When we consider the amount of scholarly research into Cistercian origins and life in the Middle Ages it is surprising that so little has been written about the monks’ use of music and their understanding of it.

Dr Geraldine Carville, to whom the Cistercian Order already owes so much for her writings on Cistercian history, notably for her magisterial work on the Impact of the Cistercians on the Landscape of Ireland, has now put us and all who are interested in the history of the medieval period, further into her debt.
We now know that the first monks to live in Mellifont Abbey (the first Cistercian foundation in Ireland in 1142, made by St. Bernard at the behest of St. Malachy of Armagh) were French. Two letters from St. Bernard to the latter are reproduced which show their introduction to Ireland.

The monks had to sing the Divine Office seven times a day, and following the rule of St. Benedict they had to sing the entire Psalter each week. Dr Carville wondered for years just how the monks sang the Office, and what were the ratios between the architectural proportions of the Churches and the tonal scales used by the monks.

Dr Carville also became aware that there were indications in some of the medieval manuscripts for three part harmony in the singing, and she took the trouble to have these passages sung and recorded. She concludes that the Cistercian contribution to music in medieval Ireland was as she puts it “enormous and indeed comparable to their impact on the landscape!” For anyone interested in either medieval monastic life in Ireland or medieval music in monasteries or indeed in the contribution the Cistercian monks made to Irish culture this is the book to read. A remarkable production from!

Fr. Nivard Kinsella OCSO STD, Mount St. Joseph Abbey, Roscrea