Nabokov, Nicolas [Nikolay]

Notker

(b nr St Gallen, Switzerland, c840; d St Gallen, 6 April 912). Monk of the Benedictine abbey of St Gallen, poet and scholar. The Casus monasterii Sancti Galli of Ekkehard IV of St Gallen (c1040) paints a lively picture of the monastery school while Notker and his fellow monks Ratpert and Tuotilo were active. Although the two latter are known to have composed music, Notker (called Balbulus, ‘the stammerer’) seems to have been only exceptionally active as a composer of chant, if at all. The work for which he is best known in the history of music is the Liber hymnorum, a collection of texts set to the melodies of liturgical sequences, organized in a cycle for the Church year. This was completed in 884. Other important works include a Vita Sancti Galli (life of St Gallus) in verse, the Gesta Karoli (the deeds of Charlemagne), and a martyrology.

Of particular interest for the study of musical notation is Notker’s Epistola ad Lantbertum, in which Notker explains to a monk Lantbert what the supplementary letters for neumatic notation signify (‘quid singulae litterae … significent’); in the Casus monasterii Sancti Galli their invention was attributed to one ‘Romanus’, hence their common designation today as ‘Romanian’ or Significative letters. (Original source CH-SGs 381, facs. in PalMus, iv, 1894/R, pls.B–D, and Arlt and Rankin, 1996; critical edn, Froger, 1962.) One of the principal St Gallen chant books, the cantatorium SGs 359, which is particularly rich in significative letters, was written during Notker’s lifetime. Notker is nevertheless not known as a music scribe. However, he was one of the leading scribes of literary texts in the monastery and his hand has been identified in numerous sources (Rankin, 1991).

Although Ekkehard IV ascribed the sequence melodies ‘Frigdola’ and ‘Occidentana’ to Notker, these melodies are also known from contemporary West Frankish sources, and it seems certain they were part of a widely known corpus originating some time earlier. The hymn Ave beati germinis is attributed to him in SGs 381 (second quarter of the 10th century). The antiphon Media vita is not by him, being first attributed to him in 1613 by J. Metzler, historian of St Gallen.

In the preface to his collection of sequence texts (ed. von den Steinen; for translation see Sequence (i)) Notker explains how as a boy he had difficulty in remembering the ‘melodiae longissimae’ but saw in the chant book of a monk from Jumièges fleeing from the Norsemen how verses could be set to them, making them easier to remember. He decided he could write better texts for the melodies and received advice on his first efforts from his teacher Iso. His teacher Marcellus had the finished pieces copied out and given to the boys to sing. Notker names his first two texts, Laudes Deo concinat and Psallat ecclesia, and gives the melody titles of two others for which he provided words.

From this preface it is clear that Notker’s texts were the first to find a permanent place in the liturgy at St Gallen. They quickly gained a dominant position in the chant repertory of Germany and Central Europe. For example, they had been adopted in Mainz by the third quarter of the 10th century (GB-Lbl Add.19768) and in Regensburg by the end of the century (D-BAs Lit.6). This was no doubt due in part to the outstanding quality of the texts. Not only do they approach the standard of classical Latin, but they are of substantial theological and exegetical complexity, exhibiting both considerable density of language and striking imagery, while fitting in sympathetic manner the contours and internal structure of the melodies to which they are sung. In all these respects they make a far more distinguished impression than almost any other early sequence texts.

Surviving manuscript sources of Notker's sequences date back to the end of his life or soon after (Rankin). The first full sequentiary from St Gallen, also bearing Notker’s preface, dates from after his death (SGs 381) and already includes pieces not by Notker. The attribution of many texts to Notker, apart from those mentioned by him in the preface, rests on their unique style and quality. Von den Steinen established a canon of 32 sequences of the type with double verses and 8 shorter ones with a-parallel verses, and these have generally ben accepted as authentic (see Sequence (i)).

No critical music edition of the sequences with Notker’s texts has yet been attempted, although facsimiles or transcriptions of a number of sources have been published. In the context of a thorough re-examination of the early sequence, Crocker (1977) has studied Notker’s pieces in parallel with West Frankish sequences having the same melody; he includes transcriptions of almost all recoverable items.

Notker was one of the leading literary figures of his time, known and admired at the imperial court: the Liber hymnorum was dedicated to the imperial chancellor, Luitward, bishop of Vercelli; the Gesta Karoli were written at the behest of the Emperor Charles the Bald (876–87). Notker was canonized in 1513.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

W. von den Steinen: Notker der Dichter und seine geistige Welt (Berne, 1948/R)

J. Froger: ‘L’épître de Notker sur les “lettres significatives”’, EG, v (1962), 23–72

R.L. Crocker: The Early Medieval Sequence (Berkeley, 1977)

H.F. Haefele: ‘Notker I. von St. Gallen’, Die deutsche Literatur des Mittelalters: Verfasserlexikon, vi (Berlin and New York, 2/1987), 1187–1210

S. Rankin: ‘Notker und Tuotilo: schöpferische Gestalter in einer neuen Zeit’, Schweizer Jb für Musikwissenschaft, new ser., xi (1991), 17–42

S. Rankin: ‘“Ego itaque Notker scripsi”’, Revue bénédictine, ci (1991), 268–98

S. Rankin: ‘The Earliest Sources of Notker’s Sequences: St Gallen, Vadiana 317, and Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale lat. 10587’, EMH, x (1991), 201–33

W. Arlt and S. Rankin, eds.: Stiftsbibliothek Sankt Gallen: Codices 484 & 381 (Winterthur, 1996) [facs.]

DAVID HILEY