1.22 — O mi custos

NotationDate10th c. CE - 11th c. CE
TypeFrench
NotesNotation was added to lines xiv-xvi, a disposition that cuts across the three-line strophes of the text. The individual neume forms, although differing slightly in morphology, retain an axis of circa fifteen degrees to the right of the vertical.
TranscriptDiplomatic
Transcription
 Omicustos-VATreg1616
Alphanumeric
transcript
1a, 1c, 1a, 1a, 1c, 1a, 1a, 1c, 1a, 1a, 1c, 2b, 1d, 1a, 3b | 1b, 1b, 1a, 1c, 1a, 1a, 2a, 1d, 1a, 1d, 1a, 2b, 1d, 1a, 3b | 1b, 1b, 1a, 1d, 1a, 1a, 2a, 1d, 2a, 2b, 1a, 1a, 1c, 1a
Comparison
between neumes
 XOmicustos-1   XOmicustos-2
MelodyThe first halves of lines xv and xvi demonstrate a similar sequence of neumes. The last four syllables of lines xiv and xv likewise receive a similar sequence of neumes. Rearranged into strophic form, these resemblances may be summarized as: ab, cd, ad'.
Musical editions
Leclercq-Bonnes, Jean de Fécamp, pp. 222; Sevestre, Du versus au conduit II, p. 186; Barrett, Ritmi ad cantandum, p. 414

The transcription of the alphabetical notation by Beyssac in the edition of O mi custos presented in the volume by Leclerq and Bonnes departs from the notated letters at 1.9, where the written b should be realised in modern notation as a ‘b flat’. Pitches are also given for the third line without any indication that the reconstruction at that point is a conjectural reading of the neumatic notation since letters were added only to the first two lines.
Sevestre’s realization of the letter notation contains an error at 1.6; the h should be transcribed into modern notation as an a rather than a b. Barrett provides a realization of the letter notation only.
TransmissionIn the absence of any correlation between the three recorded melodies for O mi custos, it is not possible to speak of melodic transmission in relation to this text, which is in itself a striking result given the survival of three notations for this text from late tenth- or eleventh-century Northern France. What can be said on the basis of the occasional differences between the melodies recorded in neumes and letters in Paris lat. 1928 is that even a locally transmitted melody was subject to alteration.