The Vatican Organum Treatise re-examined

Early Music History

Volumn 20, Issue , 2001, Pages 121-172

  Immel, Steven C ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 61949174681     PISSN: 02611279     EISSN: 14740559     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/s0261127901001036     Document Type: Review

References (39)

1. The most comprehensive work on the treatise is F. Zaminer, Der vatikanische Organum-Traktat (Ottob. lat. 3025): Organum-Praxis der frühen Notre Dame-Schule und ihrer Vorstufen (Münchner Veröffentlichungen der Musikwissenschaft, 2; Tutzing, 1959)
2. Recent contributions include I. Godt and B. Rivera, 'The Vatican Organum Treatise - A Colour Reproduction, Transcription, and Translation', in In Memoriam Gordon Athol Anderson (Institute of Mediaeval Music, Musicological Studies, 39/2; Binningen, 1984), pp. 264 ff.
3. and L. Treitler, 'Der vatikanische Organumtraktat und das Organum von Notre Dame de Paris: Perspektiven der Entwicklung einer schriftlichen Musikkultur in Europa', Basler Jahrbuch für historische Musikpraxis, 7 (1983), 23-31
4. See Zaminer, Der vatikanische Organum-Traktat, pp. 42-71
5. S. Fuller, 'Theoretical Foundations of Early Organum Theory', Acta musicologica, 53 (1981), pp. 52 ff.
6. ead., 'Early Polyphony', in The New Oxford History of Music, ii: The Early Middle Ages to 1300, ed. R. Crocker and D. Hiley (Oxford and New York, 1990), pp. 508-28
7. K.-J. Sachs, 'Zur Tradition der Klangschritt-Lehre: Die Texte mit der Formel "Si cantus ascendit ..." und ihre Verwandten', Archiv für Musikwissenschaft, 28 (1971), pp. 233 ff.
8. and H. H. Eggebrecht and F. Zaminer, Ad Organum faciendum: Lehrschriften der Mehrstimmigkeit in nachguidonischer Zeit (Mainz, 1970)
9. For the most recent contribution on this subject consult Michael Bernhard's forthcoming article 'Eine neue Quelle für den Vatikanischen Organum-Traktat' (Quellen und Studien zur Musiktheorie des Mittelalters, 3; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Veröffentlichungen der Musikhistorischen Kommission). The relevant text is found in G. P. A. Bolton Library (formerly Cathedral library), Tipperary, Cashel MS 1 - a composite source of medieval treatises - and corresponds to the rule section of VT beginning 'De regulis organi'. As the Cashel text does not include the first two sections (or 42 lines) of VT - 'Incipit ars organi' and 'Vis in organo' - and has no musical examples, it stands squarely in the tradition of the simple voice-leading manuals. Most scholars of voice-leading treatises are well aware of the 'anomalous' character of VT (cf. Fuller, 'Early Polyphony', p. 527)
10. R. von Ficker, in 'Der Organumtraktat der vatikanischen Bibliothek', Kirchenmusikalisches Jahrbuch, 27 (1932), pp. 65 ff., seems to have been the initiator of this hypothesis, which attempted to bridge the gap between Notre Dame Organum and earlier types of polyphony; this hypothesis was first expanded by Ewald Jammers in Anfänge der abendländlichen Musik (Strasbourg, 1955), and later by Zaminer
11. This can be seen, for example, in E. Sanders' essay 'Organum and Discant', in Music from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance, ed. F. W. Sternfeld (New York, 1973), pp. 100 ff.
12. in M. Huglo's 'Les débuts de la polyphonie à Paris: les premiers organa parisiens', Basler Kolloquium 1975, Forum musicologicum, 3 (1982), pp. 105-6
13. One of the first dissenters to the Zaminer hypothesis was H. H. Eggebrecht, in 'Die Mehrstimmigkeitslehre von ihren Anfängen bis zum 12. Jahrhundert', in Die mittelalterliche Lehre von der Mehrstimmigkeit (Geschichte der Musiktheorie, 5, ed. F. Zaminer; Darmstadt, 1984), pp. 9-87
14. he says, for example, of the beginning of the setting of All. Hic martinus in VT (pp. 80-1), 'Ich glaube, daß es nicht übertrieben ist, den Melismengesang in dieser bewußten Wiese kunstvoll gestaltet zu sehen. Und dies spricht meines Erachtens dafür, daß der Verfasser des Vatikanischen Traktats nicht - wie Zaminer im Blick auf die wenig geregelte Notenschrift, die singuläre Aufzeichnung von Übungsmelismen und deren formelhaften Charakter meint - die Stegreifausführung, sondern zumindest auch die Niederschrift, die tonschriftliche Ausarbeitung des Organums vor Augen hatte, eben die Art, die im Magnus liber organi überliefert ist'. C. Wright, in Music and Ceremony at Notre Dame of Paris, 500-1550 (Cambridge Studies in Music; New York, 1989), pp. 336-8 cited my 1984 AMS paper on VT in his discussion of Notre Dame 'Traditions and performance', but did not take a position on the exact relationship of the treatise with the Magnus liber organi
15. See F. Reckow, 'Copula', in Handwörterbuch der musikalischen Terminologie, ed. H. H. Eggebrecht et al. (Wiesbaden, 1972)
16. id., Die Copula: Über einige Zusammenhänge zwischen Setzweise, Formbildung, Rhythmus und Vortragsstil in der Mehrstimmingkeit von Notre-Dame (Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur, Mainz: Abhandlungen der Geistes-und Sozialwissenschaftlichen und der Literatur zu Mainz; Wiesbaden, 1972)
17. id., Der Musiktraktat des Anonymous 4 (Beihefte zum Archiv für Musikwissenschaft, 5; Wiesbaden, 1967), pp. 35 ff
18. Also see the Sanders-Reckow communication in Journal ofthe American Musicological Society, 31 (1980), pp. 588 ff.
19. and the following articles by Jeremy Yudkin: 'The Anonymous of St. Emmeram and Anonymous IV on the Copula', Musical Quarterly, 70 (1984), pp. 1 ff.
20. 'The Copula According to Johannes de Garlandia', Musica disciplina, 34 (1980), pp. 67 ff
21. and 'The Rhythm of Organum Purum', Journal of Musicology, 2 (1983), pp. 355 ff. None of these authors has addressed copula style as manifested in VT
22. See E. Sanders, The Medieval Motet', in W. Arlt, E. Lichtenhahn and M. Haas (eds), Gattungen der Musik in Einzeldarstellungen: Gendenkschrift Leo Schrade (Bern, 1973), pp. 497 ff
23. Die Copula, p. 28. Reckow remarks: 'In dem Maße, in dem auch in den ursprünglich "organalen" Partien der zweistimmigen Choralbearbeitungen nach und nach modaler Rhythmus und periodische Gliederung verwirklicht wurden, verwischte sich der Unterschied zwischen den Setzweisen Copula und Organum per se: beide sind für Franco im Organum purum aufgegangen ...'
24. 'Regula 1: Si cantus ascenderit duas voces, et Organum incipiat in dupla, descendat Organum 3. voces et erit in quinta, ut ...' (Zaminer, p. 186). For an analysis of such text formulae and a discussion of possible variations on them in medieval treatises, see Sachs, 'Zur Tradition', pp. 235 ff
25. 'Zur Tradition', pp. 248-9
26. For a purely analytical study of the VT melismas, see C. Schmidt, 'Spiel mit dem Modus: Betrachtungen zur Melodik des Vatikanischen Organumtraktates', in P. Reidemeister and V. Gutmann (eds), Alte Musik: Praxis und Reflexion (Sonderband der Reihe Basler Jahrbuch für historische Musikpraxis zum 50. Jubiläum der Schola Cantorum Basiliensis; Wintertur, 1983) pp. 158 ff.
27. and id., 'Form in der organalen Improvisation', Basler Jahrbuch für historische Musikpraxis, 7 (1983), pp. 11 ff
28. In VT's 'example' section there are actually seven melismas that 'teach' the repeated-note figure - see, for instance, nos. 31 (= 10b), 41 (= 12b), 101 (= 32b), 157 (= 54b), 268 (= 104c), 314 (= 132b) and 318 (= 134b). These examples are always preceded by a melisma or two in a simpler style, of course, fitting the treatise's didactic plan: to show phrases in progressive stages of elaboration. Interestingly, no. 31 is notated 'copula non ligata': Concerning the two types of notation along with their implication in terms of the modal doctrine, see Reckow, Die Copula, pp. 28-45
29. This form of the clivis is reminiscent of the notation of certain Lorraine scribes. See, for example, Répertoire de manuscrits médiévaux, iii: Bibliothèques parisiennes, ed. M. Bernard (Paris, 1974), plate X (from MS Bibl. Université 169 dating from the late twelfth century). The general characteristics of the Lorraine script, which have indeed a lot in common with that of VT, include this clivis figure with the stem at the end, a porrectus which is similarly missing a stem and is somewhat spindly (unknown sign), and the use of a climacus which resembles an F clef. In addition, certain notes, or the initial note of some ligatures, are noticeably elongated (e.g. unknown sign)
30. F. Flindell, 'Aspekte der Modalnotation', Musikforschung, 17 (1964), p. 377, included this formula among his list of progressive, 'forward-sounding' phrases, but failed to note the concordance with Notre Dame
31. 1 represents a notationally earlier, modus non rectus tradition
32. Godt ('The Vatican Organum Treatise', p. 279) speculated that these figures were a kind of nota plicata (he calls them 'round-form plicas'). Although they are not 'realised' in his edition, he faithfully circles the note with which the figure begins, thus making all of them easy to spot. As far as their realisation is concerned, the number of notes that should be substituted for the figure depends on the length of the tail (for example, a climacus with small tail would be the equivalent of a coniunctura binaria; progressively longer tails would correspond to a coniunctura ternaria, coniunctura quaternaria, etc. Of course, also to be considered are the context of the figure and the melodic nature of the formula in which it occurs
33. v,1: (Figure Presented)
34. 1 seems to reflect a 'later' (not earlier) tradition. Roesner, in 'The Problem', pp. 381 ff., provides a nice statement on Ludwig's obsolete theory regarding the development of the repertory and the relationship among the three central sources: 'It is now generally agreed that Ludwig's hypothesis is too simple. The sources do not each contain a distinct stage in an organic process of growth, development, and decline. Whatever the nature of the development that the organa underwent, each manuscript transmits a mixture of earlier and later material in combinations that are likely to vary from work to work. Clearly a process of recasting and, very probably, conflation took place that involved numbers of musicians and many centres of activity.'
35. 2 as a 'mensural' notational device is not, strictly speaking, mensural at all. In this particular instance - in which a nota simplex is followed by an altered ternaria beginning on the same pitch - the removal of the ternaria's stem suggests that the preceding nota simplex was elided with the first note of the ternaria, creating a lengthening of sorts, more or less equal to the value of a long. That the theorists could relate to something that might be described as 'more or less equal to' is reflected by such words as 'nimia', 'tarda', 'debita', 'parva' or 'mediocris' being attached to standard notational names (e.g. 'nimia longa', 'brevis parva', etc.). For a discussion of this see Roesner, 'The Performance', pp. 185 ff
36. a'
37. A facsimile of an appropriate thirteenth-century Guidonian hand is reproduced in J. Smits van Waesberghe, Musikerzeihung: Lehre und Theorie der Musik im Mittelalter (Musikgeschichte in Bildern, 3/iii; Leipzig, 1969), p. 139, Abb. 73. I wish to thank Edward H. Roesner and Leofranc Holford-Strevens for their valuable suggestions in preparing the Latin text and its translation
38. See E. Roesner, 'Johannes de Garlandia on Organum in speciali', Early Music History, 2 (1982), pp. 129-60. Roesner has suggested that 'organum per se' is not to be understood as a type of organum purum or polyphonic idiom - a conclusion suggested by numerous scholars - but rather simply as the organal or duplum voice alone. As he points out (p. 40), this very meaning is supported by the author of the treatise, who states near the beginning of the tract: 'Quia nihil ualet organum per se nisi aliquis cantus sit cum organo' (Organum per se is worth nothing unless a cantus 〈tenor〉 be present along with the organum)
39. Geschichte der Mehrstimmigkeit: Historische und phänomenologische Studien (Berlin, 1934-5), i, pp. 43 ff. Incidentally, Gilbert Reaney seems to agree with Schneider, writing in RISM, ser. B IV/1 (Munich, 1966), p. 795: '〈Ottob. 3025〉 dates from the first half of the 13th century and must in fact be a copy of 12th century material, for it is comparable with works of St. Martial type.'