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Two equal voices: a French song repertory with music for two more works of Oswald von Wolkenstein

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 December 2008

David Fallows
David Fallows
Affiliation:
University of Manchester
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Extract

Lorenz Welker kindly allowed me to see the typescript of his paper just as I was embarking on an attempt to list the polyphonic song repertory of the years 1415–80. With the startling knowledge that some of Oswald's music originated as late as 1420, my ear was obviously alert for more such pieces. Sure enough two additional polyphonic songs by Oswald turned out to have music taken from the French repertory of the early fifteenth century. They are Sag an gesellschaft/Von rechter lieb kraft and Kom liebster man.

Type
Research Article
Information
Early Music History , Volume 7 , October 1987 , pp. 227 - 241
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1987

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References

1 Abbreviations used are as follows:

CMM: Corpus Mensurabilis Musicae (American Institute of Musicology)

DTO 18: Schatz, J. and Koller, O., eds., Oswald von Wolkenstein: geistliche und weltliche Lieder, Denkmäler der Tonkunst in Österreich, 18, Jg. ix/1 (Vienna, 1902, R1959)Google Scholar

PMFC: Polyphonic Music of the Fourteenth Century (Éditions de l'Oiseau-Lyre, Monaco)

R4:10, etc.: a rondeau with a four-line stanza and lines of ten syllables.

V5/4:10, etc.: a virelai with a five-line refrain, four-line piedi and lines of ten syllables.

Manuscript call-numbers are preceded by their libraries expressed in the sigla used in RISM (Répertoire International des Sources Musicales).

2 DTO 18, no. 109. Wolf, J., Geschichte der Mensural-Notation von 1250–1460 (Leipzig, 1904), no. 75.IGoogle Scholar. Pelnar, , Die mehrstimmigen Lieder Oswalds von Wolkenstein: Edition, Münchner Editionen zur Musikgeschichte, 2 (Tutzing, 1981), no. 27Google Scholar.

3 This is a tricky issue, since several writers have suggested that ‘rondeau refrains’ with no continuation in the musical sources may never have had any further text. Against their view are two main considerations: that concordant sources quite often complete the poem; and that poetic sources of the fifteenth century betray no hint of a genre of such ‘rondeau refrains’.

4 The available literature, confined to passing mentions, is listed in Hamm, C. and Kellman, H., eds., Census-Catalogue of Manuscript Sources of Polyphonic Music, 1400–1550, iii, Renaissance Manuscript Studies 1 (Stuttgart, 1984), pp. 34–5Google Scholar.

5 The only other northern sources of French song from the first half of the century are E-E v.iii.24 and the fragment D-Mbs cod. gall. 902. The remainder were copied in Italy or in German-speaking lands, with the possible exception of E-MO 823 in which, however, the only visible watermark seems to be Italian, see Carmen Gómez, Ma, ‘El manuscrito 823 de Montserrat (Biblioteca del monasterio)’, Musica Disciplina, 36 (1982), pp, 39–93, on p. 49Google Scholar.

6 The complete poem appears in three main sources. The most easily accessible is in Le jardin de plaisance et fleur de rethoricque (Paris, [1501]), fol. 62 (no. 18)Google Scholar, and subsequent editions, though in this source the second stanza is interchanged with the fourth and the relevant line reads ‘Vueillez oyr tous amoureux’. The best source for the poem would seem to be in F-Pn fr. 12744, no. 73. ed. Paris, G., Chansons du xve siècle (Paris, 1875), p. 71Google Scholar, where the line reads ‘Venez ouyr, vrais amoureulx’. It also appears in S'ensuivent plusieurs belles chansons nouvelles (Paris, [c. 1512–1525])Google Scholar, edited from the unique copy, F-Pn Rés. Vm. 112, in Jeffery, B., Chanson Verse of the Early Renaissance, i (London, 1971), p. 49Google Scholar, where the line reads ‘Venez ouyr, vrays amoureux’; further reprints of this version are summarised in Jeffery, , Chanson Verse, ii (London, 1976), p. 281Google Scholar. The manuscripts containing the four-voice setting by Ninot Le Petit never have more than the first stanza of the poem. I propose a date in the 1460s for the poem because all the identified songs cited appear in sources from the 1460s or earlier; that it cites not a single song by Hayne van Ghizeghem or Busnois, for example, makes a date after about 1470 virtually impossible.

7 It is published in DTO 18, no. 100, and Pelnar, op. cit., no. 34.

8 Pelnar, op. cit., p. 169, runs the present lines 6 and 7 together as a single line, as does Klein, Karl Kurt, ed., Die Lieder Oswalds von Wolkenstein (Tübingen, 1962), pp. 255–6Google Scholar, where in addition lines 11 and 12 are run together.