Those of us for whom the study of medieval music was greatly assisted by the publication in 1940 of Gustave Reese's Music in the Middle Ages (New York, W. W. Norton) will remember that Glasgow is there (on p. 133) identified as the location of the important series of Councils of Clovesho held during the eighth and ninth centuries. At the Council of 747, a document of Gregorian chant in writing was exhibited, sent from Rome to ensure uniformity of practice throughout the church, thus making Glasgow a place of some importance in the history of British music. Unfortunately, this identification has subsequently been called into question (without any convincing alternative having been established) and in these circumstances the present publication, devoted to the history and celebration of St Kentigern, the sixth-century patron saint of Glasgow, may help to restore to the city something of its medieval importance and fame. In view of the paucity of medieval musical documents surviving in Scotland, the Offices of St Kentigern, with music, in the so-called ‘Sprouston’ Breviary assume national importance and are thus fittingly included in a national edition, Musica Scotica, as – for the present – the only volume in the series devoted to medieval music. The edition is dedicated jointly to the late John Durkan and Isobel Woods Preece, but it is also a fitting monument to the memory of Kenneth Elliott, the founder of the series, whose death coincided with its publication. It is the work of two editors, Dr Greta-Mary Hair, who is primarily responsible for the music, and Dr Betty Knott, who has edited and translated the texts. Each has written an Introduction (pp. 21–42 and 44–62 respectively) and each has provided learned notes and commentaries to the several editions of music and texts which, with translations, occupy pp. 65–301.

St Kentigern is known today as ‘the missionary to the Scots’, but as the kingdom of Scotland did not exist in the sixth century, it is a question how this should be understood. The circumstances of his life are uncertain, to say the least, but as he is variously associated with such ill-defined former kingdoms as Lothian, Alba/Albania, Pictland, Scocia/Scotia, Brythonia, Strathclyde, Cumbria/Cambria and Wallia (see, e.g., pp. 177–8), places which at one time included not only parts of present-day Scotland but also parts of eastern Ireland, northern Wales and northern England, it is obviously a matter of some concern to the editors to try to establish his national identity and language. ‘Gaelic’, we are told in Dr Knott's very instructive notes, means Irish Celtic (‘q-Celtic’), but if Kentigern grew up in Lothian, as is sometimes claimed, ‘he must have grown up speaking a form of p-Celtic’, which language is ‘represented today chiefly by the modern Welsh of Wales’ and ‘given the name of Cumbric or Cumbrian’ (p. 177).

Kentigern allegedly met both Columba (apostle to the Picts) and David (apostle to the Welsh) and he is credited with having founded the northern Welsh cathedral named after his disciple St Asaph, but no early documents survive to bear authoritative witness to his life, work and miracles. This notwithstanding, the tradition associating him with Glasgow and the present cathedral church, where it is claimed he is buried, is generally accepted and the symbols representing some of his miracles – the bird, the bell, the tree, the fish with a ring – which were incorporated in the arms of the bishops of Glasgow, as well as those of the university (shown on p. 19) and subsequently also of the city, assert his patronage. In the twelfth century, the apparently urgent need for an official account of the saint was met by the commissioning of two separate biographies, presumably in connection with a church-political campaign to secure for Glasgow Cathedral a position independent of York and Canterbury. The Life of St Kentigern commissioned by Bishop Herbert (1147–64) is by an unknown author and exists now only as a fragment consisting of a preface and eight chapters dealing with his birth and childhood. The second Life, commissioned by Bishop Jocelin (1174/5–99), is a literary work of greater distinction composed by Jocelin of Furness, an accomplished hagiographer. These are both edited and translated by Alexander Penrose Forbes in Lives of S. Ninian and S. Kentigern (Edinburgh 1874; available online from www.archive.org), where the manuscript sources (and a great deal more) are described and discussed. In Jocelin's account, Kentigern is said to have lived to the age of 185, which it is perhaps reasonable to treat as a mistake for 85 years. His death is traditionally assigned to Sunday 13 January 603, the 1400th anniversary of which date was celebrated in 2003 with the singing of a service of Vespers in St Mary's Episcopal Cathedral in Glasgow. However, Dr Hair admits that other dates have been suggested, such as 608–09, 612 or 614, and these are here greeted with the broad-minded invitation: ‘Since the date for St Kentigern's death in the Annales [Cambriae c.608–09] is the only historical evidence for his existence, there is an excellent reason for planning additional celebrations in 2012 [the edition was published in 2011] and 2014’ (p. 21). The logic of this is somewhat unclear, but its all-embracing spirit is in keeping with the generosity of this edition, in which nothing that might be relevant to St Kentigern is overlooked.

The editors' acceptance (pp. 31–5) of the theory that the promotion of the cult of St Kentigern in the twelfth century through the two Lives was part of a scheme to free, if not all of Scotland, at least the diocese of Glasgow from obedience to an English metropolitan at York and/or Canterbury is surely correct and provides an interesting insight into the growing importance of national identity and the interest of Rome in the northern periphery of Europe at this time. By the eleventh century, Scotland was an independent nation but it had no archbishopric of its own and its bishops, if consecrated by English archbishops (York being the nearest), were required to pledge obedience to a foreign authority. Bishop Herbert of Glasgow will have been aware that Denmark had gained independence of the province of Hamburg-Bremen and got its own archbishopric at Lund in 1103, and that this had been followed by the granting of an archbishopric at Nidaros in northern Norway in 1152 and another at Uppsala in Sweden in 1164, to which in each case a local saint had been attached. Pope Alexander III (1159–81) in particular seems to have taken an interest in northern Europe, approving canonisation, for example, of Edward the Confessor in 1161, the Danish Knud Lavard in 1169 and Thomas of Canterbury in 1173. In 1175, Bishop Jocelin avoided the issue of obedience to York by being consecrated, at Pope Alexander's express command, at Clairvaux by the Danish Archbishop Eskil, and in the same year Alexander issued a bull making Glasgow directly obedient to Rome ‘with no-one coming in between’. This was renewed in 1179 and soon extended to declare every Scottish diocese exempt from obedience to York, but Scotland had nevertheless to wait until the fifteenth century to be granted its own archbishoprics (St Andrews in 1472, Glasgow in 1492).

The Lives commissioned by Bishops Herbert and Jocelin are discussed by the text editor, Betty Knott, in Introduction II, first as to their sources (pp. 47–51) and then (pp. 51–60) in relation to the texts in the three liturgical sources that contain Offices of St Kentigern: the Sprouston Breviary, a manuscript (Edinburgh, National Library of Scotland, Adv. MS 18. 2. 13B), c.1300, which is the sole source with music; a later version of this text added to a fourteenth-century breviary, much damaged, in the Edinburgh University Library (Special Collections MS 27); and a different Office in the Aberdeen Breviary (1510), one of Scotland's earliest printed books. Dr Knott's observations and interpretations are learned and shrewd and reward the reader with interesting information about not only medieval Latin but also Greek, the Celtic languages, classical literature, mythology, Scottish and church history. But though the edition thus casts its net very wide, it is, after all, the Office of St Kentigern, as found uniquely with music in the Sprouston Breviary, that is its primary subject and it is this that receives Dr Hair's attention in Introduction I.

The Sprouston Breviary was examined by Henry M. Bannister in 1906 and commented on later by Christopher Hohler (in 1951 and 1967), and it is with the observations of these eminent experts as a starting-point that Dr Hair launches her investigation of the manuscript. Though she feels able to affirm that the manuscript has been used in Scotland, she is eventually obliged to admit that ‘a Scottish provenance for Sprouston remains unproved’ (p. 28). Bannister recognised the Calendar as ‘almost pure Sarum’ and noted that no Scottish saints are included in the original hand, though St Kentigern is invoked twice in the Litany and the Breviary includes his Office. Also included is the Office of St Thomas Becket, for whom three feasts (Passion, Octave and Translation) are entered in red in the Calendar. Dr Hair suggests that this may be due to the Scottish King William I's particular veneration of St Thomas. With regard to the manuscript's provenance, Bannister attached particular significance to the very rare inclusion in the Calendar of St Alwinus on 20 November. Dr Hair has succeeded in locating a St Æthelwine (Ailwyn, Aldwyn), hermit of Malvern, founder of Great Malvern Priory and patron saint of Coln St Aldwyn, who seems a likely candidate, even though his feast was celebrated on 21 November (perhaps as a concession to the higher-ranking St Edmund?). A connection between St Aldwyn and King Edward the Confessor and Westminster Abbey and also the dioceses of Gloucester (St Peter's Abbey) and Hereford (St Guthlac's) is shown, but despite an assiduous search, Dr Hair can find no reason for the local, English saint Aldwyn to occur in the same manuscript as the local, Scottish saint Kentigern, since, as she says (p. 28), ‘Unfortunately, there is no aristocratic family or community of monks known to have settled in Scotland from the dioceses of Worcester or Hereford around the eleventh to thirteenth centuries.’ But perhaps St Aldwyn was not imported directly into Scotland, there to be associated with St Kentigern; perhaps he was taken first to Wales, where Kentigern was also cultivated – for example, at St Asaph's Cathedral, which he purportedly founded. Could the link connecting Aldwyn and Kentigern be Geoffrey of Monmouth (c.1100–c.1155), who was presumably born in Wales and is known to have been active in and around Oxford, thus describing an area encompassing Malvern, and who was also, in 1152, consecrated Bishop of St Asaph? It is perhaps worth noting too that the mythical figure of Merlin, who figures prominently in writings attributed to Geoffrey, occurs also in legends related to St Kentigern and is referred to briefly by Jocelin. (Jocelin's possible debt to Geoffrey is mentioned by Dr Knott on p. 48; see also her comment concerning St Asaph on p. 185.)

Whatever sources it may have drawn on, the editors are disposed to doubt that the Sprouston Breviary was intended for Glasgow Cathedral (p. 30). This seems quite clear, if only on the grounds that the Office of a church's patron saint would hardly lack the five antiphons at First Vespers, as in the Sprouston Office – unless, of course, it had to concede precedence to another feast (Octave of the Epiphany?). The area around Culross, which was the supposed scene of Kentigern's birth and childhood, has been considered as an alternative destination, while Christopher Hohler was inclined to locate it rather to some east coast centre for the cult. In any case, it is regrettable that the Office in the Sprouston Breviary, ‘the earliest example extant of an office with proper chants and readings for a local, Scottish saint’ (p. 36), should survive in such a corrupt state. ‘One should not always expect completely logical organisation in the liturgy for a saint, but the Sprouston text seems particularly indifferent to the overall effect produced here, and this suggests a compilation rather than a composition’ (Knott, p. 56). The lack of consistency in the modal order of the chants leads Dr Hair also to view the Sprouston Office as a compilation: ‘It is likely that several offices existed. The scribe who is responsible for the Sprouston Office may have selected chants from a pool of already existing chants for the feast’ (Hair, pp. 30–1).

Though it may thus not be a wholly satisfactory representative of the liturgical Office of a national saint, the editors have nevertheless, by subjecting the manuscript and the texts to intense study, managed to harvest a great deal of information. But what about the edition of the music itself?

The Office of St Kentigern, the subject of this edition, is contained on seven manuscript pages, which are reproduced in facsimile as Plates 2–8. These are far from ideal as the reproduction is very dark and lacks contrast and while the musical notes are legible, the texts are less so and the rubrics (and everything originally in red, here white) are virtually unreadable. One might expect the edition of these few pages to occupy a mere 15 or 20 pages in modern transcription, but instead we are presented with a complete liturgical reconstruction of the Office, with the addition of material not found in the manuscript, such as the opening antiphon, versicles and responses, hymns and canticles, memorials for the Octave of the Epiphany and for St Hilary, etc., supplied from the Common of Confessors who are Bishops and other sources. All, including the repeats belonging to a liturgical performance, are written out in their entirety – with the exception of the psalms at Vespers and the lections. The music is printed in square notation, widely spaced and with generous margins, and this reconstructed liturgical edition occupies all of pp. 67–134. There follows now a repetition of the entire text, this time including the lections, everything edited and translated, which, together with the notes and commentaries on both the music and the text, occupies pp. 137–92. We are then presented with the text of the Aberdeen Office, edited and translated with commentary (pp. 193–220), and a Synopsis of the Offices in the Aberdeen and Sprouston Breviaries (pp. 223–8). All this constitutes the Edition, but it is accompanied by two Appendices: in the first, all the psalms that would be sung at First Vespers on all the days of the week, though only those for feria sexta at Second Vespers (intended for use on Friday 13 January 2012) are written out – again in square notation – and these occupy pp. 231–85. Finally, in the second appendix (pp. 286–301), the Office of St Kentigern is edited once again, this time as it actually appears in the Sprouston Breviary and now in a modern transcription using modern note heads. Concerning this, Dr Hair writes (p. 22): ‘For readers unfamiliar with neumes, a transcription of the antiphons and responsories is also given in modern noteheads in the hope that after becoming familiar with the melodies, they will learn to sing from the neumed edition.’

Since it is acknowledged that some (most?) people will find an edition in modern notes easier to read than one in neumes, one might question the wisdom of an editorial decision to print the greater part (121 pages as against 14) of this edition in the manner that is less convenient for the reader. It might also be expected that an ensemble able to sing from square notation would be able to choose the ferial psalms itself and make the necessary repeats when performing antiphons and responsories. Would there not, therefore, have been better reason for the editor to incorporate whatever assistance she thinks would be useful into the modern transcription for the benefit of the less expert reader and to have relegated the pedagogical ambition of teaching Gregorian notation to an appendix? But without wishing to seem unappreciative of the great trouble to which Dr Hair has gone, it should perhaps be asked if it is not too much of a good thing in this edition to have the entire text of the Sprouston Office printed three times and the music twice, not to mention all that does not strictly speaking belong to the Office, such as the written-out ferial psalms and the quite different Office contained in the Aberdeen Breviary? Such extravagance can perhaps be accepted in the context of a national edition, but it would seem to exceed the limitations of a practical edition. Furthermore, on p. 36 it is stated that ‘No corresponding Mass with proper chants and readings has survived’, in which case some comment might have been made concerning the claim made in the Catholic Encyclopedia ‘New Advent’ at www.newadvent.org/cathen/08620a.htm that ‘The Bollandists have printed a special mass for this feast, dating from the thirteenth century.’

The editorial method of the main edition is explained on p. 66 but some questions remain: the significance of the brackets placed over groups of notes and phrases (e.g., pp. 68–9, 122, 125 and elsewhere) is not explained. At other places, it is not always clear what is and what is not in the manuscript (<> is used to indicate additions of whatever kind instead of the usual [ ]); for example, in the transcription (as opposed to the reconstruction) of the Sprouston Office in Appendix 2 at p. 289 the psalm incipits are cited, though they do not appear in the manuscript, while the differentiae, which are indicated in the manuscript, are omitted. In one instance (the Antiphon to the Magnificat at Second Vespers), the editor is not satisfied with the evidence of the manuscript and repeats the entire Antiphon O paradoxe and Magnificat in order to be able to substitute a euouae of her own choosing. These alternatives can be seen as items 85 and 85a on pp. 129–33, to which the editor provides a Comment on p. 172. The Antiphon is in Mode III and the differentia stipulated in the manuscript is the first of those listed for Mode III Psalm Tones in the Sarum Tonale as printed in the Appendix to The Elements of Plainsong published by the Plainsong and Mediæval Music Society, whereas the ending preferred by the editor, which she has taken from the (Sarum) Herdmanston Breviary, is essentially the same as the third of the six listed in the Tonale. It is argued in the Comment that ‘it demonstrates the function of an euouae differentia by creating a smooth transition between the psalm-tone ending and the antiphon’. Perhaps the precentor did not like to start the repeat of the antiphon by repeating the torculus with which the canticle has just ended; however that may be, the manuscript is clear as to what the medieval scribe intended.

There are a number of misprints: some are simply typographical errors (e.g., ‘Synesige’ for ‘Cynesige’ on p. 32; ‘1972’ for ‘1072’ on p. 41); others are rather amusing, such as the phonetic ‘Blackadder's Isle’ [Aisle] in a description of Glasgow Cathedral (p. 35); whereas others again, such as the alienation of good and true Englishmen with the bizarre spellings ‘Henrique M. Bannister’ and ‘Christopher Höhler’ (p. 22), which are consistently carried through, even in the Bibliography, baffle the imagination as to how they can have come about – and how they escaped correction. The text editor's analysis of the style and language is full of interesting observations, but at the top of p. 59 an instance of use of similar language in the Office in the Sprouston Breviary and the Life commissioned by Bishop Herbert is documented by a reference to Jocelin's Life – which should it be?

This study and edition of the Office of St Kentigern, which is accompanied by a very useful bibliography (pp. 303–12), much of its literature relative to Scottish history, provides a valuable introduction to medieval Scotland and what little we have of its music. There is much to be learned from this investigation, which is both wide and deep, and it has been a pleasure to read. Nevertheless I have one last sally: on p. 50 we are told that Jocelin ‘needs to explain why Kentigern is also called Mungo’. One could wish that the present editors had felt the same need; this must be one of the few questions relating to St Kentigern that are left unanswered by this generously comprehensive edition.