A Historical Overview of Musical Worship & Culture in Sardinia 467
Iudicii signum (“The signal of the judgment”), El senyal del Judici. Song of
the Sibyl. The Latin text dates back to a pseudo-Augustinian
sermon Contra Judaeos, Paganos et Arianos, now attributed to
Quodvultdeus, who was bishop of Carthage between the years
437 and 453. The most ancient testimonia with neumes are
kept in Barcelona, Archivo de la Corona de Aragón, Ripoll,
106, Collectaneum, f. 92v, approx. 900, and in Cordova, Archivo
Capitular, cod. I (olim 72), Homiliarium, f. 327v (year 953).
Kithára. Cithăra
Kontákion (plural: From the Greek κοντάκιον. Byzantine hymn concerning the
kontákia)/Contacio feast on a certain day of the liturgical calendar. It consists of
about fifteen to thirty stanzas, according to a canonical ro-
tation of the type A-B-A’-B’ [...]. The stanzas are preceded
by a proemium, or koukoúlion, and closed by a final refrain,
called efúmnion. The musical texture rested on the basis of
the «irmo» (eirmós), that is the “typical” stanza which served
as a model for the subsequent stanzas. These hymns were
transcribed into homonymous books: “liturgical scrolls were
used, and anything but rarely, in offices and ceremonies of the
Greek/Eastern Church, perhaps as early as the fifth-sixth cen-
tury, in any case, surely in the eighth-ninth century; they were
commonly called kontakia.” See Guglielmo Cavallo, “Aspetti
della produzione libraria nell’Italia meridionale longobarda,”
in Libri e lettori nel Medioevo (Bari: Laterza, 1977), p. 121.
Kyrie eleison Chant of the Ordinarium missae.
Launeddas Aerophon-reed instrument, emblematic of Sardinia. It is
formed by three reed pipes: the first, bass, basciu, or tumbu,
is the longest and provides a single note with the function
of “bordone” (a drone); the second reed, mancosa manna, or
simply mancosa, is tied at the bottom to the first one, forming
together with it the croba or loba. The third reed, mancosed-
da, is loose. The set of the 3 reeds (loba + mancosedda) form
the various cunzertus.
Laus regia.Euphemía
Lectio (Latin, plural: Literally: reading. The main readings of the Liturgy of the
lectiones) Hours took place during the three Nocturns, by means of
specific Lectionaries. Each reading, taken from the Bible,
church fathers, or lives of the saints, was promptly followed
by the singing of the *responsory.