Rex autem David

Reference source

P-Ln CIC 60, ff. 12v-14r

Full text

Rex autem David cooperto capite [incedens] lugebat filium suum, dicens: Absalom fili mi, fili mi Absalon, quis mihi det ut ego moriar pro te, fili mi Absalon, Absalon fili mi.

Notes

Antiphon for the Summer Season (De Regum) based on II Samuel 18: 33, 19: 1 and 19: 4, Cantus ID 004650.

The text of the anonymous motet as copied in P-Cug MM 32, ff. 56v-57r, and P-Ln CIC 60, ff. 12v-14r, omits the word 'incedens'. Ferreira (see below) suggests that the variant reading 'filium suum, dicens' (the most common reading being 'filium, dicens') is of central- or northern-European origin. However, this variant reading also occurs in a few Italian sources (see CAI). Moreover, the final mirrored iteration, ‘fili mi Absalon, Absalon fili mi’ (as in II Samuel 19: 4), is an apparently Iberian feature of southern-French ancestry, as it occurs in the eleventh-century antiphoners E-Tc Ms. 44.1 and Ms. 44.2 (see AS). This seems to be the most geographically limited variant of the text, thus strongly suggesting its Iberian origin.

Bibliography

Ferreira, Manuel Pedro, “Recordando o rei David: vivência coral e criatividade musical na Europa pós-carolíngia”, Medievalista Online, 8 (2010) <https://doi.org/10.4000/medievalista.472>

External references

AS

CAI

Cantus

GR

Works using this text

Title	Composer
Rex autem David	Anonymous