The manuscripts

On these web pages hymn melodies from Finnish manuscripts of the 16^th and 17^th century are presented. The page On the manuscripts contains a basic description of the manuscripts. Additional information is given in Swedish and German and a full account in Finnish. The names underlined provide the links to the individual web pages.

The Loimijoki-manuscript, originating perhaps in the 1580s, may be the earliest comprehensive collection of hymn melodies from the Kingdom of Sweden. The melodies seem to have been copied from German sources. Most of them have text incipits in Swedish, although some lack an incipit altogether. Certain melodies have never been in common use in Sweden or in Finland. The best known of the manuscripts is the Kangasala manuscript, from the archives of Kangasala Church, which was written by Jacobus Francisci in 1624 and is based on both Swedish and Finnish hymnals. Two manuscripts originating from Ilmajoki in Ostrobothnia are close to the manuscript of Kangasala. Liber Templi Ilmolensis may be earlier and Notae Psalmorum later than the Kangasala manuscript.
 

The editions

The modern edition Old hymn tunes has been compiled on the basis of the above-mentioned manuscripts. The tunes have been transcribed using modern notation. The individual pages provide in addition the opportunity to view the original notations of the 198 hymn melodies. The order of the melodies mainly follows that of the Swedish hymnal from the year 1589, but the melodies can also be found in a different order of the Finnish hymnal of Hemming of Masku (1605), the Finnish hymnals from the years 1701 and 1986, the Swedish hymnal from the year 1695 and the modern hymnal of the Church of Sweden (1986), or also by means of the widely known German or Latin text incipits which are found linked with the individual melodies. Most of the melodies are linked with text incipits in both Swedish and in Finnish. Because the notation of the Loimijoki manuscript differs from that of the other manuscripts, an independent Loimijoki edition has also been presented.

The editions are based on the dissertation (1976) of Docent T. Ilmari Haapalainen and on his collaboration with Professor Erkki Tuppurainen at the beginning of the present century. The last-mentioned work has been carried out in the Kuopio Department of the Sibelius Academy and supported of the Finnish Cultural Foundation and the Kulturfonden för Sverige och Finland (Cultural Foundation for Sweden and Finland).

Notations and photographing of original materials: Erkki Tuppurainen
Web pages: Timo Lehtonen