THE TEXTS
The texts presented here and in
the first volume/CD-ROM comprise, due to a process of selection decided by
history but not without its own causes, a sort of anthology of the best
religious and profane lyrics from the nonliturgical tradition around the
Carolingian period. We will not linger here in a detailed historical-literary
discussion about such refined samples, as that has been the aim in other areas
of research conducted by this group, but one cannot avoid bringing to attention
here the high documentary and literary value of almost all the texts reproduced
here: from the confessional masterpieces of Paolino d’Aquileia to the dramatic
lyrical creations of Gottschalk, from the penitential texts such as Anima
nimis to the planctus for historical personalities
such as A solis ortu for Charlemagne, Mecum
Timavi for duke Henry and Hug dulce nomen for the
abbot of Charroux, from the Angilbert ritmus for the Fontenoy battle to the
biblical theatricalizations such as Adam, Arbor, Fuit domini, Tertio in
flore, from surreal riddles such as Audite versus and
para-liturgical allegorizations such as Avis haec magna to
texts of moral catechism and popular Christmas songs such as Gratuletur, which
entered the repertory of secular songs such as the Carmina
Cantabrigiensia, from war and town songs of the local aristocracies such as
the Modenese rhythm to the eschatological hymns such as Qui de
mortis that anticipate the Dies irae by centuries, or
the precursors to the Ludus de Antichristo such as the Quique
cupitis. One has the impression that in this collection the music had
selected a kind of laboratory of tendencies, of themes, of mode and of
expression, of the poetry that will flourish in the successive centuries, being
distilled into a string of pearls that will sometimes be considered at the very
height of literature of this epoch and whose musical influence can be imagined
to have spread much wider than only within a close circle of literati.
We are convinced that this genre of rhythmic poetry represents the literary
level of a semi-folk poetry that arose – often outside the schools – probably
through rhythmical versification of prose, and that the presence of music
served in some way to select the examples that were best able to represent the
codes that the new poetic communication required. We hope that even people of
the present times, who still read and sing rhythmic poetry, will consider the
monumental lightness of these texts worth lively participation.