The Sibil·la And The Day Of Judgement

"On the day of judgement, he will be spared who has done service.
Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, man and true eternal God, from Heaven will come to judge and to everyone what is fair will give.
Great fire from the heaven will come down; seas, fountains and rivers, all will burn. Fish will scream loud and in horror. Losing their natural delights.
Before the Judgement the Antichrist will come and will give suffering to everyone,
and will make himself be served like God, and who does not obey he will make die."

This jolly lyric, you might notice, does not contain any references to jingle bells, red-nosed reindeers or shepherds watching flocks by night. Nevertheless, it forms part of a Christmas song. The lyric is a translation of the first lines of the Sibil·la, the Mallorcan version of the Song of the Sibyl, a prophecy of the Apocalypse and the Last Judgement which most certainly wasn't ever destined to be given the wall-of-sound treatment and feature in "Phil Spector's Christmas Album". Full of dark omens it may be, decidedly un-Christmassy it may be, but the Sibil·la is so much a part of a Mallorcan Christmas and indeed of Mallorcan culture that it is the only "thing" to have been declared a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO in Mallorca and indeed in the whole of the Balearics.

The Mallorcan version is but one version of the Song of the Sybil, but it is definitely the most important among versions which came from the Provençal dialect of southern France and crossed into Catalan, and it secured its place in Mallorcan and European cultural history by being the one that defied a ban placed on performances of the Sybil by the Council of Trent in the mid-sixteenth century. The Catholic Church, faced with the Protestant Reformation, issued any number of decrees, and the Sybil was considered to have been "offensive to our Lord".

It took only a short time for the Sibil·la to re-emerge in Mallorca; in 1575 to be precise, a mere twelve years after the eighteen-year-long Council of Trent ceased to convene. But the ban was from time to time restored until finally, in 1692, the performance of the Sibil·la was reinstated in Palma's cathedral. Prior to the ban, the Sibil·la, in addition to having been something of an early mediaeval folk song, had crept into the liturgy of the Mozarabic period in the tenth century, if not in Mallorca but in Catalonia. As far as Mallorca was concerned, Father Higini Anglès, who had a book published in 1935 entitled "The Music of Catalonia at the End of the Thirteenth Century", said that the Sibil·la became part of the liturgy after the conquest of Mallorca, so from this we have confirmation of church performance and of its presence in the century before a codex, which dates from the fourteenth century and which is the first official inscribed record of the Sibil·la in Mallorca, established its existence in that century. It was certainly performed in the cathedral and became established as part of the Matins service at Christmas (which back then was Matins, as in the nighttime liturgy which ended at dawn, but which now is the evening of Christmas Eve).  

The prohibition by the Council of Trent removed the Sibil·la from the liturgy. It didn't therefore ban the song altogether; just its performance in churches. Nevertheless, the ban was sufficient to make it all but disappear, except in Mallorca (and also, it should be said, in Alghero in Sardinia) where, despite this official ban, the song continued to form part of the Christmas tradition. Though outside the liturgy, the express permission of bishops allowed its performance; hence why, in 1692, it became established at the cathedral. It wasn't to be until 1976 that the Sibil·la was formally reintroduced to the liturgy, and as Mallorca had been the place which had kept it alive, its cultural association with the island was confirmed.

Since then, it has found its way back to Catalonia and Valencia, while in Mallorca it is performed in various churches, and so certainly not just the cathedral. The song still retains something of its origins as a Gregorian chant but its melody has changed, as have rules as to who can sing it. Once upon a time it had to be a priest, then boys were given permission and finally girls. But those Gregorian origins tell only part of the story of the roots of the Sibil·la. Where did it come from in the first place? Greece, it would appear, as an "acrostic poem" was recorded some time in the early fourth century. And acrostic refers to? A message, and the message came, so it is said, from the Sybil of Erythrae (in modern-day Turkey), a prophetess, though how she might have known about Jesus and the day of judgement several centuries BC is anyone's guess. 

Video: The Mallorcan folk singer Maria del Mar Bonet performing the Sibil·la.