American Musicological Society

A Troped Offertorium-Conductus of the 13th Century

Author(s): Gordon A. Anderson
Source: Journal of the American Musicological Society, Vol. 24, No. 1 (Spring, 1971), pp. 96-
100
Published by: University of California Press on behalf of the American Musicological Society
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/830895
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 a STUDIES AND ABSTRACTS -

A TROPED OFFERTORIUM-CONDUCTUS OF THE I3TH

CENTURY

ONLY VERY FEW of the many extant Notre Dame conductus are known to be
based on pre-existent material,1 and a further example to add to the small list
is therefore welcome. Moreover, unlike other known examples, which are
only partly based on pre-existing material, the work discussed here is wholly
dependent upon another melody for its source. Perhaps it may no longer be
called a conductus.
In the small section "Tropi ad Offertorium" published in a late volume of
Analecta Hymnica,2 Clemens Blume selected eighteen texts (Nos. 634-651)
that are "Tropi ad Offertorium 'Recordare'"; the text of the Offertory
without its verse runs thus: Recordare, Virgo Mater, in conspectu Dei, ut
loquaris pro nobis bona, et ut avertat indignationern suam a nobis.3 The final
two words of this text are the key to the origin of our conductus. The first
of these troped texts, Ab hac familia,4 has been quite well known since Higini
Angles published his edition of the Las Huelgas codex; altogether four
polyphonic settings are known, three of which appear in that splendid edition.5
The fourth occurs in a German source now in the British Museum.6 The
remaining texts of this section of Blume's edition are modelled on Ab hac
familia: they generally have six- and five-syllable lines and only very few
seven-syllable lines occur; the verse structure is identical in them all; with very
few exceptions the lines all end with syllables rhyming "-a" or "-ia"; and they
all end with the troped words (a) nobis. In addition many of the MSS have a
superscription such as "Super Offertorium Recordare."7 Accordingly, the
whole group forms a unified series.
Besides the first, only the second text in Blume's edition has an extant
polyphonic setting; the remainder are known only in plain-chant settings or
by their texts alone. The second text, O vera, o pia,8 is the newly-identified
contrafactum setting: not only is its text formed of six-syllable lines, but it
also ends with the troped word nobis, an anomaly which falls completely
outside the rhyme scheme of the rest of the text. It was this last feature, so
rare in conductus texts, that caused me to search for a source for its tenor,
1 Listed in Edwin Frederick Flindell 5E codex musical de Las Huelgas
III, "The Achievements of the Notre (Barcelona, I931), III, 12: Hu fol. 8v;
Dame School," (University of Pennsyl- W1, fol. I92' (209'); Barcelona Orfeo
vania dissertation, i959; University Mi- CatalaMs. I, fol. 3.
crofilms 59-4614), p. 273. 6 Additional 27630 (LoD) No. 35, fol.
2 XLIX: Tropen des Missale im Mit- 36. This version has been published by
telalter, ed. C. Blume (Leipzig, I906), Martin Gerbert, De cantu et musica sacra
pp. 281-342. Not all the texts are Marian. (St. Blasien, 1774),, I, 437.
3Th1e Liber Usualis (Tournai, 1959), 7See Blume, op. cit., No. 641, p. 324.
p. 1557. 8 Ibid., p. 322.
4 Blume, op. cit.,
p. 321.
 STUDIES AND ABSTRACTS 97
because it certainly looked like a troped word, and generally a troped text of
polyphonic music is based on a pre-existing melody. The tenor melody is that
of the last verse of the Offertorium Recordare, Virgo Mater.9 It follows very
closely the melody of the chant, as Example i shows; the chant melody is taken
from W, omitting the opening section, and the conductus is a transcription
of the 3-pt. setting in F.
As is customary in the eleventh fascicle of W,, only the first and alternate
versicles are notated, the words for the repeated sections being placed in the
margin. The scribe of F has written the music out in full.10
That this example of contrafactum has been recondite for so long is
surprising in view of the troped origin of its text and also because it is con-

Examplei
(a) Offertorium Trope, Ab hac favilia (W,, fol. 192')
A I I

Ji J J J J J J tJ .1----/ I J i4I
Ab hac fa-mi- ii - a, Tu pro-pi - ti - a Fer re-me-di-a Re-is in vi -a,
Ma-ter ex - i - mi - a, Pel-le vi - ti - a. Dans in pa-tri-a Vi-te gau-di- a,

r r r r r r
Pro qui-bus dul -ci - a
r
Tu pre-co - ni - a Vir - go Ma - ri - a,
Lau-dis cum gra- ti - a Su - sci -pe, pi - a

Lt rIn mj !.m i ?
a no - - bis Al - le - - lu- - ia.

(b) Conductus, O vera, o pia (F, fol. 242")

-r^-^r
rKa^-r 5 r K

tmr ,IXB
I?~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~f ^r-^ . ,1 -
; J.

8
0 ve - ra, o pi - a, Ogem - ma splen-di - da, 0 vi - a

9 The polyphonic settings are found in (Tournai, 1935), but occurs in a number
F, fol. 242v, and LoD No. 36, fol. 36v. of MSS; see Angles, op. cit., I, I22-3.
The Offertory is not printed in Carolus 10The LoD version consists of the
Ott, Offertorale sive versus offertorium tenor and duplum of F.
98 JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN MUSICOLOGICAL SOCIETY
10
IO

S|ita^ Cc
- ar e regi^- _aD

~
L l I . '
jE . Ij J
r
li-be - ra, Ma-ri - a, li-be - ra; A vi- a de-vi - a

f - rj
^r 51
1-:. r.

Nos, al - ma, de-vi - a; Facpu - ra o-pe - ra, Do-mi - na,

;-~~s20
Dr-^ _^~

'or
# SJ S Lr.rt
Dr7r F^ J '

pro-pe - ra; Nos sa - na, ne no - stra Su-bi - ta ru-i - na

25
' -
d- r'
;;ctF
lSita- -a T r

?-i' i" I ^l

'

lHr r- P rI~-'r 5* 1- pl r- 5
Sit a - cta per a - cta; In au - la re-gi- a Da ve - ra
 STUDIES AND ABSTRACTS 99

8 p I 5 r r r 7T ' I
1?J hJ- J I

IWJL
8
f}D
~ JJIj D
et sum - ma Gau-di - a no - - bis.

tiguous to Ab hac familia in the MS LoD,11 the relationship of which may be

seen by comparison of its incipit (Ex. 2) with the transcription above:

Example z
Conductus,Ab hac familia(LoD, No. 35, fol. 36), opening
A - I I . I
i- t t W I I -----f If--
'Y I I I I I
Ab hac fa - mi - li - a Tu pro- pi - ti - a

, I I I I
' IW-- - - I -- I I
Ab hac fa - mi - li - a Tu pro- pi - ti - a

The use of the fourth rhythmic mode in the transcription of Ex. Ib should
be noted. Six-syllable lines are often an indication of this mode,l2 and further
evidence is supplied by the disposition of the divisiones on the second and
third units of the double perfections, which makes certain the intended
rhythmic mode. This in itself is of considerable interest; but by far the most
important aspect, from a stylistic and historical viewpoint, is its pre-existent
chant and the use of a troped word in the text, a practice which has hitherto
been found in polyphonic works outside the obviously troped liturgical
settings only in motets.13 A much closer look at both the texts and the music of
Notre-Dame conductus will have to be made, for without doubt O vera is not
an isolated example. With six known polyphonic settings of this chant,14
11 Nos. 35 and 36 respectively, fols. Conductus," Acta Musicologica, XL
36-37'. Theodor G6llner, Formen friiher (1958), 97; but see also p. 109.
Mehrstimmigkeit (Tutzing, 1961), pp. 27 13The "hidden" clausulae and Bene-
and 45, has not seen the connection. Since dicamus Domino settings within con-
writing this article I have noticed that J. ductus notwithstanding; see Manfred F.
Handschin, "Conductus,"Die Musik in Bukofzer, "Interrelations between Con-
Geschichte und Gegenwart, II (Kassel, ductus and Clausula," Annales Musico-
I952), col. 1617, has designated the work logiques, I (953), 65-103.
"Offertoriums-Tropus,"without any fur- 14 The sixth is in the Worcester
frag-
ther elaboration. ments, No. 97, with the text Singulariset
12 See Gordon A. Anderson, "Mode
insignis; see L. A. Dittmer, The Wor-
and Change of Mode in Notre-Dame cester Fragments (Haarlem, 1957),
P. 175.
I00 JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN MUSICOLOGICAL SOCIETY

Recordare is beginning to rival Verbum bonum in popularity as a source of

polyphony in the Middle Ages.15
University of Adelaide A. ANDERSON
GORDON
15 Nine settings of Verbum bonum are (1961), 16, and a tenth by the same
listed by Gilbert Reaney, "Some Little- author,Manuscriptsof Polyphonic Music,
known Sources of Mediaeval Polyphony ilth-Early 14th Century, RISM B IV i
in England," Musica Disciplina, XV (Miinchen-Duisburg, 1966), p. 522.

SOME I8TH-CENTURY TRANSCRIPTIONS

OF I5TH-CENTURY CHANSONS

STANDING ALONGSIDE the well-known chansonnier Cappella Giulia XIII.27 in

the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana is another manuscript that contains some
items of interest in connection with the 15th-century chanson, C.G. XIII.28.
The items in question are i8th-century transcriptions of four I5th-century
chansons, included in a series of transcriptions of older music that, for the
Renaissance scholar, form the core of the manuscript.l What imparts greater
interest to these transcriptions is that, although the transcriber failed to leave
his signature anywhere in the manuscript, we can identify not only him but
also the Renaissance chansonnier that served as his source.
The four chansons, with the transcriber's headings and spellings repro-
duced as they appear in C.G. XIII.28, are:

(fols. 15-I6) di Gio: Okeghem2 a3 Musica antica tra il 1400 nel 1500
Se ne pas jeulx3

(fols. 17-I7) di Antonio Busnoys a 3 Musica antica tra il I400 nel

1500
Pucellotte que dieu vos guart

(fols. I8-i8v) Ja Barbirau Musica antica tra il I400 nel 5oo00

Scon lief

1A
complete description of the manu-
script extends beyond the scope of the
present study. It is hoped that a detailed
inventory of the source will be included
in the catalogue of the entire Cappella
Giulia fondo that is currently being pre-
pared by Prof. Jose M. Llorens. Here we
may note that, in addition to the tran-
scriptions of the four i5th-century chan-
sons, the manuscript contains transcrip-
tions in the same hand of pieces by
Arcadelt, Carpentras,Ortiz, Morales,Ani-
muccia, Palestrina, F. Anerio, Dragoni,
G. B. Nanino, Del Mel, and C. Zoilo,
along with a corpus of compositions by
such 17th-century composers as Paolo
Agostino, Giovanni Bicilli, Giovanni Gia-
como Branca, Antonio Cifra, Giuseppe
Giamberte,and an uncertain "V.M."who,
if we may be allowed the hypothesis
that he was associated, as were many of
the above-mentionedcomposers,with the
Cappella Giulia, might be Virgilio Maz-
zocchio. The manuscript, bound in a
crude, makeshift fashion, is a composite
probably put together by an i8th- or
19th-century custodian of the Cappella
Giulia archives.
2
Concerningthis misattribution,see be-
low, fn. 5.
3The text incipit here appears under
the first notes of the bassus.In the other
three chansons, it appears beneath the
superius.