Apel, Willi/ French Secular Music of the Late Fourteenth Century. Edited
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THE MEDIAEVAL ACADEMY OF AMERICA PUBLICATION NO. 55 FRENCH SECULAR MUSIC OF THE LATE FOURTEENTH CENTURY FRENCH SECULAR MUSIC OF THE LATE FOURTEENTH CENTURY Edited by WILLI APEL Edition of the Literary Texts by ROBERT W. LINKER and URBAN T. HOLMES, JR. University of North Carolina With Foreword by PAUL HINDEMITH Yale University MEDIAEVAL ACADEMY OF AMERICA CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS 1950 COPYRIGHT BY THE MEDIAEVAL ACADEMY OF AMERICA 1950 PRINTED IN U. S. A. JOHANNES WOLF IN MEMORIAM FOREWORD There is no need to praise once more the expert scholar- hints will suffice to make us aware of the creative power ship of this book's author, nor can anything be added to that keeps those structures in motion and of the human the laudable fact that a publisher's idealism makes pos- quality that guided their creators. sible the edition of a large selection of hitherto unknown To the performers the immediate contingence with this mediaeval compositions. But as a composer and as a music will open up new horizons. They will learn to performer of the earlier masters' compositions I feel that understand the shortsighted attitude of our present musi- a few words of encouragement, coming from a practical cal culture, which adores only those idols of audible musician, would help to a better appreciation of this high- beauty that are not much older than two hundred years. ly interesting, valuable, and stimulating publication. They soon will find it necessary to replace our contem- The modern musician's problems, of which there arc porary ways of performing, which oscillate between two so many, will lose some of their puzzling oppression if extremes — over-individualistic exhibitionism on the one compared with those of our early predecessors, as they side and the dullest metric-dynamic motorism on the appear in this volume. It is rewarding to see those mas- other — with the altruistic devotion which alone can re- ters struggle successfully with technical devices similar to vive this old music. those that we have to reconquer after periods in which The musicologists knew that after Fricdrich Ludwig's the appreciation of quantity, exaggeration, and search for publication of Machaut's works sooner or later the miss- originality in sound was the most important drive in the ing link between that composer and Dufay's generation composer's mind. They knew how to emphasize, on a would be made available. But to those other musicians fundament of wisely restricted harmony, the melodic and whose work is primarily concerned with present and fu- rhythmic share of a sounding structure. Their distribu- ture developments, whose historical knowledge is a tion of tonal weight, their cantilever technique of span- means to a better adjustment of their immediate duties, ning breath-takingly long passages between tonal pillars the present book will be a revelation and a source of both hardly finds its equals. Their unselfish and uninhibited information and delight. On behalf of all those who will way of addressing the audience and satisfying the per- touch the musical treasures displayed in the following former; the perfect adequacy of poetic and musical form; pages, I want to thank the author and the publisher for the admirable balance of a composition's technical effort their precious gift. and its sensual appeal — these are only a few of the out- Paul Hindemith standing solutions they found in their works. One could go on pointing out surprising and exciting features in Cambridge, Massachusetts those miraculous microcosms of sound, but these few March, 1950 vn PREFACE The present publication is intendi i to fill, in some special artistic merits and of interest from the point of measure, the most serious gap in our cnowledge of the view of style, of notation, or of formal treatment, have history of polyphonic music, that is, the development of been selected, and an attempt has been made to arrange French music between Machaut and Dufay. To be sure, them in such a manner as to present a line of historical there are other gaps which we would like to have elimi- development from the period of Machaut to the early nated, as, for instance, the early development from the years of the fifteenth century. Musica enchiriadis of the ninth century to the School of I would have been unable to offer this publication, St. Martial of the twelfth, or the development of Italian were it not for the invaluable assistance of two members polyphony throughout the fifteenth century. However, of the Department of Romance Languages of the Uni- the very greatness of the two names, Machaut and Du- versity of North Carolina: Robert W. Linker performed fay, imparts special significance to the period we are con- the tedious but vital job of paleographical scrutiny of cerned with here. Moreover, while in the two other cases the literary texts and prepared the Glossary, while Ur- the situation appears irremediable, owing to the lack of ban T. Holmes, Jr. rounded off Dr Linker's work and sources, there is ample material available for the study contributed the chapter on the Literary Texts of the In- of French music of the late fourteenth and early fifteenth troduction. To both of them I am profoundly grateful, centuries. It is gratifying to learn of various projects not only for their distinctive scholarly contribution but under way with the same general purpose as the present also for their gracious consent to appear as co-editors of publication, projects that will make available hitherto un- this publication. published material from the codices Oxford Bodleian Valuable assistance in the final checking of the tran- Library, Canonici misc. 213 and Torino, Biblioteca scriptions has been received from Mr. Richard Hoppin, Nazionale, / // 9. Cambridge, who has worked independently on the co- While the repertory contained in these codices is, in dices Chantilly and Modena, and who kindly permitted the main, from the early fifteenth century, we are con- me to compare his transcription with mine. Various cerned here with the immediately preceding period, ap- errors were thus eliminated. Prof. Erwin Panofsky of proximately from the death of Machaut (1377) to the the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, and Prof. first decade of the fifteenth century. The chief sources Jakob Rosenberg of Harvard University gave informa- for this period are the codices Ghantilly, Musee Conde tion about French painting of the period, information 1047 {Ch), Modena, Biblioteca Estense L. 568 (Mod), that, I hope, will prove as interesting to the readers as it and Paris, Bibliotheque nationale nouv. acq. jr. 6771, did to me. To Prof. Marcel Fran^on of Harvard Uni- the so-called Codex Reina (Rei), A number of smaller versity I am indebted for kind assistance in my own ef- sources serve to round off a repertory remarkable for its forts — not very successful, I admit — to penetrate into quantity of compositions and number of composers. the problems of mediaeval French paleography; and to The present publication is based upon transcriptions Prof. A. T. Davison, Harvard University, and Prof. of the entire contents of Mod, Rei and the subsidiary M. F. Bukofzer, University of California, for advice and sources, as well as nearly all the secular pieces in Ch. suggestions that have greatly contributed to make the From this material 81 compositions — representing book more serviceable. about one-half of the total material of French secular Finally, I wish to express my gratitude to the authori- compositions — have been selected with the idea of rep- ties of the Institut de France for granting permission to resenting the forms, the most important composers, and obtain photographs of the codex Chantilly, to Messieurs the various stylistic periods. Our collection starts with Henri Malo and de Boisdelisle, conservateur and archi- the complete output of the five most prolific composers, viste of the Musee Conde, for valuable help concerning a group consisting of two Italians, Matheus de Perusio certain problems of this Ms; to the Mediaeval Academy and Anthonellus de Caserta, and three Frenchmen, of America and to the Weyman Foundation, Depart- Solage, Trebor and Senleches. Their repertory is round- ment of Music, Harvard University, for financial assist- ed off by the addition of ten ballades, twelve virelais, and ance. eight rondeaux. In each of these groups compositions of Boston, January, 1950. W.A. IX TABLE OF CONTENTS Abbreviations Introduction A. General Outline 1 B. The Sources 3 C. The Forms 5 D. The Notation 7 E. The Style 9 The Machaut Style 10 The Manncristic Style 10 The Modern Style 13 F. Questions of Performance 14 G. The Literary Texts 15 H Artistic Trends in the Late Fourteenth Century 17 I. Editorial Remarks 20 J. Notes 23 List of Compositions and Their Sources 27 Commentary 29 Index of Text Incipits 35 Glossary 37 List of Plates 39 Plates I-VIII Compositions 1*-133* I. Matheus de Perusio A. Four Ballades 1* B. Seven Virelais 9* C. Ten Rondeaux and One Canon 19* II. Anthonello de Caserta A. Five Ballades 31* B. One Virelais and Two Rondeaux 40* III. Solage A. Seven Ballades 45* B. Two Virelais and One Rondeau (50 * IV. Trebor Six Ballades 65* V. Jacob de Senleches A. Three Ballades 77* B. Two Virelais 83* VI. Ten Selected Ballades 85* VII. Twelve Selected Virelais 103* VIII. Eight Selected Rondeaux 126* XI ABBREVIATIONS I. SOURCES II. MODERN PUBLICATIONS Cam Cambrai, Bibl. Comm. 1328 (1176) AMW Archiv fur Musikwissenschaft, Leipzig, 1918- 1928 Ch Chantilly, Musee Conde 1047 ApNPM W. Apel, The Notation of Polyphonic Mu- It Paris, Bibl. Nat. It. 568 sic, 900-1600, Cambridge, 1942; fourth re- Iv Ivrea, Biblioteca del Capitolo (without number) vised edition 1949 CS E.