Glen Collection of printed music > Printed text > Popular music of the olden time > Volume 2

APPEN DIX.
CONTAINING ADDITIONAL REMARKS, &c.
p. i. Aldhelm, Abbot op Malmsbury. — The first specimen of musical notation
given by the learned Abbot Gerbert, in his De Cantu et Musica Sacra, a prima
ecclesice estate (i. 202), is to a poem by St. Aldhelm, in Latin hexameters, in praise of
virginity. This was written for the use of Anglo-Saxon nuns. The manuscript from
which it is taken is, or was, in the monastery of St. Blaise, in the Black Forest, and
Gerbert dates it as of the ninth or tenth century. It contains various poems of
St. Aldhelm, all of which are with music, and the Paschale Carmen of Sedulius, one
of the early Irish Christians, which is without music. Many very early English
and Irish manuscripts were, without doubt, taken to Germany by the English and
Irish priests, who assisted in converting the Germans to Christianity. St. Boniface,
" the apostle of Germany," and first Archbishop of Mentz (Mayence), who was killed
in the discharge of his duties in the year 755, was an Anglo-Saxon whose name had
been changed from Winfred to Boniface by Pope Gregory II. " Boniface seems
always to have had a strong prejudice in favour of the purity of the doctrines of the
church of his native country, as they had been handed down by St. Augustine ; in
points of controversy he sought the opinions of the Anglo-Saxon bishops, even in
opposition to those inculcated by the pope ; and he sent for multitudes of Anglo-
Saxons, of both sexes, to assist him in his labours." (JBiog. Brit. Lit., i. 315.) He
placed English nuns over his monastic foundations, and selected his bishops and abbots
from among his couutrymen. His successor in the Archbishoprick was also an
Englishman.
To revert to St. Aldhelm — Faricius (a foreign monk of Malmsbury). who wrote his
life about the year 1100, tells us that he exercised himself daily in playing upon
the various musical instruments then in use, whether with strings, pipes, or any other
variety by which melody could be produced. The words are, " Musicae autem artis
omnia instrumenta qnce fidibus vel fistulis aut aliis varietatibus melodise fieri possunt,
et memoria tenuit et in cotidiano usui habuit." (Faricius, Col. 140, vo.) The anec-
dote of Aldhelm's stationing himself on the bridge in the character of a glee-man or
minstrel, to arrest the attention of his countrymen who were in the habit of hurrying
home from church when the singing was over, instead of waiting for the exhortation,
or sermon ; and of his singing poetry of a popular character to them in order to induee
them gradually to listen to more serious subjects, — was derived by William of Malms-
bury from an entry made by King Alfred in his manual or note-book. Aldhelm died