above. This ‘subtonal’
tone is cognate with the older prayer and lection tones of the first
millennium.A set of acclamations sung initially in honour of, and in the presence of, the king or emperor. The oldest set dates from the 8th century; a variety of forms were used in several different contexts throughout the Middle Ages.
In its most characteristic form (found in a Frankish manuscript dating from about 796–800, with text only), the Laudes regiae include (1) the triadic acclamation ‘Christus vincit, Christus regnat, Christus imperat’ (‘Christ conquers, Christ reigns, Christ commands’), the most distinctive element of the Laudes; (2) several acclamations for pope, emperor, and others, each introduced by the ‘hail’ formula ‘Exaudi Christe’ (‘Hear, O Christ!’); these acclamations are interspersed among (3), invocations to each of a list of saints, with the response ‘tu illum adiuva’ (‘help him!’ – ‘him’ being the pope, emperor, or other personage just acclaimed in the ‘Exaudi’); (4) a series of attributes of Christ (‘King of kings …’) each followed by the triad ‘Christus vincit …’; (5) doxologies addressed to Christ; (6) ‘Christe audi nos/Kyrie eleison’, as at the end of litanies; (7) congratulatory wishes, in particular the ancient imperial acclamation ‘multos annos’ (‘long life’).
The
whole series was chanted by precentors and responded to either by a schola
or by all those present. The chant (first preserved in 10th-century
manuscripts) is syllabic with more or less frequent two-note neumes, depending
on the version. It uses formulae that are hard to locate stylistically with
reference to those of the Roman chant; the Laudes formulae come closest to some
of the lection tones (not the psalm tones), but more likely they represent a
Frankish adaptation of a Gallican, Visigoth, or Byzantine tone of some kind.
The reciting note, flanked by whole tones, leaping up a minor 3rd and dropping
a 4th, is either a or d, or g with a b above. This ‘subtonal’
tone is cognate with the older prayer and lection tones of the first
millennium.
The Laudes regiae show contact with litanies on one hand (especially the Litany of the Saints) and with military hails for the Roman emperor on the other. Both elements might be traced far back in Roman culture; but it should be noted that the litanies in question are not at all characteristic of Gregorian chant and liturgy, being (apparently) instead the products of Irish or insular devotions and liturgies of the 8th century. And the imperial formulae of pagan Rome had never been put together in such a developed form – a form that gives every sign of Frankish origin, reflecting Carolingian syncretism as well as the desire to adopt imperial customs. The Laudes regiae were the most forceful expression of a tendency towards sets of loosely connected, highly stylized exclamations; this tendency reappeared in many different ways in Frankish chant, contributing to its individuality with regard to the Gregorian repertory.
Originally destined (it would seem) for Charlemagne himself, the Laudes formulae were eventually adapted for bishops or popes, and were perhaps used on a wide variety of occasions even apart from the reception of a princely personage. Some early sources indicate use at Easter or Pentecost, perhaps simply as a festival observance.
E.H. Kantorowicz: Laudes regiae: a Study in Mediaeval Ruler Worship and Liturgical Acclamations (Berkeley, 1946/R)
E.J. Cowdrey: ‘The Anglo-Norman Laudes regiae’, Viator, xii (1981), 37–78
For further bibliography see Plainchant.
RICHARD L. CROCKER