Harmoniae morales, and: Moralia, and: V rokopisu ohranjene skladbe = Compositions Preserved in Manuscript (review)

Iacobus Gallus. Harmoniae morales. Transcription and revision by Edo Skulj. (Monumenta artis musicae Sloveniae, 26.) Ljubljana: Slovenska akademija znanosti in umetnosti, 1996. [Introd., editorial notes, trans. in Slov., Eng. p. xi-xxxv; facsims., p. xxxvi-xxxviii; facsim. reprod. of original title page and table of contents, p. 1-2; score, p. 3-185; facsim. reprod. of original index, p. 186. ISBN 86-7131-092-2. DM 100.]

Iacobus Gallus. Moralia. Transcription and revision by Edo Skulj. (Monumenta artis musicae Sloveniae, 27.) Ljubljana: Slovenska akademija znanosti in umetnosti, 1995. [Introd., editorial notes, trans. in Slov., Eng. p. xi-xxix; alphabetical list of contents, p. xxx; facsims., p. xxxi-xxxiv; score, p. 1-252. ISBN 86-7131-099-X. DM 140.]

Iacobus Gallus. V rokopisu ohranjene skladbe = Compositions Preserved in Manuscript. Transcription and revision by Edo Skulj. (Monumenta artis musicae Sloveniae, 28.) Ljubljana: Slovenska akademija znanosti in umetnosti, 1996. [Introd., editorial notes, in Slov., Eng. p. xi-xxi; facsims., p. xx-xxv; score, p. 1-123. DM 70.]

The cosmopolitan musical culture that pervaded central Europe in the sixteenth century enabled musicians to move freely between the Hapsburg lands of Austria, Bohemia, Hungary, Moravia, Silesia, Carinthia, Carniola, and Styria. The Latinate culture of these regions crossed the ethnic and linguistic boundaries that nowadays divide Europe into nations. Prague was a particular gathering point for musicians, with the court of Rudolf II employing performers from all over Europe and the print shop of Georg Nigrin issuing countless music titles.

Paradoxically, the cosmopolitan nature of this culture has deterred the interest of modern musicologists and performers. Researchers of sixteenth-century music have generally focused on well-defined national traditions, such as the cultures of France, Italy, Lutheran Germany, and Spain. A Latinate culture that disappeared around 1600 has limited appeal--most scholars in central European countries such as Hungary or the Czech Republic are attracted by more recent traditions closer to their current cultural identity.

The reputation of Jacob Handl (1550- 1591)--commonly known by the Latin form of his name Jacobus (Iacobus) Gallus--has suffered particularly from this neglect. In his short life, Gallus (born in the Carniola region of western Slovenia) composed a vast quantity of excellent music, providing in his Opus musicum a complete cycle of motets for the church year. Yet Gallus's music is seldom performed, recorded, or discussed today. Gallus's Opus musicum and Masses were published in Denkmäler der Tonkunst in Österreich (DTÖ) (Opus musicum: Motettenwerk für das ganze Kirchenjahr, ed. Emil Bazecny´ and Josef Mantuani, 6 vols., DTÖ, vols. 12, 24, 30, 40, 48, 51/52 [Vienna: Österreichischer Bundesverlag, 1899-1919; reprint, Graz: Akademische Druck- u. Verlagsanstalt, 1959]; Sechs Messen, ed. Paul Amadeus Pisk, DTÖ, vol. 78 [1935; reprint, 1959]; Fünf Messen zu acht und sieben Stimmen, DTÖ, vol. 94/5 [1959]; Drei Messen zu sechs Stimmen, DTÖ, vol. 117 [1967]; and Fünf Messen zu vier bis sechs Stimmen, DTÖ, vol. 119 [1969]) and individual pieces have been transcribed elsewhere, often in editions that interfere unduly with the musical text. Until recently, the most comprehensive printed edition of Gallus's music constituted the collections of his own works that he himself published in the 1580s in collaboration with Nigrin in Prague.

The Slovene Academy of Arts and Sciences (Slovenska akademija znanosti in umetnosti) is therefore to be congratulated for producing between 1985 and 1996 a twenty-volume complete edition of Gallus's works as part of the national series Monumenta Artis Musicae Sloveniae. Here, all of Gallus's music is presented in an elegant edition suiting both performers and scholars. In 1996, John Kmetz reviewed the first seventeen volumes (Notes 52:3 [March 1996]: 1017-20), which present Gallus's Opus musicum and Selectiores quaedam missae. The three volumes discussed in the present review, containing Gallus's secular music and the few pieces known only via scribal transmission, conclude this valuable enterprise.

Gallus's secular music comprises the three books of the...