Rhythmical Office - History

History

It is unclear which of the three old abbeys, Prüm Abbey, Landévennec Abbey or Saint-Amand Abbey, can claim priority in composing a rhythmical office. There is no doubt however from Saint-Amand and the monasteries in Hainault, Flanders, and Brabant, came the real starting-point of this style of poetry, as long ago as the ninth century. A pioneer in music, the Monk Hucbald of Saint-Amand, composed at least two, probably four, rhythmical offices; and the larger number of the older offices were used liturgically in those monasteries and cities with a connexion with Saint-Amand. From there this new branch of hymnody very soon found its way to France, and was developed in the tenth and eleventh, and particularly in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.

Poets involved are:

• the Abbots Odo of Cluny (927-42) and Odilo of Cluny (994-1049);
• Bishop Fulbert of Chartres (1017–28);
• the Benedictine Monk Odorannus of Sens (died 1045);
• Pope Leo IX (died 1054);
• Bishop Stephen of Tournai (1192–1203);
• Archdeacon Rainald of St. Maurice in Angers (died about 1074);
• Bishop Richard de Gerberoy of Amiens (1204–10);
• Prior Arnaud du Prè of Toulouse (died 1306);
• The General of the Dominican Order, Martialis Auribelli, who in 1456 wrote a rhymed office for the purpose of glorifying Vincent Ferrer.

Julian von Speyer was director of the orchestra at the Frankish royal court, afterwards Franciscan friar and choir master in the Paris convent, where about 1240 he composed words and music for the two well-known offices in honour of Francis of Assisi and of Anthony of Padua (Anal. Hymn., V, nos. 61 and 42). These two productions served as a prototype for a good number of successive offices in honour of saints of the Franciscan Order as well as of others. In Germany the rhymed offices were just as popular as in France. As early as in the ninth century an office, in honour of St. Chrysantus and Daria, had its origin probably in Prüm, perhaps through Friar Wandalbert (Anal. Hymn,, XXV, no. 73); perhaps not much later through Abbot Gurdestin of Landévennec a similar poem in honour of St. Winwalœus (Anal. Hymn., XVIII, no. 100). As hailing from Germany two other composers of rhythmical offices in the earlier period have become known: Abbot Berno of Reichenau (died 1048) and Abbot Udalschalc of Maischach at Augsburg (died 1150).

The other German poets whose names can be given belong to a period as late as the fifteenth century, as e. g. Provost Lippold of Steinberg and Bishop Johann Hofmann of Meissen. England took an early part in this style of poetry, but most of the offices that originated there have been lost. Archbishop Pecham's office of the Trinity has been discussed above. Next to him are worthy of mention Cardinal Adam Easton (died 1397) and the Carmelite John Horneby of Lincoln, who about 1370 composed a rhymed office in honour of the Holy Name of Jesus, and of the Visitation of Our Lady.

Italy seems to have a relatively small representation; Rome itself, i. e. the Roman Breviary, as we know, did not favour innovations, and consequently was reluctant to adopt rhythmical offices. Archbishop Alfons of Salerno (1058–85) is presumably the oldest Italian poet of this kind. Besides him there are Abbot Reinaldus de Colle di Mezzo (twelfth century), and the General of the Dominicans, Raymundus de Vineis from Capua (fourteenth century). In Sicily and in Spain the rhymed offices were popular and quite numerous, but with the exception of the Franciscan Fra Gil de Zamora, who about the middle of the fifteenth century composed an office in honour of the Blessed Virgin (Anal. Hymn., XVII, no. 8) it has been impossible to cite by name from those two countries any other poet who took part in composing rhythmical offices.

Towards the close of the thirteenth century, Scandinavia also comes to the fore with rhymed offices, with Bishop Brynolphus of Skara (1278–1317), Archbishop Birgerus Gregorii of Upsala (died 1383), Bishop Nicolaus of Linköping (1374–91), and Johannes Benechini of Oeland (about 1440).

The number of offices where the composer's name is known is insignificantly small. No less than seven hundred anonymous rhythmical offices were brought to light through the "Analecta Hymnica". Artistically they vary widely.