Hucbald, Hubaldus, Hucbaldus, Hucboldus, Hugbaldus, Ubaldus, Uchubaldus, *ca. 840 Diocese of Tournai (?), †20 June 930 Saint-Amand (Flanders, now Département du Nord), Franco-Flemish hagiographer, poet, music theorist, teacher, and composer, OSB.
He received his education at the Benedictine monastery school in Saint-Amand (Elnonense monasterium), which was headed by his uncle Milo (no earlier than 809 to 872), and subsequently in Nevers and at Saint-Germain-d’Auxerre. Here, as a pupil of Heiric, he obtained a comprehensive literary education. Around 870, he returned to Saint-Amand and, following Milo’s death, ran the local monastic school there until 883. In 880, he was ordained a priest. On the initiative of Abbot Rudolf, he founded a school in one of the oldest Carolingian monasteries at Saint-Bertin and ran it for several years. It is possible that Rudolf himself benefited from Hucbald’s teachings and, as a sign of gratitude, gifted him a small estate. Around 893, Hucbald was invited, together with Remi[gius] of Auxerre, by Archbishop Fulco to Reims to revive the cathedral schools there, which had been destroyed by the Normans. After Fulco’s death (900), Hucbald returned to Saint-Amand before 905, where he devoted himself mainly to literary work. He was buried in the tomb of his uncle Milo in the Church of St Peter in Saint-Amand. He bequeathed to the monastery at Saint-Amand a collection of books, which he had probably compiled himself; in addition to several works by the Church Fathers, it included writings by ancient authors (including Plato, Marius Plotius, Seneca, Virgil and Priscian) and early medieval authors (Alcuin and Hrabanus Maurus). This collection, a small part of which is still preserved at the Bibliothèque Municipale in Valenciennes, bears witness to the traditions that shaped Hucbald’s intellectual interests. Hucbald’s literary output, apart from his stanza poems – among which the In Praise of Bald Men (Ecloga de calvis) from ca. 877 is particularly noteworthy – comprises lives of the saints (Vitae) written mainly after 905; this earned Hucbald a reputation as the most eminent hagiographer of the Carolingian period. Of greatest significance for the history of music and the development of musical thought is his theoretical-musical treatise De harmonica institutione – one of the most important sources of this period (Scriptores ecclesiastici de musica sacra potissimum, ed. M. Gerbert, vol. 1, Sankt Blasien 1784, pp. 104–122). This treatise is intended for novice musicians; it is a practical handbook of elementary musical knowledge and contains methodically arranged instructions for monastic choirs, supported by examples drawn from chants. Drawing on Greek scholarship and the Boetian tradition, Hucbald discusses in turn the basic elements of chant (intervals and their types, consonances, the structure of the scale, tetrachords and final notes, and the eight church modes [tones]). In his interpretation of intervals and their structure, Hucbald did not go beyond the teachings of Boethius and Martianus Capella. Among the consonances treated linearly, he distinguished three simple consonances [simplices] (the octave, the fifth and the fourth) and three compound [compositae] consonances, formed by adding an octave to the simple consonances. Furthermore, Hucbald treated consonances as simultaneous sonorities, which demonstrates that he was familiar with the foundations of organum theory. The greatest significance is attributed to the functional explanation of the scale modelled on the Greek Greater Perfect System (divided into six tetrachords plus the proslambanomenos) depending on the chant; for the first time in the history of music, Hucbald treated chant melodies as the starting point for theoretical considerations. The treatise also contains the oldest (apart from the tonaria) listing of sequentially arranged church modes, divided into 4 modes (protus, deuterus, tritus and tetrardus), authentic (principales) and plagal (laterales), with finals D E F G. It thus constitutes the first instance in the development of music-theoretical thought of presenting the tonal material of chant within a logical system. The widespread readership of Hucbald’s treatise meant that some of his theoretical findings were adopted and developed by later medieval music theorists. However, Hucbald’s attempt to construct a new system of notation, the aim of which was to establish the exact pitch of sounds and thereby avoid the dangers arising from cheironomic notation, did not gain wider acceptance. In his notation, Hucbald employed the letters of Greek vocal and instrumental notation in combination with a system of lines that allowed for the spatial representation of melodies. Hucbald’s letter to a monk from Mont d’Or is also of some significance to the history of music, as it is one of the earliest accounts of responsories and the ways in which they were performed. Hucbald gained recognition as an outstanding teacher and music theorist; his theoretical writings were copied many times, and his role as an organiser, teacher and writer was already highlighted by the chroniclers of Saint-Amand Abbey and later writers (including Sigebert of Gembloux, ca. 1030–1112). Hucbald’s fame was so great that he was soon credited with other treatises which, to this day, constitute a collection of fundamental theoretical and musical sources from the Carolingian period: De cita et vera divisio, De dimensione monochordi, De alia musica, De mensuris organicarum fistularum, De cymbalorum ponderibus, De quinque symphoniis, Musica enchiriadis, Scholia enchiriadis, Commemoratio brevis de tonis et psalmis modulandis (all published under Hucbald’s name in Scriptores ecclesiastici de musica sacra potissimum, ed. M. Gerbert, vol. 1, Sankt Blasien 1784) and De organo (ed. Scriptorum de musica medii aevi…, ed. E. Coussemaker, vol. 2, Paris 1867). It was only the findings of H. Müller that changed this view, and today these treatises are treated as pseudo-Hucbald or anonymous works. The fact that Hucbald, thoroughly and comprehensively educated within the monastic school system, combined theoretical work with musical practice and was also engaged in composition is evidenced by a passage from the chronicle (Chronicon) for the year 879 by Sigebert of Gembloux («Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores» VI): “In musica claruit et de multis sánctis dulci et regulari modulatione composuit.” Of Hucbald’s works that have survived to the present day, some with their melodies intact, the following may be noted: the trope Gloria Quem vere pia laus, probably written before 860 (text ed. G.M. Dreves, «Analecta Hymnica Medii Aevi» 47, 248, No. 185), the Office of St Andrew, possibly connected with Hucbald’s transfer from Saint-Amand to Nevers; the Office of St Theodoric with the texts of two hymns (Festiva Christo cantica and Exaltet dimino mente serena, ed. G.M. Dreves, «Analecta Hymnica Medii Aevi» 19, 260 and 261, Nos. 471 and 472), the Office of St Peter In plateis ponebantur infirmi, likely dating from the late period of Hucbald’s creative activity, which contains a series of 12 antiphons, most likely composed by Hucbald, intended for the first and second nocturnal Matins and arranged by mode in modal order. Hucbald is also credited with the authorship of the text and melody of the Marian hymn O quam glorifica luce coruscas (ed. B. Stäblein, «Monumenta Monodica Medii Aevi» I, Kassel 1956, mel. 681).
Literature: E. de Coussemaker Mémoire sur Hucbald et sur ses traités de musique, Paris 1841; R. Schlecht Musica enchiriadis von Hucbald, “Monatshefte für Musikgeschichte” VI–VIII, 1874–76; A. Schubinger Über Hucbalds Werk “De Musica”, “Monatshefte für Musikgeschichte” X, 1878; H. Müller Hucbalds echte und unechte Schriften über Musik, Leipzig 1884; Ph. Spitta Die Musica Enchiriadis und ihr Zeitalter, “Vierteljahrsschrift für Musikwissenschaft” V, 1889; G. Morin L’auteur de la Musica Enchiriadis, “Revue bénédictine” VIII, XII, 1891, 1895; O. Kornmüller Die Musica Enchiriadis und ihr Zeitalter, “Kirchenmusikalisches Jahrbuch” VII, 1892; W Mühlmann Die Alia Musica. Quellenfrage, Umfang Inhalt und Stammbau, Leipzig 1914 ; L. van der Essen Hucbald de Saint-Amand (ca. 840–930) et sa place dans le mouvement hagiographique médiéval, “Revue d’histoire ecclésiastique” XIX, 1923; E.J. Grutchfield Hucbald. A Millenary Commemoration, “The Musical Times” LXXI, 1930; A.H. Fox Strangways A Tenth Century Manual, “Music and Letters” XIII, 1932; J. Handschin Etwas Greifbares über Hucbald, – “Acta Musicologica” VII, 1935; H. Sowa Textvariationen zur Musica Enchiriadis, “Zeitschrift für Musikwissenschaft” XVII, 1935; O. Gombosi Studien zur Tonartenlehre des frühen Mittelalters, – “Acta Musicologica” X–XII, 1938-40; O. Ursprung Die antiken Transpositionskalen und die Kirchentöne, “Archiv für Musikforschung” V, 1940; J. Handschin Aus der alten Musiktheorie, IV. Über einige Sequenz-Zitate, – “Acta Musicologica” XV, 1943; A. Boutemy Le scriptorium et la bibliothèque de Saint-Amand, “Scriptorium” I, 1946/47; A. van de Vyver Hucbald de Saint-Amand, écolâtre, et l’invention du Nombre d’Or, in: Mélanges Auguste Pelzer, Leuven 1947; J. Smits van Waesberghe La place exceptionelle de l’ars musica dans le développement des sciences au siècle des carolingiens, “Revue grégorienne” XXXI, 1952; J. Mathon Un florilège ériginien et l’abbaye de Saint-Amand au temps d’Hucbald, “Recherches de théologie ancienne et médiévale” XX, 1953; E. Jammers Anfänge des abendländischen Musik, Strasbourg 1955; R. Waekland Hucbald as Musician and Theorist “The Musical Quarterly” XLII, 1956; H. Potiron La notation grecque dans l’institution harmonique d’Hucbald, “Etudes grégoriennes” II, 1957; R. Weakland The Compositions of Hucbald, “Etudes grégoriennes” III, 1959; J. Chailley Alia musica. Traité de musique du IXe siècle, Paris 1965; H. Potiron Complément au traité d’Hucbald. De harmonica institutione, “Etudes grégoriennes” XI, 1970; J. Smits van Waesberghe Neue Kompositionen des Johannes von Metz (um 975), Hucbalds von Saint-Amand und Sigeberts von Gembloux, in: Speculum musicae artis, commemorative book of H. Husmann, eds. H. Becker and R. Gerlach, Munich 1970; E. Ferrari-Barassi I modi ecclesiastici nei trattati musicale dell’età carolingia. Nascita e crescita di una teoria, “Studi musicali” IV, 1975; R.J. Wingell Hucbald of St. Amands and Carolingian Music Theory, commemorative book of Pauline Aiderman, Provo (Utah) Brigham Young University 1976; M. Huglo Les instruments de musique chez Hucbald, commemorative book of A. Boutemy, Brussels 1976; T. Bailey De modis musicis. A new Edition and Explanation, “Kirchenmusikalisches Jahrbuch” LXI–LXII, 1977; Hucbald Guido and John on Music Three Medieval Treatises, ed. C.V. Palisca, translation W. Babb, «Music Theory Translation Series» III, New Haven – London 1978; B. Stäblein Einiges Neue zum Thema “archaische Sequenz”, commemorative book of G. Dadalsen, Stuttgart 1978; E. Ferrari-Barassi Strumenti musicali e testimonianze teoriche nel medioevo, Cremona 1979.
