Aaron of St. Martin in Cologne

Aaron (also Aaron Scotus or Aaron of Cologne; * around 995 probably in Scotland ; † November 18, 1052 in Cologne ) was a Benedictine abbot and music theorist.

Life

Aaron, like other Scots and Irish pilgrims on mainland Europe since the 9th century, came to Cologne. In 1042 he became abbot of the local Schottenkloster Groß St. Martin and at the same time also acted as abbot of St. Pantaleon . Allegedly he ordered that his monks had the shortly before Pope Leo IX. composed responsory of the Office of Gregory the Great should sing instead of the previously common Commune confessorum .

This information on Aaron's life as well as on his lost literary work came down to younger Cologne sources, which no longer exist today, but which could be evaluated by the humanist and scholar Johannes Trithemius in 1505/06 and by Hermann Joseph Hartzheim in the 18th century . Accordingly, Aaron was the author of a royal chronicle that has not survived and of three equally lost musical treatises: De utilitate cantus vocalis , De modo cantandi et psallendi (of which, according to Hartzheim, a manuscript existed in the library of St. Martin in Cologne in the early 18th century shall) and De regulis tonorum et symphoniarum . Trithemius identified the latter work, possibly wrongly, with Aaron's second musical script.

literature

• Arrey von Dommer :  Aaron, Abbot of St. Martin in Cologne . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 1, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1875, p. 2.
• Michel Huglo: Aaron Scottus . In: The music in the past and present (MGG). 2nd edition, Person Teil, 1st vol. (1999)., Col. 3.
• Michel Huglo: Aaron Scotus . In: New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians . 2nd edition, 1st volume (2001), p. 3.
• P. Blanchard: Aaron 4 . In: Dictionnaire d'histoire et de géographie ecclésiastiques (DHGE), 1st vol. (1912), col. 4.

Remarks

1. ↑ Aaron's birth and death dates according to Michel Huglo, MGG, 2nd edition, 1st vol., Column 3.