Recently I have been thinking of the similarities between two of my favorite stories of the Middle Ages, the story of Caedmon’s Hymn and the story of Henry Suso’s “In dulci jubilo.”
Bede tells us that Caedmon lived in a monastery, essentially as a lay brother, until he was quite old, before he was inspired with his hymn, and Henry Suso lived among the Dominicans from the age of 13. Such long associations surely made certain words, certain ways of thought, second nature to them. Both received an angelic visitation in a dream, and the result of both dreams was poetry or song. This type of tale is old, with angels in these versions instead of Muses, but charming.
With Caedmon we are dealing with a truly oral tradition – guys drinking beer and sitting around the fire passing the harp and singing – but Caedmon has learned no songs, and slinks away before it is his turn with the harp. How miraculous it must have seemed, next day, when he knew a song þa fers ond þa word þe he næfre gehyrde. How is that possible in a society that knows only oral tradition for its poetry? I like to think it is the beer, but in fact it is likely the combination of the beer, the music, and a lifetime of living with the words and thoughts of the monastery.
For Henry Suso the story is a bit different. There is no doubt he has a way with words and is engaged in a mystical journey, having been a student of Johann Eckhart and Johann Tauler. Mystical Christian poetry was nothing new, either, so the story of his visit with the angels, who invite him to sing and dance with them does not immediately seem quite as miraculous as Caedmon singing a song þa fers ond þa word þe he næfre gehyrde. But Suso was often in trouble or under suspicion because of his mysticism, and his teacher, Johann Eckhart, had been suspected of pantheism, and had several of his propositions declared heretical by John XXII. Suso’s “In dulci jubilo” is one of the first, if not the first macaronic song which we know, and I see this mixing of Latin and German as a bit of rebellion on his part, just as the turn to the private and mystical sort of Christianity and away from the public was.
I have never seen this described before, but I have not done an extensive search of the literature either, so you must not take what I am about to say as any unique insight. I believe that, as in the case of Caedmon, Henry Suso drew his inspiration from what was around, and specifically, that “In dulci jubilo” was inspired by “Puer natus in Bethlehem,” which is a processional dating only to the end of the 13th century, and so roughly contemporary. It is known, among other sources, from an early 14th century processional from a Benedictine nunnery, and Suso spent a large part of his career as a spiritual adviser to nuns (though Dominicans – one 14th century Dominican nun, Margaret Ebner describes a vision not unlike Suso’s that ends with dancing, eating, and drinking with saints or angels), so I can imagine him having this nearly contemporary and perhaps popular processional running through his mind when, as he says in his autobiography, he had a vision of an angel:
Now this same angel came up to the Servant [Suso] brightly, and said that God had sent him down to him, to bring him heavenly joys amid his sufferings; adding that he must cast off all his sorrows from his mind and bear them company, and that he must also dance with them in heavenly fashion. Then they drew the Servant by the hand into the dance, and the youth began a joyous song about the infant Jesus, which runs thus: In dulci jubilo …
Returning at the end of each verse of “Puer natus in Bethlehem” is the refrain “in cordis jubilo, Christum natum adoremus cum novo cantico.” It is this refrain that gives us the outline for “In dulci jubilo” and the bit of melody for “in cordis jubilo” that gives us the starting point for “In dulci jubilo.” With a small variation (the starting note is a third higher than the chant if in the same range, and an upper neighboring tone is used for ornament at the climax), this snippet of melody is repeated to give us the first two lines, “In dulci jubilo,/Nun singet und seid froh!” Now, with the basic melodic outline set, the next lines, “Unsers Herzens Wonne/Leit in praesepio,/Und leuchtet als die Sonne/Matris in gremio,” simply fill the same fifth, moving down and up, down and up, a meditative wave emanating from the source melodic fragment. The concluding, repeated, “Alpha es et O, Alpha es et O!” Takes us first back to the opening of “in cordis jubilo,” this time starting on the lowest note of the chant, and leaping to the highest, and then subsiding on the repetition “Alpha es et O!” with the same melodic resolution as the chant’s “cum novo cantico” (how appropriate!), but taken a third higher.
Of course, I could be wrong. Suso never says that this song was unknown to him before his vision, so it is possibly not the creation of his mind at all. Tropes, either explanatory introductions in chant, such as before an introit, where the speaker or situation of the introit’s words is elucidated, or interpolations, insertions of text and music, were common, after all. It is part of the mediaeval aesthetic to make chant more solemn by making it longer or more complex. It is clear to me that the processional “Puer natus” began life as a troped “Benedicamus Domino” as verses 13 and 14 reveal (bold shows the traditional verse and response of the “Benedicamus”):
In hoc natali gaudio, alleluia:
Benedicamus Domino,
alleluia, alleluia.
Laudetur sancta Trinitas, alleluia,
Deo dicamus gratias,
alleluia, alleluia.
“In ducli jubilo” then is a kind of trope of the response or refrain that recurs in the troped “benedicamus” that is “Puer natus,” the anchor points for the trope being "in cordis jubilo," i.e. "in dulci jubilo," and "novo cantico," changed by reason of the grammar to "nova cantica" in the last verse of Suso's song.
Well, perhaps that is too much analysis for such delightful stories. Here are the texts and music, if you are interested.
Puer Natus in Bethlehem
Puer natus in Bethlehem, alleluia:
Unde gaudet Jerusalem, alleluia, alleluia.
In cordis jubilo,
Christum natum adoremus
Cum novo cantico.
2. Assumpsit carnem Filius, alleluia,
Dei Patris altissimus, alleluia, alleluia.
In cordis jubilo,
Christum natum adoremus
Cum novo cantico.
3. Per Gabrielem nuntium, alleluia,
Virgo concepit Filium, alleluia, alleluia.
In cordis jubilo,
Christum natum adoremus
Cum novo cantico.
4. Tamquam sponsus de thalamo, alleluia,
Processit Matris utero, alleluia, alleluia.
In cordis jubilo,
Christum natum adoremus
Cum novo cantico.
5. Hic iacet in praesepio, alleluia:
Qui regnat sine termino, alleluia, alleluia.
In cordis jubilo,
Christum natum adoremus
Cum novo cantico.
6. Et Angelus pastoribus, alleluia,
Revelat quod sit Dominus, alleluia, alleluia.
In cordis jubilo,
Christum natum adoremus
Cum novo cantico.
7. Reges de Saba veniunt, alleluia,
Aurum, thus, myrrham offerunt, alleluia, alleluia.
In cordis jubilo,
Christum natum adoremus
Cum novo cantico.
8. Intrantes domum invicem, alleluia,
Novum salutant Principem, alleluia, alleluia.
In cordis jubilo,
Christum natum adoremus
Cum novo cantico.
9. De Matre natus Virgine, alleluia,
Qui lumen est de lumine, alleluia, alleluia.
In cordis jubilo,
Christum natum adoremus
Cum novo cantico.
10. Sine serpentis vulnere, alleluia,
De nostro venit sanguine, alleluia, alleluia.
In cordis jubilo,
Christum natum adoremus
Cum novo cantico.
11. In carne nobis similis, alleluia,
Peccato sed dissimilis, alleluia, alleluia.
In cordis jubilo,
Christum natum adoremus
Cum novo cantico.
12. Ut redderet nos homines, alleluia,
Deo et sibi similes, alleluia, alleluia.
In cordis jubilo,
Christum natum adoremus
Cum novo cantico.
13. In hoc natali gaudio, alleluia:
Benedicamus Domino, alleluia, alleluia.
In cordis jubilo,
Christum natum adoremus
Cum novo cantico.
14. Laudetur sancta Trinitas, alleluia,
Deo dicamus gratias, alleluia, alleluia.
In cordis jubilo,
Christum natum adoremus
Cum novo cantico.
In Dulci Jubilo
1. In dulci jubilo,
Nun singet und seid froh!
Unsers Herzens Wonne
Leit in praesepio,
Und leuchtet als die Sonne
Matris in gremio,
Alpha es et O, Alpha es et O!
2. O Jesu parvule
Nach dir ist mir so weh!
Tröst mir mein Gemüte
O puer optime
Durch alle deine Güte
O princeps gloriae.
Trahe me post te, Trahe me post te!
3. Ubi sunt gaudia
Nirgend mehr denn da!
Da die Engel singen
Nova cantica,
Und die Schellen klingen
In regis curia.
Eia, wären wir da, Eia, wären wir da!
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