both the Bamberg and Klosterneuburg manuscripts. This might be taken to mean that the later medieval melody can be traced back as far as the first quarter of the tenth century, when it was used for both Gratuletur omnis and Alma vera at St. Gall. Although this proposal is attractive in its simplicity, it needs to be tempered by recognition of the differences between the early and later medieval melodies at all points other than the first halves of the first and third lines. A more cautious conclusion would be that an opening melodic contour was associated with this text and remained in circulation East of the Rhine from at least the tenth through to the fourteenth century. There is no evidence to suggest that two further melodies identified by Stäblein for Gratuletur omnis in later hymnals (one transmitted in Italian sources, no. 758, the other a widely disseminated melody more commonly associated with Pange lingua, no. 56) were in use before the eleventh century. In view of the paucity of hymn notations before the earliest notated hymnals at the beginning of the eleventh century, this lack of evidence cannot be taken as a sign of the primacy of the melody recorded in Napoli IV. G. 68. 
The Klosterneuburg manuscript assigns Gratuletur omnis to Lauds at Epiphany, a common position for this hymn in hymnals of the Middle Ages. A shorter neumed version of Gratuletur omnis is assigned to the Mass for Epiphany with the rubric «ante episcopum» in Roma 123; for a discussion of the implications of this rubric, see the entry for Gloriam Deo. The melody recorded for Gratuletur omnis in this shortened version of the text is the one that Stäblein identified as transmitted only in Italian sources. The probability that this Italian melody entered into transmission before the mid eleventh century is high given its survival in later Italian manuscripts (for an alignment of the neumes of Roma 123 with a later version of the Italian melody that can be transcribed into modern notation, see Sevestre, Du versus au conduit II, p. 98).