Charles and Clement could also control aspects of the prescribed liturgy and the music of the Mass. It is clear from what we know of Charles’s personality that the ceremony–and not least its music–was important to him. An oft-cited passage from Prudencio de Sandoval’s biography of Charles V underscores the ruler’s interest in music:
“And he knew music, and felt it and liked it, for many times the friars, behind the door, heard him leave his cell and go to the main altar, and they saw him beating time and singing in harmony with those who sang in the choir....”
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Music was extremely important to the ceremony and to the culture and politics of the Renaissance. *THERE WILL BE A LITTLE WRITEUP ABOUT MUSIC IN THE RENAISSANCE HERE* Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Sed id ligula pretium, placerat nisl sed, posuere nisi. Integer scelerisque eleifend ultrices. Pellentesque elementum imperdiet sapien quis volutpat. Mauris arcu metus, pretium eget est non, interdum mattis ante. Praesent imperdiet fringilla lorem ut elementum. Fusce ultrices condimentum neque vel fringilla.
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The symbolic importance of music for these Renaissance audiences is apparent in the differences that existed between the royal coronation in Aachen and the imperial coronation in Rome, or in Charles’s case, Bologna. Manuscripts that document the royal and imperial coronation ceremonies reveal broad similarities between the two (anointing with oil and bestowing of weapons and insignia, for example), but important details pertaining to music distinguish the ceremonies. For the royal coronation in Aachen, the chants and prayers known collectively as the proper were to be those for January 6, or the feast of Epiphany, the day Christ’s divinity was revealed to the Magi.
The allegorical significance of the texts of these chants in this context would not have gone unnoticed, for they refer repeatedly to Christ as a new king. The newly crowned king was to rule on Christ’s behalf, and his authority was revealed to the faithful in the course of the coronation ceremony, just as Christ was revealed to the Magi. As the Magi recognized the authority of the infant Christ, kneeling down and paying him homage, so the secular rulers of the Empire were to pay homage to the newly crowned king. In contrast to the proper chants of Aachen’s royal coronation ceremonies, Rome’s imperial ceremonies required only that the correct proper of the day be sung.
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The second distinguishing feature was the singing of the Laudes Regiæ, a series of acclamations whose origins lay in the Roman Empire. They are characterized by the opening and oft-repeated hail “Christus vincit, Christus regnat, Christus imperat” (“Christ conquers, Christ reigns, Christ commands”) and multiple pleas for intercession on the ruler’s behalf. A version of these acclamations was certainly used in honor of Charlemagne, but Ernst Kantorowicz’s monumental study on these chants makes clear that the definitive Carolingian Laudes will remain obscure unless other sources come to light.
The Laudes were sung at many medieval coronations, but research on Aachen suggests that they were not sung at royal coronations there. Instead, the Te Deum was sung in honor of the enthroned ruler. Their exclusion from Aachen’s ceremonies may have been because they were an essential feature of imperial coronations in Rome. By the time of Charles’s coronation, the political tension between sacred and secular rulers was such that this opening hail had long been excised from the prescribed Laudes. Fortunately, Charles and Clement eventually found a way to bring it back.
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