Notker › Texts

Notker Balbulus, so called from his slight stuttering, was born in Switzerland about 840. Ekkehard V. in the 2nd Chapter of his Vita Sancti Notkeri (written about 1220), says he was born at Heiligau, now Elgg, in the Canton of Zurich; but Meyer von Knonau, seeing that his family were closely connected with Jonswil in the Canton of St. Gall, thinks that Notker was probably born at Jonswil. He entered the school of the famous Benedictine Abbey of St. Gall at an early age, and spent the rest of his life there. In due course he was admitted as one of the brethren of the monastery; in 890 is marked as librarian, and in 892 and 894 as guestmaster (hospitarius); his principal employment being in scholastic and literary work. He became eventually one of the foremost in the monastery at that its most flourishing period; but was never abbot there (Notker the Abbot of St. Gall, who died 975, was of a younger generation), and declined various offers of preferment elsewhere. He died at St. Gall, April 6, 912. In 1513 he was beatified by Pope Julius II., but does not seem to have been formally canonized, nor does an office in his honour appear to have been authorised for use except at St. Gall (Lebensbild des heiligen Notker von St. Gallen, by G. Meyer von Knonau, Zurich, 1877; Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie, xxiv. 35, &c).

Ekkehard IV. (d. 1060), in his Casus Sancti Galli, chapter iii., thus lovingly characterises Notker (a translation would not express the conciseness of the original):—

"Corpore, non animo, gracilis; voce, non spiritu, balbulus ; in divinis erectus, in adversis patiens, ad omnia mitis, in nostratium acer erat exactor disciplinis; ad repentina timidulus et inopinata, praeter daemones infestantes, erat; quibus quidem se audenter opponere solebat. In orando, legendo, dictando, creberrimus. Et ut omnis sanctitatis ejus in brevi complectar dotes, sancti Spiritus erat vasculum, quo suo tempore abundantius nullum."

Notker was a favourite of the Emperor Charles the Fat, who paid him special attention during his visit to St. Gall, Dec. 4-6, 883. His claim to notice here is as the first important writer of sequences; and as indeed the practical inventor of this species of compositions. He seems to have begun writing sequences about 862, and in 885 collected them into a volume (the Liber Sequentiarum Notkeri, hereafter in this article entitled the L. S. N.), which he dedicated to Liutward, who was Bishop of Vercelli, and Chancellor (till 887) to Charles the Fat. In the dedicatory epistle prefixed (reprinted by Daniel, v. p. 5, from the St. Gall manuscript, No. 381) Notker gives an account of his first essays, of which the following is a summary:—
ii. Origin of Notker’s Sequences. — In his youth he says he found great difficulty in remembering the cadences of the neumes [or musical notes which were set to the final a of the word Alleluia in the Gradua, between the Epistle and the Gospel. When one of the monks of the Abbey of Jumieges (near Rouen, destroyed by the Normans in 851), after wandering from place to place came to St. Gall (about 862), he brought with him his Antiphonary. There, to his delight, Notker found words set to these troublesome neumes, but the words seem to to have been merely strung together for mnemonic purposes. Incited by this example, Notker determined to try to compose something more worthy of the occasion, and wrote the sequence "Laudes Deo concinat" to one of these sets of neumes. He showed his work to his master Iso,

[the first important teacher at St. Gall, where he was in residence 852-870 ; and, finally, as head of the outer school, which was meant for those who did not intend to become monks of St. Gall],

who was delighted with it, but suggested various improvements, and especially that each syllable should go to one note. Following these instructions, Notker wrote a second sequence beginning "Psallat Ecclesia, mater illibata," and showed both to his other master Marcellus,

[an Irishman, originally called Mongal, who had accompanied his uncle Marcus, an Irish Bishop, to Rome, and on their return journey settled at St. Gall, about 850. He was certainly there from 853 to 865. He was a good scholar, and, above all, an excellent musician. On the division of the monastic school, he became head of the inner school, which was meant for those who looked forward to becoming brethren of the monastery],

who was greatly pleased with them, transcribed them on rolls, and gave them to the scholars to practice. (So the Dedicatory Epistle. Compare Dr. Neale's note in his Mediaeval Hymns, ed. 1863, p. 29, where he gives an interesting account of the origin of Sequences, though not a little of the information he gives regarding Notker seems to be derived from his own imagination.)
iii. The Notkerian Sequences. Genuine and False.— From this account it might seem perfectly easy to determine which are the genuine sequences of Notker. But no autograph copy of the Liber Sequentiarum Notkeri. has survived, and although there are still extant at least eight mss. not later than the 11th century, all professing to furnish us with theL. S. N, yet on examination it is found that no two manuscripts exactly agree. From the fact that Notker was an accomplished musician, and is known to have composed the melodies as well as the words of sequences, one might hope to gain help. There is indeed an important MS. at St. Gall (No. 484) apparently written early in the 10th century, which contains the melodies without words; but there is nothing to show which of these are by Notker, and which are earlier. Nor does early tradition help us much. In the interlinear notes to his Rhythmi de Sancto Otmaro (St. Gall MS. 393, p. 153, both the text and notes being in Ekkehard's autograph), Ekkehard IV. speaks of Notker as having composed 50 sequences, but nowhere does he give a list of their first lines. The conjecture of Wilmanns is probably correct, viz., that Ekkehard took the St. Gall MS., No. 378, as his standard. It contains 55 sequences in the L. S. N. (Nos. 84, 114 had not been inserted when Ekkehard wrote), and deducting from this the sequences which in his Casus Sancti Galli Ekkehard definitely ascribes to others (Nos. 48, 95, 97, 106, 110, 111) there remain, in round numbers, 50.
The most careful attempt to settle what are genuine and what are false is in an article by W. Wilmanns (Welche Sequenzen hat Notker verfasst? ) in Moriz Haupt's Zeitschrift fürdeutsches Alterthum, vol. xv., Berlin, 1872, pp. 267-294. With this may be compared P. Anselm Schubiger's Sängerschule St. Gallens, Einsiedeln, 1858; and K. Bartsch's Lateinische Sequenzen des Mittelalters, Rostock, 1868. The references in Daniel are confused and inexact….
vii. Conclusion.— Notker's Sequences are remarkable for their majesty and noble elevation of tone, their earnestness and their devoutness. They display a profound knowledge of Holy Scripture in its plainer and its more recondite interpretations, and a firm grasp and definite exposition of the eternal truths of the Christian Faith. The style is clear, and the language easily comprehensible, so that whether he is paraphrasing the Gospel for the day, or setting forth the leading ideas of the Church's festivals, or is engaged in vivid and sympathetic word-painting; he is at once pleasing and accurate. His sequences were speedily received with favour as a welcome change from sound to sense, and from the end of the 9th century to the middle of the 12th, they, together with sequences on the same model, were in universal use over Northern Europe. As they were written for the neumes of the Alleluia they were of course made to correspond thereto, and must be studied in connection with their melodies. The metrical rules governing their composition are intricate, suffice it to say here that they were written in rhythmical prose, somewhat in the form of the Hebrew Psalms, in irregular lines and without any attempt at rhyme. It is thus difficult to present a version in English which shall be at once exact and yet suited to modern congregational use. The only literal version which has attained any popularity in English is Dr Neale's translation of No. 56, "Cantemus cuncti", and he complains bitterly (Medaeval Hymns, ed. 1867, pp. viii., and 42) that hymnal compilers have ignored the ancient melody to which it was written, and that it has been “cramped, tortured, tamed down into a chant." Still the Notkerian sequences are worthy of greater attention than has been bestowed on them by English translators. If the endeavour to give a literal version is abandoned, they allow a wider choice of measures and greater freedom of rendering than the later rhyming Sequences. [Rev. James Mearns, M.A.]

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)

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Notker, Balbulus, p. 812, i.
Two interesting monographs dealing with Notker and his time are Die Dichterschule St. Gallens und der Reichenau unter den Karolingern und Ottonen, by Paul von Winterfeld, in the Neue Jahrbucher für das Klassische Altertum, Leipzig, 1900, pp. 341-361; and the Geschichte der Schule von St. Gallen, by P. Gabriel Meier of Einsiedeln, in the Jahrbuch für Schweizerische Geschichte, Zürich, 1885 (vol. x., pp. 35-128). Paul von Winterfeld, before his early death, had been preparing a critical ed. of Notker's Sequences for the Poetae Latini Aevi Carolini; and a critical edition is promised in the Dreves-Blume Analecta Hymnica. [Rev. James Mearns, M.A.]

--Excerpt from John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, New Supplement (1907)