Abstracts

Tobias APELT (München)
Vorstellung der Datenbank Orlando di Lasso. Seine Werke in handschriftlicher Überlieferung
Orlando di Lassos Erfolg als bedeutendster Komponist seiner Zeit zeigt sich sehr deutlich in der Tatsache, daß seine Werke über ganz Europa in Drucken und Handschriften verbreitet wurden. Ist die Überlieferung in zeitgenössischen Drucken durch den umfangreichen, dreibändigen Katalog von Horst Leuchtmann und Bernhold Schmid (Kassel 2001) als Supplement zur Neuen Reihe der Orlando di Lasso-Gesamtausgabe vollständig erfaßt, so steht eine ähnliche Dokumentation der handschriftlichen Verbreitung, die insbesondere die Rezeption Lassos in Zentraleuropa bezeugt, noch aus. Den einzigen Anhaltspunkt bietet das Werkverzeichnis von Wolfgang Boetticher (Wilhemshaven 1998). Leider ist dieses Verzeichnis aber sehr ungenau und stellenweise fehlerhaft. So war eine Fortsetzung des Katalogs von Leuchtmann/Schmid für den Bereich der Musikhandschriften nicht nur wünschenswert, sondern auch notwendig. In Kooperation mit der Musikhistorischen Kommission der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften betreue ich die Datenbank Orlando di Lasso. Seine Werke in handschriftlicher Überlieferung, die sämtliche Handschriften mit Musik Lassos erfaßt. Sie enthält den Nachweis für etwa 600 Quellen. Ziel ist, die einzelnen Werke für den Benutzer leicht auffindbar zu machen, so daß er sich schnell ein Gesamtbild darüber machen kann, welche Stücke in welchen Handschriften überliefert sind, oder einen vollständigen Überblick der in einer Bibliothek versammelten Quellen zu Lassos Musik erhalten kann.
Es ist geplant, die Datenbank online zu schalten und bei der ViFaMusik – Virtuelle Fachbibliothek Musikwissenschaft anzusiedeln, die von der Bayerischen Staatsbibliothek, dem Staatlichen Institut für Musikforschung in Berlin und der Gesellschaft für Musikforschung gemeinsam betreut und von der DFG unterstützt wird.
Bartosz AWIANOWICZ (Toruń)
The Graeco-Latin vocabulary of Petrus Wilhelmi de Grudencz
While the music by Petrus Wilhelmi de Grudencz was the subject of many publications, the poetry of this interesting Central-European composer is still waiting for a systematic analysis. The aim of this paper is to examine Petrus’ vocabulary, especially the use of Greek and Graeco-Latin words and their function. The frequent use of Greek nouns and adjectives in the composer’s poetry (e.g. I/4 Pontifices ecclesiarum 120 and 123, I/9 Phonicorum ethicorum 1–2, I/11 Probleumata enigmatum 1–2 and I/14 Plaudite euge theotocos) prove his interest in Greek as one of the sacred languages or such vocabulary is common for magistri atrium of the Kraków Academy in the 15th century or composers at the court of emperor Frederick III?
Hrvoje BEBAN (Zagreb)
Inter arma (non) silent musae. Renaissance musical culture in Croatia during the reign of the Jagiellon dynasty
After the 14th-century reign of the Anjou Dynasty, sovereigns from different European dynasties succeeded to the Hungarian-Croatian throne in the span from 15th century until the beginning of the 16th century. Among them were also three rulers from Jagiellon dynasty: Vladislaus III of Varna (1440–1444), Vladislaus II of Bohemia and Hungary (1490–1516) and Louis II of Bohemia and Hungary (1516–1526). During this period Croatia itself turned into a huge battlefield because of the Turkish invasions. After two crushing defeats the territory of Croatia was so cut down in size that it was rightly called “reliquiae reliquiarum olim inclyti Regni Croatiae”. On the other side, the Republic of Venice conquered almost all coastal towns and the whole of Dalmatia, except Dubrovnik, which, as a free Republic thrived in this period. In spite of these turbulent events, the intellectual and cultural activities in other coastal towns continued, whereas in Northern Croatia conditions for productive cultural life were not so propitious.
Considering this complex political situation on the territory of today’s Croatia, and taking the rule of the Jagiellonian dynasty as the point of reference, the paper displays the different layers of Renaissance musical culture, including musical forms of vocal polyphony and popular urban song as well as the activity of Croatian music printers and music theorists. Moreover, the consideration is also given to migrations of musicians and unequal conditions for music production in different Croatian towns, which led to diverse forms of musical life.
Marco BEGHELLI (Bologna)
Jagiellonians on the rebound: Zygmunt in Italy
The Italian influence on Polish cultural life during the sixteenth century had no immediate consequences in the opposite direction, but it did have an after-effect, in the area of music theatre. At the very beginning of the nineteenth century, a considerable number of successful Italian operas appeared with a Polish setting: among the most important, Cherubini’s Lodoiska and Faniska, Mayr’s Lodoiska, Rossini’s Torvaldo e Dorliska, Mercadante’s Costanzo ed Almeriska, and Gyrowetz and Verdi’s Il finto Stanislao. Poland thus clearly took on the role of an exotic landscape that the Middle East had held in Metastasian opera seria, but with one basic difference: the subjects were no longer taken from ancient times but from modern history, as the Romantic fashion dictated. Nevertheless, there is not a great deal of true Polish history to be found in them, just as true Greek, Persian or Mongolian history cannot be found in eighteenth century opera librettos. Poland had become a new mythical land, replacing the older ones.
Among the oddest “Polish” librettos, I will concentrate on Rossini’s Sigismondo (Venice 1814; text by Giuseppe Maria Foppa). The setting is in Gesna (Gniezno) and some characters are typically Polish (or assumed to be Polish), to judge by their names: Ladislao, Radoski, etc. Above and beyond this, the title role refers to a number of illustrious Polish kings, but does not have a specific historical foundation. On the contrary, the opera is based on a range of literary sources, most importantly the story of Ginevra and Ariodante from Ariosto’s Orlando furioso (1532), that is to say the Italian poem considered as one of the standards of Renaissance literary culture, the very same culture which Zygmunt and his wife Bona Sforza had once introduced into Polish society.
James BOYCE, O. Carm. (New York)
A medieval tale of two cities: Prague, Kraków and the Carmelite choir books
In 1397 a group of Carmelites left their convent in Prague to found a new convent in Kraków, Poland, the first such Carmelite foundation in Małopolska, the Lesser Kingdom of Poland. They came at the invitation of Queen Jadwiga, whose footprint is traditionally preserved at the side of their church and whom the local Carmelites continue to honor as the founder of their convent. The Carmelites brought with them two or possibly three (one may be lost) choir books for chanting the Divine Office, since without a regular cycle of liturgical offices the new foundation could not be considered a proper religious house.
One of the original choir books is now in the “Ossolineum” of Wrocław, ms. [rkps] 12025/IV, while the other two remain in the Carmelite priory of Kraków where they are known as mss. 1 and 2. A colophon in the Wrocław manuscript is particularly instructive, since it documents the friars responsible for its production. In particular the choir director in Prague, a Fr. Procopius, enjoyed a forty-six-year tenure in that position, making him both conversant with the Carmelite liturgical tradition and proud enough of his Bohemian background to include some local feasts in the manuscripts, including the Visitation office composed by John of Jenstein, the Archbishop of Prague, offices for the Dedication of a Church and for Our Lady of the Snows which bear close ties to the local Prague tradition, and the specifically Bohemian offices for St. Wenceslaus and St. Ludmila.
The Carmelites’ arrival in Kraków signaled the order’s first foundation in the Kingdom of Poland and coincided with all too brief reign of Queen Jadwiga. Her ambition to establish a Catholic identity for the Kingdom, firmly loyal to the Roman pope Boniface IX, were partially realized by the addition of a new religious order to the spiritual landscape of Kraków. The letter of apostolic confirmation issued by Boniface IX permitting the Carmelites to build their church and related buildings specifically referred to the increase of spiritual worship which the order inevitably would bring to the city. My paper will demonstrate the important role that the German and Bohemian Carmelites played in the intellectual and spiritual life of Kraków and show how, through their liturgical practices and spiritual life, they were inextricably allied with the spiritual aims of John of Jenstein, the archbishop of Prague, Queen Jadwiga of Poland and Pope Boniface IX.
Jolanta BYCZKOWSKA-SZTABA (Warszawa)
The Cracovian chants for the feast of St Johannes Elemosynarius (first half of the 16th century) in the context of his worship in Central Europe
St Johannes Elemosynarius (d. 616) was an Alexandrian patriarch characterised by great love for the poor and the sick. His cult was brought to Poland from Alexandria by Mikołaj Lanckoroński de Brzezie in the early sixteenth century. The cult had its beginnings among the Canons Regular from the Corpus Christi monastery on Kazimierz in Kraków, and quickly spread not only to the rest of Kraków (among monastic and diocesan communities) but to other centres in Poland, such as Gniezno, Płock and Poznań. This is documented by manuscripts preserved in Polish collections, the oldest of which is Johannis Eleemosynarii Historia from the Chapter Library in Kraków (MS 60), dated to 1504.
Among the mass chants intended for the feast of St Johannes Elemosynarius (14 November) and used in Poland, only the introit Dispersit dedit pauperum has been found in other sources. They do not appear in the Vatican edition, nor in other sixteenth-century manuscripts. For this reason one may hypothesise that the mass formulary for the feast day of St Johannes Elemosynarius was probably written in Kraków, and was exclusively linked to the cult of that saint. This paper will present arguments supporting this hypothesis, and present an analysis of the extant texts and melodies contained in the Mass formulary for the feast of St Johannes Elemosynarius.
Jan CIGLBAUER (Praha)
Neumarkter Cantionale: Geistliche lateinische Lieder um 1470 und ihre Vergangenheit in mitteleuropäischen Handschriften
Die Handschrift Wrocław, Archiwum Archidiecezjalne, Cod. 58 – Neumarkter Cantionale enthält das Repertoire einer lateinischen Pfarrschule im Breslauer Kreis. Die lateinischen Lieder weisen eine gewisse individuelle musikalische und textliche Stilistik aus, deren wichtigsten Merkmale ich aufzuzeigen versuche. In Betracht möchte ich auch die Art und Weise ziehen, wie diese Lieder komponiert wurden. Mit einigen Liedern aus dieser Repertoiregruppe sind interessante Fragen bezüglich der Herkunft ihrer Texte oder der freien Behandlung der Melodien verbunden.
Marc DESMET (Saint-Etienne)
Establishing a chronology of Jacob Handl’s masses. Evidence and problems
Although they belong to an early stage of Jacob Handl’s artistic development, the twenty masses bearing the Carniolian composer’s name do not give easy evidence of their origin: sixteen of them were printed in four books all issued in 1580, and the remaining four or so can also be traced back around the end of the 1570’. A number of elements, including the composer’s own appreciations, yet enable to understand they were conceived not only at different moments, but most probably for the different institutions frequented by the composer during his early career as a church musician. Confrontation between a possible chronological reconstruction and the different stylistic features displayed in the masses reveals interesting details about the composer’s ability to respond to a wide variety of artistic requirements, from the most important liturgical and musical genre of the time.
Scott EDWARDS (Berkeley CA)
Latinizing the laity: metrical psalms in sixteenth-century Bohemia
One literary genre to have flourished in late 16th century Europe includes Latin metrical translation of the Psalter. Aside from widespread devotional uses, the possibilities for poetic expansion made the Psalter particularly appealing to translators, who cultivated their literary skills through metrical problems and formal experimentation. Moreover, these verses offered printers an attractive venture for publication, since they could be enjoyed by Catholics, Utraquists, and Bohemian Brethren alike. This paper will examine sixteenth-century Bohemian writers, musicians, and printers involved in their production. As the site of a highly literate flourishing of the genre amidst a relatively tolerant confessional atmosphere, Bohemia offers an interesting case study for a widespread European phenomenon. In addition, Czech metrical psalms appeared relatively early in the century, a result of the region’s unique confessional distribution.
A predilection for the Penitential Psalms in particular reflected the need for introspection during a period of intense religious upheaval. These seven psalms also enabled a more economical printing format that encouraged their use as household objects rather than rarefied luxury items. Indeed, books of versified psalms could serve very practical purposes. The establishment of Latin schools in Bohemia provided an important impetus for writers to publish their translations, since daily life at these schools included psalm singing. This practice not only facilitated Christian learning, but also, once the students knew the melodies, helped students learn their Horatian odes. Many musicians and writers of versified psalms, including Tomáš Mitis, Petr Kodicill, and David Crinitus, were renowned as secular educators. Their verses disclose a wider, more secular musical practice, in that many books draw attention to the interchangeability of melodies and texts, not only through explicit rubrics above the printed melodies but through an implicit tradition of obecní nota.
Gioia FILOCAMO (Bologna/Terni)
The musical taste of Ippolito I d’Este, Archbishop between Hungary and Italy
Son of the famous Duke Ercole I of Ferrara, and also the younger brother of Isabella Gonzaga, Ippolito d’Este (1470–1520) lived a short and very intense life. His various duties connected with his precocious ecclesiastical career (having been appointed archbishop at the age of 8!) took him outside Italy: he was first Archbishop of Esztergom, and then Archbishop of Eger. Altogether Ippolito spent nearly a third of his life in Hungary, and he succeeded in creating an international personal empire thanks to his multiple, at times overlapping, positions. The extraordinarily rich Ippolito – appointed cardinal when he was just 14 years old – patronized music like his brothers and sisters, but he had a decided preference for the instrumental repertory. Almost ninety years ago Tiberio Gerevich wrote that “the premises of all his love for art and for his culture must be sought in Hungary, especially in the Esztergom environment. There Ippolito found a social milieu worthy of the leading European nations, headed by his uncle Mattias Corvinus” (from Corvina. Rivista di scienze, lettere ed arti della Società ungherese-italiana Mattia Corvino, I, 1921).
The aim of this paper is to investigate Ippolito’s musical patronage, in order to understand if his predilection for instrumental music can be connected to his international experiences from a very young age. Is it possible that Ippolito preferred instrumental music – less connected to local languages, so more international – because of his uprooting from Italy during his childhood? And more generally, can we think of instrumental music as the best vehicle to form an “European” musical taste during the Renaissance?
Paweł GANCARCZYK (Warszawa)
Music and diplomacy at the court of the Teutonic Order in Prussia
The available information about the musical culture of the Teutonic Order in Prussia is very meagre. However, many interesting details can be gleaned from the Marienburger Tresslerbuch, the accounts book of the Grand Treasurer of Marienburg (Malbork), for the years 1399–1409. On the basis of various references in it, we are able to reconstruct what appears to be quite a colourful life at the court of the Grand Masters, where music played a not insignificant part. The Masters employed their own musicians, but also financed the fiddlers, pipers and singers who accompanied official delegations visiting Marienburg. At the court we find not only musicians from the German lands or from Poland and Lithuania, but also those from distant Portugal and Italy. An analysis of the Grand Master’s accounts shows that music was an important element in diplomacy. At the time of intense negotiations with Grand Duke Witold, his wife Anna was being presented with valuable musical instruments. The musicians of King Władysław Jagiełło and the Archbishop of Gniezno were also being handsomely rewarded – this, however, did not prevent the outbreak of the great war of 1409–1411.
Stefan GASCH (Wien)
Senfl’s compositions for Duke Albrecht of Brandenburg-Prussia
It is well known that Ludwig Senfl – although working at the catholic court of Duke Albrecht of Bavaria – corresponded actively with leading figures of the Reformation such as Martin Luther and Duke Albrecht of Brandenburg-Prussia. The latter who is known as an active protectionist of the new religion specially in Königsberg and the regions of the Deutschordensstaat, ordered several times compositions from Senfl which presumably became part of Albrecht’s so called “Silberbibliothek”, later included in the University Library of Königsberg (Kaliningrad).
Although there is hardly any music manuscript left from Albrecht’s time to give evidence of Senfl’s music in Königsberg, we have at least little knowledge about the genres. In one letter to Albrecht dating from 20 July 1535 Senfl mentions the three psalm settings Deus in adiutorium (4v), De profundis clamavi (5v), and Quid retribuam Domino (6v). Whereas Quid retribuam Domino seems irretrievably lost, the music of the other two motets is still extant. Compared to other compositions Senfl sent to the court in Königsberg the case with these compositions is different however as Senfl has sent them to Duke Albrecht as a gift; regarding the strict control under which Senfl kept his compositions, the exclusive appearance in Königsberg (beside the Munich court) shows that Senfl must have estimated them as works of high quality worth enough to present them to a court that would not only have a need for it but surely could also realize their musical importance.
This insight in Senfl’s personal aesthetics leads to the question why he judged them this way. But it is not only the composer’s high esteem of these works that demand a deeper investigation in the two remaining pieces. Above, the inclusion of Deus in adiutorium in one of the most famous books up to date – Glarean’s Dodecachordon – and the wide distribution of De profundis later on, specially in protestant sources such as the Walter manuscripts (D-B 40013, D-Ngm 83795, D-Gol Chart. A 98), need to ask for the characteristics that distinguish them from other motets.
The paper therefore wants to focus on these compositions and exemplify some of Senfl’s composing techniques. This shall lead to conclusions about the rank of the motets in Senfl’s oeuvre and give some reasons for their prominence in the protestant world.
Dominika GRABIEC (Warszawa)
Music in the iconography of the Passion of Christ
At the Jagiellonian era appears in the Christian iconography the theme of music in the scenes of Passion of Christ. The theme has two variants. The first is probably related with western tradition of religious drama. One of the most interesting examples is the miniature from the manuscript Rozmyślania o Męce Pańskiej (beginning of the 16th century) representing Christ stunned by the sound of trumpet and horn. The second model has its origins in the Byzantine art, probably in the Balkan tradition and can be seen in the chapel of the Royal Castle in Lublin realized for Władysław Jagiełło at the beginning of 15th century.
That theme which shows the negative aspect of music has its continuation in the baroque moralizing writings. However more interesting is the beginning of the idea in the Christian theology.
Tomáš HAMPL (Praha)
The motets by Josquin and his contemporaries in the Codex Speciálník. On the relationship between the imported and the local repertories
According to last research, the Bohemian Codex Speciálník (HradKM 7) seems to be one of the most important surviving sources documenting the early transmission of compositions written by Josquin and his contemporaries before 1490. Apart from the motets Christum ducem, Virgo prudentissima (both by Josquin), O gloriosa domina (by Ghiselin-Verbonnet) and Gaude mater (ascribed to Obrecht by Joshua Rifkin), there are several anonymous pieces copied by the same scribe into the source. This group of motets provokes, above all, questions on their origin, especially when combining a Central European cantus firmus with the compositional style known from the early Josquin motets (e.g. Ave Maria... virgo serena, Christum ducem) or anticipating his sophisticated work with different texts belonging to his Ferrarese period (e.g. Virgo salutiferi). A discussion on the reception of contemporary compositional practice in Central Europe around 1490 becomes an important point of departure for further investigation in contacts between Bohemian Utraquist intellectuals and the North Italian cultural centres.
Marta HULKOVÁ (Bratislava)
Musikhandschriften von der Wende des 16. und 17. Jahrhunderts im Rahmen der Musikaliensammlung von Levoča/Leutschau
Im Rahmen der Musikaliensammlung von Levoča sind von der Wende des 16. und 17. Jahrhunderts zwei Einheiten als handschriftlichen Stimmbücher erhalten – die Signaturen 13 997 (56–58 A) und 14 001 (59–61 A). Bei diesen Handschriften wurde Papier benutzt, das in den letzten Jahrzehnten des 16. Jahrhunderts hergestellt wurde (Wartenfels 1586). Im Repertoire dieser Musikalien dominiert das Schaffen von Komponisten, die in der zweiten Hälfte des 16. Jahrhunderts schufen (z.B. J. Handl/Gallus, O. di Lasso, J. Regnart, M. Tonsor, B. Ammon, usw.), und zugleich finden wir darin Aufzeichnungen von Werken, die in den ersten Jahrzehnten des 17. Jahrhunderts im Druck erschienen waren (z.B. aus den Einzeldrucken von M. Vulpius 1602, 1603, 1610 und H. Praetorius 1602, 1607 und aus dem Sammeldruck Promptuarium musicum von A. Schadaeus 1612, usw.). Mehrere der genannten Drucke sind Teil der Musikaliensammlung von Levoča, daher kann man hier die Vermutung aussprechen, dass einige aus den Abschriften auch im heimischen Milieu realisiert wurden. Aber mit Sicherheit werden wir das erst behaupten können, wenn weitere offene Fragen um die Entstehung der erwähnten handschriftlichen Musikalien gelöst sein werden.
Jan KOLÁČEK (Praha)
The graduals of the Prague scribe Jan Kantor Stary: the mainstream of Bohemian Utraquists
Bohemian chant sources with the repertory in vernacular language are the most important witnesses of liturgical music practice of Utraquist Brotherhoods in the 16th century. The comparative approach based on statistical evaluation of textual and melodic concordances helps us to find relationships between the sources. Using this method in my earlier research I have found liturgical connections between 16th century Bohemian graduals and Lutheran influences as well as repertory resemblances of manuscripts originated in the same scriptorium. This paper will present a case study that applies this approach to selected graduals made in the Prague workshop of Jan Kantor Stary that are the most prominent manuscripts made in this epoch.
Łukasz KOZAK (Warszawa)
Musical instruments in Polish paintings in the 14th and the 15th centuries: borrowings, endemics and iconographic tradition
Gothic painting, especially book illuminations, but also panel and wall-painting is the most important source of our knowledge about musical instruments of the Jagiellonian Era. Although the source material is limited, musical iconography from the late mediaeval Polish lands is exceptionally wide-ranging and miscellaneous. The content of the Polish musical iconography includes representations of the instruments that were well-known and popular in the West, but also such instruments and playing techniques that were typical of this area of Europe only. Furthermore, there are to be found also musical scenes and instruments of the iconographic tradition that originated in Byzantium and were transmitted to Poland through Rus’.
Teresa KRUKOWSKI (Winterthur)
Wie europäisch war das musikalische Repertoire der polnischen reformierten Kirche im 16. Jahrhundert und wie europäisch ist es heute?
Im Zentrum meines Vortrags steht die Darstellung der gegenseitigen Beziehungen wie sie aus der vergleichenden Untersuchungen der Kantionalien der lutherischen und der calvinistischen Kirche in Polen, in Deutschland und in der Schweiz hervorgehen. Der Gegenstand der Untersuchung ist das Repertoire und die Liederordnung in den Gesangbüchern aus dem 16. Jh. einerseits und in den Gesangbüchern der Gegenwart anderseits. Das Korpus der Untersuchung bilden die einstimmigen Gemeindelieder.
Christian Thomas LEITMEIR (Bangor)
Teodoro Riccio’s Liber Primus Missarum (1579): a musical ambassador between Prussia and Poland
In 1577 Georg Frederick Margrave of Ansbach-Brandenburg took over the regency of the Duchy of Prussia as administrator and guardian to his cousin Albert Frederick, who had been severely incapacitated by frequent bouts of depression. As this transfer of executive power was met with hostility by the Prussian estates, George Frederick decided to transfer his residence from his Ansbach to the Prussian capital Königsberg. While George Frederick’s physical presence certainly helped to strengthen his claim to the Prussian throne, he additionally required the support of the Polish King, who was formally the overlord of Prussia. Stephen Báthory, elected to this position only one year before, prove to be sympathetic to his neighbour’s ambitions and officially feoffed him with the Duchy of Prussia in 1578.
Since George Frederick prided himself in maintaining an exquisite court chapel (which had to follow him to Königsberg), it is small wonder that he employed music to curry Stephen Báthory’s favour. Of particular interest in this respect is a little-known print that came out in 1579 with a dedication to the Polish King from the Königsberg press of Georg Osterberger: the Liber Primus Missarum by the Brescia-born composer Teodoro Riccio, employed by George Frederick since 1575. The paper discusses this musical token of gratitude both in terms of its content (parody masses on Latin motets and one soggetto cavato) and its function within a diplomatic and representative context.
Agnieszka LESZCZYŃSKA (Warszawa)
Common musical tradition: connections between Šariš and Prussia ca. 1600
In his Thematisches Verzeichnis der Musiksammlung von Bartfeld (Bártfa) Robert A. Muranyi has pointed at concordances between the manuscript from Bardejov (now: Ms. mus. Bártfa 16 of the National Széhényi Library) and Prussian sources, first of all organ tablature by Johannes Fischer Morungensis. Some pieces common to these two manuscripts were not popular in other parts of Europe and they were composed by minor masters about whom almost nothing is known. Both sources contain also works of authors fairly popular in Silesia. On the other side in the Bártfa 16 one may find unique pieces by composers flourishing in Royal Prussia: Johannes Celscher and Salomon Klein. The contents of these and other manuscripts seem to testify some kind of contacts between musicians from the middle and north parts of the post-Jagiellonian territory.
Wojciech MARCHWICA (Kraków)
Sarmatization of the Polish Christmas carol – posthumous success of the Jagiellonian dynastic ideology
The Sarmatian ideology appears in 15th-century Polish political thought as a means of ideologically linking together a multi-ethnic state. The creation of the category – superordinate with respect to ethnic-national connotations – of the Sarmata (who could be a Pole, Ruthenian or Lithuanian, as well as a Pomeranian or Silesian – here we are speaking of ethnic nationality, not of regionalism) aimed to assemble all persons of noble birth around the person of the king, as well as to politically unify the Commonwealth. Nevertheless, music surviving from the Jagiellonian era alludes in decidedly greater measure to pan-European models. Only the last decades of the 16th and the first decades of the 17th century bring diverse examples of songs appealing to the Sarmatian ideology. Instances of this “Sarmati-zation” and Polonization of songs are to be found in not only historic, but also religious songs – especially Christmas carols. This leads to a reversal of proportions already after 1630, when, for example, Italian opera – precisely because of its pan-European character – becomes a mere amusement of the royal court, without creating a Polish/Sarmatian operatic movement. What is more, even professional composers, in writing non-liturgical compositions intended for the Christmas season, use a stylistic staffage encompassing elements of archaization and folklorization of music. This is confirmed indirectly by the formation, at the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries, of a peculiar Sarmatian musical style.
Helena MATĚJČKOVÁ (Praha)
An anonymous four part Sanctus in the Codex Speciálník. Some remarks on compositional practice in Bohemia before 1480
The Bohemian Codex Speciálník (HradKM 7) is one of important sources preserving a wide spectrum of the 15th-century mass ordinary settings from Pullois (1440s) to compositions written around 1500. In the oldest layers of that source, in the neighbourhood of pieces by Clibano, Tourout or Flemmik, we find an anonymous four-part setting of a plainchant Sanctus. The use of such cantus firmus in the treble voice resembles to Patrem de villayage by Nicasius de Clibano, but a detailed investigation of the anonymous piece has discovered the Bohemian origin of the quoted plainchant melody. The compositional style of this Sanctus refers to the Central European tradition of “Choralbearbeitungen” (Martin Just) and raises several questions on the musical practice within the Utraquist liturgy. Coming out from the structure of that anonymous piece, a comparison to other pieces of local origin can start a discussion on the compositional styles used in Bohemia before 1480.
Grantley McDONALD (Tours)
Laurentius Corvinus and the Hours of the Passion at St Elisabeth’s church, Breslau
The early sixteenth-century humanist Laurentius Corvinus (c. 1466–1527) was prompted by his reading of the Florentine Neoplatonist Marsilio Ficino to try to introduce Platonism as the official educational philosophy of the city of Breslau (Wrocław). A part of Corvinus’ proposed educational reform was the introduction of a new liturgy, the Hours of the Passion, originally composed by St Bonaventure. Corvinus argued in a semi-dramatic oration presented in the town hall of Breslau in 1516 that the contemplation of the Passion of Christ, especially in a liturgical context, could lead those who participated to a deeper understanding of the fundamental principles of philosophy, and would moreover help them better to understand and accept the gifts of divine mercy. Corvinus revised Bonaventure’s Hours thoroughly and provided new hymns in classical metres, for which he also wrote metrical music in the metrical style made popular by Ficino’s former disciple Conrad Celtis. He also erected an inscription in the church reminding the faithful of the compatibility of Socratic and Christian ethics. He lobbied for official recognition of this liturgy by the bishop and other churches in the city, and encouraged donations to pay for the foundation of a chantry which would sing Bonaventure’s revised offices regularly. The records of donations to support the chantry are a mine of sociological data, and suggest many conclusions about civic patronage of liturgical music. These offices were preserved by the Lutheran Reformers in Breslau and remained in use until the nineteenth century; at the latter end of this period we shall look at the way in which the musicians and clergy of Breslau resisted the Prussian attempt to suppress this liturgico-musical practice.
Donatella MELINI (Milano)
Alexandro Pesienti Veronese, musicho nostro diletissimo
Ein Musiker, Organist, vielleicht auch Komponist, hatte der veronese Alessandro Pesenti eine bedeutende Rolle, also wie Botschafter, im Hof der Königin Bona Sforza in Krakau. Leider heute ist er völlig unbekannt: man kann seinen Name, im DEUMM (das italienische musikalische Lexikon), im New Grove oder im MGG nicht finden. Nur dank den polnischen Quellen, wie das polnische Lexikon Encyklopedia Muzyczna (PWM), können wir welche Nachricht über ihn haben. Mein Bericht will die Figur von Alessandro Pesenti erklären und die Kontakten (auch kulturell) zwischen Poland und Italien, in der Mitte des 16. Jahrhunderts, betonen.
Julia MILLER (Antwerpen/Leuven)
Luca Marenzio: questions of performance in Poland and Italy
Luca Marenzio served for several years as maestro di cappella in the royal chapel of King Sigismund III in Warsaw. Benefitting from the King’s support for cultural activity, this court comprised a large group of singers and instrumentalists, including the twenty-two choice Italian musicians who travelled to Poland with Marenzio in 1595–1596. Thus richly varied forces were available to Marenzio there for the performance of sacred polychoral compositions.
Marenzio did not indicate the use of instruments, other than organ, in his manuscripts, nor did most composers of the sixteenth century. However, Giovanni Paulo Mucante, in his diary of Cardinal Caetani’s journeys to Warsaw, mentioned that instruments played during a 1596 performance of a Te Deum led there by Marenzio, and it is known that instruments were often included, in various ways, in the contemporary performance of “vocal” works. The manuscripts’ lack of instrumental specification, and the numerous ways instruments might be utilized, create questions for today’s musician seeking historical bases for performance choices.
Melodiae sacrae 5, 6, 7, 8 & 12 regis Sigismundi Tertii…, a 1604 collection of polychoral motets by members of King Sigismund III's chapel, included three sacred works by Marenzio: Jubilate Deo, Laudate Dominum and A Solis Ortus Cardine. Settings of Marenzio's Jubilate Deo and Laudate Dominum were also included in Roman and other manuscripts, and Jubilate Deo in the Pelplin keyboard tablature (Pelplin, Biblioteka Seminarium Duchownego, 304–8, 308a). Versions of Marenzio’s Jubilate Deo and Laudate Dominum may have been performed both in Italy and in Poland.
In what ways might instruments and voices have been used to perform these and other sacred compositions of Marenzio in Warsaw? In Rome or Mantua, where Marenzio also worked? What similarities and differences existed, related to local performance practices, and to the availability of singers and instrumentalists, in these places? For example, Jubilate Deo contains arpeggiated motifs well-suited to trumpets likely available in Warsaw; Rome’s SS Crocefisso where Marenzio worked, had fewer singers and instrumentalists than Warsaw. Amongst these Roman musicians performing with Marenzio in 1595 was the virtuosic singer Giovanni Luca Conforti, famed for his elaborate diminutions. This paper will explore the available information and consider some implications for performance choices today.
Lenka MRÁČKOVÁ (Praha)
Das Repertoire des Kodex Strahov. Bemerkungen zur Entstehung eines neuen Kataloges dieser böhmischen Quelle
Der Katalog des Kodex Strahov (PragP 47), welcher als Teil der Dissertation von R.J. Snow im Jahre 1968 entstanden ist, hat wesentlich dazu beigetragen, dass diese böhmische Quelle (im Unterschied zu anderen Handschriften) seitdem auch im internationalen Kontext betrachtet wird. Leider ist dieser Kodex vor 1990 nicht mehr selbständig untersucht worden, hat aber oft als Vergleichsmaterial zur Forschung über andere europäische Handschriften gedient. Dadurch wurden viele neue Konkordanzen gefunden und auch ursprüngliche Formen und Funktionen einiger Kompositionen entdeckt. Der neue Katalog des Kodex Strahov soll alle aktuellen Informationen zu dieser Quelle zusammenfassen und neben der gedruckten Fassung zusätzlich auch eine elektronische Datenbasis anbieten. In meinem Referat wird einerseits der heutige Stand der Forschung zum Kodex Strahov präsentiert und andererseits werden auch die methodologischen und technischen Hintergründe zur Entstehung der Elektronischen Datenbasis dargestellt.
Veronika MRÁČKOVÁ (Praha)
Staff notation in the sources of the St George monastery in Prague
The practice of Prague female Benedictine St George monastery in liturgical singing is documented by an appreciable set of the notated manuscripts. Such a spacious collection of manuscripts originating from one institution is unusual even in European context. The manuscripts of the St George monastery in Prague show large diversity of staff notation types. This is quite remarkable in comparison to other sources of the Prague diocese, nevertheless one of the staff notation types seems to dominate. This type of Messine-Gothic notation was used in almost all antiphonals and processionals. It is remarkable that most of these sources have to be dated to the 1st half of the 14th century to the administration period of abbesses Kunhuta. The homogenous collection of manuscripts commissioned by Kunhuta, in which – in contrast to the Prague diocese – the Messine-Gothic notation type was used, originated probably directly from the St. George monastery scriptorium. The question remains, from where and under whose influence this Messine-Gothic notation type was imported to the St George monastery in Prague.
Thomas NAPP (Hamburg)
Cultural transfer and spatiality in early modern Central Europe
The cultural region of Upper Lusatia, which today is split between East Saxony and the Polish Voivodship Dolny Śląsk, close to the Czech Liberecký region, has changed hands several times. The central position of the Markgraftum of Upper Lusatia at the intersection of the transcontinental roads, the Via regia from East to West and the Amber Road from North to South, often led to tensions between the landed gentry and the townsmen in the region. Therefore, in 1346, the cities Görlitz, Bautzen, Zittau, Löbau, Kamenz and Lauban (today the Polish Lubań) founded the Sechsstädtebund. This protective alliance produced a civic self-confidence which enabled the townsmen to patronize composers and musicians independent of their confessional or political affiliations.
From 1319, Upper Lusatia belonged to the Czech Kingdom of Bohemia; after the death of the last Jagiellonian King, Ludwig II of Bohemia and Hungary, it became part of Habsburg Austria in 1526, when almost at the same time the Lutheran sermon was introduced, there. The Electorate of Saxony, also belonging to the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, shared its Eastern border with the Markgraftum. While this boundary was crossed, at least culturally and confessionally, long before 1600, Upper Lusatia belonged administratively to the kingdom of Bohemia until the Peace of Prague in 1635. Combining these historical facts with the current Cultural Studies approaches of Cultural Transfer and Spatiality, I intend to show the diversity of the partially overlapping cultural spaces which were respectively formed by the Lusatian patrons as well as by the musicians and composers themselves because of their reception or their dedication practice, thereby crossing political, confessional and hierarchical borders. Thus, different cultural scopes can be ascertained within one politico-administrative entity.
Aleksandra PATALAS (Kraków)
Aprilio Pacelli’s music for the Cappella Rorantistarum at Wawel
One of the most spectacular elements of the musical heritage of the Jagiellons was, founded in 1540 by Zygmunt I, Cappella Rorantistarum, active for more then three centuries in the Cathedral at Wawel. This ensemble, which was composed of male voices, performed in the 17th century both the Renaissance repertoire and the new pieces, often composed particularly for the Rorantists. Asprilio Pacelli, in the years 1602–1623 the chapelmaster of the Polish king Zygmunt III, is an example of the composer who was not formaly connected with the Cappella Rorantistarum, but had many possibilities to listen to it in Kraków and whose compositions belonged to its repertoire. Among the music manuscripts preserved in the Cathedral Chapel Archive in Kraków there a few pieces by Pacelli signed with his name, as well as written down anonymously and with the monogram A.P. In the present paper I am going to discuss the problem of their authorship and the relationship between them and other pieces performed by the Rorantists. Another question concerns the relationship between Pacelli’s compositions from Kraków and their specificity in comparison with the rest of his musical output.
Jana PETŐCZOVÁ (Bratislava)
Musical culture in Bardejov/Bartfeld in the mid-sixteenth century
In the mid-sixteenth century, in the final phase of the dominance of the Jagiellons in Central Europe, the municipality of Bardejov (Bartfeld, Bártfa) became the most important commercial and cultural centre of the Šariš (Sáros) county of Upper Hungary (now Slovakia) a region bordering with Poland. The town was also a significant centre of the Reformation. The most outstanding Lutheran scholar was the rector of the municipal school, Leonard Stöckel (1510–1560). He was one of the authors of Confessio Pentapolitana, the new confession of the five free royal towns of Upper Hungary (Košice, Bardejov, Prešov, Levoča, Sabinov). At the 1546 synod in Prešov (Eperjes) Michal Radašín, the priest from Bardejov was elected the first archdean of the Pentapolis. The synods set also the extent of music at liturgical ceremonies. Leonard Stöckel worked out the Leges scholae Bartfensis (Regulations of the School in Bardejov, 1540), and he included musical education to the general system of education as its organic element. Stöckel’s musical activities themselves were manifold: he conducted the students’ choir, supervised its repertoire and put down the foundations of the library, which was supplied by latest European musical prints (the Bardejov Collection includes i.a. pieces by Balthasar Resinario (1554), Johann Walter (1557), Orlando di Lasso (1574), Gallus Dresler (1577), Hans Leo Hassler (1599)). Among the most valued sources we can mention manuscript treatises on musical theory by L. Stöckel, preserved in a copy from 1567, above all his two text-books on music entitled De Musica. The musical culture of Bardejov flourished in interaction with other Central European musical centres, first of all German centres of Protestantism, Silesian musicians, other Hungarian and Transylvanian towns and courts and Czech and Polish towns. The most ancient information about Polish musicians in Bardejov can be dated in 1438: Domino Lewpoldo Organista de Cracowia.
Danuta POPINIGIS (Gdańsk)
Die Sing-Glocken zu Füßen von König Sigismundus August
Am 3. Oktober 1556 wurden die Danziger Zeugen eines äußerst unliebsamen Ereignisses. In einem der Säle des Rechtstädtischen Rathauses war ein Feuer ausgebrochen, dem das Dach und der Turm zum Opfer fielen. Die Instandsetzung dauerte einige Jahre. Den wieder aufgebauten Turm versah man in den Jahren 1559–1560 mit einem wunderschönen neuen Helm, und auf der Turmspitze wurde die vergoldete Figur von König Sigismund August angebracht. Auf diese Weise huldigte die Stadt dem herrschenden König, wenngleich sie mit dessen Meerespolitik nicht einverstanden war, der sich die Danziger immer eindringlicher widersetzten. Sie verliehen immer öfter ihrer Unzufriedenheit bezüglich des Vorgehens des Königs Ausdruck, der ihrer Meinung nach in entschiedener Weise in die der Stadt bislang garantierten Unabhängigkeitsrechte eingriff.
Im Rathausturm, in der so genannten Gloriette, wurden unterhalb der Sigismund-August-Figur 14 Glocken aufgehängt. Zusammen mit einem Mechanismus zum Spielen von Melodien bildeten sie ein automatisches Glockenspiel. Diese Art von Instrumenten hatte man erst seit Kurzem in den Niederlanden zu bauen begonnen, und in Polen waren sie höchstwahrscheinlich überhaupt nicht bekannt gewesen. Die Danziger Glocken stammen aus dem niederländischen ’s-Hertogenbosch. Die Arbeiten an den Sing-Glocken – so wurde das Rathaus-Glockenspiel seinerzeit genannt – sowie an der Sigismund-August-Figur waren im Jahre 1561 abgeschlossen.
In meinen Ausführungen möchte ich auf folgende Punkte näher eingehen:
– Umstände des Entstehens des Danziger Glockenspiels,
– Person des Glockengießers – Johannes Moer,
– Funktion des Glockenspiels im Leben der Danziger,
– das vom ersten Glockensteller des Danziger Glockenspiels – Franciscus de Rivulo – programmierte Musik-Repertoire.
Luboš PROCHÁZKA (Praha)
Der Kodex Strahov und Budweis um 1470. Zur Frage der Provenienz einer böhmischen Quelle
Der Kodex Strahov (PragP 47) gehört zu den bedeutenden mitteleuropäischen Quellen für die Polyphonie des 15. Jahrhunderts. Obwohl die Handschrift den Musikwissenschaftlern seit mehr als 40 Jahren vor allem dank der Dissertation von R.J. Snow bekannt ist, sind immer noch viele wichtige Fragen offen geblieben. Die Quelle, die starke Verbindungen zum Repertoire der Trienter Kodizes aufweist, stammt wohl aus einem der katholischen Gebiete der böhmischen Länder. Als mögliche Antworten auf die Frage nach ihrer Provenienz wurden früher Schlesien (Snow) oder Olmütz (Strohm) vorgeschlagen. Laut der neuesten Hypothese von Martin Horyna sei der Kodex Strahov aber in der Schule an der St. Nicolas Kirche in Budweis entstanden, in ihrem Hintergrund sei möglicherweise der Rektor dieser Schule, der Priester Václav Mondl (Absolvent und späterer Rektor der Wiener Universität) gestanden. In meinem Referat möchte ich vor allem die Hypothese von Horyna diskutieren und neue Interpretationsmöglichkeiten zum historischen und kulturellen Kontext des Kodex Strahov aufzeigen.
Barbara PRZYBYSZEWSKA-JARMIŃSKA (Warszawa)
An overlooked fantasia for instrumental ensemble by Francesco Maffon – a vestige of Paweł Działyński's diplomatic mission to England in 1597?
Held in Christ Church Library in Oxford, under the shelf-mark MSS. 372–376, are manuscript part books dating from the turn of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries containing a total of fifteen compositions for four and five unspecified instruments. The unidentified scribe gives four names for the composers of these works. Three of these refer to Claudio Merulo (three works), Cipriano di Rore (two) and Diomedes Cato (nine). Six of the works by Cato, an Italian lutenist and composer active in the Commonwealth of Poland-Lithuania from no later than the mid 1580s (d. Gdańsk, 1628) – five fantasias and an instrumental setting of the madrigal Tirsi moror volea – were published by Polish musicologists during the second half of the twentieth century. The name of the fourth musician – the composer of a single fantasia for four parts – has hitherto been interpreted by British users and librarians, as is documented by later entries on the initial pages of the manuscript, as Francesco Mason, which is how it is reproduced in catalogues and in the subject literature. In actual fact, it refers to the organist Francesco Maffoni (in Polish sources Mafon, Maffon, Maphon). A native of Brescia, Maffoni (b. ca. 1539) worked as a young man in Germany before moving to Poland-Lithuania, no later than 1580, where he most probably remained until his death (after August 1593, before 27 February 1595), working at the courts of Polish kings (Stefan Báthory, husband of Anna Jagiellon, and Sigismund III Vasa, son of Katarzyna Jagiellon and nephew of Anna Jagiellon), and also under the patronage of the Lithuanian magnate Lew Sapieha. The fantasia from Christ Church Library is one of the four compositions by Maffoni currently known.
In addressing the question of how the works by Diomedes Cato and Francesco Maffoni came to England from Poland-Lithuania, the author refers to the diplomatic mission undertaken by Paweł Działyński to Elizabeth I in 1597 and investigates the envoy’s family ties with the noble house of Kostka, seated in Royal Prussia, including with Stanisław Kostka (d. 1602), at whose court Diomedes Cato worked.
Francesco Rocco ROSSI (Milano)
From Hollandrinus to Florentius Musicus (through Goschalcus): the reception of coniuncta in Italy in the 15th century
The Liber Musices (I-Mt, Ms. 2146) is a sort of handbook of music theory written between 1484 and 1492 by a “Florentius musicus” (traditionally identified in Florentius de Faxolis) for Ascanio Sforza, the brother of Ludovico Sforza, the Lord of Milano. It consists of three books and deals every aspect of the theory of music. The last chapter of the Liber primus is devoted to coniuncta  that is a particular perspective about musica ficta  and this is strange because at that time this subject was rather common in East Europe, thanks to the so-called Hollandrinian tradition, and in Spain where I suppose it was imported by the Parisian Goschalcus (the author of the “Berkeley Manuscript”). On the contrary in Italy, in the main theoretical stream it was totally neglected or distorted (in the Diffinitorium by Tinctoris, for example). My paper’s aim is to rebuilt the path that leads from the East Europe (the beginnings of the coniuncta theory: Hollandrinus, Szydlow and Anonimous XI) to the more modern Italian (and Spanish) developments in the late 15th century.
Ian RUMBOLD (Birmingham)
Austrian or Bavarian? Hermann Pötzlinger’s music book (Munich 14274)
The “St Emmeram” Codex (Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Clm 14274) was compiled by Hermann Pötzlinger during the four- or five-year period after he graduated from Vienna University in 1439. His activities in those years remain, however, poorly documented. There is some evidence that he may at least have intended to return to the university (though it is not certain that he did so), and the assistant scribe who copied the latest layer of his music book was, at least for a time, an Austrian organist. Other evidence, though, connects Pötzlinger with Bavaria: he is known to have been priest at various times of at least three rural parishes in the Palatinate, and master of the school attached to the monastery St Emmeram in Regensburg at least between 1448 and 1452. Although some compositions preserved in his music manuscript may be linked specifically with Vienna or more generally with the Central European university network, others were almost certainly written by men who were closely associated with Regensburg and its environs. Should we therefore think of his music book as essentially Austrian or Bavarian? This paper will examine the apparently conflicting evidence, and present new information that sheds light on Pötzlinger’s Bavarian connections.
Anna RYSZKA-KOMARNICKA (Warszawa)
Leonardo Vinci’s Il Gismondo re di Polonia – opera seria with an episode from the reign of King Ladislaus Jagiełło
Leonardo Vinci’s Il Gismondo re di Polonia was written in 1727 for Teatro delle Dame (Alibert) in the most fruitful time of composer’s carreer. It was based on the libretto of Francesco Briani which appeared for the first time in Venice in 1708 with music composed by Antonio Lotti. In my opinion its libretto reveals Briani’s careful study of Polish history as its “political” plot has striking resemblances to the events of Polish-Lithuanian civil war at the end of the reign of Ladislaus Jagiełło, the founder of Jagiellonian dynasty on Polish throne (and not during the reign of Sigismund August, the last king from that dynasty, as interpreted by Kurt Markstrom). The fortune of that opera seria has also more “Polish” elements – according to Berthold Over, the name of one of the main female protagonists refers to Teresa Kunegunda, daughter of John III Sobieski, in those days in exile in Venice and according to Markstrom (as presented in his paper delivered in Warsaw during the 12th Biennial Congress on Baroque Music in 2006), the Roman version by Vinci could make allusions to maritial conflict between Maria Clementina, granddaughter of the same king, married to James (III) Stuart, who was in that time one of the main patrons of Teatro Alibert. So the opera by Vinci (version by Lotti is considered to be lost) deserves an integral study dealing with the interpretation of the libretto and its history along with music.
Katelijne SCHILTZ (München)
Roses, alchemy and a garden of canons: the anthology Suavissimae et iucundissimae harmoniae (Nuremberg, 1567)
In 1567 Theodor Gerlach printed the collection Suavissimae et iucundissimae harmoniae. The volume was compiled by Clemens Stefani of Buchau, who dedicated it to Wilhelm von Rosenberg. The dedicatee, a member of one of the leading Bohemian families, seems to have influenced the content of the collection to a considerable extent. The rose, which not only appears in Wilhelm’s name, but also occupies a prominent place in the Rosenberg coat of arms, is a central element for the book as a whole. This flower, with its complicated symbology, is praised on the title page and in several liminary poems; its reputation as “queen of flowers” even inspired the text of the opening work, Rosa florum gloria, which is announced as “symbolum” of Wilhelm von Rosenberg. Other compositions also show a close link with the dedicatee and his Bohemian entourage.
All pieces of the book (all but one based on Latin texts) are canons for four to eight voices. Stefani’s selection of composers has both retrospective (La Rue, Senfl, Finck a.o.) and local traits (Christophorus Cervius, David Köler a.o.). In this paper, I will discuss the structure of this lesser-known collection, thereby focusing on the riddle canons and their concordances with a number of broadsides currently in the Bavarian State Library. Above all, I will argue that Stefani had good reasons to associate Wilhelm’s patronage with a collection of canons. It will be shown that Wilhelm was known as an expert on alchemy, a passion he shared with Emperor Rudolf II. Canons and alchemy share a number of characteristics, a fact that was not only explicitly thematized in Michael Maier’s Atalanta fugiens (1618), but the theoretical consequences of which reach well into the eighteenth century.
Oksana SHKURGAN (Kyiv/Warszawa)
Seventeenth-century manuscript sources of the partesniy singing which originated in the Polish territory
The current state of research into the musical life of the multi-faith and multi-ethnic Commonwealth of Poland in the seventeenth century allows us to adopt new perspectives on the history of the Orthodox Church music and sacral art associated with the spiritual culture of Eastern Christianity. The lands of the east and south-east of the then Commonwealth of Both Nations were mainly inhabited by Rusins (Ukraininans and Belarussians) who were Orthodox Christians, and after the Union of Brest (1596) also Uniates. The presence of significant numbers of Church Slavonic liturgical manuscripts, which have survived until the present day in the libraries, museums and other collections in Poland, testifies to the fact that Orthodox Church music was performed within the territory of the old Commonwealth.
In the area of professional liturgical composition, represented by various genres of Orthodox Church music, we can, in spite of its continuous orientation towards the Greco-Byzantine framework, trace complex processes of restructuring the old musical and stylistic principles towards a gradual integration with the European culture of the Renaissance and the Baroque. The end of the sixteenth century saw the introduction of polyphonic practice into the liturgical chants of the Orthodox Church (monodic chants canonised by the church). This practice was known as partesniy chant, and its greatest achievement was the Baroque partesniy concerto. This paper will be concerned with seventeenth-century manuscript sources of this kind of music preserved in collections in Poland and Ukraine which originated in the territory of the old Commonwealth of Poland.
Jūratė TRILUPAITIENĖ (Vilnius)
Jagiellonian dynasty musical culture of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania: between sacrum and profanum
In 2009 Lithuania is commemorating its millennium which refers to the first mentioning of Lithuania in written sources – Querfurt annals of 1009. The script of the document announced that during this year the missioner St Bruno was killed by pagans on the border of Lithuania and Russia. Still, only 200 years after that occurrence the king Mindaugas united the Baltic tribes and created the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (GDL). It was a significant state in the context of old European political and cultural map. The uniqueness of the Old Lithuania was determined by the fact that in Europe it was the last pagan land, Christianized in 1387, while its Western land (Samogitia) was Christianized only in 1413. Grand Duchy of Lithuania was multiethnic and multiconfessional state. Its Eastern borders practiced Byzantine orthodox religion. In Lithuania, the Orthodox and the Catholic confessions existed side by side. Starting with the Jagiellonian dynasty Lithuanian ties with the Kingdom of Poland became stronger. On the other hand, during this period, Lithuania did not shed away the image of the pagan land. In the court of the Lithuanian Grand Duke one could notice the interaction of Western European Latin and pagan Baltic folk music influences. There are differences between Jagiellonian Kraków court and Jagiellonian cousin, Grand duke‘s Lithuania Vytautas Vilnius and Trakai courts. Grand Duchy of Lithuania‘s contradiction between sacrum and profanum existed during all the period of the Jagiellonian rule. Grand Duchy of Lithuania wide international and cultural connections enabled neighboring countries to get known the uniqueness of the Baltic musical culture.
Eva VESELOVSKÁ (Bratislava)
Medieval notations of the Slovakia region’s sources from the turn of the 15th/16th centuries
Production of the Slovakia region’s liturgical codices from the end of Middle Ages presents the last significant phase of the notated manuscripts’ production, containing Gregorian chant. At the turn of the 15th/16th centuries the monumental, lavishly illuminated representative manuscripts were made, ordered by rich church or secular donors. Preserved notated sources from the territory of Slovakia represent multicultural scripting tradition, where meet mainly Bohemian, Polish and Austrian – German impacts in the context of the Hungarian liturgical – notational tradition.
Magdalena WALTER-MAZUR (Poznań)
On how the nuns sang Vespers in fractus – the alternatim practice in liturgical music of Polish female Benedictines
Numerous mentions in the 17th century Benedictine chronicles along with fortunately preserved, though not in a complete form, partbooks of the Toruń nunnery dating from the 1630s prove strongly popularity of a performance practice described even by the nuns themselves as “fractus singing”. Such a term must have referred to a practice of cantus fractus present in the music-theoretical thought already in the 14th century. It was initially connected with the elements of mensural notation usually accompanying tropped sections of the chant books. Later on it also referred to the elements of simple polyphony present in plainchant singing. It is highly probable that the antiphons and hymns preserved in the Toruń bass partbook, intended to be performed partly monophonically and partly in six-part polyphony, represent the “fractus singing” often mentioned in the chronicles. In the same partbook we also find traces of other examples of alternatim practice – namely the Marian antiphons “ad organa”. Such a repertoire inspires to raise numerous questions as to the musical tradition the nuns referred to, its origins and analogies as well as details concerning performance practice.
Elżbieta WITKOWSKA-ZAREMBA (Warszawa)
Patterns of music education in Central Europe in the late 14th–early 16th centuries
Intensive work on cataloguing medieval texts on the theory of music, which resulted in six volumes in the RISM series, allow one to form an initial overview of the subjects, purpose and quantitative scale of musical writing in Central Europe at that time. It is apparent that the purpose of the great majority of these texts is didactic.
Four thematic areas can be distinguished within the texts:
1) The principles of music together with the teaching of plainchant: the models in this area were shaped by the influence of Johannes Cotto/Affligemensis, Lambert and the author whose identity is still to be established, Johannes Hollandrinus.
2) Quadrivial music, or the physics of sound (pre-acoustics), taught in accordance with the treatise Musica speculativa by Johannes de Muris.
3) Mensural music, or the principles of mensural notation and counterpoint; the point of reference for these was provided by French and Italian theorists from the turn of the fifteenth century.
4) Ars organizandi, or the principles of instrumental counterpoint; this is the area of music teaching where there has been least research.
The paper is concerned with the problems of assimilation and adaptation of models which became the point of reference in shaping the music teaching tradition of Central Europe.
Elżbieta WOJNOWSKA (Warszawa)
Zwischen Allgemeinheit und Individualität – Repertoire einiger mitteleuropäischen Musiksammlungen von der Wende des 16. und 17. Jahrhunderts
Verschiedene mitteleuropäische Musiksammlungen von der Wende des 16. und 17. Jahrhunderts zeigen – unabhängig von ihrer Region, Nation und ihrer Konfession – zahlreiche gemeinsame Merkmale. Vorwiegend gilt es für das Repertoire, das mit Kirchen und Pfarr- oder Lateinschulen ehemals verbunden war. Im Fall der solchen Sammlungen könnte man versuchen, ihre gemeinsame Kennzeichen zu bestimmen, um dann einige regionale, konfessionelle oder nationale Eigenschaften möglicherweise zu finden.
Als Ausgangspunkt der Analyse wird der Inhalt einer wenig bekannten Sammelhandschrift angenommen: der älteren Pelpliner Orgeltabulatur, deren Fragmente aus dem Einband der großen Pelpliner Orgeltabulatur (PL-PE, Ms. 306) herausgezogen wurden. Im Referat werden hauptsächlich folgende Probleme dargestellt: (1) die Anwesenheit von einigen sehr bekannten Musikwerken, die als „überall“ vorkommend gelten und somit mit keinem einzelnen Ort zu verbinden sind; (2) die Bestimmung von vermutlichen Quellen des gemeinsamen Repertoires, besonders wenn es um verbreitete Anthologien oder Musikdrucke der populärsten Komponisten geht; (3) die vorläufige Darstellung einiger Unterschiede unter analysierten Sammlungen, die uns ein mehr dynamisches Bild der Rezeption des musikalischen Repertoires im Mitteleuropa zeigen könnten.
Reinald ZIEGLER (Stuttgart)
Zum Transfer von Kompositionstechniken im konfessionsverschiedenen Umfeld am Beispiel Monteverdi
Monteverdi ist in der neueren Musikgeschichte hauptsächlich wegen seines Streits mit seinem Antipoden G.M. Artusi (1600) über die Art der (weltlichen) Madrigalkomposition gewürdigt worden. Mit seiner 1610 gedruckten „Marienvesper“ zog er aus der Auseinandersetzung seine ganz persönliche Konsequenz innerhalb eines musikalisch stark von Traditionen geprägten kirchenmusikalischen Genres. Er greift für seine „Parodiemesse“ auf bereits seit längerem veraltete Vorbilder zurück, und findet ausgehend von einfachen liturgischen Psalmtönen zu neuen kompositorischen Verfahrensweisen, denen von der Musikgeschichtsschreibung bislang nur wenig Beachtung geschenkt worden ist. Die zeitgenössischen Komponisten nördlich der Alpen, allen voran Michael Praetorius, nehmen zwar italienische Anregungen auf, doch zielen diese hauptsächlich auf die Spielweise und Besetzung. Die von Monteverdi ausgesandten Impulse müssen im Zeitalter der erfolgreichen Gegenreformation ihrem kulturellen Umfeld verhaftet bleiben. Während so manche Errungenschaft Episode bleibt, sind andere Neuerungen, besonders die der kontrapunkttechnischen Verfahren, im protestantischen Norden bereits gelehrt worden (Sweelinck); sie werden dort allerdings erst gegen Ende des 17. Jahrhunderts weitergedacht (J. Theile) und schließlich von F.W. Marpurg als eine der technischen Voraussetzungen des Fugenschaffens J.S. Bach interpretiert.
Elżbieta ZWOLIŃSKA (Warszawa)
Einige Bemerkungen zu den musikalischen Beziehungen zwischen dem Hofe der letzten Jagiellonen und dem Habsburgerhause
Die ständigen Kontakte zwischen den beiden obengenannten Dynastien im XVI Jh. waren nicht nur von politischen, aber auch von kulturellen Charakter. Die Quellen bringen genügend Materialien, um folgende Probleme in Bereich der Musik aufzuwerfen: 1º die unmittelbare Konfrontation der Musikkultur beider Höfe; 2º der Vergleich der Organisation der Ensembles der höfischen Musiker; 3º die Migration der Hofmusiker; 4º der Widerhall dynastischer Ereignisse im Schaffen höfischer Musiker.