2

MONOPHONIC SONG, SIMPLE

P O L Y P H
HONY AND INSTRUMENTAL
MUSIC

Developments of liturgical chant

claim that the end of the Middle Ages was a brilliant

TwOuld not be fair to
true that the achieve-
priod in the history of Western chant but it is equallyMost
-

notably, the litur-

ments of this period have been considerably obscured.
removed many feasts from the
aical reform of the Council of Trent (I543-63)
and innumerable individual texts, melodies and melody
ver-
Roman calendar, accord-
Roman Mass and Office books.184 This happened partly
sions from the
"last in, first out': the fourteenth- and fifteenth-century
ing to the principle
eliminated because a certain humanist
plainsongs were more systematically
older Gregorian material over late medieval accretions.
tendency favoured the
and melodies were also composed. At the same time,
New, classicizing texts diocesan
Counter-Reformation eliminated many
the centralizing trend of the
restricted them (to a few patronal plainsongs, for example).
uses, or severely
much Latin sacred monody (Gregorian or
The Reformation did away with
have survived in the Lutheran liturgy
not), although some ancient plainsongs
most radical liturgical iconoclasm affected
until the present century, when the
Catholic and Protestant Churches alikke.
restored parts of the ancient
Revivalist movements on both sides have not only
chant repertories, most impressively in
the editorial work of the monks of
further away from the late
Solesmes, they have also twisted the development
the awareness of that heritage seems almost
medieval plainsong heritage. Today
and editors have taken Erasmus
irrecoverable. For century, chant scholars
over a
the
of Rotterdam's call Ad fontes!' ("To the sources!') literally by studying only
or purging allegedly decadent
tradi-
wellsprings. Their concept of purifying chant reformers whose work
ons reflects the aesthetic of the same humanist
they were undoing.
I84 ne most conspicuous body of music to be abolished were the sequences, of which only four
laudes' for Easter, Veni Sancte Spiritus' for
ned the Roman books: Victime paschali and 'Dies ire' for the Requiem Mass. 'Stabat
in
COST, Lauda Sion Salvatorem' for Corpus Christi, in the eighteenth
dolorosa' for the Mass of the Seven Sorrows of Our Lady was reintroduced
Lr
u r y . The best access to the abolished texts is still provided by the series AH, which covers al

rhymed and metrical poems.

32I
 Monophonic song, simple polyphon, 1nstrumental music

The problem with fifteenth-century plainsong (apart from the fac fact
ignored) is that it inherited from earlier ages a dynamic of growth but hothat it is
had the same space for expansion. Everyone serving in the ritual tena1Onge
overworked in the fifteenth century. There were simply too n dto be
many saints,
altars and relics, too many commemorations, Sufirages, processionspels char
sary and Requiem Masses etc.: the negative side of the sti
effect of lating nniver
vate endowments. Although the calendars were full, new feasts were
stil
pri.
introduced. The older ones were continuously upgraded (for example. hug
them an octave, i.e. an additional service a week later) or othe givin
otherwise embellishe
most notably the Marian feasts and the ceremonies for the
Holy Sacrame,
for the veneration of relics. and
The performances of music and text necessarily suftered in
many churek..
The best musical talents were now often absorbed by the task of ches.
singino
learning polyphony, or were lured away by chapels specializing in it. and
plaints that the musicians neglected the regular liturgical services were Com-
quent. Sessions devoted to liturgical reform at the Council of Basle were fre
the only occasions when stiff-worded admonitions against not
neglect of the sacreded
words had to be issued (see p. 25I). This was taken very
seriously in some cir.
cles, and movements such as the Bursfelde and Melk congregations simplifed
and 'purified' chant performances, anticipating the Tridentine
reform in its
care for text pronunciation 185
As regards new feasts, the most expansive area was still that of
Marian deva
tion including the veneration of Mary's family St Anne, St
Joseph, the Holv
-

Family, the Name of Jesus, the Three Maries (or Sisters of The Mary). more
specifically Marian devotions widely introduced between 1380 and 1500 n
cluded the feasts of the Visitation (2 July), the Presentation (21
with less than unanimous support the Immaculate
November) and
Conception (8 December
-
-

and the subject of the Rosary.

The major steps in consolidating these feasts in the Roman
calendar were
taken (for clearly political reasons) during the Great Schism, at the
Council of
Basle, and particularly under the pontificate of Sixtus IV (1469-84) and later
when the printing press (of L. A. Giunta in Venice, for example) began to dis-
seminate the added liturgical material.
Many feasts received at least some new music. For a new Marian feast in-
troduced at Cambrai in 1457, the 'Recollection of Feasts of Our
tio festorum BMV), none other than
Lady' (recollec-
Dufay composed much of the necessary
plainsong.186 The Feast of the Seven Sorrows of Our Lady', promoted by a
confraternity in the I4908,
provided with a plainsong Mass and Ofmce
was
selected in a composing competition; the winner of the contest was Duay
ex-secretary and provost of Condé, Pierre du Wez.187 The idea of this feast was
185
This is borne out, for example, by the Bursfelde Ceremonial (c. 150oo) D-As, also
8° Coa.04.
Angerer, Melker Reform. o
186
See Barbara Haggh, The celebration of the "Recollectio Festorum Beatae Maria irginis",
1457-1987, SM 30 (1988), 361-73. Vug
187 See Robijns, 'Musikhandschrift.

322
 Developments of liturgical chant

had celeb
hurches had celebrated it under the name of Missa de compas-
o tn e w :m a n y
The «'Stabat mater had served
The
ones.
as its
similar
Similarly, the 'new' Feast of the
sequence for
Transfiguration
B H Vo r

somedecades.
(some chants
ere entered
in the polyphonic codex BU), was promulgated by the
of
which Were

b u t hag
had been celebrated long betore, especially in the east.
1456,
new new feast
feast would usually require new texts for Mass and
in times, a
I si ne a r l i e
rlier not always containingiborrowed elements, and the appropriate
but
not.
o l l e n

ere often
often
but not always pastiche-work from older chants.
which were
Ofice.

mehodies, the ice, of course, which could be about ten times as

was
task
major fMass Proper texts. The metrical, rhymed Office (historia) of the
The

become a special genre of sacred (mostly hagiographic)

set

a
as
had
ong
Ages
iddle saint canonized as late as 1401, John of Bridlington,
l
la te
it er a t u r e ,1 8
188 An English
189
rhymed
fice which has only recently been discovered; it furnished
eceve frmus of the polyphonic Mass cycle Quem malignus spiritus'.
eiveda
the cantus

Proper hants, the metrical, rhymed genre

of the sequence
t h e Mass
which also focused on paraliturgical rhymed
for fresh creativity,
red for
A m o n g

was favoured
new sequentiaries, cantoralia and similar
books to
Keoe
genres (see below. Large
were still sixteenth
being comnpiled in the early century
these genres
be thrown away a generation later 190
contain

to
of them only or where music and originated text
many

In many cases, t is impossible to say how

or borrowed. Even where
authors can be named,
were original
whether they the
and
quickly dismantled. give one example: the Feast of
lo
eations
were
their creations we
received three different
Visitation, p r o m u l g a t e d by the Roman pope in 1389,
immediately. For at
least one of them, the music seems
almost
med Offices cantor Henri Dézier de Latinnes
written
-

by the papal
have been newly and musical material very soon became
to
three sets textual of
10). But the
an some monas-
various liturgies. Some churches, and particularly
the
entangledini
did not accept the tlowery
rhymed poetry of these
mendicant houses, humanist or at
tic and this can be related to
replaced it by prose;
Offices and partly so much that they
ar-
Others liked the new Offices
attitudes. Similar arrange-
least reformist contents together. their
of them, mixng longer a
ranged anthologies the ffteenth century, there
was no

to the music. By
ments applied for this particularfeast 191
consolidated tradition
of the plainsong Andrew
introductions, see
AH. For brief
are edited in volumes of 'Reimoffizien', in Karl
individual poems
About and Karl-Heinz Schlager,
s 10oo

office in The Necw Grove, etc.: Bärenreiter, 1972)

Hughes, Rhymed Kirchenmusik (Kassel
katholischen
Geschichte der
Tustav Fellerer ed.,
above.
and p. 230
vol. 1, 293-7. xvi and I74 1,
Anomymous Masses, in
Andrew Hughes. See Bent ed., Four
(the manuscript
Cantionale
By contents is
Labhardt, melodies,
such book and its plainsong
nodel study of late or rare
an edn of
a one
antiphonal), with
Cantorale
and random are the
gradual
-

1s actually a chosen at
uon MS B-
-

and sequentiaries (E-PA¢), and the

Other interesting graduals century
69-424. Mallorca,
fifteenth-sixteenth

Diocesano of Palma de
USeo fifteenth century (see p. 333) order 1s given in
the Carmelite
or 9786-90 from Münsterbilsen, version prepared
for
Ph.D. New
York U., 1984
An text and music of a miscellaneous
Carmelite Office, 179 ,
I Carmelitana: The Chants ofthe is in Labhardt,
Cantionale,

c antica this Office

UM R
on
Further material
Vol. 2, 82-125.
C47,
and Strohm, Zur Rezeption, 29 1.

323
 Monophonic song, simple polyphony, Mstrumental music

There were more important developments than the stitching to

Masses and Offices. We may distinguish at least four: her of new

(1) the expansion of the plainsong repertory for the Mass Ord:
(2) the infiltration of rhythmic and mensural performance Drac inary
liturgical genres;
(3) a considerable surge of new creativity in certain areas of Eir
(4) a sweeping trend to paraliturgical and vernacular genres which an
to wider audiences.

The creation of new melodies for the Mass Ordinary seems to have
happen
g a broad geographical band from the North Sea to Italy,192 Partiul
favoured were the Credo and Sanctus/Agnus melodies. By about 1400, Ce cularly
European and Italian sources register up to four Credo melodies (nos. I-d central
ofi
Liber Usualis), but fifteenth-century sources often contain far more, all of
which disappeared in the following centuries.
A peculiar feature of the new Credos was that they were often rhythmicize
in a simple manner known by the name of cantus fractus93 This syllabic. inc
sive text declamation and the regular metres must have sounded very powerhil
when performed by a monastic or cathedral choir.

Example 43 Credo in cantus fractus, D-Mbs 14274, fol. I3v

8
Cre do in u num De - um:
Pa - trem Pa trem om ni -po- ten

vi - si - bi - li - um
ta - cto rem ce i et ter re, om ni um
em,

et in- VI - S1 - bi Um. Et in u num Do mi num Je-sum Ch

u- ni - ge - ni -tum, EX pa-tre na um
stum, fi -li-um De i

a.
Cu
te om ni- a
T h e present state of research, however, may be biased in favour of central European ana luaua

Sources. The work of Bruno Stäblein and his students is reflected in the catalogues of Ordna
melodies: Landwehr-Melnicki, Kyrie; Bosse, Gloria; Thannabaur, Sanctus (the most elaboraie a
reliable volume); Schildbach, Agnus. An exhaustive study of the Credo is Miazga, reao. eaning
Cantus fractis vocibus' is also a term referring to mensural music in general, and that 1s 1S

in some diatribes against polyphonic music.

324
 Developments of liturgical chant

taken from the codex Em, a polyphonic collection whose earli-

Example 43 is /ienna, c. 1435) ontain monophonic melodies of the Mass
s tg a t h e r i n g s ( V i e n n

uropean origin. The spread of such tunes, and the use of

Eun
central

of xtremely wide. The phenomenon overlaps to some extent

ext
O r d i n a r y Was

f r a c U s ,

polyphony (see below), and also with artistic Renaissance

simple
antus
th t h a t o f . f Heinrich Isaac and other used such melodies as cantus
ecause
lyphony, bec
wih

194
settings,

Monophone
for ound
chants found
Mass

in English polyphonic sources such as the Pepys

firmi les of
of cantus fractus, are usually melismatic and
to as examples
referred
icated rhythms (see
xible a n d s o p h i s t i c a 385). Mensural Ordinary melo-
p.
h a v eH e x i b l e a n d
choirbooks written under Dufay, F-CA 6
into the Cambrai
auded into
intruded

In the of
in other manuscripts of that area. context
dies
also
found in
Mass tropes such
are
and as
we encounter new
and 1
ds Mass polyphony,
which have not yet
Netherlands

yrie 'Verbum incarnatum

-

mortis' or
Qui, januas also p. 177). Mass Ordinary
n c t u s

duals
gradua. of the traditional kind (see this
found in form Mass cycles. Although
or composed to
been.

chant were also. piled

comp it was widely
the thirteenth century,
Franciscans in
sTarted with the and votive
teenth and fifteenth particularly for Marian
Usage the fourte
during
the Te
a d o p t e d

sequences,
M a s s e s ,1 9 5

known for antiphons,

was also Ordi-
Rhvthmicized
plainsong
These are choral genres,
just like the Mass
and especially
hymns. werea
means of co-
Deur alternating rhythmic patterns
simple,
narv, The often in a procession.
for example in the east
the singers, late Middle Ages, especially
ordinating created in the lost
were which s e e m to be
New plainsongs
sources
medieval chant
of late Mass
north.196 On the basis sequences,
alleluia compositions,
and described many Poland,
Feldmann Silesia.197 In Scandinavia,
todav, Fritz other items
found in
a process
melodies and was mainly
new plainsongs
Ordinary creation of Cistercian and
Hungary, the For example,
Bohemia and monastic
models.
western the
from of plainsong in
of emancipation Thomas More,
The performance
Mother Frank LI. Harrison,
Messen, vol. 3, 142 f, PRMA 92 (1965-6),
121-34;
76-95;
14
See Staehelin, century', TVNM 32 (1982),
and the sixteenth the Bodleian Library,
later Middle Ages in Gloria-Komposition

manuscripts
of Dutch origin Einstimmigkeit.
Zu einer
27-37.
Two liturgical und rhythmnische
Mustk in Bayenm
30 (1985),
'Chansonsatz
Staatsbibliothek, Choralgeschichte
Bernhold Schmid,
der Bayer. spätmitelalterlichen
Emmeram-Codex
Marxer, Zur
aus dem St. discussed in Otto 1908).
melodies are
edited and (St Gallen,
Stifisbiblhothek
Musikhand-

Many der St. Galler Repertorium der hturgischen contains six

Der Codex 546 cited in Jürg
Stenzl,
85, alreadye i n s t i m m i g e n
t. Gallens. Swiss gradual (Fribourg (CH),
1972), no.
zum
ourteenth-century
Lausanne und Genf 'Neue Quellen den
Fischer, Charles v a n
der Diözesen Siten, also Kurt
von Amicorum
len (without Credos). See Italien', 147-58;
in Liber Martin

rdinary cycles Jahrhunderts

aus
vol. 9, col.
des I4. und 15. Messe, A.' in MGG, Found m
Medieval

narumszyklus
Bruno Stäblein,
Mass Cycles
Ordinary the of Cd.,
60-68; fHoppin
ntwerp, 1964), Graduals. A
Study the New York
U., 1956;
of
TD Mass Cycles in Early United States,
Ph.D.,
For
urne, Libraries in the
in 841 1. p.
Graduals bibliography
enaissance with vol.i
New Grove,
Orientalis,
Cypriot Plainchant. II,7' in The Antiqua
Europae
196
ed., Musica
Plainchant,
De Emerson, Lissa
see
ari
arious Eastern plainchant at traditions,
vol. 27 (1985).
Warsaw, 1966); and especially SM,
197 47-108.
Feldmann, Musik und Musikpflege,

325
 mstrlMENN
polyphOny,

simple
song,
Monophonic

d o m i n a t e d
Polish
Jains
plainsong n
Thorlac (d.I193and
the twelfth
had and Office .forSt
Office
models
Franciscan-Roman Mass

the
Icelandic

as a
strict
imitation
ion of Dominican
centuries; century
thirteenth fourteenth
diocesan rites was also
composed
in the
of central
European
holic) area,199 Nev Strong, for
was

chants.198

in the
The
influence

southern
Slavonic

ot
(Roman

local and
Catholi

national
p a t r o n s s u c hh as plStsainStanis-
songs
example
around the figures
albert in Poland nd, Václav,200
Václav,200
and
ert and
(Hyazinth)
Elizabeth in Hun- Elizaber
accumulated

(Hedwig),
Jacek Emeric and
Stephan,
gary,201
law, Canute Lavard in Denmark,202
Jadwiga King Birgitta and Erik in Swedn cegions,
Ludmilla in Bohemia,
Ladislas,
Sweden, Henrik
adiacen enrik
were
'shared'
between everal adjacent
several

Many patrons An example is

example also the
in Finland etc. and
Elizabeth.
genesjs
for example
Adalbert,
language,
Jadwiga
the Bogurodzica Aother of God.
('Mother
in the Polish dates from L4OR
of the oldest trope
source

anthem (the
first notated
mas This
later a kind of national rototype of the me
a prototype
used for St Adalbert;
originally a Kyrie
trope A typical examni
was
source of
the twelfth century.0 of
is found in a Styrian melodies on F (but also on De
its strong triadic
flavour in
E
Czech plainsong with the Hohenfurt (Vvaai
is the Magnificat antiphon
for St Ludmilla in Brod
Cantionale: 204

Cantionale
Bohemie', Hohenfurt
Example 44 Antiphon 0
mater

he mi - e, Lud - mil - l a _ flos

ma ter Bo

ma tro na.
gra Ci - e, te lix

glo r i - e, ful-g e n s sub CO - ro na.

li cu ri e Con - SOrs

19%
Robert Abraham Otósson, Sancti Thorlaci episcopi officia rhythmica et proprium missae (Copenhagen,
1959).
199
See Janez Höler, 'Rekonstrukcija Srednjeveakega sekvenciarija v osrednji slovenijï
[Reconstruction
of the Medieval Sequencer in Central Slovenia), Muzikoloaki Zbormik
200
3 (Ljubljana, 1967), 5-15.
See, for example, Jerzy Pikulik, Les offices polonais de Saint Adalbert, in idem ed., Etat des
recherches sur la musique religieuse dans la culture polonaise
(\Warsaw, 1973), 306-72; Andrew Hughes,
Chants in the Offices of Thomas of
Canterbury and Stanislaus of Poland', in Musica Antngua
Europae Orientalis 6 (Bydgoszcz, 1982), 276-7.
201
Dominique Patier, 'Un office rhythmique tchèque du XIVe siecle: Etude
hongrois', SM 12 (1970), 41-131; a large collection of chants comparative quelque
avec
offices
for St Václav (with facs
an
catalogue sources) is Dobroslav Orel, Hudební
of
202
Zoltán Falvy, Drei prvky Svatováclavské (Prague, 1937)
Reimoffizien aus Ungarm und ihre Musik (Budapest,
mäler des gregorianischen Chorals aus dem ungarischen 1968); Kilián Szigetl, LDe
On
Mittelalter,
Denmark, Angul Hammerich, Mediaeval Musical Relics of Denmark
see SM 4 (1963), I29
Härtel, 1912); Heinrich
Husmann, 'Studien zur geschichtlichen (Leipzig: Breitko
gens', DAM 2 (1962), 3-58; Stellung der
ihre idem, 'Die Oster- und LIturgie nd
historischen Pfingstalleluja der Kopenhagener Lis
ne

0 Hieronim Feicht,Beziehungen', DAM 4 (1964-5), 3-62.

infuence in
Bogurodzica (Wroctaw etc., 1957). For anciscan)
Denmark, see an example of Bohemian (i*
Bergsagel-Nielsen, Manuscript Copenhagen.
326
 cantio and related forms
The Latin

particular, witnessed a rise in national self-

in
riod around

liturgy and
Latin chant. A gesture of the Roman
7heperioa t h e f i e l d of

2115CIOUSInCSsi n Scandinavia was the canonization of St Birgitta of Sweden in

C h u n c ho W a r d s S c a

emony of the Council of igitta

as the first
of plainso her female o
creation Or
the as far as
the Council fathers did not extend
Council
f had encour
of the
s y m p a t h y

sacred
his own country recommended
1 4 1 4

The
in
Hus, who
leatoris. ohannes
The famous cantio de
aching of. nally and privately.
nd C z e c h , c o n g r e g a t i o n a l .

Czech,
with acrostic JOHANNES, be
and
nostra salus,
Christus,
hristiJesus Chri
Latin

esus hymn
important congregational
e

in
pon I s t i Jesu an
SoNg
tion (see p. 340)
t r a n s l a t i o

melodic
CZech

the other hand, its fifteenth-century

Church. On
into the Lutheran Gesangbuch
its
in
ame 7uist
and its transfer be
sources,. music could not
o ft h e U r a q u

diverse
Heiland),205 also show that such
Christus,
attons
unser Hei
confessional borderTs.
national or transition
hin regional, period of creation and
an important
( J s u s
tained within

were also communities

Middle Ages Sephardic

T h el a t eM i d d (pIyyutim) of the
While the hymns reflected mainly
Arabic influences,206
plainsong. areas
peculiar
other
Mediterranean
e a s t e r n Europe
developed a
in Jew
inSpain a n d central and cantillation as
tradition in in scriptural
kenazic local elements, which
Ashkex
and vari the missinai tunes
traditional
Eric Werner,
blend ot According to
Ac laments
became
but then
prayer
genres.
other German minnesang
individualized

as and such as
rioinally hymns of models
rell

remind imitations of
largely much
feasts not so
-

tunes are
were

melod
ladies for high polyphony.
Many
expressions of the general
Burgundian analogous
and even
of but rather
models,
specific n o n - J e w i s h

monody.207
medieval

oflate
spirit
forms
related
cantio and
The Latin ap-
forms of plainsong
'popular the
tendency
towards
cantilena
and carol,
a the
Ages, The English
koleda a r e just
Middle
In the late countries.
Leise and
European cantio, of creating
peared in many central
European tendency
widespread
and the a
have been
congregations,
Ialian lauda, a c c e s s i b l e to
of what may
Desi-known
results but more
such
populariz-
venerable, fulfilled
less have But
which w e r e may tunes.

Tlgious lyrics and tropes absorbing

secular

chant. Sequences exceptional

by
uan
iturgical
before for example even in its more

centuries
Tunctions the liturgy
g attached
remained
to
C n r e s

(tol. I17V). Seripta

Liederhandschrift, 311 in idem,
Kothe ed., Hohenfurter
Médiévale',

l'Espagne
6I-6. dans
Ewerhart, Handschrifi 322/1994, La musique
juive (Pennsylvania
State
6 Sec, for ample, Higinio Anglès, Jeus t?)
Ashkenazic
Werner (P. 90
Musicologica, vol. 2, 735-5I. Sacred Songs ofthe analysed by
main
motives

07 The example, its

for
A Voice Still Heard .
shares
CTiC Werner, Maoz Tzur', rather
fractus.
melody of
folksongs, canus
and Credo in
University Press, 970).
The
German
hymns
fourteenth-century
for its links Centh-century

and gf uach with a widely

d i s t r i b u t e d

327
 Monophonic song, simple polyphony, iUstrumental music

moments (the Feast of Fools, for example). They offered a meano.

of
tion with the ritual mostly to the performing clerics the
hemselves, inclu identiffca
choirboys. By contrast, the late medieval genres mentioned heren g the
ev had
tended for, if not actually created by, the laity. They had no,
no, or
or only.
only
connections with the traditional liturgy.
This whole body of music was a 'common tradition' as far as its
ostensible
and functions were concerned; its specific branches were
gen
general ty pes
region and, partly, by language. We shall discuss only a few exarms differentiated by
differenti
general procedures here, reserving further observations to the chapters and
individual countries. on
Not the
only but perhaps the most important model genres for these
repertories were 'Benedicamus' and alleluia tropes, often called these sacred
so

versus
manuscripts. A frequent characteristic of the newer forms was in n the
fact thheir
strophic text. Several genres also had more direct secular
roots, especiall
dance-songs with refrain such as the ballata and carole. n
Latin songs used in central European churches for
or in the Latin schools and for paraliturgical ceremoniee
singing in the streets, were called cantiones
noncommittal name mainly indicating that no liturgical identification
intended.208 Many of these pieces occur again and Wacas
again in their
manuscripts (cantionalia) in German, Czech, Polish, Hungarian,characteristic
Netherlands areas. The most exuberant Italian and
the fourteenth century, and
production developed in Bohemia in
then, under the influence of the Hussite
especially in the urban Rorate' fraternities of the fifteenth and reforms.
plainsong codices were usually called kancionály, although sixteenth. Their
tained liturgical items as well, such as Mass chants. they mostly con-
Other regions
tivating the cantio were Austria and southern Germany, and the strongly cul.
and Dutch areas (where the convents of the Lower Rhenish
devotio moderna contributed
An old Christmas cantio of most).
apparently French origin (i.e. a noël) which
used in several polyphonic was
settings, including one by Josquin, is Praeter rerum
seriem'. In Italy the older vernacular
genre of the lauda spiriuale
fulfilled similar functions, so that no already
separate type of cantio developed
although the Latin lauda flourished in late medieval
-

cumstances to the central Italy under analogous cir-

European
it is the carol which catered for
cantio, largely resembles it. In England
and
the respective needs, but the
that the cantio never difference is
reached the same artistic level of mensural three-part
composition as the carol.
Latin cantiones often translated into the
were
(some travelled so widely that
respective vernacular languags
versions in several languages are found); que
frequently they also acquired a
polyphony. Most cantionalia containcounterpoint to produce simple
at least a small
two-pa
pieces. Even if there was no number of such polypho
polyphony, many melodies were composea aand
208
See Ewald
Jammers, 'Cantio' in The New
Grove;
of many pieces is AH, vols. I Stäblein, Schriftbild, 74
if outdated edition ff. A entative

21, 23 and 45. (with music), 20 (with a

repee
source atalogue

328
 The Latin cantio and related forms

tinctive feature - already with a specific rhythm matching the

distin
seems a
this
metre of the text. The note-values were not always expressed precisely
poeti

in the ma
manuscripts, which show a bewildering number of notational systems
from plainsong
to mensural notation. (On all these characteristics of the canti10,

are
with other forms, see also below.)
shared
which.
A relatively frequent source-type for cantiones is the plainsong gradual into
hich an enthusiastic cleric or schoolmaster had some of these pieces copied;
intended to enrich the ceremonies and to distract the clerics and
these were
hos from secular song. A famous example of this is the Bavarian "Moosburg
adual of 136o (D-Mu 156) 209 Its compiler explicitly states his aim of provid-
gradu
clerics
ing devotional substitutes tor unwanted 'songs and debates' of his youngAccord-
the clerical feasts of the Christmas period.
in church, especially during the
are intended as Benedicamus tropes for the Nativity,
ingly, many songs
earlier
Feast of the Holy Innocents and New Year. Concordances with much
repertories exist, for example with manuscripts of Aquitanian polyphony
and with conductus settings. The torms
(twelfth century) thirteenth-century
four-line stanzas, and a
with three- refrain. A Christmas
are mostly strophic or

was to have a celebrated later history (although its individual

com-
song which but
is "Resonet in laudibus'. This was not a song
ponents were known earlier), anti-
often used in connection with the much older, rhymed
a cluster ot songs,
dimittis on Christmas
phon Magnum nomen Domini' as 'tropes' for the Nunc
There are later sources, versions, translations and poly-
innumerable
Day.210
dulci jubilo',211 it is perhaps the
phonic settings of the song; together with In
Christmas carol that is still in use. One of the
most popular and widespread
fols. 63v-4r), was the personal prayer-
sources, shown in Plate 5 (A-Wn 4494,
This copy uses precise mensural
book of Emperor Frederick I (c.1460).
breves or longs are perfect. The song has the
rhythm; the breves preceding
traditional single stanza:

music

Resonet in laudibus A 4 bars

Cum jocundis plausibus A 4
Sion cum fidelibus B 4
Apparuit/Quem genuit/Maria. C 6

and the triple retrain:

209 Franz A. Stein, Das Moosburger Graduale (Freiburg, I956); see also 7bLH 2 (1956), 93-7 (with

facs); Walter Lipphardt, 'Das Moosburger Cantionale, JbLH3 (1957), 113-17.

10 Wolfgang Irtenkauf, 'Die Weihnachtskomplet im Jahre 1345 in Seckau', Mf 9 (1956), 257-62. 'Mag-

num nomen domini' as antiphon for the Nunc dimittis,

but in a tw0-part setting and with a Duteh
fols. 138v-9r. Generally on 'Resonet',
is also contained in the manuscript B-Br lI. 270,
translation,
and on its connection with kindelwiegen: Konrad Ameln, "Resonet in laudibus" - "Joseph, lieber

Joseph mein", JbLH 15 (1970), 52-112.

See Clytus Gottwald, "In dulci jubilo": Morphogenese eines Weihnachtsliedes', JbLH 9 (1964),
4
133-43

329
 t
E
A
I
 The Latin cantto and related forms

que predixit Gabriel. D"6

Sunt impleta
E 4
Eya, eya!
Virgo deum genuit, D 4

Quod
divina voluit / clemencia. D"

in Israel F8
Hodie apparuit / apparuit/
virginem est magnus rex. D" 6
Per Mariam

nomen domini Emanuel A6

Magnum
annunciatum est per Gabriel. D" 6
Quod
and the triadic F major tune remind us of
lilting triple-rhyt
the lilting
only call' which is also found as an insertion into
Not
'Eya, eya' is a specific
'Cristus
but text after the music adds the five stanzas
dance-
ce-songs. T h e 'residual
The
Natus est Emanuel', 'Syon lauda Dominum
Pueri concurrite',
hodie', - after each of which the triple refrain is repeated
tus unc voce prophetica'

Ihe choral refrain or burden' is also a

multuple
a chorus.
arabably by
and
i nf i u l l , p r o b a b l y

carols.
of English that Frederick
characteristic was intended for private use, it seems

Althoughther manuscript to read them when attending

several other carols copied here
this and his choirboys.
had erforman by his chapel and, presumably, graduals
two fourteenth-century
Christmas
we might compare
German books discussion
hWitht these and 9-E-19). In his
church of Aosta (-A0 9-E-17 the songs
from
the collegiate
Harrison212 emphasizes
the European diffusion of
Har. domino and Benedicamus
latter codex, Christmas tropes of the
of the several
There are 'carols'. Verbum caro
it contains.
plus four monophonic
gratias in liturgical order, lauda and widely
the Deo
Maria (no. 20)
was known in Italy as a
a
est/de virgine l'espina la flour;/sol justicie/nos
factum
elsewhere. Fulget hodie / de Franco-Italian
disseminated in Latin and in the
a
macaronic song
Harrison
(no. I8) 1s noé',
donné s'amour For 'Noé, noé, iterumque
dialect spoken
in the Aosta region. Among the
acclamation15
actual
of this
the French
provenance
the two-part 'Ad
occur, such
to as
points tavourites
Benedicamus tropes,
international
"Verbum patris hodie (no. 2),
the monophonic text version
cantum leticie (no. 1), our
Resonet -

in the
indeed
senuit and almost the same melody.
postquam
Johannes jocunditatibus... but with cantio collections
Resonemuslaudibus/cum series of
Bohemian
the magnificent It was written
for a
At the beginning of mentioned above.
Hohenfurt Cantionale
of 1410 and contains many
Stands the by Hussitism
-

uninfluenced attached
still Several cantiones
are
stercian community
-

ceremonies.
for processions and
similar yerarchia, for
Palnsongs wonderful melody of Ave
utili1zed as a
aS if they were tropes. The is here
aSt strophic
composition,
independent
Cearly an
RISM BIV2,
735-8. See
(e.1500).
von Köln
see
212 literature,
Harriso 5enedicamus'. For further der Anna
T , (without music)
in the
Liederbuch

appears again
Salc
Salmen-Koepp eds, Liederbuch (no. 7).

33I
 Monophonic song, simnple polyphony, tnstrumental music

Salve regina' trope. This was one of the fourteenth-century melod:

preserved by the reformed communities (as was Jesus ChristneSCaref.. iesus Christus nostra
and appearing in many Utraquist books. The melody also appe
salus
man text (Ave Morgensterne) in our next source, the Neumarkr C G
and it later entered the Lutheran hymn books with the text "Gottoonale
kommen'.214
Gottes Sohn aliste,
The Neumarkt Cantionale (PL-WRk 58)215 a Silesian source
of
and the codex D-Z I19, copied c. I520 by the Latin school rector Stent/4/84

other miscellaRoth
of Zwickau (Saxony), are typical collections of cantiones and other
ous music made
by local schoolmasters. Both also ntain polyphony
contain
former an archaic gospel setting (Liber generationis), the latter
polyphony
settinos he
Ordinary sections plus a fragment ot s Mass L ami Josquin Mass Baudichon
of
repertory the Neumarkt Cantionale spans the whole liturgical year, audichon'."
ing mainly antiphons and songs for processions. A section for the compris
of Our Lady (fols. II5v-18v) transfers well-known Easter chants toAssumpti
that feast
(I5 August). Thus the processional canticum trumphale Cum rex
infernum debellaturus intraret appears as Cum regina
glorie Cricto
ristus
glorie ad cele . .
.

migraret'. The original canticum is also known as part of a mystery

Harrowing of Hell' scene. In that context it was usually followed by plav: the
of the forefathers in Hell, 'Advenisti the sone
desiderabilis', with or without the trone
Triumphat dei filius'216
Of the many other popular or
widespread cantiones (or tropes or antiphons
in the Neumarkt MS, a good deal
reappear in manuscripts from
Germany (such D-Z 119), and notably the Low Countries. It is often
as
Bohemia.
sible to determine the origins of the songs, and it is in a impos.
sense immaterial.
of the most beautiful Marian cantiones of the fifteenth One
century often appears
in manuscripts connected with the Netherlands devotio
moderna and may well
have originated in one of its houses: the cantus ad Salve
regina':217
Ave regina pulcherrima

Example 45a 'Ave pulcherrima regina'

A ve pul cher - ri - ma re -
nd,
E
gra C - a di - vi n a quam

tri na be a - VIl,

nec post cre a Vit maJ0 rem te.

214
Rothe ed., Hohenfurter
215 Liederhandschrift, 366 (fol. 145r); Bäumker, Kirchenlied, vol.
Description and inventory: Arnold Schmitz, Ein schlesisches 1, 25:.
AMw I
(1936), 385-423; RISM Cantional aus dem 15. rhundert
216 B IV
See Chambers, Medieval Stage, vol. political
Schuler, Osterfeiern, 154 f. For its
2, 74;
use, see p. 305 above. Other sources
are mentioned in adaptao 207
For a spurious attribution to Thomas a Kempis. see Strohm, 'Native and foreign poiyp
ed. H. J. Pohl
(Freiburg i. Br., 1918), vol. 4, 324. Thomas Hermerken a Kempis', Operd

332
 Simple polyphony

456 B-Br 9786-9o, fol. 26v

Example

nes Mau I1
C1 um pre cen
Om Cun - cti ve n e r e n tur u

den u r post mor teim re gna n0 bis in sor -tem ce le -stl a

Many copies of this song exist, mostly with some kind of simple counter-
point: in the Utrecht Songbook (D-B 8° 190), the Rostocker Liederbuch
D-Rou Mss. phil. 1o/2) the Cantionale of Thomas Kreß (CH-Bu 46), in the
manuscript B-Br II. 270 and others. The two-part setting shown in Example
45b, with a contrafactum text for St Maurice, comes from a monastery in Mün-
sterbilsen (B-Br 9786-90) (Limburg). A Dutch monophonic version is in the
Tongeren MS (B-HAS), a divergent Latin monophonic version in the Hussite
Cantionale of Jistebnice (CS-Pn ll c 7)s The rhythmic stability of the main

melody in all these versions is remarkable. The rhythm is clearly invented to

but
suit the Latin words (note the lengthening of all the rhyme syllables),
the melodic contour and motivic recurrences are also married to the poetry
(divina-trina etc.). A distinctive first mode is used, with some uncertainty
about the flattening of the sixth. The form, in most of the copies, reminds one
of a sequence with its double-versicles aa bb, concluded by a single c'; the

repetitionof the melody at 'c 1s more genuine to refrain forms or cantiones.219

Simple polyphony
Some conceptual problems surround the phenomenon which we call 'simple'
here, and which has also been styled 'archaic, peripheral', primitive', 'organal',

8 Two representative Netherlands sources (from Utrecht and Amsterdam) are ed. in Bruning-
Veldhuyzen-Wagenaar eds, Het geestelijk led. See also Labhardt, Cantionale, 232. On B-Br 1
on other sources: Strohm,
270, see CC, vol. 1, 96; on Münsterbilsen see Huglo, 'Séquences';
Polifonie', 91 f.
See E. Bruning, 'De Middelnederlandse Liederen van het onlangs ontdekte Handschrift van Tongeren
Taal-en Letterkunde. Verslagen en mededelingen 1
(omstr.148o)), Koninklijke Vlaamse Academie voor

1955), 95 (with facs of Tongeren); AH, vol. 1, I189 (from Jistebnice).

333
 Monophonic song, simple polyphony, Imstrumental music

tin designas
'usual, 'early' or simply liturgical' polyphony. A Latin design
tion derived
passage in Prosdocimus dee )
(by F. Alberto Gallo) from a
Beldemandis
planus binatim (plainchant twice) 220 This clever paradox exnoIsCa is
Cantu
the intermediate position of the phenomenon.
expresses very well
All the cited terms have some bearing on the phenomenon itself.
in the late Middle Ages, of composing and pertorming techniques wh
been superseded by the Ars nova at the latest. In some areas the techn: had
vived into the Baroque period and even into the early twentieth cenSU
recent research symposium has revealed.221
This already suggests that 'superseded is not the best word
for whs
at
pened to this type of music. It was not an object of art
artistic progress' in hap-
same way as was other although it was not exempted from hist the
music
change either. It shared the delicate historicity of folklore. torical
The existence of simpler types of
polyphonic music alongside the works.
composers such as Machaut and Dufay would have to be postulated rks of
not amply documented.
if it
Simple polyphony indeed represents, in later s re
roundings, primeval forms of Western liturgical polyphony,
num of the ninth to especially the orga-
eleventh centuries, and the earliest discant of
The distribution of these the twelfth
practices over many parts of Europe was a slowW
cess. The Dro.
acceptance of organum and discant was not followed
further steps: in some places everywhere by
polyphonic
This was partly because these institutions
singing remained simple for
centuries.
were
eastern or northern geographically peripheral in
Europe, for example), or provincial/rural (in central
for example), or inclined to
austerity (as in some monastic orders). TheFrance
in these places were less concerned
with the advancement of the
clerics
than with the musical
preservation of its ritual functions in the Mass and Office art
to them,
simple polyphony was a solemn manner of liturgy:
This function was equally welcome in singing plainchant.
some affluent, central
tutions. Abbeys and cathedrals such as and lively insti-
Padua used organum styles for certain
Saint-Maur des Fossés, Le Mans or
ceremonies at Christmas and Easter, for
Benedicamus tropes sung by young
clerics, for the Mass Ordinary and espe
cially the Kyrie, Sanctus and Agnus Dei.222
primitive only by comparison when the same Actually, these pieces became
modern polyphony in the institutions accepted more
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.
220
Gallo, Cantus planus binatim'.
Other important literature:
früher Mehrstimmigkeit; von Geering, Organa; Göllner,
Vecchi eds, I più antichi Fischer-Gallo eds, Italian Sacred Music; F. Alberto Gallo and Fomie
sources);
monumenti sacri Italiani
(Bologna: Gius
Benjamin Rajeczky, A.M.I.S., 1968) (facs edn
of
Corsi-Petrobelli eds, Polifonie'Spätmittelalterliche Organalkunst in Ungarn', SMI (1961, lt
221

primitive. This conference report is of basic

subject in general. See also Norman e
222
The New Grove. E. Smith, 'Organum and Discant: importdvin
bibliography, y *
A primitive
'Benedicamus'
Polifonie', 90. For a large trope was used even at Cambrai Cathedral (fifteenth
Débuts. The catalogue and bibliography of
early 'Benedicamus' centuy Strohm
uglo.
"Zentrum"".
relationship to Notre Dame is sertingi und
For Mass discussed in Arlt,
vom
ausgehenden 1I. bis
repertories, see Max 'Symposium rer
Lütolf, Die mehrstimmigen Ord1narnune Säe
zur Wende
des 13. zum 14. Jahrhundert (Berne, 1970).

334
 Simple polyphony

melismatic or troped
Resides the basic note-against-note counterpoint to
voice
a florid style over few held notes in the plainsong
insongs (discantus),
plains in later
aroaum purum) was also handed down, appearing as simple polyphony been impro-
firies (Haltetonstil, 'held-note-style). This type may often have
It could serve as a kind of vocal prelude
or
written down.
vised without being for Notre
interlude
inter
for discantus pieces. This mixture of techniques, typical
Is exhibited in a Benedicamus domino', written down
in a south
Dame organa,
German fitfteenth-century
manuscript: 223
Benedicamus trope 'Benedicat, ympnum dicat' (two-voice section)
Esample 46
fol. 65r
GB-Lbl add. 27630,

B Be

B Be

be ne di ca mus

be ne di ca- mus

(mino)

(mino)

in
the oldest, but which increasingly appears
A third style, presumably three voices, mostly at the
is a strictly parallel chanting in two or
manuscripts, and cadential sections are
More elaborate introductory
unison, fifth and octave. liturgical recitative,
of course,a manner of performing
often present. This is, fauxbourdon and falsobor-
related to the more localized practices of faburden,
and gospels of
most often the lessons, epistles
done. The texts involved are
Christmas.224
high feasts such as
Mehrstimmigkeit, 152. The manuscript
See Göllner, Formen früher
GB-Lbl add.27630 (LoD), fol. 65.
23

Handschrifi London.
has been edited in Dömling ed., 2 vols. (Tutzing: Schneider, 1969)
Lesungen,
Die mehrstimmigen liturgischen
See Theodor Göllner,
(with an edn of all known pieces).

335
 Monophonic song, simple polyphony, 1nstrumental music

Simple polyphony can be interpreted as an orally transmitted

d
for some reason found its way into script.225 Amo the 1ong practice whic
many hich
which it underwent (especially when cultivated in the larger cent
was the writing down of the pieces. In this procesS, the transmit
innovatthe iofirstns
might be altered or incompletely reflected, pieces also 'develoned
had acquired written status. Many of the early copies do
do not
not codif.
codity after the
the
which was known to the performers. Some pieces mayav have
received rhythm
have receitod
rhythms after they had already been sung for a while in equal values mensural
or
alternations of long and short. In general, rhythm was inessential for theepe
point of this music, and functioned as an external ornament only -onee
did not need to be written. ich
Perhaps the greatest interest which all this music offers to the histori
in its frontier position towards the unwritten and lost traditions of ,
Extemporized performance practices existed in the great centres as well
the provinces. The one most relevant in this context is cantus supra ibrms
extemporizing of a counterpoint to a plainsong read from the liturgical booethe:
k in
performance226 Analogies between European simple polyphony and
non-European polyphony have been noted. Within the Western hemisphe itten
this type of music-making was certainly 'supranational' even where it ha
provincial' or socially modest outlook.
The distribution of the written sources in space and time shows that develon.
ments did take place in this practice some of them drastic. There is still
great deal to be explained. After the early tourteenth century, the phenomenon
virtually disappears from English sources, for example. The insular musicians
used English discant and then faburden - extemporized practices mostly for
two voices at a time - but they used the modern resources of mensural music

when writing down plainsong settings in three parts.

Although many sources must have disappeared, it seems clear that in the
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries this phenomenon was rarer in Spain, France
and Flanders ú.e. the south-western Low Countries) than in Italy, the Empire
and eastern Europe. This had to do with a degree of backwardness' in the sense
that more institutions in western Europe had probably introduced mensural
music by then and perhaps abolished earlier practices. T'he surviving medieval
polyphony of Scandinavia is limited to the practices described here.
Simple polyphony was sometimes related to written art-music, almost as a
vulgarization' of it. German monks, for example, dismantled French three-part

On relationships between unwritten and written practice, see Wulf Arlt, Repertoiretragc per
ipherer" Mehrstimmigkeit: das Beispiel des Codex Engelberg
314, in Strohm (chairman), COst
e
conserva21one, 97-125; Theodor Göllner, Das Kyrie und
"Cunctipotens" zwischen Orgaa
Komposition', Musik in Bayen 22 (Tutzing, 1981), 37-57.
achs,
discussed, for example, in Tinctoris's Liber de arte contrapuncti; see Bent, Res facta'; Sae
COntrapunctus-Lehre, 210 and 248. The practice is mentioned at Cambrai Cathearal" I485
under Jacob Obrecht as
succentor): see Pirro, 'Cornuel', 194.
See ergsagel-

Norman E. Smith, Organum and Discant: bibliography, XIr, in The New Grove;
D
Nielsen, Manuscript Copenhagen'.

336
 Simple polytphony

fs into two-vOice conductus or even monophonic lines. Italian manuscripts

xample those at Cividale (-CFm) - contain reduced or simplified versions
-
for
example t
o f Western a r t - m u s i c .

in some fourteenth-century centres, including the Swiss

and,
other han
On the
ngelberg2 a highly original motet style emerged, neither simple
abbey of Enge
nova in character, which was soon cultivated in various countries,
no
rArs
ohemia.229 Also due to further contacts
in Bohe with the French motet
all
above
example at the Council of Constance), this central European motet style
(for
vigorous and developed a certain amount of sophistication. The repetitive
proved

-hemes of these pieces are rarely so complex as to deserve the label 'isorhyth-
sche

Rather, the tenor is often sung with its own words in the same lively,
mmic', all of
style as the other voices. Any of the two to five voices (not
declamatory
for example,
which were necessarily sung at once) could be a pre-existing
tune:
1S
a Latin
cantio or n Bohemia
- a Czech Utraquist song. This repertory
-

in schoolS,
invariably sacred and was used for ceremonies and entertainment is
monasteries and civic fraternities. A particularly elaborate example and"Cruci
in the
German sources
fixum in carne/Also heylich', which is found in two
from Slovakia.230
Tvrnau MS (H-Bn 243)
Example 47 'Crucifixum/Cum rex glorie / Also heylich'

car-ne lau-da e
Cru Ci ti xum Je-sum Chri-stum in

stus in-
Chri
Cum rex glo

der- dag
Tenor AI SO hey lich. 1st

se-pul tum ip-sum prop -ter VOS glo-ri -fi - ca

CL
8- ver si po-pu -lii

Td ret
de - bel - la - tu - rus
fer num

len nyt en mach

be er ful
nyt lo
-
-

mant
daz.- ny

23 Facs edn (with introduction) of the main source: Arlt, 'Engelberg 314.
29 An edn and study of a representative West German manuscript is Ewerhart, Handschrifi 322/1994.
Cerný ed., Vicetextová moteta 14. a 15.
Jaromír is
An anthology of 41 pieces, mostly from Bohemia, See also idem, "Mehrtextige Motette'.
in Ewerhart,aevi)
Edited(Moteti
50 stoleti
medi (Prague: Editio Supraphon, 1989).
Handschrift 322/1994, 21; Cerný, Vicetextová moteta (see n. 229), no. 7; Mu~ik,

Tyrnauer Handschrift (facs).

337
 instrumental musu
Monophonic song, simple polyphony,

chant for the 'Harr.

Cum glorie' (see Ex. 47) is the Easter
rex

(see p. 332). The text of the top

voice is derive d
the from wing of Hely
travelledprocessi on
SCene
verse 'Crucifixum in carne laudate - one of the most widely rauel
ely
this repertory. Settings appear in the Winchester Troper (elevent pieces of
the Notre Dame M$S as well as in twelfth-century SiIcily, in Ge
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries," in the English Pepys MS of many inin thethin
and (in fauxbourdon technique) in the Genoese MS.I-Fn
pieces serve the same asion
ceremonial occasi
of the E
112bis of 1470-1520
p. 590). All these
Our motet may refer to it as well, particularly since 'Also heylich' is mVigi
the German translation ofthe processional hymn 'Salve festa dies'; anethr
sion of the same piece has a fourth voice declaiming the Latin hymn tee
Ext i
(A fifth voice also exists, with the cantio text "Surgens mortis victorfortie
Besides these motets, fourteenth-century developments also include the
of two-part Credo settings - less often Gloria or sequence settings rise
in cantus
fractus (for sources, see above). The voices are mostly equal in range
and th.
vivid declamation of the long text is often in simple binary their
rhythms. Porti
of the music are repeated within a
piece in a rational pattern, just as in h
Credo plainsongs, of which nos. T and 'TV' of the modern books are
used. But there are also new Credo melodies, and ireely regularl
comiposed
Partly fully concordant versions of various Credos are strewn settings
or
Italian cathedral books; a network of such pieces connects througho
Pisa, Siena, Milan and Palma de Mallorca, and a few central Cividale, Rome
dances are also known. One Gloria in this
European concor-
style in a Cividale MS (I-CFm 70
is attributed to Antonio da Cividale
his
presumably the papal chaplain who, for
own local
cathedral, seems to have 'compOsed' simple polyphony.
Example 45 illustrates the convergence of simple polyphony with later
phonic genres such as cantiones. The earliest two-part setting of Ave mono-
rima' is probably the version of pulcher
Its contrapuntal features are
Münsterbilsen, despite its contrafactum text.
typical for the majority of the and Mass
Ordinary sections in cantus fractus: parallel unisons, fifths sequences
and octaves in con
spicuous positions (cuncti, 'mortem, 'sortem), and on the other
contrary motion in mirror-fashion with regular hand, strict
The counterpoint really doubles' the voice-crossings (the phrase).
first
its range. Other
original melody, and approximately shares
versions, not shown, add different
the original voice and in counterpoints, mainly below
mirror-fashion. This was a technique introduced
already in eleventh-century plainsong
late cantio, settings. 'Ave pulcherrima, however, Ba
composed with a fixed
contrapuntal technique was appliedrhythm
from the beginning. Thus, an older
Not all the
here to a younger piece.
copies actually notate the rhythm, although
the piece232 The it is clearly part o
Cologne version (D-KNa W 75; c.1
231
See Arlt,
'Symposium 500), on the other and,
232
In D-Mbs "Peripherie" und "Zentrum"".
28546, fols. 53v-4r, a
neumes without two-part version comparable to that from n
rhythmic Bilsen
different texts (alternate values; the two voices are on two it
stanzas). It looks as if opposite pages
the piece had been
of the
a" ar like
plainsong for reasons of
austerity. On the disguised, to make at

manuscript see Strohm, Polifonie.

338
 European practices of vemacular song

and a second voice in a Ver

very recent style. It regularly
ythmic n0tation h f "

nd sixths insteadO
arallel thirds and
off fifths, but has little linear logic. It
1lel thirns a perfect cadence to the unimportant resting point c
tect
priately assigns

nappropria
ISeSp a
unds like bad chanson-writing. Here
cadence

the cline.
o n the decli
polyphony i s really
); is really
heavit

practices of vernacular song

European

also occupy us in the following chapters on

song
will a

the later fifteenth century. What needs to

vernacular

of
velopments of
deve.
Some of
T h ei s s u e

of shared traditions and practices.

r e g i o n a l

and

aere
e r e is
the question in the
earlier periods, some emerged only
beaddressed h
national

from much potential to

practices had an amazing
w e r e i n h e r i t e d

or unwritten
11r. Archaic especially written Art-musie,
diVISIOns.
als0 sOCial
f i e e n t h c e n t u r y

and
istic, ethnic
became more
crOss l i n g u i s t i c ,
atfected by these divisions, but it
more deeply imitation.
was transmission and conscious
written historian to
poly
andmore avai
vailable for rather than of the music
ethnomusicologist tradi-
the to various European
song
task of
the was
common

ti material that centuries.233 We may

rhe musical
uncover the, the folksong
of later
survived in medieval
have itself. It is a fact that
ar that may the
phenomenon formulas.
over or
patterns
however, shared melodic
tions,

cast a glance,
glance,
widely known, textual form of
a
hibits
European song exhi or with the
naturally'wi
with the mode, The
supranational.
have
come
forms were also partly
me may
Some
songs, because verna
nacular poetic
in many languages
-

by travelling
kinds and
of many explanation.
Through such
of song
-

historical
Arab and Jewish
distribution
swide another,
more
concretely
Eastern,
offers channels,
minstrels
distribution

as they
had c o n -
and vernacular song, just
procedures Western
melodic
formulas
common
to shape of
also helped chant.
Salmen gives examples linked diverse
infuences
Western
liturgical
the point and
that they also
tributed to and makes t r a n s m i t t e d orally,
distances,
was
wide 'shared substance
known over such
its origin in pre-historical
case, have had
strata.234 In any
sOcial Some of it may human life.
people. of
all kinds of
conditions 'substance
among ( p h e n o m e n o l o g i c a l )
archaic types of
extra-historical
between the more
conscious "bor-
or
difficult to
draw a line and more
historian).
often
e t h n o m u s i c o l o g i s t )

It is the by the
be investigated by (to be
identiñed

art-song
Sharing'"(to composers typical
tor
interventions by song
procedures
were
more

common
roots'.
Con-
Ong transfer its tor
said above,
conscious
adhered longer to represented,
well
3 transmitted
song
and so on
are
and Min-
nereas orally
trouvères
material
borrowed troubadours,

rafacta, re-settings, repertories

of the
example, in the courtly statistical-ana-

I13-25.
A
Spielmann,

song';
Salmen,
Meylan,
L ëuigme.
'European
developed
in
33
On this subject, see also Imen, melodies is
arison of
lyical method for the compari with
music
examples.

350 f,
34
Salmen, 'European song
339