Music for the Imperial Diet of Constance, 1507

In contrast to Isaac’s motet Optime pastor, an example of a comparatively private setting honouring a cleric (cf. Ch. Composed Praise of the Ruler: Isaac’s Motet Optime divino … pastor), there were logistical “mega-events” such as imperial diets, where the emperor, prince-electors, and other high-ranking secular and ecclesiastical dignitaries entered a bishop’s or imperial city with pomp and entourage (» D. Royal Entry) to negotiate future political strategies over a period of weeks, months, or even years. The trumpeters who accompanied them provided an indispensable sonic signal upon the arrival of each participant. Musicians temporarily employed by participants of the diet from among the local Stadtpfeifer (town pipers), as well as court chapels travelling in various sizes, also contributed to the soundscape that accompanied the elements of such grand events.

The imperial diet was usually opened with a mass of the Holy Spirit, to seek God’s blessing for the decisions to be made. In this, the emperor’s singers played a central role. It is very likely that at the Imperial Diet of Constance in 1507, where Maximilian I’s imperial coronation in Rome, the reform of the empire and other matters were once again to be negotiated (» D. Ch. Zum Repertoire der Handschrift A-Wn Mus.Hs. 15495), Maximilian’s chapel sang Isaac’s motet Sancti Spiritus assit nobis gratia (Secunda pars: Imperii proceres) (» Fig. Maximilian I. im Dom zu Konstanz).[9] With the opening quotation from the Pentecost sequence, the first part of the motet calls upon the Holy Spirit for support and commends Maximilian – in repeated chordal phrases – to the almighty God. The second part of the motet, by contrast, lists the various participants of the diet, who are called to unity and obedience towards Maximilian, for example, in the passage “Pro Maximiliano psallite” (“Sing for Maximilian”). Both sections use the same auditory and musical devices, and are characterised less by imitative counterpoint than by repeated notes and chordal declamation in homorhythmic passages, creating a majestic and festive sound that honoured the future emperor and suited the solemnity of the occasion.

Abb. Maximilian I. im Dom zu Konstanz

Kaiser Maximilian I. die Messe hörend im Dom zu Konstanz, im Vordergrund die Hofkapelle. Der Künstler stellt das Chorbuch in die Mitte und verteilt die 13 Musiker im Halbkreis darum. Diebold Schilling, Luzerner Chronik (1513), fol. 233v (S. 472). Abb. mit Genehmigung der Korporation Luzern. /

Emperor Maximilian I. in Constance cathedral, listening to a Mass service, with the court chapel in the foregrund. The miniaturist places the choirbook in a central position and arranges the 13 musicians in a semicircle around it. The musical source is the pivotal item in the performance described here. Diebold Schilling, Luzerner Chronik (1513), fol. 233v (p. 472). Reproduction with permission of the corporation of Lucerne. 

Another event at this imperial diet that required appropriate commemoration was the funeral ritual for Maximilian’s son Philip, who had died unexpectedly the previous year. As was customary in such cases, the event was marked with a Requiem Mass and a Lady Mass. It is documented that the Lady Mass was accompanied by trombones and the organ, the latter played by the imperial court organist Paul Hofhaimer.[10] The close musical connections between Isaac’s extraordinarily splendid motet Virgo prudentissima (6v) (» Audio example ♫ Virgo prudentissima) and his Mass of the same name suggest that this was the motet composed in Constance. (The note “Isaac CONSTANTIÆ POSVIT” appears beside this piece in » CH-SGs Cod. Sang. 464[11], fol. 5v). Furthermore, the magnificently conceived Mass Virgo prudentissima should also be seen in the context of this special occasion.[12] In the Mass, the Marian antiphon Virgo prudentissima, used as a cantus firmus, and the actual Ordinary Mass text interact musically in the closest way,[13] while in the motet, the special relationship between the Virgin Mary and King Maximilian I is also emphasised through the text. This “relationship” was often staged by the emperor himself and was also reflected iconographically, for example in the Feast of the Rosary painted by Albrecht Dürer in 1506 (» Fig. Albrecht Dürer, Das Rosenkranzfest). In this painting, not only is the coronation of Mary depicted, but also the simultaneous coronation of Maximilian by the Queen of Heaven, through whom the king receives his legitimacy.[14] The author of the richly imagistic, humanist-classicising Marian text of the motet – which quotes the antiphon only at the beginning of the main text and alludes to Virgil – was the imperial court chapel master Georg Slatkonia, who in 1513 was appointed the first Bishop of Vienna by Pope Leo X. Slatkonia was also responsible for the text of Optime divino … pastor (cf. Ch. Composed Praise of the Ruler: Isaac’s Motet Optime divino … pastor; McDonald, The chapel of Maximilian). In the text of Virgo prudentissima, Maximilian is addressed as emperor with the words “pro sacro imperio, pro Caesare Maximiliano,” even before his official proclamation as emperor by Cardinal Matthäus Lang (Trent, 1508).[15]

Liturgy, ruler panegyric, politics, representation, and the demonstration of power – are thus closely linked to the Imperial Diet of Constance. With their monumentalisation of sound, overwhelming spatial effects, and the stylisation of the Habsburg emperor, they impressively demonstrate Isaac’s compositional skill as well as his sensitivity to Maximilian’s representational needs. They also help explain why Isaac’s music lost none of its appeal even decades after his death. (» I. Ch. „Hic maxime Ecclesiasticum ornavit cantum“).