Medieval Music and the Art of Memory

Home , Discant, Organum

Medieval Music and the Art of Memory The publisher gratefully acknowledges the generous contribution to this book provided by Villa I Tatti, the Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies; the Otto Kinkeldey Publication Endowment Fund of the American Musicological Society; and the University of California, Davis, Department of Music. Medieval Music and the Art of Memory

Anna Maria Busse Berger

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS Berkeley Los Angeles London University of California Press Berkeley and Los Angeles, California University of California Press, Ltd. London, England © 2005 by The Regents of the University of California

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Berger, Anna Maria Busse. Medieval music and the art of memory / Anna Maria Busse Berger. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index. ISBN 0-520-24028-6 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Music—500–1400—History and criticism. 2. Music— 15th century—History and criticism. 3. Composition (Music)— History. 4. Memory. I. Title. ML172.B43 2005 780'.9'02—dc22 2004016542

Manufactured in the United States of America 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 10987654 321

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum require- ments of ANSI/NISO Z39.48–1992 (R 1997) (Permanence of Paper). For Karol, Trine, and Zuzia

contents

list of illustrations / viii list of tables / ix list of music examples / x acknowledgments / xiii list of abbreviations / xvi

Introduction / 1

1. Prologue: The First Great Dead White Male Composer / 9

i. the construction of the memorial archive / 45

2. Tonaries: A Tool for Memorizing Chant / 47

3. Basic Theory Treatises / 85 4. The Memorization of Organum, Discant, and Counterpoint Treatises / 111 ii. compositional process in polyphonic music / 159 5. Compositional Process and the Transmission of Notre Dame Polyphony / 161

6. Visualization and the Composition of Polyphonic Music / 198

Conclusion / 253

bibliography / 255 index / 281 illustrations

FIGURES 1. Hierarchies of Ofﬁce antiphons in the Metz and Reichenau Tonaries / 61 2. Hand from Aquitaine, Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, MS lat. 7211, fol. 149v / 75 3. Tonary of Regino of Prüm, Brussels, Bibliothèque Royale de Belgique, MS 2750/65, fol. 46r / 76 4. Tonary from Aquitaine, Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, MS lat. 1118, fol. 104r / 78 5. Dijon Tonary, Montpellier, Bibliothèque Interuniversitaire, MS H 159, fol. 15 / 80 6. Scala musicalis from Ghent, Rijksuniversiteit, Centrale Bibliotheek, MS 70, fol. 108r / 87 7. Diagram of the hand / 88 8. Twelfth-century hand from Admont, now at Rochester, Sibley Music Library, MS 92 1200, fol. 94v / 89 9. Lion with intervals, London, British Library, Harley 2637, fol. 40v / 104 10. Human body with interval progressions in Guido’s Micrologus, Brussels, Bibliothèque Royale de Belgique, MS II 784, fol. 15r / 105 11. Diagram of modal theory, Ghent, Rijksuniversiteit, Centrale Bibliotheek, MS 70, fol. 56v / 106

viii illustrations ix

12. Diagram of mensurations from Johannes Vetulus de Anagnia, Liber musices, Vatican City, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Barb. lat. 307, fol. 8r / 108 13. Anonymous XI, circle with mensural system, London, British Library, Add. MS 34200, fol. 36v / 109 14. Mnemonic marks in the Vatican organum treatise, Vatican City, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Ottob. lat. 3025, fol. 46r / 122 15. Consonance table from Franchinus Gaffurius, Practica musice, bk. 3, chap. 8 / 134 16. Multiplication tables from Filippo Calandri, Aritmetica, Florence, Biblioteca Riccardiana, MS 2669 / 135 17. The rhythmic modes / 176 18. Note shapes in Johannes de Garlandia, De mensurabili musica / 178 19. Alpha vibrans monumentum / Coetus venit heroicus / Amicum querit, Chantilly, Musée Condé, MS 564, fol. 64v / 226 20. Chantilly, Musée Condé, MS 564, fol. 65r / 227 21. The mensural system / 236

TABLES 1. The Carolingian modes and psalm tones / 57 2. Sights in Pseudo-Chilston / 203 3. Harmonic structure of taleae in Vitry, Douce playsance / Garison selon nature / Neuma quinti toni / 232 4. Rhythmic groups in Inter densas deserti meditans / Imbribus irriguis / 242 5. Harmonic rhythm in Inter densas deserti meditans / Imbribus irriguis / 243 6. Rhythmic cells in the triplum of Alpha vibrans monumentum / Coetus venit heroicus / Amicum querit / 249 music examples

1. Intonation formulas for mode 1 / 68 2. Latin intonation formulas from Reichenau / 69 3. Interval song E voces unisonas / 96 4. Interval song Ter tria cunctorum, possibly by Hermann of Reichenau / 97 5. Rule for consonances above an ascending step from the Vatican organum treatise / 123 6. Melismas for a tenor ascending by step from the Vatican organum treatise / 124 7. Melismas for a tenor ascending by step from the Vatican organum treatise / 125 8. Melismas ﬁlling in ascending steps in the G hexachord from the Vatican organum treatise / 126 9. Tinctoris, example of diminished counterpoint / 143 10. Cochlaeus, rules for cadences in three-part counterpoint / 147 11. Petrus dictus Palma ociosa, counterpoint examples / 153 12. Operibus sanctis from the Vatican organum treatise / 166 13. Note-against-note progressions in the Vatican organum treatise / 167 14. Operibus sanctis, mm. 1–17, reduced to note-against-note counterpoint / 169 15. Operibus sanctis, mm. 1–6, compared with formula 198 / 169

x music examples xi

16. Operibus sanctis, m. 2, compared with formula 343 / 169 17. Operibus sanctis compared with formulas 44 and 292 / 170 18. Operibus sanctis, mm. 8–9, compared with formula 202 / 170 19. Operibus sanctis, mm. 10–12, compared with formula 182 / 171 20. Operibus sanctis, m. 11, compared with formula 9 / 171 21. Operibus sanctis, m. 13, compared with formula 237 / 171 22. Operibus sanctis, mm. 14–15, compared with formula 251 / 172 23. Operibus sanctis compared with formula 244 / 172 24. Operibus sanctis, m. 166, compared with formula 94 / 173 25. “Dominus” melisma from Viderunt omnes / 189

26. “Dominus” tenor from W1, fol. 21r–v, and F, fol. 99r–v / 190

27. “Dominus” tenor from W1, no. 50, fol. 43; F, no. 26, fol. 149; and W2, fol. 63r–v / 190

28. “Dominus” organum, W2, fol. 63r–v / 190

29. Two motives from “Dominus” organum, W1, no. 5, fol. 43; F, no. 26, fol. 149; and W2, fol. 63r–v / 191 30. “Dominus” clausula rhythm, F, no. 29, fol. 149v / 192 31. Beginning of “Dominus” clausula in mode 2, F, no. 29, fol. 149v / 192 32. “Dominus” clausula in mode 2, F, no. 29, fol. 149v / 192

33. “Dominus” clausula in mode 1, W1, no. 39, fol. 47r–v / 193 34. “Dominus” clausula in mode 2, F, no. 30, fol. 149v / 194 35. Pseudo-Chilston, mene sight / 202 36. Pseudo-Chilston, treble sight / 204 37. Pseudo-Chilston, quatreble sight / 204 38. Faburden according to Trowell and Scott / 207 39. Tenor of Douce playsence / Garison selon nature / Neuma quinti toni / 228 40. Isorhythmic structure in Douce playsence / Garison selon nature / Neuma quinti toni / 230 41. Tenor of Inter densas / Imbribus / 241 42. Interval progressions in Inter densas / Imbribus / 244 43. Palindrome in talea of Vitry, Garrit gallus / In nova fert / 245 44. Tenor pattern of Alpha vibrans monumentum / Coetus venit heroicus / Amicum querit / 245

acknowledgments

This project was begun in 1992–93 when I was a fellow at Villa I Tatti, the Har- vard Institute of Italian Renaissance Studies in Florence. I had planned to work on an entirely different topic, but within a few weeks, Jan Ziolkowski, a visiting professor at I Tatti, suggested that I look at memory texts and Mary Car- ruthers’s new book, The Book of Memory: A Study of Memory in Medieval Culture. Little did I expect that it would be such a fruitful area of investigation. When I now look at the notes I made that year, I see that most of my ideas were al- ready in place, although it took me another decade to work them out in full. In October 1993, I read a paper on Notre Dame polyphony (chapter 5 of the present book) at the Annual Meeting of the American Musicological Society. After the talk, Edward Roesner was kind enough to tell me about an important unpublished paper by his student Stephen Immel (the paper has since been published) on the Vatican Organum Treatise, which allowed me to write another paper, on organum treatises, now incorporated in chapter 4. An earlier version of this paper was first read in March 1995 at Harvard University, and subsequently at the International Meeting of the Mediaevis- tenverband, Humboldt University, Berlin in February 1997. Various versions of chapter 5 were read at Music Departments at the Universities of Rome (1993), Cremona (1993), Göttingen (1998), UCLA, University of Colorado, Boulder, University of California, Berkeley, and at the Annual Meeting of the Medieval Academy of America at Boston in 1995. Chapter 1 was first read at the International Colloquium at Novacella in 1998 and at Oxford University, where I was an Astor Visiting Fellow in March 1999. Karl Kügle was kind enough to organize an afternoon’s discussion on chapter 1 for the 2003 International Colloquium at Novacella. Chapter 2 was presented and discussed at the University of California Medieval Seminar, The Hunting- ton Library, San Marino, California in March 2001. I read a portion of chap- xiii xiv acknowledgments ter 4, on discant and counterpoint treatises, at the Stanford Humanities Cen- ter in October 2001 and at the International Colloquium at Novacella in August 2003. Chapter 6 was given at the seminar “The Art and the Mind” at Stanford University, Center for the Advanced Study of the Behavioral Sci- ences, March 2002, at the University of California, Berkeley, October 2002, and at the Annual Meeting of the Medieval Academy of America at Min- neapolis in March 2003. I would like to thank all of the scholars who attended these presentations for many valuable comments. An earlier version of the section on organum treatises in chapter 4 was published in Das Mittelalter 3 (1998) and of chapter 5 in Journal of Musicol- ogy 14 (1996). I would like to thank the editors of these journals for their permission to use this material here. In addition to the I Tatti fellowship, the research for this project was sup- ported by a Guggenheim fellowship (1997–98), a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship for University Teachers (2001–2), and a fellowship at the Stanford Humanities Center (2001–2). I would like to thank all of these institutions for their generous help. The Committee on Research and the Dean of Humanities, Arts, and Cultural Studies at the University of California at Davis regularly provided me with research grants to visit libraries in Europe, order microfilms, and pay for research assistants. In addition, I received a Fac- ulty Development Grant in 2001–2 that allowed me to finish the book. I would like to thank Lynne Withey, Director of the University of Cali- fornia Press, for taking an interest in this project from the very beginning. Mary Francis, the music editor, and Rose Vekony were similarly helpful and supportive in the final stages of my work. This is my second book that Bon- nie Blackburn has copyedited. As always, she has done much more than that by generously sharing her expertise with me and making substantial comments on virtually every topic. Leofranc Holford-Strevens checked and im- proved many translations throughout the book. There are a great many colleagues, friends, and family members who have helped with this book. First, there is the I Tatti community, where I would like to single out Lina Bolzoni, Kathryn Bosi, Allen Grieco, Walter Kaiser, and Massimiliano Rossi. I Tatti lunches are a great way to learn new things and bounce one’s ideas off colleagues. Then, at the Stanford Humanities Center I was fortunate to have feedback from John Bender, Paul Berliner, Marcel Detienne, Louise Meintjes, Marc Pearlman, and Haun Saussy. Lewis Lockwood was the first to suggest with characteristic acumen that I look at everything Ludwig and Handschin ever wrote. Little did I expect I would find such interesting material! Reinhold Brinkmann and Rudolph Stephan shared valuable papers with me and had much to say about Friedrich Lud- wig and his students that would not have been available elsewhere. Reinhold Brinkmann, with typical modesty, never told me about an important article he had written on Ludwig, and I stumbled upon it more or less by accident.