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Feeding the Ansinger at Christmas

Giulia Gabrielli

The chapter on the Ansingen itineraries in the Bolzano school regulation is followed by a brief but precise “Note regulating how one should deal, and has hitherto been dealing with, the food for the Ansinger at Christmas”, f. 136r.

Nota die ordnu(n)g, die man mit speyse den ansingern(n) zu weyhennachtt(e)n halten sol und gehaltten worden ist pis her etc.
This specifies the due provisions of food for the singers at Christmas: on the different days, the singers should receive refreshments (“ain gutt merend”) but on the second and third days, they were given both a proper meal (“ain gutt mal”) after High Mass and a good refreshment – which were, however, the only provisions on these respective days.
 
Item an dem ersten tag als an Sand Steffans tag so hebt man an zu singen für sich nach der vespern, da geitt ma(n) den ansingern ain gutt merend und damitt bestet es auff den tag, das ma(n) in nicht mer geit.
It(e)m an Sand Johannes tag darnach für sich nach dem franambtt ain gutt mal und ain gut merend und damit bestet es auff de(n) tag, das man in nichts mer geitt.
It(e)m an aller kindl(e)n tag nach dem franambtt ain gutt mal und ain gutt merend.

Likewise, on the fourth day, “when the Ansinger brought back the money earned on the mountain, they were given a good refreshment”.

It(e)m wenn dy ansinger das ansingelt ab dem gepirg bringent, so geit man in ain guet merennd

[1] For a compact history of Tyrolean schools, see Augschöll-Blasbichler, 2019, 96-106 at 96-101, online, https://cab.unime.it/journals/index.php/qdi/article/view/2643 (April 2023). On music in the schools, see Post 1993; Herrmann-Schneider 2023, online ,https://musikgeschichten.musikland-tirol.at/content/musikintirol/musikinkloesternusw/musik-in-pfarrkirchen.html (April 2023).

[2] Cfr. Büchner 2019, 16-49 (Teil I); 94/1, 2020, 46-72 (Teil II); 94/2, 2020, 20-61 (Teil III); 94/3, 2020, 40-61 (Teil IV); 94/4, 2020, 28-71 (Teil V): in Teil I, 27, a few examples from Tyrolean schools are given.

[3] As underlined by Hannes Obermair, referring to the parish church of Gries near Bolzano, the “System Church” represents in the 15th century an “efficient mixture of cult, community, identity and economical sphere“: see Obermair 2012, 137-174 at 137.

[4]  Büchner 2019, 27-28.

[5] Preserved at San Candido/Innichen, Collegiate Foundation, manuscript vii a 10s. Transcribed by Gionata Brusa, online, Cantus Network. Libri ordinarii of the Salzburg metropolitan province, https://gams.uni-graz.at/context:cantus .

[6] Modern edition in Hofmeister-Winter 2001. This regulation of the sixteenth century informs about various processions with the participation of children, and about the ancient, widely-known custom of “Kindelwiegen”  (child-rocking) which at Bressanone was reserved for the masters and students of the cathedraL school: see » A. Kap. Kindelwiegen.

[7] San Candido/Innichen, Collegiate Foundation, manuscript viii b 3. Although compiled as late as 1614, the volume contains descriptions of partly much older customs, for example the many processions in the streets of the town in choirboys were singing. A compact survey of these processions and chants is offered in Gabrielli 2020, 15-23 at 22, online, https://musicadocta.unibo.it/article/view/11927.

[9] Boynton 2008, 37-48 at 47.

[10] Der „Liber ordinarius Brixinensis“, ed. Gionata Brusa, in: Cantus Network – semantisch erweiterte digitale Edition der Libri ordinarii der Metropole Salzburg, Wien/Graz 2019, online, <gams.uni-graz.at/o:cantus.brixen>, 128.

[11] Liber ordinarius Brixinensis, Festum innocentum [sic].

[13] Noggler 1885, 16-18.  

[15] Strohm 1993, 294-296. For a definition, see Rudolf Flotzinger, Ansingen, in: Oesterreichisches Musiklexikon online, founded by Rudolf Flotzinger, ed. Barbara Boisits, online, https://musiklexikon.ac.at/0xc1aa5576_0x0001f702 (2002).

[17] It is interesting to note that the customs of both the Boy Bishop and the “Ansingen” were analogous to the annual springtime feasts of the Roman schola cantorum of the first Christian centuries, particularly the cornomania (a feast of undoubtedly pagan origins, when the sacristans disguised themselves as bishops) and the laudes puerorum at Easter, sung by the students in the streets on Easter Saturday for eggs and other gifts. On the extra-liturgical songs of the schola cantorum see Dyer 2008, 19-36 at 22-23.

[18] Post 1993, 36-37.

[19] Ibidem.

[20] Obermair 2008, 65, no. 967.

[21] F-Sn Ms. allemands 187. The manuscript, formerly presumed lost, has been located by Hannes Obermair, who gave a first description of it in Obermair 2005.

[23] F-Sn Ms. allemands 187 (Obermair 2008), f. 122v.

[24] On the different types of students in Tyrolean schools of the period, see also Post 1993, 34-35.

[25] A polyphonic setting of the antiphon (which belongs to the Song of Songs) is extant in the manuscript fragment from Muri-Gries: » F. Schlaglicht: Das Bozner Fragment.

[26] Paoli-Poda 1999, 43-48. For Mathäus Merian’s map of 1645, see » Fig. Panorama Bozen.

[28] Post 1993, 36-37. See also Senn, Beiträge 1954, vol. 2, 146-15.

[30] The expression “für sich” is interpeted here as implying a “separate” action outside the liturgical context.

 

Empfohlene Zitierweise:

Giulia Gabrielli: „Children’s Processions in Tyrol“, in: Musikleben des Spätmittelalters in der Region Österreich, <https://musical-life.net/kapitel/childrens-processions-tyrol> (2023)