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Monophonic Tune – Polyphonic Song

Nicole Schwindt

A polyphonically composed song is represented by a melody and a setting, to which a text usually – but not necessarily – belongs, whether sung or supplied mentally. The inherent tension between these components shapes the creation and reception of songs. This is even more pronounced in German songs of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries than in those from other European regions. We can only speculate on the relationship between the composition of polyphonic songs and the older tradition of monophonic song. Today, it is generally assumed that monophonic songs – whose melodies were more or less well known, but in any case existed – were at some point (orally or in writing) transformed into polyphonic settings and then notated as such. This seemingly natural chronology (a monophonic melody later set polyphonically) suffers, in the case of secular polyphonic songs, from the flaw that no such prior melody has yet been found in written form predating the polyphonic setting or settings in question – not even for songs that appear particularly archaic, such as Elslein, liebes Elselein[27] or Ich stund an einem morgen.[28] One can therefore only assume that composers shaped polyphonic settings – songs, Masses, and instrumental pieces – on the basis of pre-existing monophonic songs. These monophonic melodies can be reconstructed, but they apparently cannot be documented. This peculiar situation may be due to the fact that secular monophonic songs in the fifteenth century were only sporadically notated, whereas this was far more common for sacred songs. It also cannot be ruled out that the melodies we know from polyphonic settings were, in fact, created specifically for those settings, and gained independent status only later. Indeed, there is ample evidence that melodies were extracted from song settings and came to be regarded as autonomous, even popular, songs. They were subsequently sung monophonically, sometimes with contrafact texts, or used as the basis for new compositions. The three-part Tagelied about the morning star rising on the horizon, Ich sachs einsmals (» Audio example ♫ Ich sachs einsmals), found in the Sagan partbooks, the Leopold Codex, and quoted by Schmeltzl, also appears without notation in the so-called Songbook of Anna of Cologne,[29] in which texts and melodies were compiled from 1500 onwards for sisters of the Devotio moderna and adapted for spiritual use. The melody of Innsbruck ich muss dich lassen, set polyphonically by Isaac and probably invented for that setting, was still being sung by Bavarian Prince Albrecht in 1593 on his way to study in Ingolstadt, adapted to the words “O München ihe muest dich lassen, Ich zeich dahin mein strassen.”[30] Likewise, from Hofhaimer’s song Ach lieb mit leid, first transmitted in the Augsburg manuscript » D-As Cod. 2° 142a and in Öglin’s first print (» Fig. Hofhaimer, Ach lieb mit leid), the Palatine councillor Philipp von Winnenberg extracted the tenor, removed the rests required for polyphony, and published it with a sacred text in his monophonic song collection » Christliche Reuter Lieder (Strasbourg 1582).

 

[27] The earliest available source for the polyphonic Elslein song is the Sagan partbooks (PL-Kj Berol. Mus.ms. 40098), c. 1480. There is indeed an earlier transmission from around 1455 in the form of a monophonic melody, but with a Latin text Gaudeamus pariter (CZ-Pnm Vysehrad 376, fol. 39v; digitised in the database Melodiarum hymnologicum Bohemiae: http://tinyurl.com/gaudeamuspariter). It is very likely – or at least possible – that this is a sacred contrafactum of the secular monophonic Elslein song, though this cannot yet be documented.

[28] The earliest sources for this popular song are a broadside print of the text by Albert Kunne (Memmingen, c. 1501, see http://tinyurl.com/Ich-stund-Kunne, metadata at http://tinyurl.com/Kunne-meta) uand a freely paraphrased adaptation of melodic elements under the text marker in the tenor “Ich stund an einem Morgen”, entered around 1499/1500 on fols. 221v–222r in the Berlin mensural codex D-B Mus. ms. 40021. Both suggest a widely known song melody, although no earlier written version is currently documented.

[29] D-B Ms. germ. oct. 280, fol. 48b–49b (Nr. 33): Ich sien den morgenssterren.

[30] Bayerisches Hauptstaatsarchiv München, Geheimes Hausarchiv, 601, XXVI, letter from Duke Philipp to his father Wilhelm V dated 13.10.1593.

[1] For example, So lanc so meer as So lang si mir (in I-TRbc 90, fol. 344v) or Een vraulic wesen as Ein frölich wesenn (in the songbook of Johannes Heer, CH-SGs Ms. 462, fol. 28v–30r).

[2] Binchois’ Dueil angoisseux becomes De langwesus in I-TRbc 88, fol. 204v, De langwesus; of the frottola line “Tente a l’ora, ruzinente, ch’io vo’ cantar” only “Dentelore” remains in the manuscript CH-Bu F X 1–4 (fol. 97), written by the Augsburg scribe Johann Wüst; a quodlibet from the Sagan partbooks (No. 118) quotes the songs Rabaßkadol and Panny, pany, baby (“Woman, woman, old woman”).

[4] These are RISM numbers 1512/1, 1513/2, [1513]/3, [1513]/3 (published in Mainz in 1517), and 1519]/5 (a woodcut reprint of a lost songbook originally published around 1510 in Augsburg, printed 1514/1515, see Schwindt 2008).

[5] On all three manuscripts, see Strohm 1993, 492–503.

[8] According to Strohm 1993, 519, and Strohm 2001, 23, the manuscript was originally in the possession of the choir school of St. Jakob, Innsbruck, whose members were employed for musical service at court. See also » G. Nicolaus Krombsdorfer.

[10] I-TRbc 89, fol. 388v–389r; I-Fn, B.R. 229, fol. 174v–175r; » Guter seltzamer und kunstreicher teutscher Gesangk; Nürnberg 1544, Nr. 8: “Heyaho nun wie sie grollen dort auff dem Ritten die geschwollen” in the Secunda pars, T. 76–85; textual reference at the beginning, bars 1–13: “Woll wir aber heben an den Danhauser zu singen” (DTÖ 147/148, 63 and 69 f.).

[11] Bienenfeld 1904/1905, 96, note 2.

[12] CH-Zz, Ms. G 438 (written c. 1524); Pfisterer 2013.

[13] A-Wn Mus.Hs. 18810 (c. 1524) and D-Mu, 8°Cod. ms. 328–331 (before 1527), also known as the “Welser Songbook”.

[14] Also known as the “Herwart” or “Augsburg Songbook”.

[15] Birkendorf 1994, vol. 1, 98.

[16] Schwindt 2013, 126–130.

[17] D-W, Cod. Guelf. 78.Quodl.4 (Southern Germany c. 1505); D-Mbs Mus. ms. 4483 (Southern Germany c. 1515); A-Wn Cod. 4337 (Vienna, early 1520s); D-W Cod. Guelf. 292 Musica hdschr. (Constance?, c. 1525).

[18] CH-Bu F X 10 (1510); CH-Bu F X 5–9 (Fascicle I: c. 1510); CH-Bu F X 1–4 (Fascicle I: c. 1517/1518, Fascicle II: c. 1524); CH-Bu F VI 26 (first quarter of the sixteenth century); CH-SGs Ms. 462 (1510–1516, 1530), also known as the “Heer Songbook”.

[19] See above note 4.

[21] Sterl 1971, 24. Grünwald/Gruenwolt is documented as Persefant (under-herald) in Regensburg from 1483–1487.

[22] Grosch 2013, 48–54.

[23] A-Wn Cod. 3027 (Passau c. 1492–1494), fol. 174v–177r: “Von yppliklichen dingen”. Score reproduction in Curschmann 1970, 22 f.

[24] Quodlibet No. XX quotes the couplet “Da schalt sie jhn ein trollen, ein truncken vnd ein vollen” from the middle of the third Hesselloher stanza (Secunda pars, bars 133–137, rhythm corresponds to the song model, diastematic contour slightly modified, see DTÖ 147/148, 132).

[25] A-Whh RR V (1489-1492): Wien, Haus-, Hof- und Staatsarchiv, Reichsregister vol. V (1489–1492), fol. 60r.

[26] “Die situationsbasierten Thematisierungsverfahren lassen die Liebe vor allem als kulturelles Handeln in konventionalisierten Umständen erscheinen” (The situation-based methods of thematisation present love primarily as cultural action in conventionalised circumstances): Hübner 2013, 107.

[27] The earliest available source for the polyphonic Elslein song is the Sagan partbooks (PL-Kj Berol. Mus.ms. 40098). There is indeed an earlier transmission from around 1455 in the form of a monophonic melody, but with a Latin text Gaudeamus pariter (CZ-Pnm Vysehrad 376, fol. 39v; digitised in the database Melodiarum hymnologicum Bohemiae: http://tinyurl.com/gaudeamuspariter). It is very likely – or at least possible – that this is a sacred contrafactum of the secular monophonic Elslein song, though this cannot yet be documented.

[28] The earliest sources for this popular song are a broadside print of the text by Albert Kunne (Memmingen, c. 1501, see http://tinyurl.com/Ich-stund-Kunne, metadata at http://tinyurl.com/Kunne-meta) uand a freely paraphrased adaptation of melodic elements under the text marker in the tenor “Ich stund an einem Morgen”, entered around 1499/1500 on fols. 221v–222r in the Berlin mensural codex D-B Mus. ms. 40021. Both suggest a widely known song melody, although no earlier written version is currently documented.

[29] D-B Ms. germ. oct. 280, fol. 48b–49b (Nr. 33): Ich sien den morgenssterren.

[30] Bayerisches Hauptstaatsarchiv München, Geheimes Hausarchiv, 601, XXVI, letter from Duke Philipp to his father Wilhelm V dated 13.10.1593.

[31] On the history of the term, see Grosch 2013, 23–33. See also » B. Minnesang und alte Meister on the terminological tradition of “tenores”, which was initially not associated with polyphony.

[32] Complete transcription of both songs and further remarks in Strohm 1993, 496–499.

[34] Strohm 1989; Leverett 1995; Höink 2012. The overview should also include the Missa Ducis Saxsoniae Sing ich nit wol composed by Nicolas Champion dit Liegeois, whose song basis is already recorded before the South German manuscript D-WGl Lutherhalle Ms. 403/1048 (c. 1535/1536) in Bernhard Rem’s partbook setting D-Mu, 8°Cod. ms. 328–331 (before 1527).

[35] D-Mbs Mus. ms. 3154, fol. 53v: Tannhauser Ihr seid mir lieb (3v), fol. 151r: Veni creator spiritus, and Thanhauser jr seit mir lieb. Heidrich 2005, 54 ff.

[36] Klüpfel; Karl (ed.): Urkunden zur Geschichte des Schwäbischen Bundes (1488–1533), vol. 1, Stuttgart 1846, 24.

[37] On authorship, see Leverett 1995; on the musical style in the context of Frederick III, see Schmalz 1987; on the title, see Strohm 1989.

[38] Schwindt 2006, 51–56.

[40] See Schwindt 2013, 127 and 133.

[41] Edited in Adler/Koller 1900, 269. Further details on this song and its text in Schwindt 1999, 58–62.

[42] Hübner 2013, 107.


Recommended Citation:
Nicole Schwindt: “Songs in the Austrian Region, c. 1450-c.1520”, in: Musical Life of the Late Middle Ages in the Austrian Region <https://musical-life.net/en/essays/songs-austrian-region-c-1450-c-1520> (2026); slightly revised AI-assisted translation of the original German essay (2016).