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Interaction Between Polyphonic Motets and Monophonic Songs in the Thirteenth Century

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Interaction Between Polyphonic Motets and Monophonic Songs in the Thirteenth Century Interaction between Polyphonic Motets and Monophonic Songs in the Thirteenth Century Matthew P. Thomson St. Peter’s College University of Oxford This thesis is submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy February 2016 Acknowledgements It is a great pleasure to be able to thank all those who have supported me through my work, without whom this thesis would not exist. I am very thankful to the Arts and Humanities Research Council, without whose generous funding I would never have been able to think about even beginning my doctoral research. I am also grateful to the whole community of St Peter’s College, Oxford, which has not only provided me with financial and moral support, but has been a friendly, welcoming, and supportive scholarly home. The team in Oxford’s Music Faculty Library, Martin Holmes, Jenny McParland, Rosie Lake, and the much-missed Stephen Jordan, have made working there an absolute joy with their infinite store of knowledge, patience, humour, and friendship. Other libraries have proved equally as welcoming, and I thank the library of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, for making my consultation of manuscripts so easy and fruitful. One of the great joys of academic life consists of conversations with academic friends and colleagues, in which information and advice is exchanged. Margaret Bent, Samantha Blickhan, Catherine Bradley, Nicolas Bell, Sean Curran, Helen Deeming, Mark Everist, Eleanor Giraud, J.P.E. Harper-Scott, Henry Hope, Lisa Colton, Franz Körndle, Joe Mason, George Parris, Meghan Quinlan, Susan Rankin, Pauline Souleau, Emily X. X. Tan, and Anna Zayaruznaya have all been generous with their time, expertise, and advice. I am also very grateful to Mary Wolinski and Jennifer Saltzstein, who have shared their research with me. Without all of these people, the thesis would be much poorer. It goes without saying, of course, that any faults that remain are my own. Three debts of gratitude remain. Firstly, to my parents, who have supported me through thick and thin; I cannot thank them enough for all the support and love they have given me. Secondly, to Roger Allen, who since I met him has kindled my love of scholarship and music with myriad acts of unbelievable generosity, words of encouragement, and good old cups of tea. Without him, I would not be where I am today. Finally, I owe an enormous debt of thanks to my inspirational supervisor, Elizabeth Eva Leach, who encouraged my nascent interest in medieval musicology. She has been unstinting in her support and encouragement, and generous with her time, advice, and hospitality. Contents Abstract 1 List of Manuscripts 2 Notes on Editorial Policy 6 Introduction 7 Historiographical Overview 9 Stylistic Influence of Songs on Motets and of Motets on Songs 9 Motets and Songs sharing a Voice Part 13 Establishing a Corpus 13 Chronology 16 Structure of Thesis 21 Summary 24 Chapter 1. Song to Motet 26 Conceptual Priority: Form, Tonal Focus, and Literary Theme 34 Priority and Form 34 Networks 1.1 and 4.1: Robin and Marion Motets 34 Network 1.2: Repetition outside the Boundaries of Form 49 Interim Summary: Priority and Form 57 Tonal Centring and Conceptual Priority: Network 1.4 57 Literary Theme and Priority: Network 1.5 65 Music and Text: Conceptual and Chronological Priorities in Network 1.6 72 Song Voices without Conceptual Priority: Network 1.7 82 Concluding Remarks 89 Chapter 2. Motet to Song 93 Intertextual Reference 96 Network 2.1: Hui matin a l’ajournée and Gautier de Coinci’s Miracles de 96 Nostre Dame Network 2.2: He bergiers 103 Network 2.3 Agmina milicie/ L’altrier cuidai 109 Chronological Priority of the Motet Versions of Network 2.3 over 111 the Song [2.3S] Polyphonic Musical Structure in Network 2.3 111 Traces of Polyphony in a Monophonic Notation: the Case 119 of the Song [2.3S] Relationships between the Texts used for Network 2.3 121 Interim Summary: Motet to Song Chronology and Intertextual Reference 127 in Networks 2.1-3 Separation between the First and Residual Stanzas: Networks 2.4-5 127 Network 2.4: Quant voi le douz temps venir 130 Musical Adaptation for Refrain Citation 131 Trailing Rhyme, Hocket, and the Notation of [2.4S] 135 Poetic and Thematic Separation between the First and Residual 139 Stanzas Network 2.5: Quant la saisons desirée 142 The Motet-First Chronology of Network 2.5 144 Separation between the First and Residual Stanzas 145 Mensural and Rhythmic Elements in the Extant Musical 149 Notations of [2.5S1] The Conceptual Priority of Quant la saisons within the 152 Motet [2.5M] Network 3.1: Orendroit plus qu’onkes mais 156 Concluding Remarks 158 Chapter 3. Wider Chronologies: Contextualising Motet-Song Relations 161 The Mensural Notation of Song 163 Mensurally Notated Songs in F-Pn fr. 846 166 The Notation of F-Pn fr. 846 166 Scholarly Models for Understanding F-Pn fr. 846 166 The Notational Preferences of the F-Pn fr. 846 Music 175 Scribe, and the Exceptions of [3.2X], [1.8S], and [2.5S1] Network 1.8: Chascuns qui de bien amer 180 Network 1.9: Li douz chanz 187 Mensurally Notated Songs outside F-Pn fr. 846 192 Network 3.1: Orendroit plus qu’onkes mais 192 Networks 1.1 and 4.1: Robin m’aime and He resveille toi 194 Interim Summary: Mensural Notation of Song 196 Chronologies of Two-Voice and Three-Voice Motets 197 Network 4.2: Par matin s’est levee 198 Network 2.4: Quant voi le douz temps 205 Concluding Remarks 210 Chapter 4. The Generic Boundaries of Song and Motet 212 Musical and Poetic Form in Songs and Motets 220 Musical and Textual Patterns in a Monophonic Motet: En non dieu 222 ([1.10X1]) Irregular Textual and Musical Structures in Song: Networks 1.4 and 3.3 226 Network 1.4: Main s’est levee 226 Network 3.3: Por conforter mon corage 228 Regular Structures in Motets 233 Network 2.1: Alpha bovi et leoni 233 Network 1.5: Dehors compeigne 238 A Transmission-Based Approach to Motet and Song Genre 239 One-Stanza Songs and Motets Copied without Tenors: Other Contexts for 239 Single-Stanza Monophonic Texts One-Stanza Songs 240 Motets copied without their Tenors 247 Network 4.2: Par matin s’est levee 248 Network 4.3: En espoir d’avoir merci 249 A Multi-Layered Model of Genre: Manuscript Placement and Generic 251 History Network 2.1: Alpha bovi et Leoni 253 Changes to the Alpha bovi voice in E-BUlh s/n 255 Network 3.2: Bien m’ont amours/ TENOR 261 Concluding Remarks: A Model of Genre between Song and Motet 272 Chapter 5. Wider Intertextuality: Refrains 276 Refrain Chronology 279 The Problems of Chronological Analysis for Refrains 279 Music and Refrain Chronology: Networks 4.4, 1.10, and 1.2 281 Network 4.4: Prendes i garde 285 Network 1.10: En non dieu 292 Network 1.2: Onques n’amai tant 295 The Hermeneutic Interpretations of Refrains 301 Network 1.10: En non dieu 302 Network 4.4: Prendes i garde 309 Concluding Remarks 318 Conclusions 320 Bibliography 329 Appendix 1: The 22 Networks of the Corpus (Lists 1-3), Networks used for Context (List 345 4), and Networks Rejected from the Corpus (List 5) Appendix 2: Songs with Mensural Notation in F-Pn fr. 846 362 Appendix 3: Tables showing Frequency of Ligatures in F-Pn f. 846 365 Appendix 4: A List of Manuscripts with Available Digital Images or Facsimiles 370 1 Abstract Interactions between polyphonic motets and monophonic trouvère song in the long thirteenth century have been characterised in a number of different ways. Mark Everist and Gaël Saint-Cricq have focused on motets’ use of textual and musical forms usually thought of as typical of song. Judith Peraino, on the other hand, has explored the influence of motets on a range of pieces found in manuscripts that mainly contain monophonic songs. This thesis re-examines motet-song interaction from first principles, taking as its basis the 22 cases in which a voice part of a polyphonic motet is also found as a monophonic song. The thesis’s analysis of this corpus has two central themes: chronology and quotation. In addressing the first, it develops a music-analytical framework to address the compositional processes involved in these case studies, arguing that in some of them a monophonic song was converted into a motet voice, while in others a motet voice was extracted from its polyphonic context to make a song. It also emphasises, however, that chronology is often more complicated than these two neatly opposed categories imply, showing that different song and motet versions can relate to each other in ways that are dynamic, complex, and often hard to recover from the extant evidence. The conversion of song material for motets and vice versa is placed within a larger context of musical quotation and re-use in the thirteenth century, showing that many of these case studies play with the pre-existence of their song or motet material: some transfer their voice parts from one medium to another in a way that consciously foregrounds their previous incarnations, whereas others mask the pre-existence of the voice part by absorbing it into new textual and musical structures. The thesis closes with a consideration of the wider implications of the motet-song interaction it analyses. It examines the generic boundary between songs and motets and suggests a model of generic analysis that centres on the complexities of manuscript transmission. Finally, it considers the use of refrains within its corpus of motets and songs, demonstrating that these short passages of music and text are often quoted in ways similar to those analysed in motets and songs earlier in the thesis.
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