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†915 The music of Tuotilo

Tuotilo Renaissance maestro in 9th century

Tuotilo was a Frankish monk at the Abbey of Saint Gall. He was a composer, and according to Ekkehard IV a century later, also a poet, musician, painter and sculptor.

Various trope melodies can be assigned to Tuotilo, but works of other mediums are attributed with less certainty. He was a student of Iso of St. Gallen [de] and friends with the fellow monk Notker the Stammerer.

Tuotilo played several instruments, including the harp. The history of the ecclesiastical drama begins with the trope sung as Introit of the Mass on Easter Sunday. It has come down to us in a St. Gallen manuscript dating from the time of Tuotilo. According to the works catalogue of Ekkehard IVCasus sancti Galli, Tuotilo is the author of five tropes; further research ascribed five additional tropes to him. Some of them are available in modern editions.

Art

James Midgley Clark points out that the most interesting items at the St. Gallen Abbey in Switzerland are the ivory tablets attributed to Tuotilo, which form the cover of the Evangelium Longum. Tuotilo’s paintings can be found at KonstanzMetz, St. Gallen, and Mainz.

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