Schola Antiqua of Chicago, founded in 2000, received the Noah Greenberg Award from the American Musicological Society in 2012 for outstanding contributions to historical performing practice.
Composer Biography
Notker Balbulus, also known as Notker the Stammerer, was a Benedictine monk at the Abbey of St Gall in Switzerland, who died in 912.
Composer's Artistic Vision
Notker Balbulus created the texts in his Liber ymnorum to help memorise the "very long melodies" of liturgical sequences, which were challenging to recall.
Interpretation
The pronunciation of Latin in this recording uses Germanic pronunciation, reflecting what modern German scholars would use when reciting the texts.
Interpretation
Due to the lack of developed notation in the 9th century, the sequences in this recording are mostly sung by soloists or small groups to make the melodic and textual structure transparent.
Compositional Technique
Notker's texts in Liber ymnorum anchor the symmetrical repetitions of melodies with symmetrical accentual patterns and rhyme, forming a zenith of early-Medieval "measured-out" rhythmic verse.
Compositional Technique
The principal compositional technique in sequence melodies is symmetrical repetition, observable in the replication of entire verses and in melodic gestures within verses.
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