Erdélyi és moldvai karácsonyi szokásdallamok a Deák–Szentes kéziratban: a Kájoni Cantionalétól a népzenei gyűjtésekig

Abstract

János Kájoni’s hymn-book Cantionale Catholicum (1676) is a momentous reader for the historians of civilization, literature, the church and Hungarian folk hymns, but fi rst of all it is important from the point of view of folk tradition of Transylvania and Moldavia. The “Deák–Szentes” manuscript is a tune collection appended to the second edition of the Cantionale (1719), which being a contemporaneous chorister book, has helped preserve numerous tunes in musical practice through centuries. The words of the songs writt en originally for the liturgic or paraliturgic practice of the Catholic church were preserved by folk tradition, and they got in practical use in folk customs. The application (and re-application) of the same words to diff erent tunes was common practice, labelled as “ad notam”. We compare here a selection of song texts in the 17th century book related to Christmastide and their tunes put down in the 18th century, to the variants found in recent folk-music collections