Untitled

154 TROPE, SEQUENCE, AND CONDUCTUS
neums, but this is not the case with the St. Gall manuscripts and those
from the German-speaking region in general. The use of an approxi
mate notation does not mean, as has sometimes been supposed, that
the singers sang only approximate intervals ; but it does mean that the
Aquitanian manuscripts are more useful for the purpose of study.
One interesting detail is that the texts of sequence melodies often have
the neums not above the words but added in the margin.
The art of sequences and tropes spread relatively early to England
and Spain, while Italy is represented by a manuscript (without neums)
written probably as early as the end of the ninth century (Verona 90).
None of these countries, however, produced in this field such a large
and characteristic repertory as the West Prankish region, represented
mainly by St. Martial at Limoges, and the East Prankish, represented
mainly by St. Gall. In England the main centre where this art was
cultivated seems to have been Winchester the source of two tropers
of the eleventh century (Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, 473, and
Oxford, Bodleian, Bodley 775), 1 the former of which is also a monu
ment of early polyphony (see p. 280). It appears that this art was
though tropes and se
quences may have had some remote predecessors in England and
brought to England from Northern France, 2
elsewhere, as we have seen.
AN EXAMPLE OF THE SEQUENCE
As an example of a sequence melody we may take one which is
preserved both at St. Gall and also at St. Martial, though with
variants in the melody and a different text; in the St. Gall repertory
the text is 'Hanc concordi', for St. Stephen (probably by Notker
himself), at St. Martial it is 'Epiphaniam domino', for Epiphany:
Ex.48 8
I
\Ueasured]
31 Hanc con- cor- di fa-mu-la - tu co - la-mus sol-lem-ni- ta - tern
'
I
:
{
E(a)Auc-to - ris il - li - us e - xem- plo doc - ti be-ni- gno
(b)Pro per - se- cu-to - rum pre - can-tis frau - de su - o - rum
1 See W. H. Frere, The Winchester Troper (1894).
2 For a full discussion see The Journal of Theological Studies, xxxvii (1936), pp. 34 ff.,
156 ff.
8 The melody is based on the version given by C. A. Moberg, Vber die sckwedischen
Sequenzen (Upsala, 1927), nos. I5b and 15a a version established with the help of
f
=