The blue cope of Kunigunde - A listening experience

The inscriptions around the medallions on the blue cope of Kunigunde are a special feature. They are the start of liturgical chants’ texts, such as those sung in Bamberg Cathedral at the daily Liturgy of the Hours. The blue cope of Kunigunde is therefore embroidered song, the plea and hope that Christ may come as a righteous judge at the end of time.

A selection of the chants – antiphons and responsories – has now been sung by the vocal ensemble Stella Nostra in accordance with 11th century performance practice. The central depiction on the back as well as two examples each from the Advent and Christmas festival cycle and the cycle of the prophets have been considered.

The ensemble consists of three singers. In the antiphons, one of the singers sings the first half of the psalm verse as a soloist, to which all three singers chorally respond with the second half, ending with the little doxology.

In the responsories, the first choral part is followed by a verse which is sung solo. Then a section of the first chant, the repetenda, is repeated by all the singers. The doxology, sung solo to the melody of the verse, is followed in turn by the choral repetenda.

The blue cope of Kunigunde was created around the year 1014 in the Emperor Heinrich II’s milieu (973-1024, ruled 1014-1024). In order to interpret the chants, it was necessary to find musical manuscripts that came closest to that time and sphere of activity. An antiphonary (Nationalbibliothek Wien, Cod. 1890), written around 1200 in southern Germany, corresponds best to the cope, albeit almost 200 years later, in the concrete spelling of the start of the texts and in the combination of feasts.

The music there is notated in lineless neumes. No pitches are given, but melodic movements and ornaments are. In the strongly oral culture of the time, this notation was quite sufficient to aid the memory for singing.

In order to determine the pitches, it was necessary to consult a wide variety of later comparative manuscripts with neumes on lines and to find the best possible approximation to the statements of the neumes in the Viennese manuscript by comparison. The ensemble therefore gradually worked out the chants and sang them according to the lineless neumes.

Tanja Kohwagner-Nikolai / Ellen Hünigen