© Barbara Haggh, October 6, 2004

Composition and Improvisation

in the Officia Sanctorum of St. Bavo’s Abbey in Ghent

Barbara Haggh

In 1483, a scribe copied a notice into the missal he had just finished for the chapel of Sts Vinciana and Landrada at St Bavo's abbey. In the missal, he recorded for posterity that Adrian Malins, sub prior, had recently copied antiphoners and graduals for the abbey, an event worth noting, even in an entirely different book, because the four large volumes copied by Malins were an effort perhaps unprecendented in the history of the abbey. By the late fifteenth century, the sanctorale of St Bavo's had increased to a size unknown in earlier times and new books were needed to keep up with changing demands.

The two-volume antiphoner among the books copied by Malins does survive and is especially important. It is the principal source for the Office chant and texts of St Bavo's abbey, and of the later collegiate church and cathedral having the same name. The only other complementary service books are a twelfth-century collection of saints' lives with two, quite beautifully noted offices, a thirteenth-century miscellany, two breviaries from the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, a psalter from 1469 with noted hymns and illuminations by the artist who decorated the large antiphoner, two late processionals, and a collection of seventeenth-century manuscripts in Bruges, the latter which I have not yet seen. These manuscripts and the printed books prepared for St Bavo's are listed on the second page of your handout. Only a fifteenth-century obituary with a calendar remains from the parish church of St John's that later housed the collegiate church and cathedral.

Taken together, the pre-reform manuscripts confirm St Bavo's adherence to the Cluniac ordo: the Matins responsories for the Advent season and the office of the Dead and the structure of the Temporale all match the rites of other Cluniac houses. The Temporale was changed in the sixteenth century, but instead of discussing that here, I will concentrate on the office Sanctorale and the most important musical legacy of the abbey, the chant for the saints whose holy relics rested there. The melodies created for Sts Bavo, Landoald, Macharius and Livinus are worthy of scholarly attention, not only because they illustrate a unique and bitter feud between St Bavo's and St Peter's abbey in Ghent in the earlier Middle Ages and the role of monk-composers within it, but also because they reveal the strategies of singer-composers at work.

The two Ghent abbeys of St Bavo's and St Peter's possessed more saints' relics than most of their neighbors as a result of a vigorous competition. After Viking invasions devastated Ghent and its expatriates had returned from exile, both abbeys began to clean house. In the first half of the tenth century, they adopted the Benedictine rule and immediately sought to regain the property and wealth that had been lost in the interim and that would ensure their survival. To this end, they waged vicious propaganda campaigns to substantiate their antiquity and importance, a ploy to attract gifts and bequests, and saints' relics were absolutely central to their programs. Certainly, the saints' relics alone attracted worshippers and benefactions, but their Vitae could also be engineered to serve convenient political purposes. For example, the saints of the abbey of St Bavo - Bavo, Landoald, and Livinus - all lived in the seventh century when the abbey was founded. Their Vitae were written to emphasize the antiquity of the abbey. Even more convenient was the death of saints Bavo and Macharius at the abbey, thereby increasing its sanctity. Indeed, all of the saints of St Bavo's - on your handout - lived or died in Flanders or near Liege, precisely those regions whose landholders and nobility the abbey wished to court.

The bitter feud between St Bavo's and St Peter's, at its height between 950 and 1120 and continuing to 1200, had enormous consequences for literary and musical activity at the abbeys. Saints' lives, translations, elevations, adventi and miracles were needed in quantity and sometimes at short notice, and music was required for the new cults as well. (It should not surprise that a vast literature by eminent historians of the Middle Ages considers everything but the music!) When the feuding ended, the monks, now reconciled to a status quo, added the saints venerated by their neighbors to their service books, and in this way both abbeys and later their subordinate parish churches came to sing much newly-composed music, a local repertory which would endure for centuries (offices and Vitae listed on p. 3-4 of handout).

When were these chants sung? In the sixteenth century, the chants for the saints of St Bavo's abbey were performed on three types of occasions: the main saints' festivals with a full office and mass, at specified processional stations, and as memorials. Usually, chant from the offices was reassigned to processions and memorials, but in the sixteenth century, newer responsories and antiphons were copied into the processionals, an indication that the repertory had indeed changed over time. Separate from the office chant was the chant for the mass, which was derived from the commune sanctorum and had no musical or textual relationship to the office. The only new mass compositions were several 'late' sequences not necessarily from Ghent. Thus, the music very likely created at St Bavo's abbey was principally that of the saints' offices or historie.

Today, we might imagine that a historia for a prominent local saint would call for music of the highest quality, music whose every note would need to be carefully crafted and fixed. But the intensity of the competition between the abbeys meant that some historie had to be created more quickly than others and that compromises to any such program might have been necessary. Moreover, the feud occurred precisely during those centuries, the eleventh and twelfth, when diastematic notation came to prescribe and describe chant. For this reason, the chant for St Bavo's abbey can help us to learn whether the process of composing chant could be affected by haste, by an awareness of history or posterity, or by new notational possibilities.

It is accepted that chant melodies read their texts. In the Middle Ages, boys learned to take standard melodic formulas - the psalm tones, the differentiae, the standard responsory verses - and adapt them to any given passage. At its simplest, chant composition can thus be considered improvisation - the adaptation of a melody to a text in performance. In improvising, a composer might adopt other procedures that would have been instinctive to any monk-singer - expected intonations, ways of expanding or contracting internal formulas, and typical cadences, all in response to the selected tone or mode. An easily improvised melody was also easily remembered and fixed orally or in writing.

Paradoxically, the rigidity of diastematic notation coupled with the Guidonian hand afforded composers greater freedom to experiment with the written image of a chant as well as its sung process. Now chants of greater complexity could be created, which might play on the musical memory of the listener by repeating or referring back musically to previously-heard formulae. Improvisation could give way to the more purposeful creation of a series of melodic gestures and even to works with a visible structure beyond their audible continua. We may ask, did the monks of Ghent improvise or compose and how, given the demands for music imposed on them?

Three full saints' offices from St Bavo's survive with chant as well as texts, those for Sts Bavo, Landoald, and Livinus. There are individual responsories and antiphons for St Macharius, though not a full office. None of these chants can be dated precisely at present, because none borrows extensively from a dated Vita. Nevertheless, the dates of the ceremonies for the relics and of the Vitae on your handout furnish approximate dates, since offices of some kind would have been required. (A caution: some offices predate their respective Vitae.) It seems likely that the office of St Bavo originated between 825 and 1100, of St Landoald between 980 and 982, of St Macharius between 1012 and 1067, and of St Livinus between 1007 and 1171. Since all of the manuscript sources are of much later date, changes to any original offices must remain a possibility, and the music and texts themselves must serve as the principal witnesses. (I will not discuss the Macharius chant here.)

The poetry, ordering by mode, responsory verses, and differentie of the offices provide a starting point for an analysis. The office of the deposition of St Bavo, potentially the earliest, is entirely in prose, although nearly every chant has at least one pair of lines with end-rhyme (a procedure found already in Gallican and Mozarabic prayers, not relevant here). Cursus is not used in this office or in any of the other saints' offices from St Bavo's. Exceptional texts in the Bavo office are the Magnificat antiphon for first Vespers, with a text in the style of a collect, the first, fifth and sixth responsory verses of Matins and the fourth and fifth responsories, whose texts quote or paraphrase the first Vita of Bavo. (Unfortunately, the quotes are not extensive enough to make it certain that the Vita is the source. These phrases could have circulated independently.) Whereas a different office, of the elevation of St Bavo, which is also in prose, has many antiphons lacking rhyme, more lines of the responsory texts use end-rhyme than in the deposition office. This office is also unique in sharing an invitatory and responsory with the office of St Germain des Pres. [NB Paris lat 7791, late ninth century, includes a litany perhaps from St Germain des Pres that includes St Bavo; monks from St Amand fled to St Germain des Pres to escape the Vikings in the early 880s.]

The offices of Landoald and Livinus resemble the Bavo office in their use of end-rhyme. The Magnificat antiphon to second Vespers of the Landoald office also reads like a collect. Responsory verse one and the second responsory have some alliteration, a procedure not found elsewhere in the three offices. In the Livinus office, most antiphons have end-rhyme to the pattern AABB. The incipits of the antiphons of first Vespers in the secular office [in a Prague manuscript] begin with the text incipits of their accompanying psalms, an unusual procedure, but this secular office probably originated outside of Ghent, and may not have been sung in Ghent. A last unusual text is the sixth responsory verse, a quote from the Vita of Livinus by Pseudo-Boniface. It is notable that the quotes perhaps from the Vitae are most literal and frequent in responsory verses in the Ghent offices.

The offices for Bavo's deposition and for Landoald and Livinus all order the antiphons and responsories of Matins and the antiphons of Lauds by mode, but that ordering is most consistent in the office of St Landoald. The Lauds antiphons of the Bavo office are ordered rigorously, but none of the nocturns show ordering (see the Table, handout, p. 3).

One explanation may be that the Landoald office of Ghent 488 represents its original form and that the Bavo and Livinus offices were subjected to changes over time. Chants are scratched out and added to the Bavo office in Ghent 15, for example, a manuscript containing perhaps only some of the original chant. The Livinus office exists following the secular as well as the monastic cursus, unlike the other Ghent offices, but the monastic cursus must have been first, since the cult began at St Bavo's. In any case, the Landoald office is singular in its rigorous ordering by mode. Given the history of Landoald's cult, this office was probably composed quickly and then left untouched.

Newly composed responsory verses are usually later compositions. Responsory verses 4, 8 and 11 in the Bavo office are entirely new. The second halves of verses 1, 7, and 9 are also new, but all others are standard. All responsory verses in the Landoald office but those of responsories 9, 11 and 12 take the standard melody. By contrast, all of the responsory verses in the Livinus office are new.

All three offices use common differentie. Each uses only one differentia per mode, an economy especially noticeable in the mode one chants and certainly not found frequently.

The evidence presented so far does align the offices roughly with the dates of their Vitae. The Bavo office appears older than the rest. The Landoald office needed to be prepared quickly and seems not to have undergone changes. The Livinus office shares characteristics with later historie, such as the newly-composed responsory verses.

Why is the Landoald office the most internally consistent? Was the composer taking the easiest route, or have we the deliberate symmetry of a master composer? A closer look at the music shows it to be remarkable in several respects. It relies on repetition, either as musical rhyme, re-use of the same formula, or as varied presentation of the same phrase. It also includes many almost entirely syllabic antiphons and leaves an impression of extreme economy of gesture.

Immediately striking in the manuscript are the virtually identical intonations of the Magnificat antiphon of first Vespers, the Invitatory antiphon of Matins and the first antiphon of Matins. All occupy strategic places in the office at the end of second Vespers or beginning of Matins, but would have been separated by other chants and texts in performance. The symmetry is in fact only visual, since these are the first three chants to be given in full in the manuscript Ghent 488 (see handout, p. 5).

Audible is musical rhyme and repetition, which is found in several chants. In the invitatory, very similar but not identical cadences occur at 'Christo' and 'prefultem' (the last word), and a similar rise of a fourth comes at 'regi qui' and 'te regni', perhaps recognition of the similar sound of these words. In Matins antiphon three, the two words 'apostolicis' and 'evangelicis' share their last four pitches and neumation. In Matins responsory one, the phrase 'nobiliter mundo natus' is the source of musical inspiration for the following phrase 'nobilius celo renatus', which opens with the same six notes and then moves in directions opposed to those of the preceding phrase. The melodic content of Matins antiphon 8 (A2 of N2) refers back to the intonation: its form is A B A' A'' B C A'''. M-N2-A5 divides into two almost identical halves: its form is A B B' B C D / A B' B C D. M-N2-R1 is similarly repetitive, with the form A[intonation] B B. M-N2-R2 begins with four short phrases opening with c'd'e' then an A B A C pattern. M-N2-R3 is similar with an intonation, then three short phrases with the same opening, then A B A' C with a final cadence developing the material of the short phrases. Apart from musical rhyme at 'aperuit' and 'produxit', there is much less repetition in M-N2-R4. The first responsory of the third nocturn, Preciosus Domino, assigns the same cadences to 'ambulavit' and 'intuit', but there is no strict repetition. In M-N3-R3, Divinis ergo, the figure at 'attonitus miraculis' reappears at the final cadence. In M-N3-R4, Gaude desiderator, there is no literal repetition, but just before the cadence, a long phrase repeats again and again the recitational pattern of pes then punctum. In the first antiphon of Lauds, the intonation is followed by two long phrases ending with the same cadence. Then the third antiphon has the form A A'. This seems a large percentage of chant to use repetition, both to articulate and lend structure. Yet it is significant that the procedures change from chant to chant. There is no consistent application of musical rhyme, for example.

The other offices are sparing with repetition and apply it for new purposes. In the Livinus office, Matins antiphon three is divided into short segments by five appearances of a pes from a to c, and one of a scandicus abc, a technique not found in the Landoald office. Matins responsory three has the form A A', with the A' beginning on a final word - here music and syntax are deliberately disjunct. Matins responsory four repeats a phrase just after the intonation, having the form A BB C D E. M-N2-R3 assigns the same intonation to responsory and verse, which is not found elsewhere. No other chants in this office use repetition prominently.

The difference between the use of repetition in the offices of Sts Landoald and Livinus is clear when their final Matins responsories are placed side by side. The Landoald responsory repeats and varies throughout, even in the verse, whereas the Livinus responsory only repeats one brief phrase at the beginning, a repetition disjunct with the syntax as we also observed in the fourth Matins responsory (see handout, p. 6-7).

In the older office for the deposition of Bavo, the invitatory and first antiphon of Matins apply musical rhyme to the cadences of the two main phrases. Matins antiphon three uses a more elaborate cadence but the same procedure. A procedure not found in the other offices surfaces in Matins responsory three, where the shorter melisma at 'mentem' is repeated and embellished at 'cedere'. As in the Livinus office, seven appearances of the same melodic figure, here Gac, are spaced throughout the responsory. In M-N2-R2 we find the same derivation of a second longer melisma from a first shorter one, and five spaced appearances of the motive FAC or FC. The two phrases of Lauds antiphons three and five use musical rhyme. One very syllabic antiphon of the office of the elevation of St Bavo, Corde et animo, has a prominent repeated formula at 'Domine Deo'.

In sum, the Landoald office uses repetition more extensively than any of the other offices, a hallmark of its composer. Musical rhyme is common to all three, but spaced repeats are found only in the Bavo and Livinus offices, and repeated and expanded melismas only in the Bavo office. Repetition of long phrases occurs only in the Landoald office.

The treatment of the reciting tone in the responsory verses as well as in the responsories and antiphons was partly determined by convention but may also reflect compositional strategy. Most of the chants in all three offices recite on at least two tones, with prominence given to the final (not the tenor as in later chant). Predictably, authentic chants rise to the tenor with less delay than the plagal chants, which often remain on the final with few excursions. The Bavo responsories often span the full ambitus, but the antiphons are even more reluctant to move from the final than those of the Landoald office. The Livinus office is unlike either of the others in having wavy melodies that traverse the space between final and tenor, rarely remaining on any one pitch. That the Landoald office is more 'recitational' than the Livinus office can be seen by comparing two pages in Ghent 488 (see handout, p. 5).

Most of the chants in the three offices do not trespass boundaries set by modal convention. Unusual is Matins antiphon five in the Landoald office, which reaches the full octave only once, early in the chant. The Magnificat antiphon of the Livinus office uses a similar unusual strategy. It opens with an exploration of the upper tetrachord of mode one, then moving and remaining in the lower pentachord, when the opposite procedure is customary.

Nevertheless, the Bavo office does reveal the survival of the Frankish love for melismatic embellishment. It is filled with more long melismas than any of the other offices, which stand out from the surrounding chant, consisting of single pitches that are punctuated by numerous three to five-note groups, usually ascending or descending by step (handout, p. 5).

Chants in the two earliest offices show the composers' memories at work. In the office for the deposition of Bavo, Matins antiphon two, Vade vende has an intonation that is virtually identical to that of a well-known antiphon Et valde mane. More deliberate play with memory is shown in Matins antiphon four, which elaborates the intonation throughout the remainder of antiphon. A different manipulation of memory is suggested by the first nocturn of the Landoald office, whose texts describe Landoald's first years. Here the second and third antiphons share intonations with several chants on appropriate themes of arrival and birth (for M-A2 cf Dobszay 2043-Surgite vigilemus, arrival of the king; and 2048-Christus infans; for M-A3 cf Dobszay 3036-Quando natus est ineffabiliter). [in László Dobszay's edition of Hungarian antiphons.]

It is interesting that purely musical features of the three offices distinguish them, but that the relationship of their music and texts does not. The chant of all three offices follows the phrase structure of the text and articulates it. For example, in Matins antiphon five of the Bavo office, Amandus ergo, a wide leap articulates the new phrase at 'que'. There is no correlation between neumes and stressed syllables, but we find a general tendency to assign single pitches to final syllables. Word painting is extremely rare. I find only one instance, in Matins antiphon five of the office of St Livinus, Tempore baptisem, where the highest pitches are assigned to 'cum principe regni'.

It is probably dangerous to read too much into some of the characteristics pointed out here, but I do think they support a chronology close to that of the Vitae. The Bavo office is the earliest - it relies mainly on standard responsory verses, gives finals greater prominence as reciting tones, is sprinkled with long melismas, and lacks any devices that would bringing undue attention to the music, such as repetition or word painting. It is also in many respects the most beautifully crafted office. Observe, for example, the fluidity, symmetry, variety, and simplicity of the Magnificat antiphon Sancte Bavo and the first Matins responsory Beatus confessor Allowinus (handout, p. 8). The Landoald office is the most recitational and repetitive. It comes closest to improvisation of the three offices, and could have been composed quickly, but displays musical competence in its consistency. The Livinus office is perhaps the poorest of the three. The only disjunctions between music and text occur here, also the only peculiar treatment of mode. It betrays its later origin with its newly-composed responsory verses, but there is no evidence of the increased articulation and deliberate architecture that appears in thirteenth century historie. Indeed, denser and more regular patterns of rhyme and stress appear only in the hymns for the saints of St Bavo's, which are all in poetry and of later date. Some may not have originated in Ghent, and some are clearly derivative. For example, a hymn for St Landrada has the text incipit Pange lingua; for St Livinus, Hymnum canamus, but their melodies are new. Most common are strophes of four eight-syllable lines.

To conclude, the Bavo office must be the earliest. Since it uses modal order and the earliest such offices that are known to us date from the years around 900, it cannot predate the Viking invasions that devastated Ghent. The most likely date of the Bavo office, since it is earlier than the Landoald office, is around 946, when St Bavo's relics were translated to the abbey. We know that Remigius of Mettlach was asked to composer Matins chant for an office of St Bavo before 1095, but that seems late for a first office. Given the wide dissemination of St Bavo's cult, it may be that more than one series of Matins responsories was composed and circulated. Whoever its composer, the Bavo office is skillfully crafted. By contrast, the Landoald office suggests that it was composed quickly, virtually improvised, in the tenth century, probably around 980 to 983. The Livinus office, with its newly-composed responsory verses and more densely rhymed texts, is later. I would date it after the mid eleventh-century life that it quotes, perhaps around 1066, when relics of St Livinus and Brice were translated to St Bavo's. The 1171 elevation seems too late. Moreover, that elevation was a response to claims by the monks of St Peter's that even the relics of Livinus were fakes, it did not mark the introduction of the cult. Indeed, no special office for the elevation of St Livinus survives, as for other saints. It seems ironic that the best-known office in the sixteenth century, that for Livinus, is the least interesting from a musical point of view and honors an ‘invented’ saint saint.