Melodies in the Poetry Book of Father Ólafur from Sandar: Religious Songs from Early 17th Century Iceland

Abstract

This is a study of melodies in The Poetry Book of Father Ólafur from Sandar (Kvæðabók sr. Ólafs á Söndum), a manuscript of poetry and songs from the early 17th century Iceland. The source investigated in this study is a copy of the manuscript made in 1693 by Father Hjalti Þorsteinsson. The aim of the work is to make a contemporary transcription of the music and to describe the structure of melodies that have inspired the author of this study as a composer. In the first chapter the source is introduced and the principles of transcription and methods of analysis discussed: which analytical tools should be proper to approach those very simple notations. The next chapter explains the manuscript’s historical context with a brief overview of religion and singing in Iceland. In the third chapter the 21 melodies in the manuscript are analysed from different perspectives. The transcriptions form a part of this study and are presented together with facsimile reproductions of the original notations in the appendix. I describe the process of transcribing the songs and various questions arising in this work. The songs are mostly syllabic and notated in a very simple way without any measure, a black square notehead corresponding to a syllable. Some rhythmic divisions and elaborations, however, demand discussion. The form of the melodies is rather free, largely based on an intuitive logic that deserves special attention. The interpretation of melodies largely depends on the text, one melodic strophe was repeated with numerous stanzas. To explain the structure of verses I offer tables of rhyme patterns, syllabic division, and patterns of stressed and unstressed syllables in order to get an overview of the songs’ structure. Tonal structure of the melodies is usually based on the tension of moving between the tonal centre (tonic, its third and/or fifth, sometimes lower or upper fourth) and some opposed complex of tones (usually a second up or down of the tonic group). Although the music is notated, it is largely derived from music of oral heritage and should be studied as such. The notation is merely a set of directions for performing and I have concentrated on finding the songs’ inner logic in order to understand them.