Gestalt und Entstehung musikalischer Quellen im 15. und 16. Jahrhundert (review)

Gestalt und Entstehung musikalischer Quellen im 15. und 16. Jahrhundert. Edited by Martin Staehelin. (Quellenstudien zur Musik der Renaissance, 3; Wolfenbütteler Forschungen, 83.) Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1998. [243 p. ISBN 3-447-04118-8. DM 178.]

This is a publication of papers presented at Wolfenbüttel in 1992, and specialists in Renaissance music will recognize it as a successor to two volumes of proceedings from earlier conferences at Wolfenbüttel, published in 1975 and 1983. Recent scholars have cited numerous studies in the first two volumes with gratitude, and there can be no doubt that some of the items in this more recent work will earn similar respect. The volume consists of sixteen articles--it is a bit larger than either of its predecessors --most of them written by recognized authorities in the field, and it is a pleasure to observe that some articles are generously supplemented by facsimiles from the sources, several in color. In the following paragraphs I list the articles in the order of their appearance, limitations of space allowing only a few comments.

Reinhard Strohm ("Zur Entstehung der Trienter Codices: Philologie und Kulturgeschichte") reviews recent studies on these complicated sources, proposes some regroupings of fascicles in Tr 87/1 and 92/2, and sets up something of an ideological preface to source studies by urging that they go beyond philological analyses to include matters of cultural history. Tom Ward ("Music in the University: The Manuscript Leipzig, Universitätsbibliothek, MS 1084") discusses a manuscript of polyphony once owned by Johannes Klein (d. 1490), who studied and taught at the University of Leipzig. Ward provides an inventory with concordances for this collection of 27 works by Guillaume Dufay and others of his generation, proposing that "the impression that central Europe in the middle of the fifteenth century was out of touch with recent music is an illusion created by accidents of preservation" (p. 28).

David Fallows ("Jean Molinet and the Lost Burgundian Court Chansonniers of the 1470s") observes that much of the repertory once thought to be "Burgundian" actually originated in central France, but he then takes on the interesting task of trying to identify Burgundian pieces by studying the writings of the Burgundian court chronicler Jean Molinet, which mention a total of 62 French songs. The article concludes with a table listing those songs and music manuscripts of the period that either do or may provide the music. Adalbert Roth ("Die Entstehung des ältesten Chorbuches mit polyphoner Musik der päpstlichen Kapelle: Città del Vaticano, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Fondo Cappella Sistina, Ms. 35") offers a detailed codicological analysis of this source, which transmits a repertory copied between 1486 and 1491 (p. 52). Roth states that this is the earliest polyphonic source compiled at Rome for the papal chapel.

Heinz-Jürgen Winkler ("Bemerkungen zur Handschrift Vatikan, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Chigi C VIII 234") revisits the question of the origin of this famous manuscript. The news he brings to the issue involves a miniature formerly thought to portray a male figure. Winkler identifies the subject as Catherine of Alexander, and this leads him to identify the original owner as Catherine de Dio, the manuscript thus having been copied in 1484 or later (p. 69).

Barbara Haggh's article ("The First Printed Antiphoner of Cambrai Cathedral") deserves more space than this review can give. Nobody can question the importance of an antiphoner from this cathedral, and only one copy of this edition is known to survive. The book is undated, but Haggh concludes that it was printed between 1508 and 1518 (p. 78). Her remarkably thorough study brings into play the discipline of analyzing early printed books, and she also addresses the contexts provided by other printed liturgical books of the day, local history, and local liturgy. We are becoming increasingly aware of the importance of studying Renaissance chantbooks, but very little detailed work has been done. Haggh's exemplary study leads the way...