Notker the Stammerer

Notker the Stammerer (c. 840 – 6 April 912), also known as Notker Balbulus, and by various other soubriquets, was a Benedictine monk at the Abbey of Saint Gall active as a composer, poet and scholar. He is usually credited with two major works of the Carolingian period: the Liber Hymnorum, which includes an important collection of early musical sequences, and an early biography of Charlemagne, the Gesta Karoli Magni. His other works include a biography of Saint Gall known as the Vita Sancti Galli and a martyrology, among others.

Quotes

• Cantemus cuncti melodum nunc, Alleluia ...
  • The strain upraise of joy and praise, | Alleluia!
    To the glory of their King
    Shall the ransomed people sing, | Alleluia!
  • Translated by J. M. Neale, in The Hymnal Noted, rev. ed. (1854); Mediaeval Hymns, 2nd ed. (1863); The Book of Praise (1863), no. 29
  • See John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907), vol. 1, p. 203, col. 2

• Laudes Christo redempti voce modulemur supplici ...
  • Praise to Christ, with suppliant voices,
      Let His ransomed people sing:
    Let the world which now rejoices
      Bless the Son of God, its King.
  • Translated by R. F. Littledale, in Lyra Messianica (1864), p. 331; The People's Hymnal (1867), no. 116; Resurgit (1879), p. 42

Misattributed

• Media vita in morte sumus.
  • In the midst of life we are in death.
  • Erroneously attributed to Notker at a later date, this anonymous antiphon was more probably written about 750 in France. See Franz Kampers, "Notker", Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 11 (1913)

External links

• "Notker Balbulus", Choral Public Domain Library (24 October 2022)