Music is a time machine. Researchers who have just brought back to life a 500-year-old forgotten piece know this well. Hidden in the margins of a book printed in 1510, this fragment of ancient music is not only allowing us to hear lost sounds, but is also changing our understanding of musical culture.
The hidden power of a margin
In the world of historical studies, sometimes the most significant discoveries are hidden in the smallest details. In this case, it was a fragment of 55 notes, scribbled in the margin of a page of the Aberdeen Breviary of 1510, to capture the attention of scholars. This book of prayers, readings and hymns already has a special place in history: it is the first complete volume ever printed in Scotland.
The team of researchers from KU Leuven and University of Edinburgh analyzed this fragment of ancient music, originally discovered in 2011. What they found was astonishing: the notes match perfectly a Christian chant still used today in some Anglican churches during Lent, called “Cultor Dei, memento” (“Servant of God, remember”).
From a single line of music scribbled on a blank page, we can hear a hymn that had been silent for nearly five centuries, a small but precious artefact of Scotland's musical and religious traditions.
explains the musicologist David Coney ofUniversity of Edinburgh.
A complex sound architecture
The fragment turned out to be a two-line polyphonic composition, a type of music where multiple melodies are sung or played simultaneously. This discovery is particularly significant because it represents the only surviving musical evidence from north-eastern Scotland from this period.
Ancient Music, Debunking a Historical Myth
James Cook, musicologist of theUniversity of Edinburgh, underlines the importance of the discovery:
Pre-Reformation Scotland was long thought to be a wasteland in terms of sacred music. Our work shows that, despite the upheavals of the Reformation that destroyed much of the best evidence, there was a strong tradition of high-quality music-making in Scotland's cathedrals, churches and chapels, just as elsewhere in Europe.
Scholars are still unsure whether these notes were intended for instruments or a choir. They have, however, found links to Aberdeen Cathedral and St Mary's Chapel, Rattray, Aberdeenshire, although the identity of the composer remains shrouded in mystery.
The promises of the future
Paul Newton Jackson of KU Leuven suggests that this may be just the tip of the iceberg:
It is possible that further discoveries, musical or otherwise, still await to be found in the blank pages and margins of other 16th-century printed books held in Scottish libraries and archives.
Ancient Music, the Past Returns
Music truly has the power to transport us through time, and now this sonic time machine has allowed us to travel back half a millennium. In an age where technology constantly projects us into the future, it is fascinating how 55 handwritten notes on an old book can still move us and teach us something: a bit like the recovery of Marie Antoinette's letters never delivered, or the reconstruction of the papyrus scrolls in Herculaneum.
This research, published in the journal Music & Letters (I link it to you here), opens new perspectives for the study of ancient music.
As the chant of “Cultor Dei, memento” rings out again after 500 years of silence, we cannot help but wonder how many other lost melodies are still waiting, hidden in the dusty margins of history, to be rediscovered and tell us their stories.
