Music Education in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance

3 Some Thoughts on Music Pedagogy in the Carolingian Era

Given that many musicologists hold academic positions, and given the academic culture we have all grown up in, pedagogy is a topic with which we are all familiar. Moreover, many of the primary sources we work with—especially if our research is oriented toward intellectual history—have some didactic purpose. One might therefore assume that an examination of music pedagogy in a well-researched period such as the Carolingian era would be a relatively easy task. That proves to be an incorrect assumption. The mere fact that one occupies oneself with music as a part of the intellectual history of the Middle Ages does not mean that one actually knows what was taught on that subject in monastic and cathedral schools in the eighth and ninth centuries. We can know what was recommended to be taught, and we can gain some idea of what teaching materials were available—but finding out what was actually taught about music in Carolingian schools is no easy matter. The present study will briefly address each of these issues in order to gain some insight into the nature and character of music instruction during the Carolingian era. Most readers of this essay will be at least somewhat familiar with what Charlemagne and his “Minister of Education,” Alcuin of York (ca. 735–804), thought should be the subject matter taught in schools of the Frankish Kingdom . Two capitularies issued by Charlemagne document the importance he 3 SomeThoughtsonMusic PedagogyintheCarolingianEra• Charles M. Atkinson • 38 · Charles M. Atkinson Text I. Admonitio generalis: Et ut scolae legentium puerorum fiant. Psalmos , notas, cantus, compotum, grammaticam per singula monasteria vel episcopia et libros catholicos bene emendate [thus in three mss; emendent in one, emendatos in ten others]; quia saepe, dum bene aliqui [aliquid in three mss] Deum rogare cupiunt, sed per inemendatos libros male rogant. Et pueros vestros non sinite eos legendo vel scribendo corrumpere; et si opus est euangelium, psalterium et missale scribere, perfectae aetatis homines scribant cum omni diligentia. (Ed. Alfred Bor­ etius, MGH Leges II, vol. I: Capitularia Regum Francorum, no. 22, chap. 72, p. 60.) In its seventy-second chapter, this document states that in every monastery and diocese there should be schools for teaching boys to read, and implies that they should be given instruction in “Psalms, written characters, chants, calculation, and grammar” (psalmos, notas, cantus, compotum, grammaticam ).2 It goes on to emphasize the necessity of having accurate texts of religious works, making the statement that “catholic books”—presumably bibles, psalters, and liturgical books—“should be carefully emended.”3 The importance of these books in the spiritual life of a monastery or congregation is underscored by the statement that “all too often men desire to ask some grace of God aright but ask it ill, because the books are faulty.” Hence, young clerks should not be allowed to corrupt these texts, “either in reading aloud or in copying,” and the making of new copies of books such as the evangel, psalter, or missal should be done by a grown man, not a boy, working with care.4 The second Carolingian document to urge the formation of schools is the capitulary De litteris colendis, issued circa 795.5 It offers an eloquent rationale for teaching (see text II). It has seemed to us and to our faithful councilors that it would be of great profit and sovereign utility that the bishoprics and monasteries of which Christ has deigned to entrust us the government should not be content with a regular and devout life, but should undertake the task of teaching attached to the founding of schools and give us information as to their functions . The first of these is the Admonitio generalis issued by Charlemagne to the Frankish clergy in 789 (see text I).1 Some Thoughts on Music Pedagogy in the Carolingian Era · 39 those who have received from God the capacity to learn . . . Doubtless good works are better than great knowledge, but without knowledge it is impossible to do good.6 As even this brief excerpt suggests, the scope of teaching advocated in De litteris colendis is broader than that in the Admonitio generalis. Here, the door is opened to virtually all of ancient learning, with a more complete understanding of the Bible as the primary goal (see text III):7 Text II. Karoli epistola de litteris colendis: Notum igitur sit Deo placitae devotioni vestrae, quia nos una cum fidelibus nostris consideravimus utile...