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Trinitas, unitas, deitas – a trope for the Sanctus of mass
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 July 2009
Extract
The melody for the verses beginning “Trinitas, Unitas, Deitas” has so far been published only from three French sources of the 13th century. Amedee Gastoue gave the melody in the course of his essay ‘Les anciens chants liturgiques des Églises d'Apt et du Comtat’; his transcription was based on the manuscript Apt 6 (No. du fonds 1), a mass-antiphoner of the 12th century used at the church of St.Pierre in Apt, with additions in various hands on the unfoliated leaves after folio CXII at the end of the manuscript, which is where we find Trinitas, Unitas, Deitas, between a troped Kyrie and a Christmas song. Henri Villetard (1907) and Wulf Arlt (1970) published the melody as part of their respective editions and commentaries for the New Year's offices of Sens and Beauvais, from the manuscripts Sens 46 and London, B.L., Egerton 2615, that is, from two sources of the early 13th century whose contents are related, and which may be seen as recensions of a 12th-century exemplar no longer extant.
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- © The Plainsong and Medieval Music Society 1983
References
Notes
[1] See Revue du Chant Grégorien 10 (1902–1903), pp.152–160, 166–170 Google Scholar; and 11 (1903–4), pp.23–28, 38–40, 56–60, 81–83.
[2] The troped Kyrie is Kyrie Genitor eleison, which itself is preceded by the Whitsuntide sequence Sancti spiritus assit nobis gratia; the Christmas song Congaudeat turba fidelium is followed by the start of the two-voice Dulcis sapor. This remarkable constellation of 13th-century additions thus juxtaposes trope, sequence, song and polyphony.
[3] Villetard, H.: L 'Office de Pierre de Corbeil, Bibliothèque musicologique, IV (Paris, 1907), pp.90–91 and 136 Google Scholar; Arlt, Wulf: Ein Festoffizium des Mittelalters aus Beauvais in seiner liturgischen und musikalischen Bedeutung (2 vols., Köln, 1970), Editionsband, pp.124f. and 245 Google Scholar.
[4] See Thannabaur, P.-J.: Das einstimmige Sanctus der römischen Messe in der handschriftlichen Überlieferung des 11. bis 16. Jahrhunderts, Erlanger Arbeiten zur Musikwissenschaft, i (Munich, 1962), esp. pp.88ffGoogle Scholar.
[5] Haberl, F. cites this passage in his book Das Kyriale Romanum. Liturgische und musikalische Aspekte, Schriftenreihe des Allgemeinen Cäcilien-Verbandes fur die Länder der deutschen Sprache, x (Bonn, 1875), pp.116f.Google Scholar: “Ter sanctus repetitur, quia Trinitas collaudatur. Domine Deus semel dicitur, quia unitas veneratur.”
[6] As an example of a document illustrating this way of understanding the Sanctus one may cite Perg.-Hs. 4° cod. MS.24 of the Universitätsbibliothek, Munich, a psalter originating in Würzburg c.1200. On f.1v appears an illustration of the Trinity: a picture of God the Father enthroned, who supports the Son, portrayed as the crucified; between the mouth of God and the head of Christ hovers the dove, as a symbol of the Holy Spirit. In each corner of the picture are the four symbols of the Evangelists, from which proceed ribbons with the initial words of the Sanctus: “Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus. Domine, Deus, Sabaoth”. On the lower edge of the picture the donors are praying. See Abbildung 44, for No.199 of the exhibition catalogue Bayerns Kirche im Mittelalter. Handschriften- und Urkunden-Ausstellung, veranstaltet von den Bayerischen Staatlichen Bibliotheken in Verbindung mit den Staatlichen Archiven Bayerns (Munich, 1960)Google Scholar.
[7] Honorius' interpretation is strictly relevant only to the text itself, and has no connection with performance practice or actual musical matters. By the 12th century, the Sanctus, which was originally sung by the celebrant and the faithful together, had for about a century been performed by the schola. Its melodies had become richer, and as a rule it was fitted with the twin brackets of two Hosanna in excelsis acclamations sung to two identical melodic phrases; it is of these that Honorius assigns the first to the heavenly choir, the second to the earthly. This interpretation of the text has been brought up in connection with troping because the trope's regard for the Sanctus seems primarily a matter of the text. As far as the melody, and especially the relationship between words and music, are concerned, there is only a loose connection between the trope and its companion-chant, the choral Sanctus, as I shall show. Indeed, it may become quite separate from it.
[8] The following sources may be consulted in the microfilm archive of medieval music manuscripts at the Institut für Musikwissenschaft of Erlangen-Nürnberg University: Aachen, Domarchiv, XII, f.118v (from Aachen, 13th c.); Apt, Archive de la Basilique Sainte-Anne, 6 (1), f.114 (Apt, 12th c., with 13th-c. additions); Assisi, Bibl.Com. 695, f.48v (Paris or Reims, 13th c.); Limoges, Bibl.Mun., 2 (17), f.245v (Fontévrault, 14th c.); London, B.L., Egerton 2615, f.54 (Beauvais, 13th c.); Madrid, B.N., M.1361, f.188v (Catalonia, 14th c.); Munich, Bayer.Staatsb., Clm 17212, f.1v (Schäftlarn, 13th c.); Paris, B.N., lat.778, f.209v (Narbonne, 12th c.); Paris, B.N., lat.10508, f.134 (St.Evroult, 12th c.); Piacenza, Bibl.Com., 65, f.171v (Piacenza, 12th c.); Turin, Bibl.Naz., F.IV.18, f.167v (Bobbio, 12th c.); Vich, Mus.Episc., 7613 (31), f.15v (Vich, 13th c.). The copy from manuscript Sens 46 is taken from Villetard's edition (see Note 3). The following manuscripts, cited in Analecta Hymnica, vol.47, p.349, with the sigla C and K, were not available to me: Miss. ms. Modoetinum saec. 13/14 Cod. Capit. Modoetin. D/111, and Miss. ms. Germanicum saec. 11/12 Cod. Rossian. s.n. (Fragmentum). Their text variants are collated in Anaiecta Hymnica.
[9] Trinitas, Unitas, Deitas appears connected to the Sanctus at Mass even in the related office from Beauvais. The Sens Circumcision office has more of these songs, designated as versiculus, which originated as tropes, then became isolated from their parent chant. Those so far identified are: Letemur gaudiis (for the offertory Deus enim firmavit; see Schlager, K.: ‘Tropen als Forschungsbereich der Musikwissenschaft. Vom Lebenslauf eines Melismas’, in Research on Tropes, ed. Iversen, G., Stockholm, 1983, pp.17–28 Google Scholar); Dextera dei (for the offertory Tui sunt caeli); Sedentem in superna (for various responsories, including Centum quadcaginta and Hic qui advenit, and also for the Gloria, and as a sequence); Qui scis in firma (for the responsory O martyrum gemma); and Sancta dei genitrix (for the responsory Confirmatum est). See Hofmann-Brandt, H.: Die Tropen zu den Responsorien des Officiums (Diss., Erlangen, 1971)Google Scholar.
[10] See Thannabaur (op.cit., note 4), melodies 184 and 223.
[11] Small melodic differences between the parallel versicles are not registered.
[12] E.g. the form Fa GFE DD for “deitas” in the first versicle, Ga GGFE D for “petra fons” in the second versicle. The parallels end, interestingly, at versicle 4, where the tessitura changes, so that the trope melody ends with finalis G. The copy in Apt 6(1) has the melody in this register from the beginning.
[13] “Tibi sit gloria” is also found as the conclusion for those copies where the trope has lost its relationship to the Sanctus, and is rubricked or deployed as a sequence, in Limoges 2 (17) with the melody of Vaticana XIV, in Turin F.IV.18 with a melodic diversion to G, whose first half also appears in Apt 6(1). But since no transposition for Sanctus melody 184 (= Vaticana XIV) is indicated in Thannabaur's catalogue, a question-mark remains over the companion-chant which should be sung with a trope melody with the finalis G.
[14] One may include examples such as the present Sanctus trope in a line of development which begins with melogene tropes and leads through to interchangeable song insertions such as those to be seen in the late Middle Ages in connection with newly composed Alleluia melodies (see Schlager, K.: ‘Zur Definition des Tropus im späten Mittelalter’, in Bericht über den internationalen musikwissenschaftlichen Kongress Berlin 1974, ed. Kuhn, H. and Nitsche, P., Kassel 1980, pp.261–3Google Scholar). An early incidence of tropes with song-like form can be observed in Benedicamus Domino extensions. Seen beside these, the succession of double versicles seems the more strict and artful schema, which can at the same time be enlivened by symmetrical deployment of its smaller units, refrain structures, and varied cadences, with dance-like, song-like features.
[15] The place where begins the repetition of the start of the piece is marked off as a supplementary verse in Turin F.IV.18; and in the same manner the strikingly melismatic final section of the fourth versicle (“Tu laus angelica” and “agmina celica”) is also set out as a discrete verse.
[16] In Chevalier's Repertorium Hymnologicum, where the incipits are arranged strictly alphabetically, the text starting “Trinitas” appears under two numbers (20567 and 20571). The reason is that right from the beginning of the text, variants may occur, here “Trinitas, Unitas, Deitas” or “Trinitas, Deitas, Unitas”. The inversion is typical of what may occur throughout the poem, as the text variants indicated in Analecta Hymnica 47 show.
[17] Selected citations in Assunto, R.: Die Theorie des Schönen im Mittelalter (new edn., Cologne, 1982), pp.204–7Google Scholar.