Notker Balbulus

NOTKER Balbulus (Notker the Stammerer). b. ca. 840; d. 6 April 912. Born near St Gall, Switzerland, he was a Benedictine monk of the monastery of St Gall*, poet and scholar. It is not clear whether Notker actually composed music, but his many literary works include chant texts, above all the magnificent cycle of Sequence* texts in his Liber hymnorum. He was active alongside Ratpert and Tuotilo (both known as chant composers) at a particularly creative period of St Gall's history. His writings include a verse biography of the abbey's patron saint Gallus and a biography of Charlemagne, in which, among other things, he recounts how difficult it had been for Frankish singers to learn Gregorian...