A fragment of a musical score found in the Aberdeen Breviary of 1510, Scotland’s first full-length printed book, has shed light on the sound of pre-Reformation music. This rare discovery, containing just 55 notes, has been linked to religious traditions in Scotland’s northeast over five centuries ago.

Fragment of the musical score, containing only 55 notes, from the Aberdeen Breviary. Credit: National Library of Scotland, CC BY 4.0

The fragment, identified as a unique harmonization of the Lenten hymn Cultor Dei, was uncovered by researchers from Edinburgh College of Art and KU Leuven in Belgium. Found within a copy of the Breviary, known as the “Glamis copy” due to its past residence in Glamis Castle, the book is now housed at the National Library of Scotland in Edinburgh. The Breviary, a collection of prayers, hymns, and writings on the lives of Scottish saints, was an initiative by King James IV to standardize Scottish religious practices.

David Coney of Edinburgh College of Art described the discovery as a “Eureka moment” for musicologists. “The fact that our tenor part is a harmony to a well-known melody means we can reconstruct the other missing parts,” Coney explained. “From just one line of music scrawled on a blank page, we can hear a hymn that had lain silent for nearly five centuries—a small but precious artifact of Scotland’s musical and religious traditions.”

The fragment was written on a blank page bound into the Breviary, suggesting it was intentionally preserved with the book. Despite lacking textual annotations, researchers determined the fragment was polyphonic—a style involving multiple independent melodies—and matched it to a Gregorian chant melody, specifically the tenor line of a faburden. This technique was once common in Scottish religious insтιтutions, although few examples have survived.

Singers: Holly Gowen, Sam Fitzgerald, Matt Norriss, Paul Newton-Jackson (Director). Audio: Piraxa Studios. Credit: Paul Newton—Jackson / The University of Edinburgh

Dr. Paul Newton-Jackson of KU Leuven, lead author of the study published in Music and Letters, said: “The conclusions we have drawn from this fragment underscore the crucial role of marginalia as a source of insights into musical culture where little notated material survived. It may well be that further discoveries, musical or otherwise, still lie in the blank pages and margins of other sixteenth-century printed books in Scotland’s libraries and archives.”

The Breviary’s long journey illustrates its historical and cultural significance. At one time, it served as a private service book for the illegitimate son of a high-ranking chaplain at Aberdeen Cathedral. Later, it became a treasured heirloom of a Scottish Catholic who traveled from post-Reformation Scotland to the Habsburg and Ottoman Empires.

Dr. James Cook of Edinburgh College of Art remarked on the broader implications of the find. “For a long time, it was thought that pre-Reformation Scotland was a barren wasteland for sacred music,” he said. “This work demonstrates that, despite the upheavals of the Reformation, which destroyed much of the evidence, there was a strong tradition of high-quality music-making in Scotland’s cathedrals, churches, and chapels, comparable to anywhere else in Europe.”

The University of Edinburgh

More information: Newton-Jackson, P., Coney, D., & Cook, J. (2024). A new polyphonic source from sixteenth-century Scotland. Music and Letters, 1-30. Article gcae076. doi:10.1093/ml/gcae076