hundred years. That structure, which begins to suggest strophic repetitions, may be the reason why Notker
called his compositions “hymns.”
HOW THEY WERE PERFORMED
Even greater regularity, and even greater independence from preexistent models, can be seen in Rex caeli
(Fig. 2-2; its first five lines are transcribed in Ex. 2-5), a composition of such sophisticated, artful shape
that its status as a sequence has been questioned. (So let’s call it a sequence-type hymn.) Unlike most
early sequences, it is structurally “rounded” on several levels. Its lines are arranged not only in couplets
but occasionally in quatrains—groups of four successive lines sung to the same melody. The melody of
the first couplet recurs in the fourth, and the whole series of seven melodic strains then repeats (in a so-
called double cursus or “double run-through”) to provide the next seven. The last pair of melodic units
recapitulates the opening and closing strains of the cursus. Line lengths are almost uniformly in multiples
of four syllables (eight, twelve, sixteen), giving an impression of regular meter. Not only that, but the
words of many of the couplets are linked by such a strong use of assonance—similarity of vowel
placement—as to approach rhyme.
EX. 2-4A Sequence by Notker Balbulus, Angelorum ordoEX. 2-4B Sequence by Notker Balbulus, Rex regum