Word and Music in Medieval Cornish Drama 28 th Annual University of California Celtic Studies Conference 17 March 2006 Benjamin Bruch Harvard University

Word and Musicin Medieval Cornish Drama

28th Annual University of CaliforniaCeltic Studies Conference17 March 2006

Benjamin BruchHarvard University

Medieval Cornish DramaWord and Musicin Medieval Cornish Drama

Cornish

English

GlasneyCollege

c. 1400

Medieval Cornish Drama

Plen-an-guary Playing place

Medieval Cornish DramaWord and Musicin Medieval Cornish Drama

Each day’s performance ends with music and dancing

Incidental music

Stage directions indicate hymns to be sung (in Latin or English) Words imported from English

Names of voice parts : dyscant, conternot trebyl, faborden

Musical terminology

Indigenous (?) Cornish terms pen can (Beunans Meriasek) pen pusorn (Resurrexio Domini)

Names of musical instruments

: the “agreeable variety” of verse forms in the Ordinalia “occasionally rises, in emphatic passages, to what must be felt, even now, as a musical recitation; producing the belief that such stanzas were sung, or at least declaimed in operatic style, and perhaps accompanied by music”(1859, 2:447).

Edwin Norris

Sung and Spoken Text

Was any of the dialogue in the dramas intended to be sung?

T.D. Crawford suggests that a number of metrically distinctive stanzas in Resurrexio Domini (lines 835-92) may represent “a scene set entirely to music” (1980-81, 175n46).

Sung and Spoken Text

This sequence includes some short-line stanzas

Sarum Missal : Seven boys sing the hymn Gloria Laus on Palm Sunday (Jenner, Longsworth, Bakere)

Textual and contextual evidence Pueri Ebreorum sequence in Passio Christi

Pilate refers to “an fleghys vs ow cane” (PC 432)

Norris (1859) and Crawford (1980-81) associate certain stanza types with musical performance

Formal and structural considerations

Unusual verse forms, such as the Type III (ababababCDDDC) stanzas in Passio Christi

Stanzas constructed of four-syllable lines

A sudden change in verse form may signal a shift from spoken to sung dialogue (Padel, Bennett)

Bewnans Ke The Life of St Ke

Life of St Ke (ff. 1-8)

Philip Bennett has suggested a parallel with musical interludes in medieval French drama

Surviving text can be divided into two sections (days?) Arthurian story (ff. 9-20)

Repetition of words, phrases, and lines in adjacent stanzas

Particularly common in the Arthurian section of the play

National Library of Wales MS. 23,849D Discovered in 1999

Incomplete late 16th century copy of a damaged early 16th century exemplar

‘English’ rhyming rule

Differs from other surviving medieval Cornish dramas More complex verse forms

Sequences of speeches using similar or identical verse forms, sometimes with a repeated ‘refrain’

AUGELUS

Ave pater Arthore lowena thys hag onerturba gentis futuræ a record the vonas flowr mer ew [t]he fvesthe vannath hath ryeldera ra the gorf in pelder nyth ankevyr byttyth brves

AUGELUS

Ave pater Arthore lowena thys hag onerturba gentis futuræ a record the vonas flowr mer ew [t]he fvesthe vannath hath ryeldera ra the gorf in pelder nyth ankevyr byttyth brves

77774777

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Repetition in Bewnans Ke

ABABcDDC

Type III

Bewnans Ke, stanza 222

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MORRYDUS

Lowena thum arluth mas lowena then gwelha govrlowena the berhan ras lowena thys barth yth towr mer ew the fvesthe vannath hath ryeldera ra the gorf in pelder nyth ankevyr byttyth brves


ABABcDDC

Type III



77774777

CADORUS

Lowena ha lvne rowath theso war ver lavarowrag bos in yth elonoyth ny ve genys the barow mer ew the fvesthe vannath hath ryeldera ra the gorf in pelder nyth ankevyr byttyth brves

ABABcDDC

Type III



77774777

CADORUS


ABABcDDC

Type III



CADORUS


MORRYDUS


Bewnans Ke, stanza 223Bewnans Ke, stanza 222

AUGELUS

Ave pater Arthore lowena thys hag onerturba gentis futuræ a record the vonas flowr mer ew the fvesthe vannath hath ryeldera ra the gorf in pelder nyth ankevyr byttyth brves

AUGELUS


AUGELUS


MORRYDUS


CADORUS


Bewnans Ke, stanza 222Bewnans Ke, stanza 223Bewnans Ke, stanza 224

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ABABcDDC

Type III


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SEPTIMUS LEGATUS

Lowena theugh a vyghterne hag onors drys an tasowthe yskerans a dres spern mara meryth in fasow sertan heb mara pes syrryshath voth terrys nyth wortesa gwyls na whar

SEPTIMUS LEGATUS


ABABcddC

Type IIId


Stanzas 256-70

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OCTAVUS LEGATUS

Lowena thys myghtern stowt in vhelder in the se pob ath wormol nynges dowt hedre vo bys in e le ha suer heb mar a pes syrryshath voth terrys nyth wortesa gwyls na whar

ABABcddC

Type IIId


Stanzas 256-70

OCTAVUS LEGATUS



OCTAVUS LEGATUS


SEPTIMUS LEGATUS



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ABABcddC

Type IIId

Stanzas 256-70

ABABddcCABABcddC

ABABddC

Stanzas 256-70 Overall Structure

Stanza 258: King Arthur

ABABcddC

Stanza 256: First Legate Stanza 257: Second Legate ABABcdd

CababcdedecABABcddCABABcddCABABcddC

Stanza 259: Third Legate Stanza 260: Fourth Legate Stanza 261: Fifth Legate Stanza 262: Sixth Legate ABABcdd

C Stanza 263: King Arthur ababcdedecABABcddCABABcddCABABcddCABABcddCABABcddC

Stanza 264: Seventh Legate Stanza 265: Eighth Legate Stanza 266: Ninth Legate Stanza 267: Tenth Legate Stanza 268: Eleventh Legate Stanza 269: Twelfth Legate ABABcdd

C Stanza 270: King Arthur

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EXCERCES REX ITURIORUM, SECUNDUS REX

Lowena thys ser Lucyow arluth emperor worthy ny re deth thys gans an gerthe sogys hath wostoyth onbyth lowaneys the golan ath yskar na berth awher arluth worthyme Excercesew gverror fers ha myghtern in Inury



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Stanzas 338-52

AABCCBdeeD

Type III.10e


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ALPHATINA REX HIJSPANIE, TERTIUS REX

Hail thewhy ha lowenany re dueth theugh thum ena the wostoyth an gvlasow pelArthor rag e the venyaef a verew kyn tremena kyn fe vyth mar ver e nyel ny scap rum penea tristyough thynme Alphatyn myghtern Spain an deg the sen

AABCCBdeeD

Type III.10e


Stanzas 338-52

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MICYPPA REX BABILONIÆ, QUARTUS REX

Lowena thum arluth masny re dueth a lyas gwlas pan glowsyn the vos serrysgenegy rag syngy caspen the yskar ren ow thas in ol hast a vith terrys der vras colanme Micyppaew gwerryor da ha myghtern in Babylon

AABAABcddC

Type IIIA.10d


Stanzas 338-52

7777774447



AABAABcddC

Type IIIA.10d




Stanzas 338-52





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AABCCBdeeD

Type III.10e


Stanzas 338-52



7777774447

7777774447

AABCCBdeeD

Type III.10e




Stanzas 338-52

7777774447



AABAABcddC

Type IIIA.10d


Stanzas 338-52

AABCCBdeeD

AABCCBdeeD

Stanzas 256-70 Overall Structure Stanza 258: Emperor AABCCBde

eD Stanza 256: First King Stanza 257: Second King AABCCBde

eD

AABCCBdeeDAABCCBdeeDAABCCBdeeDAABCCBdeeD

Stanza 259: Third King Stanza 260: Fourth King Stanza 261: Fifth King Stanza 262: Sixth King AABCCBdee

D Stanza 263: Emperor AABCCCB

AABCCBdeeDAABCCBdeeDAABCCBdeeDAABCCBdeeDAABCCBdeeD

Stanza 264: Seventh King Stanza 265: First Duke Stanza 266: Second Duke Stanza 267: Third Duke Stanza 268: Fourth Duke Stanza 269: Fifth Duke

Stanza 270: Emperor

Stanzas 338-52

Conclusions

Music to accompany dancing after the play

Both vocal and instrumental music played a role in medieval Cornish drama

Content

Some Cornish dialogue may have been sung rather than spoken

Hymns sung (in Latin or English) as part of performance

Repetition

Repetitive scenes in Bewnans Ke may have been sung to music

Context Form

— Pueri sequence in Passio Christi, derived from hymn

— speeches that describe characters as singing

— some stanza types may be associated with music Structure— speeches grouped in larger patterns that suggest

a musical form

— ‘refrains’ and textual parallels used to link adjacent stanzas in Bewnans Ke

Musical terminology appears in the dialogue

Word and Musicin Medieval Cornish Drama

28th Annual University of CaliforniaCeltic Studies Conference17 March 2006

Benjamin BruchHarvard University

Documents

Word and Music in Medieval Cornish Drama 28 th Annual University of California Celtic Studies Conference 17 March 2006 Benjamin Bruch Harvard University