Monastic Musical Fragments from Iceland

Little has survived from medieval liturgical books in the Nordic countries other than fragments. It is often difficult, if not impossible, to state their exact provenance, but the contents sometimes indicate that they once belonged to a monastic institution. The article presents some of these source...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Religions
Main Author: Attinger, Gisela
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: 2021
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10852/90008
http://urn.nb.no/URN:NBN:no-92610
https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12060416
Description
Summary:Little has survived from medieval liturgical books in the Nordic countries other than fragments. It is often difficult, if not impossible, to state their exact provenance, but the contents sometimes indicate that they once belonged to a monastic institution. The article presents some of these sources, focusing on two fragments with music for the celebration of St Olav from Iceland and Sweden which show how an already established sequence of songs was adapted to fit the liturgical needs of a monastic community. In addition, it briefly presents two other Icelandic sources that follow monastic use and can shed more light on musical traditions in the Icelandic monasteries in the Middle Ages.