Miadrilms Internationa! HOWLETT, DERQ
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HOWLETT, DERQ A TRANSLATION OF THREE TREATISES BY MARTIN AGRICOLA- "MUSICA CHORALIS DEUDSCH," "MUSICA FIGURALIS DEUDSCH," AND "VON DEN PROPORCIONIBUS"-Wrm INTRODUCTION, TRANSCRIPTIONS OF THE MUSIC, AN D COMMENTARY The Ohio Stale University PhD. 1979 University Microfilms internâtionâl 300X.Zeeb Roaa. Ann Aibor.MI48106 18Bedford Row.London WC1R4EJ.England Copyright 1979 by Howlett, Derq All Rights Reserved A TRANSLATION OF THREE TREATISES BY MARTIN AGRICOLA— MDSICA CHORALIS DEUDSCH. MUSICA FIGURALIS DEUDSCH. AND VON DEN PROPORCIONIBUS— WITH INTRODUCTION, TRANSCRIPTIONS OF THE MUSIC, AND COMMENTARY DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Derq Howlett, A.B., M.Ed. The uhio state University 1979 Reading Committee : Approved By Prof. Richard Hoppin Prof. Herbert Livingston Prof. Keith Mixter Advisers School of Music PREFACE The inspiration for this dissertation came from a portion of Fourscore Classics of Music Literature by Gustave Reese in which the significance of the treatises on choral music by Martin Agricola is indicated.^ Further recognition is due Agricola, a precedent-setting pioneer among Protestant cantors. Outside of Germany, however, difficulties in understanding the early sixteenth-century German have made his major treatises largely inaccessible. Furthermore, obscurities in Agricola's subject matter, style, and presentation have also been a deterrent to the dissemination of this knowledge. It is the intention of this translation and commentary to overcome these problems. The purposes of this dissertation are: (1) to shed light on Martin Agricola and his historical import ance as the first Protestant cantor; (2) to encourage greater familiarity with his major German treatises on choral music, so that they may be recognized to be at least equal in significance with the better-known treatise on instrumental music. Musica Instrumentalis Deudsch;^ ^New York: The Liberal Arts Press, 1957, PP* 41-4^2. ^This treatise alone of Agricola's writings has received widespread recognition from the time it was written. (3) to bridge the language barrier by making the contents of these treatises con^rehensible to English-speaking music scholars; and (4) to clarify matters in these treatises through explanatory comment and comparison with the work of other Renaissance theorists, particularly Franchinus Gafurius. Microfilms of the treatises were provided by the Library of Congress, Washington, B.C. These include a copy of the 1533 third edition of the first treatise by Agricola (originally published in 1528 as Ein KurtzDeudsche Musica), Musica Choralis Deudsch. and a copy of the ori ginal 1532 edition of Musica Figuraiis Deudsch together with the appended smaller 1532 treatise Von den Prooorci- onibus. With the exception of this latter work on propor tions, which is only twenty folios in length, the treatises are now available in facsimile in a single volume which also includes the original 1529 edition of Musica Instru mental is Deudsch and a 1539 Latin treatise only thirty-two folios in length. Rudimenta ausiccs.-^ The identical title page— apart from the title itself— was used by the printer Georg Rhau for Musica Choralis Deudsch. Musica Figuraiis Déudsch. and also for other music theory publications. The title appears in a % a r t i n Agricola, Musica Figuraiis Deudsch (1532); Iffi Anhang: Musica Instrumentalis Deudsch (1629).Musica Choralis Deudsch (1533). Rudimenta musices (1539) (facsimile reprint ed., Hildesheim; Georg 01ms, I969). rectangular space provided in the middle, surrounded by ornamental figures (including a flutist and drummer) and by a four-voice setting of an initial phrase of the Te Deum. with one voice part at each comer of the rectangle (this setting is transcribed at. the beginning of' Part One). At the center of the bottom appear two sets of initials, G. R. above K. K. These initials often appear on the title pages of Rhau publications.^ The writer has faithfully endeavored to translate the treatises into clear contençorary English and to transcribe their musical exançles into modem musical notation. Some flexibility was required whereby certain German terms have been translated by more than one English equivalent, depending on context. At times it seemed nec essary to give the literal English translation of a term, but to underscore it to call attention to its variance from present-day English usage (for example, key, meaning one of the notes of the gamut, but clef rather than signed key for goooichnete Schluosel). Whex-e such a term first appears, its meaning in present-day terms is also given; further explanation, when necessary, appears in footnote commentary. Where Agricola uses a Latin term or phrases, the text of the original language is included as well as The initials G. R. would s-jjand for Georg Rhau, while K. K. may stand for Caspar Cruciger, later rector of Wittenberg University, who once worked in Rhau’s shop. Conceming Cruciger and Rhau, see Victor Mattfeld, Georg Rhaw's Publications for Vespers (Brooklyn; Institute of Medieval Music, 1956), pp. 99. 137-38, l4l. the translation. Transcriptions of the music use reduced note values. In Musica Choralis Deudsch the reduction ratio is 4:1, whereby the semibreve (diamond equivalent of the modem whole note) is transcribed as a quarter note. In the treatises on mensural music, the reduction— usually 2:1 or 4:1— varies in order to center on the quarter note, maintain consistency of note values throughout a given example, and avoid an excess of thirty-second or double whole notes. Incipits show the first few notes of each part in original notation just ahead of the start of the transcription. Indications such as J clarify examples with a diversity of mensural signs and proportions where reduction of note values must vary from one part to another and within a particular part. In such cases, each new mensuration sign or numbers of a proportion is shown above the staff together with any change of note values, in a form such as JtZf • ^ = J • or = J* . The proportion | at times results in triplets, transcribed with the number three placed above such a grouping of notes. Editorial bar lines and modern time signatures have been added to guide the eye and make visible certain implications of the original music. Ligatures in the original notation are indicated in the transcription by means of a solid brace above the notes that were bound together in ligature; ' ' Coloration (blackening of notes usually white) in the original notation is indicated in the transcription by means of a broken-line brace above the colored note or notes : I I . Both types of brace may appear simul taneously, one above the other. Editorial accidentals are placed above the notes for which they are suggested. The modem treble and bass clefs have been used, as well as the treble clef with the numeral 8 placed below it to indicate that the pitch is one octave lower than written. For the convenience of the reader, the obverse and reverse of each folio of the treatises are indicated as closely as possible to the point where each begins in the original print by a folio designation within brackets at the left margin of the translation. The folio is indicated as in the original by a capital letter followed by a small Roman numeral from one to eight. In addition, the reverse of each folio is indicated by a superscript letter v (ver s o ) at the end, e.g., H vii"^; the absence of the super script V indicates the obverse (recto) of the folic. Much of the background information not included in Agricola's own writings comes from the 1933 study by Heinz Funck, Martin Agricola: Ein fruhnrotestantischer Schul- musikerMany sources used by Funck are presently inac cessible to the writer. Indeed, Magdeburg, Schwiebus, and their environs now lie behind the iron curtain. ^Wolfenbûttel: Georg Kallmeyer Verlag, 1933* I am deeply indebted to the late Dr.