The Media of Polyphonic Vocal Music around 1500. A Case Study: Jacob Obrecht’s Missa Salve diva parens

Jacob Obrecht’s Missa Salve diva parens, perhaps composed in the context of Archduke Maximilian’s coronation as King of the Romans at Aachen in the spring of 1486 (» Obrecht’s Missa Salve Diva Parens) survives in numerous sources from the late fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Barton Hudson lists a total of sixteen sources in his critical edition of the Mass; eight of these contain only an excerpt of the Mass.[1] As is usual at this time, there is no autograph manuscript. (For an exception in the case of Heinrich Isaac, see » I. Ch. “Ysaac de manu sua”). Music of this time is transmitted predominantly in handwritten copies, and from 1501 increasingly also in printed editions, which were distributed on the open market and reached a variety of recipients.[2] Some late medieval compositions (though not the Missa Salve diva parens) are also known from tablatures – essentially idiomatic arrangements – for lute or keyboard instruments (» C. Ch. Fragmente einer (Wiener?) Organistenwerkstatt). Finally, compositionally interesting sections often found their way into the music-theoretical treatises of the time (cf. Ch. Theoretical Writings and Music-Making Books) or were separately notated for didactic and instrumental practice. We may regard the transmission of a composition in multiple extant sources – even though we must always reckon with a significant loss of sources – as an indicator that it was disseminated widely or popular at the time.

Obrecht’s Missa Salve diva parens provides a good example for illustrating the technological basis for the notation and dissemination of polyphonic vocal music around the year 1500.[3] Four sources for this Mass have been transmitted from the Austrian region.

Grand choir books such as » A-Wn Mus.Hs. 15495 (» D. Ch. Ein Geschenk für den frischgebackenen Kaiser: Das Alamire-Chorbuch A-Wn Mus.Hs. 15495) were often written on precious parchment and served as a gift for a ruler. Whether such luxury sources were actually used for music-making remains a matter of debate. It is more likely that the repertoire was copied into other manuscripts for singing, what we might call “practical manuscripts”. These too, if intended for an institution such as a court chapel, might be arranged on the page as choir books, that is, with all voices distributed across a double-page spread. However, practical manuscripts were generally more modest in design: for example, they feature calligraphic rather than illuminated initials, paper instead of parchment, and a style of text and notation that were simpler in design, and thus quicker to write.

Obrecht’s Missa Salve diva parens was specially adapted for inclusion in the lavish codex A-Wn Mus.Hs. 15495, copied more than twenty years after the mass was written. For instance, at the end of the Sanctus, ten rhythmically intricate mensurations were simply omitted. During the copying process, voice leading was altered and seemingly old-fashioned under-third cadences or fauxbourdon passages were removed; the erasures are still visible in the manuscript.[4]

The so-called “Linz Fragments” (» A-LIb Hs. 529; » Fig. Missa Salve diva parens, Linz Fragments) are remnants of a completely different type of manuscript: they were not produced for representational purposes, but functioned as practical manuscripts or archives of repertoire. Individual pages even suggest that they were used for instrumental performances (» Fig. Ein tagweiss). The manuscript was created around 1490–1492, in the broader context of the court chapel of Emperor Frederick III, who spent his final years residing in Linz.[5] Among the works transmitted in the fragments are two Masses by Obrecht, Heinrich Isaac’s motet Argentum et aurum (» Audio example ♫ Argentum et aurum), as well as anonymous settings of the Ordinary and Proper, hymns, Magnificat settings, cantiones, German songs, and French chansons.[6] The Missa Salve diva parens was certainly once fully notated in this manuscript, but today only a short section of the Mass survives.[7]

Abb. Missa Salve diva parens, Linzer Fragmente

Ausschnitt von Jacob Obrechts Missa Salve diva parens in den „Linzer Fragmenten“ (» A-LIb Hs. 529, S. 5).

(Foto: Robert Klugseder)

On this page of the Linz Fragments, the Altus voice (first “Osanna”) from the Missa Salve diva parens is visible at the top, and below it (in the C4 clef) the Bassus voice (“Pleni sunt” and first “Osanna”). Three staves are cut off at the top (beginning of the “Pleni sunt” in the Altus); at the very bottom, part of the stave is missing. The Discantus and Tenor voices of these sections of the Mass would have been notated on the facing left-hand page.

Such fragments transmitting (late) medieval music exist today because bookbinders sometimes reused discarded parchment or paper as binding material for other books. Even after the compositions themselves were no longer of interest, the material on which they were written remained valuable. In this process of “secondary use”, the leaves were often trimmed, as we see here, and frequently suffered further damage through binding, gluing, removal, and so on.

Polyphonic music was transmitted both in manuscript and print. Polyphony was often printed in so-called “partbooks”, small booklets in landscape format, with each book containing only one voice of a polyphonic composition. In practice, these partbooks were kept together as a complete set. If one or more partbooks have been lost, it can happen that any compositions transmitted uniquely in those partbooks survives today only as a fragment, in this case, missing one or more voice parts. The format of partbooks is less suited to the performance practice of chapels at large institutions, and more appropriate for music-making in smaller settings, whether in private contexts or in smaller ensembles performing within the framework of foundations.

The Venetian printer Ottaviano Petrucci systematically published a total of fifty-three music books from the year 1501 onwards, some in multiple editions.[8] These were printed in small format on paper. Petrucci printed both secular repertoire and motets, but most frequently settings of the Mass.

In the year 1503, Petrucci printed Missa Salve diva parens as the last of five Masses by Obrecht in the single-author collection Misse Obreht, that is, “Masses of Obrecht” (» Fig. Misse Obreht, Discantus; » Fig. Misse Obreht, Tenor; » Fig. Misse Obreht, Bassus).[9] This collection was only the second printed collection of Mass settings by a single composer, and Petrucci’s fifth musical edition overall. As in the pioneering edition » Misse Josquin of 1502 and in later single-author Mass collections, Petrucci arranged the voices in separate partbooks.[10]

Abb. Misse Obreht, Discantus

Titelseite des Discantus-Stimmbuchs des Drucks » Misse Obreht Venedig: Ottaviano Petrucci 1503; Exemplar D-Mbs 4° Mus.pr. 160/1) mit der Angabe aller in diesem Stimmbuchsatz enthaltenen Messen. Mit Genehmigung der Bayerischen Staatsbibliothek.

In printed editions, paratexts[11] became even more important than before. Beside detailed title pages indicating the contents of the book, as we see, for example, in » Fig. Misse Obreht, Discantus, printed music books might contain a printed preface with dedication, though these were rare in Petrucci’s editions, and absent entirely from the Misse Obreht. Printed books often contained colophons that indicate the printer, place of printing, year of publication, and extent of the edition. Such technical information might allow users to verify the completeness of their copy, since the printed sheets were often sold in separate gatherings and only bound later (» Fig. Misse Obreht, Bassus).

Abb. Misse Obreht, Bassus

Kolophon im Bassus-Stimmbuch des Drucks » Misse Obreht, Venedig: Ottaviano Petrucci 1503; Exemplar » D-Mbs 4° Mus.pr. 160/1) Ein Benutzer hat das lateinische Kürzel zu „[Forosem]pronien“ (deutsch: „aus Fossombrone“, Petruccis Geburtsort) aufgelöst.

(Mit Genehmigung der Bayerischen Staatsbibliothek.)

The print run for Petrucci’s editions was probably no more than 300 copies.[12] Today, just seven copies of Petrucci’s » Misse Obreht are known to survive. All three copies held in Austrian and South German libraries were bound together with other Petrucci collections of Masses. One such collector’s volume is a thick volume containing at least 393 individual Mass settings (» A-Wn SA.77.C.13/1–3; » Fig. Misse Obreht, Tenor).[13] Such extensive volumes might have been owned by bibliophiles (who may not have sung from them at all), patrons of music (such as the Fuggers in Augsburg: » E. Musik für die Fugger) professional musicians or institutions. One could imagine them being used, for instance, in a large Mass foundation that involved the regular performance of figural music by a relatively small group of singers (» D. SL Waldauf-Stiftung). Individual music books by Petrucci were certainly also purchased by private individuals who, not affiliated with an institution, pursued the singing and playing of polyphonic music out of personal interest, and were proficient in mensural notation. Such owners might have been nobles, clerics, wealthy citizens (merchants, doctors, lawyers), professors, teachers, or (well-off) students.[14]

Abb. Misse Obreht, Tenor

Beginn von Jacob Obrechts Missa Salve diva parens im Tenor-Stimmbuch des Drucks Misse Obreht (» Venedig: Ottaviano Petrucci 1503; Exemplar » A-Wn SA.77.C.13/1–3, S. 31). Am rechten Seitenrand befinden sich die handschriftlichen Nummern „260“ und „261“: Der zeitgenössische Besitzer nummerierte sämtliche Messsätze des Bandes, in dem der Druck Misse Obreht mit 13 weiteren Petrucci-Messdrucken zusammengebunden war, einzeln durch.

(Mit Genehmigung der Österreichischen Nationalbibliothek.)

Soon after Petrucci’s first publication, music was also printed in the German-speaking world.[15] As early as 1507, a collection of four Masses by Jacob Obrecht was printed at Basel by Gregor Mewes (» Concentus harmonici[16]); very shortly thereafter, settings of odes (» I. Odengesang), songs, and later also motets were printed in Augsburg. Some of these books are closely connected with the musical repertoire of the court chapel of Maximilian I (» D. Ch. On the Musical Sources of Maximilian’s Court Chapel; » B. Ch. Liederdrucke).

A two-voice section from Obrecht’s Missa Salve diva parens, the “Qui cum Patre” from the Credo (» Audio example ♫ Qui cum Patre) enjoyed particular popularity. This strict canon at the unison evidently fascinated contemporaries so much[17] that it was transmitted as a standalone movement in at least seven sources from the sixteenth century. These included theoretical treatises such as » Heinrich Glarean’s Dodecachordon (Basel 1547), didactic texts such as » Sebald Heyden’s De arte canendi (Nürnberg 1540), and in practical collections of two-voice sections from larger compositions, compiled for domestic performance or for instructional purposes (“bicinium collections”).[18] One such bicinium collection is the manuscript » A-Wn Mus.Hs. 18832/1–2 of the Austrian National Library (» Fig. Qui cum Patre). Such music-making books appear particularly in the context of music education at Protestant schools in the later sixteenth century.

Abb. Qui cum Patre

Das „Qui cum Patre“ aus dem Credo von Obrechts Missa Salve diva parens im Stimmbuch für die Oberstimme der Biciniensammlung » A-Wn Mus.Hs. 18832/1–2, fol. 14v–15r. Das Stück beginnt auf der linken Seite in der dritten Notenzeile; davor steht mit Bleistift die moderne Nummerierung „13“.

(Mit Genehmigung der Österreichischen Nationalbibliothek.)

The partbook set shown here, like the lavish choir book » A-Wn Mus.Hs. 15495 (» D. Ch. Ein Geschenk für den frischgebackenen Kaiser: Das Alamire-Chorbuch A-Wn Mus.Hs. 15495), originates from the Alamire scriptorium. It was written in the early 1520s by Petrus Alamire himself for Raimund Fugger the Elder (» E. Musik für die Fugger).The fact that the manuscript names no composers and – with few exceptions – includes neither texts nor incipits suggests that Raimund probably commissioned the books for the instrumental music-making of his children.[19]