It will be this.
Well, first of all, Marion Cordets, professor of
the Department of Classical Philology and
specialist in medieval literature, with
extensive research experience in the field of
courtly love genre, has the floor, who is going
to present to us the liturgy and tradition, the song of the Sibyl.
Thank you so much.
Thank you very much, vice dean, and thank you very
much, dean, for giving me the opportunity to be here
today in this session with such a festive atmosphere.
Although before starting I have to say that,
although I am going to talk about the
Sibyl's song, I am not a music specialist,
because I know that in this audience there
are people who know much more about music than I do.
Therefore, I am going to focus above
all on fairly general historical aspects.
And in some philological aspect that may
interest us as corresponds to our faculty.
So, let's start by characterizing
what the song of the Sibyl is.
For the singing of the Sibyl is an integral part of the
Matins service that is celebrated on the eve of Christmas Day,
the Midnight Mass.
It is a song that is celebrated at the beginning,
What does it mean at the beginning of the Midnight Mass?
and that commemorates the birth of Jesus.
So, this song, this representation has been the object
of various prohibitions over the centuries,
which I will now talk about in more detail,
but there are some territories in which it has been staged
since the Middle Ages, since the late Middle Ages,
almost uninterruptedly.
And these territories are several parishes of Mallorca,
on the island of Mallorca
and in the Algué or Alguero Cathedral,
on the island of Sardinia.
Also in the city of Braga, in Portugal,
but I don't have so many details about Braga.
I am going to talk above all about the territories of Catalan tradition.
So during the Age Average, Like I said,
the song of the Sibyls was staged more widely
in various territories in southern Europe.
We know that, for example, in the Ripoll monastery
It was sung, at least since
the 10th century, in Latin,
because the romance versions
are later, as I will now say.
Until the Council of Trent in the 16th
century, religious ceremonies were
prohibited from including music or
performances that were not considered strictly liturgical.
So here we have some dates, well at the end in the
last fragment of text we have dates, the only dates
in which the island of Mallorca has not been represented,
but the rest of the time it has been performed in that territory, in
Mallorca, continuously since the Middle Ages.
And in that sense it is an exception, because.
We know that the ban was
applied in other territories,
in most other territories, but not here.
One, apparently, you're going to see that I
use it a lot apparently, supposedly,
because it is a very complex issue and
there are few certainties, there are few certainties.
Evidence that allows us to make categorical statements,
but apparently one of the factors or one of the reasons
why this representation was generally prohibited with the
Council of Trent was the enthusiasm with which the parish
or the audience experienced that celebration, that
representation, the noise that was formed, the shouts, songs, etc.
We will see how this facet of representation that
was already present in the Middle Ages reappears later.
But it is believed that it was precisely this popular enthusiasm
and this fervent manifestation of devotion together with the insularity
which allowed the song of the
Sibyls to continue to be performed
so continuously on the island of Mallorca.
Let's now talk a little about content.
The content of the Sibyl's song is the announcement of the end of the world.
And the moment when Jesus will return to earth
and each individual will have to account for
what they have done until then, in the final judgment.
That day each person will receive what
they deserve, whether it be hell or paradise.
So, in this sense, the song follows the
reading of chapters 1 and 2 of the prophet
Joel in which the final judgment is precisely announced.
The prophecy in the versions currently
represented ends with a prayer to the Virgin to
save the mortals who have gathered at the
celebration, but it is believed, again
conjecture, This last plea is believed to be a
later addition, relatively recent, which was not in the original versions.
The traditional representation of the Sibyl, traditional,
not current, it is of a young boy with a
white voice, dressed in a white
robe, covered in a colored cape and a headdress.
Here we see in this image that there is a
girl, but the female representation of the
Sibyl's song is relatively recent because.
The participation of women in these
events has only been allowed since the
late 1960s because until then women were
not allowed to approach the altar and
therefore they could not perform the song of the Sibyl.
About the text, let's talk about the text.
I'm watching the time, I don't want to drag on.
Yes, we're doing well, aren't we?
The text.
Well, here I have put the first verses of the song
that is performed today in the parishes of
Mallorca, although there are variants in the number
of stanzas and in the order in which the stanzas are sung.
But as a general rule in all
variants the first stanza
and the last three are recited.
And the variants do not only affect the order of the stanzas
and the number of stanzas, but as we are going to see now,
and now comes the philological part that I told you about at the beginning,
There are several interpretations and variants of the text,
because as has been transmitted for a good part
of its tradition in oral form, changes have been made
according to the criteria of the people who represented it, who sang it.
We have seen in the previous slide these
two first verses that I have put in italics,
I have highlighted them because they are the verses that in some versions
They represent what we would say is the chorus,
that are repeated between each stanza.
So, in these verses what it says
is that the yondol yudisi parraki to a risi date,
that would be the day of judgment, it will be seen who has done service,
that is, who has done good.
Well, what's up?
That this vine, which is the future form of the verb judgment,
stop, which would be to appear in current Catalan,
It appeared in current Catalan, of course, It is an archaic form.
And now, well, now, Catalan speakers have
not been familiar with that form for centuries.
Then, since they no longer knew the old form, they
made their interpretations or corrections that they
believed were relevant for the verse to make sense.
So one of these fixes is.
Interpret this parrá as the future of the verb perir,
which is to die, and of course, for the verse to make sense,
Well, they have added a no, a negative particle,
a no.
Therefore, for these singers, the phrase would be the
day of judgment, whoever has not done service will die.
That is, whoever has not
done good will die and go to hell.
Well, this is one of the variants.
Another variant, this para has given many
problems in interpretation, as you can
see, because other interpreters have
interpreted this para as the prepositive phrase for.
Therefore, another possible interpretation would be
the day of judgment for those who have not served.
That is to say, the judgment will be
especially harsh on those who have not
done service, on those who have not done good.
And yet another variant.
Lujan does not judge, because a faith knows.
That is, the day of judgment for those who have
committed their vice, for those who have put
their vices into practice and those who have done evil.
I have to say that, strangely enough,
all of these versions are performed today.
It depends on the parish, because the
civil singing is organized at a very local level,
and then each parish chooses the version it wants to represent.
But they are all still valid.
Well, I'm going to talk a little about the origins of the liturgy.
The song of the Sibyl is a vestige of a medieval Christmas ceremony,
like i said before,
which was originally called Ordo Prophetarum.
In this ceremony the prophets
and other characters of the Ancient Testament came to give
testimony of the arrival of the Messiah or to announce the arrival
of the Messiah.
But they were not only characters from the Christian tradition
those who appeared,
but others also appeared of a profane nature,
Like King Nebuchadnezzar, the poet Virgil
or the Syrian Eritrea.
This representation had its origin
In a sermon called against Judeos pagan Aryans,
attributed to.
Carthaginian Bishop Teos Town,
who died in the 5th century, as you see,
and in this sermon the characters who were passing were questioned,
who were attending the celebration and predicted the birth
of Christ.
Hence this representation was celebrated
on the eve of Christmas Day.
In that ceremony the testimony given by the Sibyl
It was called iudicis signum, the announcement of the trial,
and it was a version in Latin hexameters
from a Greek acrostic with a Christian meaning.
And since the 10th century we have found integrated versions
inside that Latin sermon, versions of the song of the Sibyl
integrated within that sermon in Latin, in Catalonia, in Castile,
in Italy, in France.
So, from the century X tenemos constancia de
que el canto de la Sibila, la parte en la que
canta la Sibila, se va separando del resto de
la liturgia y va adquiriendo un carácter de
monólogo dramático independiente del resto.
First in Latin, as I said before, from the
10th century and from the 13th century
onwards, versions in the Romance language began to appear.
The first one that is known is
an Occitan version that appears in a 12th century
document in the Doc language copied together with the Latin text.
The song has reached our days with a text in
Catalan, the text in Catalan that has survived to this day.
It is believed to be from the 14th century,
the origin is from the Occitan version, which
was translated from the Occitan version, and
it has the oldest Gregorian melody known in Europe.
And for that reason, in 2010, it was
declared Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO.
How are we on time?
We're going well, I'm worried because I
know there are other interventions later.
Well, the figure of the Sibyl, As I said
before, he is not a character in the Christian liturgy.
The Sibyls acted as prophetesses, priestesses, fortune tellers.
I know this thing about endings in isa sounds
terrible, but that's what it says in the dictionary.
They exercised
Priestesses in the legends of the ancient
world and predicted the oracles of the god Apollo.
There are several legends about its origin,
specifically the origin of the Eritrean Sirila, which
is the one that participates in Apollo.
It is the one that represents the song of the Sibyl.
According to legend, she is the daughter of a
Lymph who prophesied in verse and was
consecrated to Apollo by force and lived nine human lives.
In Rome, the prophetic books of the Sibyls, the
Sibylline oracles, were consulted to know how to act.
Therefore, the Sibyls have
maintained this position, this figure, this.
Category of authority, so that prestige
has allowed them to enter the
imagination, to integrate into the
Christian imagination as announcers of the arrival of Christ.
Then, by adapting that figure to Christianity, civil societies
appeared in many different places in the Middle Ages.
According to the sources consulted, There
is evidence of 10 sibyls, 12 sibyls, 20
different sibyls in the Middle Ages, who
appeared in different places in the Middle Ages.
And now some observations on current
attitudes towards the song of the Sibyl.
These two sections into which I have divided them,
the first Sibila and Eponcoquero, and silence please,
the Sibyl sings, I have taken them from a book that if you want,
If you are interested in the topic,
At the end I added some bibliographical references
In case anyone is interested in having the slides and consulting them,
but it is by Francesc Vicenç from 2004 called Cándida civil a Mallorca
and also talks about the musical part that I have not included here,
but one of the aspects it touches on is
how different characters are represented
of current representations
contemporaries of the Sibyl.
So, there is everything,
There are some parishes in which it is a very festive representation,
It is a representation with a great participation
from the public, where the image cannot be seen very well,
It is the image of the objects that were also seen
at the beginning of the presentation, these are papers
cut out with figures, ornamentals, which are the neules,
which in tradition were very thin wafers of flour,
sugar and spices that were hung with these decorative patterns,
They were hung from the lamps of the candelabras.
Of the church or the vaults of the churches and the sibyl,
I haven't said it before, but the sibyl carries a sword,
the Eritrean sibyl that represents the song,
He carries a sword, at the end of the song what he did was cut the threads
from which the neulas, the sweets, hung,
with the sword and then so that the children
They were going to pick them up.
And this tradition is what gave it its name,
what has inspired Francesc Vicens
to call this festive character of the representation Sibyl,
Yepo, Coquero, because also neulas and cocas,
what was hung, the sweets that were hung
They were not only neulas but also coca,
coca bamba, which is a coca, a sweet.
Typical of Mallorca, and in some places it was offered,
to the singer of the Sibyl,
A coke was also offered.
So when I went out to sing, his companions told him,
already pulcoquero, greedy coquero, that you are there alone,
that you have offered to sing the Sibyl,
or have you agreed to sing just because you are going to eat later?
sweet, right?
Well, these festive performances where people talk,
record videos, nowadays
obviously records videos, It's quite noisy,
They are criticized by the most purist sectors with the argument
that they do not respect tradition.
But as we have seen before, at the beginning, in
tradition, in the Middle Ages they were already very noisy
representations with very evident manifestations of popular fervor.
And in contrast, in other parishes the
performance has minimal participation from the
audience who attends as if it were a classical music concert.
So depending on where we go, we
will see a representation character
or one type of public behavior or another.
But in conclusion what is clear
is that both attitudes express respect and involvement
and the fervor of the parish, of the audience,
towards this song that still feels like a tradition
very own and very representative of traditional culture,
of popular culture.
And nothing more.
I've added some links.
I'm not going to put the videos because I'm afraid
for YouTube ads to start appearing
and waste our time.
There are several examples.
If anyone wants or if they want,
I can show you the slides, the presentation,
where are the links to access the singing examples
and also the references in case anyone wants to know more.
Thank you very much for your attention.