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Elaboration through exhortation: troping Motets for the Common of Martyrs

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 September 2008

Susan A. Kidwell
Susan A. Kidwell*
Affiliation:
The University of Texas at Austin
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Extract

It is common knowledge that the repertory of thirteenth-century Latin motets exhibits a great variety of poetic themes. Many of the earliest motets comment upon the feast of their parent chant and are therefore classified as ‘troping’; others praise the Virgin Mary – sometimes regardless of their associated chant; still others avoid obvious connections with the liturgy and either criticize, admonish or exhort listeners to reform. The classification of motet texts according to content has increased our understanding of overall themes and of the chronological relationships between them, but it has also raised questions. Some questions arise from the fact that the general categories of troping, Marian and hortatory texts are not mutually exclusive. Should we distinguish a ‘general’ Marian motet, like Virgo mater salutis (386) / JOHANNE (M 29), which superimposes general epithets and intercessions to the Virgin above a chant in honour of John the Baptist, from a ‘troping’ Marian motet, such as Flos de spina rumpitur (437), built over the Assumption tenor, REGNAT (M 34), which makes specific references to its associated feast? Or does this added taxonomic layer only distract us from the task of interpreting these texts?

Type
Research Article
Information
Plainsong & Medieval Music , Volume 5 , Issue 2 , October 1996 , pp. 153 - 173
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1996

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Footnotes

*

Earlier versions of this paper were presented at The Ohio State University as part of the Lectures in Musicology series, in February 1994, and at the Twenty-Ninth International Congress on Medieval Studies in Kalamazoo, Michigan, in May 1994. I am especially grateful to Rebecca A. Baltzer for many helpful comments at various stages of this project.

References

1 Seminal studies on the motet that classify texts according to content include those by G. Anderson, The Latin Compositions in Fascicules VII and VIII of the Notre Dame Manuscript Wolfenbuttel Helmstadt 1099 (1206), 2 vols. (Brooklyn, 1972 and 1976) and H. Tischler, The Style and Evolution of the Earliest Motets (to circa 1270), 3 vols. (Henryville, 1985), I, 188–92.

2 F. Ludwig established the standard numbering system for motet voices and tenor sources in Repertorium organorum recentioris et motetorum vetustissimi stili, 2 vols. Vol. I, pt. 1 (Halle, 1910), reprinted by L. A. Dittmer, Musicological Studies 7 (Brooklyn, 1964); Vol. I, pt. 2, ed. L. A. Dittmer, Musicological Studies 26 ([Binningen], 1978); Vol. 2, ed. L. A. Dittmer, Musicological Studies 17 (Brooklyn, 1972). Later inventories to use these standard numbers include F. Gennrich, Bibliographie der ältesten französischen und lateinischen Motetten, Summa musicae medii aevi 2 (Darmstadt, 1957); and H. van der Werf, Integrated Directory of Organa, Clausulae, and Motets of the Thirteenth Century (Rochester, NY, 1989). Virgo mater salutis (386) / JOHANNE (M 29) has been translated by Anderson in Latin Compositions, I, 358; Translations of Flos de spina rumpitur appear in Anderson, Latin Compositions, I, 112–18, and in S. Kidwell, ‘The Integration of Music and Text in the Early Latin Motet’, Ph.D. dissertation, The University of Texas at Austin (1993), 239–41.

3 M. Everist, French Motets in the Thirteenth Century: Music, Poetry, and Genre, Cambridge Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Music (Cambridge, 1994), 148, claims that ‘contemporary genre criticism has moved away from questions of taxonomy and towards questions of interpretation’.

4 Latin text from L. A. Dittmer, ed., Facsimile Reproduction of the Manuscript Firenze, Biblioteca Mediceo-Laurenziana, Pluteo 29.1, Publications of Mediaeval Musical Manuscripts 10–11 (Brooklyn, 1959), henceforth ‘F, f. 400v. All textual line breaks correspond with musical phrases, indicated by tractus marks in the manuscripts. All translations are my own.

5 This troping-derived approach to textual integration becomes more common in the fourteenth century, as demonstrated by A. V. Clark, ‘Concordare cum materia: The Tenor in the Fourteenth- Century Motet’, paper presented at the Fifty-Eighth Meeting of the American Musicological Society (Pittsburgh, 1992).

6 Tischler, Style and Evolution, I, 190, uses motets for Christmas to demonstrate this flexibility. He observes that some motets elaborate upon events at the birth of Jesus, while others treat his later deeds, the power of God to transform himself into a human form, and the glory of the Virgin and her immaculate conception. Still other motets admonish believers to follow the example of Jesus Christ, or reflect on the hope generated by the Lord's redeeming deeds.

7 F, f. 407v. For a translation of the text, see Kidwell, ‘Integration of Music and Text’, 224.

8 F, f. 411r-v. Translation in Kidwell, ‘Integration of Music and Texf, 225.

9 The story of Jonah's ‘death and resurrection’ appears in chapter 1 of the Book of Jonah; Gen. 37 tells of Joseph, who, as a boy was thrown into a pit to die by his jealous brothers. After three days he was rescued from the pit, experiencing a ‘resurrection’ from near death.

10 For texts and translations of both, see Kidwell, ‘Integration of Music and Text’, 227–8. Anderson, Latin Compositions, I, 104, provides another translation of Laudes referat.

11 Texts and translations in Anderson, Latin Compositions, I, 52–3 and 30; Kidwell, ‘Integration of Music and Texf, 229.

12 Latin Compositions, I, 156.

13 The word ‘hodie’ is used only in the Wolfenbiittel 1099 (henceforth ‘W2’) version of the motet. In the Madrid (f. 105r) and Montpellier (f. lOlv) motet manuscripts, the word ‘Maria’ appears instead, obscuring the connection with Easter.

14 It is conceivable that listeners would have made an additional connection with salvation history, for after her Assumption the Virgin continued to grant access to the King of Glory through her activities as a heavenly intercessor.

15 Latin text from L. A. Dittmer, ed., Facsimile Reproduction of the Manuscript Wolfenbuttel 1099 (1206), Publications of Mediaeval Musical Manuscripts 2 (Brooklyn, 1960), f. 156r.

16 ‘The Polyphonic Progeny of an Et gaudebit: Assessing Family Relations in the Thirteenth-Century Motet’, in Hearing the Motet: Essays on the Motet of the Middle Ages and Renaissance, ed. D. Pesce (Oxford and New York, forthcoming).

17 While other liturgies could prove illuminating, I chose to focus on Paris because the earliest manuscripts containing motets - F and W2 - were produced in or around Paris and their polyphonic repertories are closely linked with the liturgical use of Notre Dame. See C. Wright, Music and Ceremony at Notre Dame of Paris, 500–1500 (Cambridge, 1989), 243–58.

18 Ludwig's numbering, based on the order of organa in F, captures this assignment; Timete dominum (M 40) follows the alleluia In conspectu (M 39), for St Michael, and precedes the gradual Gloriosus (M 41), for All Saints’ Day.

19 N. Smith, ‘The Parisian Sanctorale ca. 1225’, in Capella Antiaua München: Festschrift zum 25jährigen Bestehen, ed. T. Drescher (Tutzing, 1988), 247–61.

20 R. A. Baltzer, ‘Performance Practice, the Notre-Dame Calendar, and the Earliest Latin Liturgical Motets’, paper presented at the conference Das Ereignis ‘Notre-Dame’ (Wolfenbiittel, 1985). For more on the Reception of the Relics, see Baltzer, ‘Another Look at a Composite Office and its History: The Feast of Susceptio Reliquiarum in Medieval Paris’, Journal of the Royal Music Association, 113 (1988), 1–27, and Wright, Music and Ceremony, 71.

21 As specified in Paris, B. N. Lat. 830 (Stephen only), Lat. 1112 and Lat. 15615; also London, B. L. Add. 38733 (Stephen only) and Add. 16905. Add. 16905 also prescribes the prosas Superne matris for All Saints, Letabundus for the Reception of the Relics and Organicis canamus modulis for Stephen and Companions.

22 The hymn specified for All Saints’ Vigil is Jesu salvator seculi.

23 Latin text from Paris, B. N. Lat. 15181, f. 503v.

24 Parisian sources assign this sequence to various feasts of Several Martyrs, including Fabian and Sebastian (20 Jan.), Hippolytus and Companions (13 Aug.), Maurice and Companions (22 Sept.), and Denis and Companions (Fer. 2 after 9 Oct.). Parisian chant manuscripts prescribe the sequence Letabundus for the Reception of the Relics, Organicis canamus modulis for the Finding of Stephen, and Christo indita for All Saints’ Day.

25 Latin text from C. Blume and H. Bannister, eds., Liturgische Prosen erster Epoche aus der Sequenzschulen des Abendlandes, vol. 53 of Analecta Hymnica (Leipzig, 1911), 372–4.

26 Matt. 13:44. All scriptural quotations are from the Douay-Rheims version of The Holy Bible (New York, 1941).

27 S. Wailes, Medieval Allegories of Jesus’ Parables (Los Angeles, 1987), 117–24. See also R. E. Kaske, Medieval Christian Literary Imagery: A Guide to Interpretation (Toronto, 1988).

28 Wailes, Medieval Allegories, 124–7.

29 Latin text from F, f. 404v.

30 See Gen. 3:19. ‘In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread till thou return to the earth, out of which thou wast taken: for dust thou art, and into dust thou shalt return’. The Bible includes at least nineteen uses of the term ‘foedus’ - eighteen of which appear in the Old Testament. In all cases, the term refers to the covenant between God and His people, represented by various signs including a bow in the clouds (Gen. 9:13), circumcision (Gen. 17:13), sacrificial blood (Exod. 24:8), words (Exod. 34:28), and tables of stone (Deut. 9:11), upon which were written the ten commandments. Other instances of the term equate the covenant with following God and keeping His commandments (e.g. Jos. 24:25, 2 Par. 34:31, Osee 8:1 and Rom. 1:31).

31 Perhaps this refers to the negative type of covenant described in the Book of Isaiah. In Chap. 28, God condemns the Israelites for having entered ‘into a league with death’, and for having made ‘a covenant with hell’ (Isai. 28:15). He then promises to lay a corner stone - Christ - so tht their ‘league with death shall be abolished’ (Isai. 28:18).

32 Latin text from W2, fols. 163v-164r. For another translation, see Anderson, Latin Compositions, I, 170, who explains that This text is partially corrupt, and the translation gives the main substance of the poem. It would be impossible to restore the text to the original without a good concordance.

33 For a useful survey of medieval preaching up through the twelfth century, see R. E. McLaughlin, ‘The Word Eclipsed? Preaching in the Early Middle Ages’, Traditio, 46 (1991), 77–122. For more on preaching in twelfth- and thirteenth-century Paris, see D. D'Avray, The Preaching of the Friars: Sermons diffused from Paris before 1300 (Oxford, 1985), and C. Page, The Owl and the Nightingale: Musical Life and Ideas in France, 1100–1300 (Berkeley, 1990).

34 P. B. Roberts, ‘Master Stephen Langton Preaches to the People and Clergy: Sermon Texts from Twelfth-Century Paris’, Traditio, 36 (1980), 237–68. Although the exact date of the sermon is unknown, it is most likely that Langton preached it between 1180 and 1207, when he was a Master of Theology at the university.

35 Parisian sources indicate that the two versions of Jesus's sermon with the Beatitudes should be read on All Saints’ Vigil and Day. The majority of manuscripts consulted specify that the version from Luke should be read at the Vigil, and the version from Matthew read on the Day.

36 In contrast, Maurice de Sully (Bishop of Paris from 1160 to 1196) used the occasion of All Saints’ Day to describe the members of the heavenly hierarchy: Christ and the Virgin followed by patriarchs, prophets, apostles, martyrs, confessors, virgins, and all those chosen by God for eternal glory. For a complete text of his sermon, see Robson, C. A., Maurice of Sully and the Medieval Vernacular Homily (Oxford, 1952), 184–5.Google Scholar

37 Latin Compositions, I, 171.

38 Kidwell, ‘Integration of Music and Text’, 64–72.

39 Ibid., 37–8.

40 Ibid., 139–47.

41 For more on the relationship between music and grammar, see C. Bower, ‘The Grammatical Model of Musical Understanding in the Middle Ages’, in Hermeneutics and Medieval Culture, ed. P. J. Gallacher and H. Damico (Albany, 1989), 133–45; R. Jonsson and L. Treitler, ‘Medieval Music and Language: A Reconsideration of the Relationship’, in Music and Language, vol. 1 of Studies in the History of Music (New York, 1983), 1–23; and L. Trietler, ‘The Troubadours Singing Their Poems’, in The Union of Words and Music in Medieval Poetry, ed. R. A. Baltzer, T. Cable and J. I. Wimsatt (Austin, 1991), 15–48.

42 Anderson, Latin Compositions, I, 170.

43 U. Eco, The Aesthetics of Thomas Aquinas, trans. H. Bredin (Cambridge, Mass., 1988), 100.