Author: Jason Stoessel

A “virtuous” stacked canon

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I’m pleased to report on a recent attempt to solve a canon found on the title page of a music anthology, Odae suavissimae (1601/1602?). Philipp Schöndorff (sometimes Schöndorpp) (1558–after 1617) dedicated this collection, including two eponymous odes, to his Liégeois compatriot Jacob Chimarrhaeus (1542–1614). Both men were at that date employed at the Imperial court of Rudolf II, Chimarrhaeus as almoner (previously as a singer and very good viol player) and Schöndorff as a chapel singer and trumpeter. Indeed, the Schöndorff had gained employment at Rudolf’s court following Chimarrhaeus’s recommendation in 1590, and the younger man’s esteem for his older co-worker may have stemmed in part from that gesture.

As so often happens among researchers these days on social media, musicologist Erika Supria Honisch reached out to colleagues for help to solve the canon that appears towards the top of the ornately engraved title page,  indicated by “CAN 4. VOC”, that is a canon in four parts (4 ex 1). [Edit: I’ve modified the previous sentence, so it does not sound like it is just Dr Honisch reaching out! JS] The canon sets the text “DOMAT OMNIA VIRTUS”, which seems to have been Chimarrhaeus’s motto: “Virtue conquers everything”. I’m grateful to Dr Honisch for the opportunity to exercise my mind on this canonic puzzle and sharing the following image.

Odae suavissimae detail
Detail of title page of Odae Suavissimae (1601/1602?) showing a canon on “Domat omnia virtus”.

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A “New” Concordance for “Pourtant si mon amy”

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In an earlier post I identified a new concordance for Jean Mouton’s stacked canon En venant de Lyon, which lay basically in plain sight in the choir stalls of Lodi Cathedral. This serendipitous discovery came about from the fact that I have been cataloguing the canonic repertoire from the fourteenth to early sixteenth centuries, and had recalled the melodic profile of Mouton’s canon from other sources when viewing the Lodi panel.

Since around 1983, scholarship has known of a double canon Pourtant si mon amy n’a point de monnaye in the manuscript Uppsala, Universitetsbiblioteket, Vokalmusik I Handskrift 76a, fols. 41v-42r, ascribed to the early sixteenth-century composer Ninot le Petit (actually given as “Minot le petit” – a misreading by the scribe of their source?). Howard Mayer Brown (1983, 1987) and Louise Litterick (2013) both list this chanson as a unicum in the Uppsala chansonnier, that is a piece of notated music lacking any known concordances. Peter Woetmann Christoffersen, who is responsible for a wonderful project producing online editions (and critical commentary) of all the repertoire of the Loire Valley chansonniers and related sources (including the Uppsala chansonnier), also lists this canonic song as recently as an update from 27 February 2019 as a unicum. Christoffersen’s scholarly online edition can be viewed by following this link.

Excerpt Pourtant si mon amy in Uppsala 76a
Beginning of Pourtant si mon amy in Uppsala 76a, including the inscription to “Minot le petit” (Ninot Le Petit)

It turns out that Pourtant si mon amy is also found in an early French print. Brown could not have possibly known this fact since it occurs in the early collection of double canons Chansons et Motetz en Canon published by Pierre Attaingnant in Paris around 1528.  Although it was suspected since 1961 that such a book existed (though at that time only the last four folios were known), the music world had to wait until 1995 when Ludwig Finscher announced the discovery of a complete copy of the Chansons et Motetz en Canon. (The fact that an edition, whose print run must have run into hundreds of copies, only survives in one complete copy is not an unusual, even though the slim chances of survival of many printed music books from this period, is a slightly distressing thought for music historians. Kate van Orden has recently reflected on this survival rate for early music prints in her book Materialities.)

The reader can compare the online edition of Pourtant si mon amy from Attaingnant’s print (fols. 22v-23r) prepared by Frank Dobbins, Marie-Alexis Colin and Patrice Nicolas with Christoffersen’s (link given above). Note that Dobbins et al. do not reduce original note values, while Christoffersen halves them. The canonic song is transmitted anonymously in Attaingnant’s print. Retaining the attribution from the Uppsala chansonnier to Ninot Le Petit, who wrote another double canon, nonetheless seems plausible. There as several differences in the text of each source and minor differences in the music that will be object of a future study.

References

Brown, Howard Mayer. 1983. “A “New” Chansonnier of the Early Sixteenth Century in the University Library of Uppsala: A Preliminary Report.” Musica Disciplina no. 37:171-233.

Brown, Howard Mayer. 1987. Uppsala, Universitetsbiblioteket, Vokalmusik I Handskrift 76a, Renaissance Music in Facsimile. New York: Garland.

Finscher, Ludwig. 1995. “Attaingnantdrucke aus einer schesischen Adelsbibliothek.” In Festschrift Klaus Hortschansky zum 60 Geburtstag, edited by A. Beer and L. Lütteken, 33-42. Tutzing: Schneider.

Litterick, Louise. 2013. “Out of the Shadows: The Double Canon ‘En l’ombre d’ung buissonnet’.” In Instruments, Ensembles, and Repertory, 1300-1600, edited by Timothy J. McGee and Stewart Carter, 263-298. Turnhout: Brepols Publishers.

Mouton sighted at Lodi

Jason Stoessel Uncategorized

Jason Stoessel's Research Blog

I’m currently writing a chapter on the material representation of canons in early sixteenth-century northern Italian art. The number of canons in art  suggests that they played an important role in the musico-visual culture in courts and ecclesiastical institutions of this time. Some better known examples of canons in paintings include the Agnus Dei II of Josquin’s Missa L’homme armé super voces musicales in Dosso Dossi’s Allegory of Music and Ockeghem’s Prenez sur moy in one of the intarsia of Isabelle d’Este’s grotta at the Ducal Palace in Mantua.

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Pre-print preview of new article on the Tournai Canons

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We are pleased to announce the release of the pre-print version of our article on the repertoire of canons in French music from the mid fourteenth century. The article, “New light on the mid fourteenth-century chace: canons hidden in the Tournai manuscript”,  features recently discovered canons (including lead author Stoessel’s transcriptions) from the same manuscript that contains the famous Tournai Mass. It discusses the place of the Tournai canons in the contemporary repertoire north of the Alps and sets out a new framework for analysing the composition of canons in the mid fourteenth century. The article is scheduled to appear in print early next year in Music Analysis. Under the terms of Wiley’s article sharing policy, the early access version of the article can be read online at the following link. Final publication details (issue, number, year of publication and pagination) will appear in the final version.

Research for this article was supported by Australian Government through the Australian Research Council (project number DP150102135).

PhD Scholarship Opportunity in Digital Musicology

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We are very pleased to announce that the University of New England is offering a targeted PhD in Digital Musicology for a project on Ludovico Zacconi’s collection of canons.  This project will run parallel with our ARC Discovery Project “The Art and Science of Canon in the Music of Early 17th-century Rome,” sharing and contributing to its approaches and methods.

PhD Scholarship Opportunity in Digital Musicology
The Art and Science of Ludovico Zacconi’s Collections of Canons

The University of New England seeks a highly motivated PhD candidate in digital musicology to research the two musical collections of canons of 17th-century singer-theorist Ludovico Zacconi (1555–1627). The candidate’s research will complement the Australian Research Council Discovery Project “The Art and Science of Canon in the Music of Early 17th-century Rome” that Chief Investigators Denis Collins and Jason Stoessel will commence in early 2018. This project will inform and inspire the candidate’s own research on Zacconi in Venice. Zacconi demonstrated a remarkable interest in the canonic repertoire of his contemporaries and his resolutions of riddle canons provide ground-base truths for understanding canonic techniques in early 17th-century music.

The canonic repertoire of early 17th-century music has attracted very little scholarly attention until now. Existing studies highlight the large number of canonic works from the period, some of their links to contemporary debates around philosophical and theological issues, and the use of artwork and symbolism in the presentation of the musical notation. Notably absent is any systematic analytical approach. Collins and Stoessel are addressing this shortcoming through innovative computer-assisted methodologies. The candidate will play his/her own distinct role in this endeavour.

Digital musicology is a cross-disciplinary approach that uses computers and information technology to enhance and to extend music research. The applicant should possess research knowledge and skills in either historical musicology (preferably in an area before 1750) and/or computer science. Applicants who have knowledge and skills in one of these domains must demonstrate a readiness to develop knowledge and skills in the other. The successful applicant must be willing to learn modern computer programming languages or demonstrate existing skills in one or more of them. They must also be willing to address research questions using machine-learning or artificial intelligence toolboxes and/or newly written software tools or scripts. Previous experience with using Unix, R, Python and/or high performance computing is desirable, although UNE provides introductory training in these technologies.

The scholarship provides a tax-free free stipend of AU$27,082 (2018 rate) for three years. It is available to domestic (Australian, New Zealand or Australian permanent residency) candidates. Postgraduate training at UNE includes international conference opportunities, and professional development and networking. The candidate will receive training in the use of online music cataloguing software according to international standards. The project will be based at Armidale in Northern NSW and involve collaboration with cross-university researchers in Brisbane, Queensland. Experts from historical musicology and computer science will jointly supervise the candidate’s research.

This project is an exciting opportunity to work at the forefront of digital musicology research in Australia. Selection of the successful candidate will be based upon merit.

When to apply

Scholarship applications are due on or before the 19 February 2018. The successful applicant would need to be prepared to start candidature as soon as possible after the closing date.

How To apply

Submit a research proposal of no more than two pages, two referee reports, certified copies of academic transcripts and curriculum vitae to AskUNE. The research proposal should set out under separate headings the aims, background, approach and methodology, and expected outcomes of the applicant’s envisaged project with reference to selected recent scholarly literature.

Applicants must request their referees to submit their written reports directly to the University using the Referee’s Report Form.

Please see the Scholarship Terms and Conditions for more information.

* Further contact details, links to AskUNE, Referee’s Report Form and Scholarship Terms and Conditions can be found by following this link.