Notre dame polyphony

Polyphony associated with the Parisian cathedral of Notre Dame marks a historical turning point in medieval music. Yet a lack of analytical or theoretical systems has discouraged close study of twelfth- and thirteenth-century musical objects, despite the fact that such creations represent the beginnings of musical composition as we know it. Is musical analysis possible for such medieval repertoires? Catherine A. Bradley demonstrates that it is, presenting new methodologies to illuminate processes of musical and poetic creation, from monophonic plainchant and vernacular French songs, to polyphonic organa, clausulae, and motets in both Latin and French. This book engages with questions of text-music relationships, liturgy, and the development of notational technologies, exploring concepts of authorship and originality as well as practices of quotation and musical reworking.

In connection with the interpretation of Notre Dame proposed by Davide Daolmi in this journal, the article analyzes the reasons that allowed the modern invention of polyphonic performance of 12th and 13th centuries, tracing experiments promoted during the early 20th century and strengthened in the early music revival in the late Seventies. The musical choices appear as expressions of a cultural mainstream more than documentary evidence: at the beginning the musicological reasons are references for the first performances (with preconceptions about Middle Age), then the vocal interpretation of the second Postwar became extraneous to the historical research (moreover lacking of any new contribution) and found aesthetic alibis in different environment (social, politic, market).

A transcription of Leonin's "Viderunt Omnes" (c. mid to late 12th century), showing excerpts of the original two sources with comparative variations and a modern transcription.

For a recording and score-video see the link below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_p9WQlyVPrA

A transcription of Machaut's Rondeau 14, "Ma fin est ma commencement" ("my end is my beginning"). The score is rendered to be read both forwards and backwards as necessitated by the music. For an animated video of the score with a performance visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcfPr4IN2MM

This is a threefold transcription of Baude Cordier's "circle canon," two versions in rondeau form and one in perpetual canon. Included with the music transcriptions are full translations from Medieval French to English of all the accompanying texts as well as an English text underlay for the music.

Also included is a full explanation of the various mensurations and colorations that appear in the piece.

The design of the scores attempts to illustrate the rondeau form overlaying the canonic conceit.

For a score animation with the transcription and original manuscript, see this link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iaeOWdXM4Pg

This is a comparative manuscript edition of Gherardello da Firenze's (c. 1350) caccia "Tosto che l'alba". Herein you can see the difference between the piece's three available sources listed below. For a performable realization of this piece taken from these three sources, see the related title under "performance edition".

Biblioteca Medicea-Laurenziana [I-Fl], MS Mediceo Palatino 87 “Codex Squarcialupi”, no. 40 fol 25v-26r
Bibliothèque Nationale [F-PN], MS fonds italien 568 “Pit”, no. 40 fol. 25v-26r
British Library [GB-Lbl], Add. MS 29987, no 31 fol. 25r

For a recording and video of the score see
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ok4VOFvLE2Y

This is a performance edition of Gherardello da Firenze's (c. 1350) caccia, "Tosto che l'alba." This edition is a combination of the three available sources for this piece, selecting those options which are optimal when differences arise between the manuscripts. If one desires to see the other available options in each source, please refer to the related title under "comparative manuscript edition". The complete text of the piece is provided with a translation at the end of the score.

For a recording and video of the score see
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ok4VOFvLE2Y

For an audio-video animation of the manuscript with the modern transcription see the link below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dO56v7qltNo

An edition of the anonymous labyrinthine ballade on three canons, "En la maison Dedalus" (In the House of Dedalus) from the Berkeley Manuscript.

This edition includes a modern transcription of the music, the original manuscript excerpted, poetic and literal translations of the text, reconstruction of the 11-tier labyrinth upon which the music is overlain, and pedagogical materials/explanations of the musical and poetic medieval Ballade forme-fixe.

A critical transcription of the three-voice Caça (“chace” or canon) known as “O Virgo Splendens” (“O splendorous virgin”), the first in the small collection of music from the Llibre Vermell. It is perhaps the oddest of the set, being the most stylistically remote. It is the only piece not notated or composed in the contemporary style of the Ars Nova. Rather, its notation and style harken to previous centuries, possibly as recent as the discant style of the Parisian school of Notre Dame or of Santiago de Compostela from the 12th and 13th century, or as old as the free organum style of the 10th and 11th centuries such as that found in the Ad organum faciendum. Given its apparent lack of rhythmic mode of any kind, its relation to the 10th and 11th centuries seem more likely.

For a video of the score with a recorded performance visit
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BkzBK5-oDw

While it is known that Parisian organum and related genres were being cultivated in the last quarter of the twelfth century, no manuscript collection dating before the 1230s has yet been discovered. The surviving Notre-Dame sources do not predate the decade 1230–40 at the earliest. The manuscript Troyes, Médiathèque du Grand Troyes 1471 alters this picture. The binding flyleaves of this source transmit the texts of eight conducti and two Benedicamus Domino, which were set to receive two-part music that was never entered. Despite the absence of written notation, these fragments offer the opportunity to address the implications of polyphonic book production in the generation preceding the great Notre-Dame manuscripts. Codicological and historical evidence suggests a Parisian origin and a possible date of 1210–20 for a source probably comparable to such manuscripts as F and W1. Such an early date makes these flyleaves the earliest surviving witness to the production of books of Parisian polyphonic music, and challenges the general assumption that no thirteenth-century manuscripts of Notre-Dame polyphony were produced before the second quarter of the thirteenth century. It also raises questions relating to the notation, chronology, and transmission of the repertory in the early thirteenth century.

More than fifty years ago, Frank Harrison argued that the conductus originated in the troped Benedicamus and that it functioned as a substitute for that versicle in the Office. The vestige of this possible early interconnection between the two genres may be detected in a number of ‘Notre-Dame’ polyphonic conducti that incorporate the Benedicamus versicle in their musico-poetical constructions. Yet, the principal ‘Notre-Dame’ manuscripts are inconsistent in positioning polyphonic Benedicamus settings: W1 pairs Benedicamus organa with conducti, F places them after organa for the Office, and in W2 they are found at the end of the manuscript’s section dedicated to organa for the Mass. This may be attributed to both the erratic liturgical nature of the versicle Benedicamus Domino and the possible lack of available space in the relevant sections of some sources. While scribes had to sometimes compromise between genre, liturgical destination, and manuscript arrangement, this explanation contrasts with the thorough and rational arrangement of material that typically identifies the ‘Notre-Dame’ sources. A shift in ordering criteria may have occurred, reflecting changes of function of the polyphonic Benedicamus Domino during the first half of the thirteenth century.
The relationship of the two genres may however be shown to determine the juxtaposition of Benedicamus settings and conductus in W1 and that this ordering represents an older structural arrangement for ‘Notre-Dame’ sources. The case may be supported by evidence contained in a recently discovered fragmentary manuscript source (Troyes 1471), which was copied in Paris no later than the 1220s and shares W1’s pairing of conductus and Benedicamus organa. The paper also addresses the inclusion of Benedicamus settings within organa for the Office and the Mass in F and W2 respectively; this may indicate both a loosening connection between conductus and Benedicamus organa and a change in their functions. This furthermore helps explain the migration of Benedicamus settings from the Office (F) to the Mass (W2) in view of a comparable shift of monophonic settings of the versicle in the thirteenth century.

En el Archivo de la catedral de Burgos se conserva un fragmento de un manuscrito con música del siglo xiii (fragmento 2 del códice 61) bien conocido por los musicólogos desde la edición de Higinio Anglés del Códice de Las Huelgas en 1931, quien lo cita porque contiene tres piezas polifónicas: dos tropos del ordinarium y un himno.
Desde entonces, el fragmento ha sido mencionado solo a causa de esa polifonía, obviando el resto de sus piezas y sin que nadie haya advertido que en el códice 61 hay más fragmentos del mismo libro. Este artículo muestra que el fragmento 2, junto con el 8 de E-BUa 61, fue parte de un Prosario-Tropario de mediados del siglo xiii copiado para la iglesia de San Esteban de Burgos. Se realiza una reconstrucción de dicho Prosario-Tropario que contiene – además de la polifonía – una serie de prosas,
alguna de las cuales son inéditas y se publican por primera vez en este trabajo.
El manuscrito E-BUa 61/2+8 muestra que los canónigos de San Esteban de Burgos empleaban en su liturgia piezas polifónicas y monódicas que formaban parte de un repertorio ‘regional’ puesto que se pueden ver en el códice de Las Huelgas de la misma ciudad en el siglo xiv y en otros centros religiosos españoles hasta el siglo xvi.

Questo studio riflette su due momenti del rapporto tra i Francescani e la musica. Una prima parte si concentra sui primi anni dell’ordine attraverso un riesame delle prime fonti biografiche francescane. Il risultato è un’immagine di Francesco che fa proprio il modello dei trovatori e dei trovieri, adottandone il repertorio e lo stile esecutivo (Francesco che canta gallice le lodi di Dio fingendo di suonare la viella, come ce lo descrive Tommaso da Celano). Il famoso invito – descritto dalla Compilatio assisiensis – di Francesco ai suoi frati di essere i ioculatores Domini è reinterpretato alla luce della scoperta che la stessa espressione è usata da uno dei maggiori protagonisti del repertorio polifonico di Notre Dame, Filippo il Cancelliere. Lungi dall’essere ai margini in fatto di preferenze musicali, i primi Francescani appaiono molto ben connessi ai maggiori repertori del tempo. Tale connessione continua nei secoli successivi. L’ultima parte dello studio prende in esame il possesso di un manoscritto di polifonia, il codice Torino, Biblioteca Nazionale Universitaria, T.III.2. da parte di due membri dell’ordine nel corso del Quattrocento. 


This essay considers two moments of the relationship between the Franciscans and music. A first part examines the first years of the order through a new analysis of passages from early hagiographical sources. The result is an image of St. Francis who models himself on the French troubadours and trouveres, adopting their repertory and performance style (e.g. Francis singing gallice the praises of God, while pretending to accompany himself on a vielle, as described by Tommaso da Celano). I reinterpret the famous invitation of Francis to his friars to be the ioculatores Domini in light of the discovery that the same expression is used by one of the major protagonists of the Notre Dame polyphonic repertory, Philip the Chancellor. Far from being marginal in their tastes, the first Franciscans appear to have been well connected to the main musical tendencies of their time. This connection continues into the next centuries. The second part of this study looks at the possession of a manuscript of polyphony, the codex Turin, Biblioteca Nazionale Universitaria, T.III.2. by two members of the order in the course of the fifteenth century.

This book is a collection of 5 essays. The first is an introduction into the basics of chant transmission, the modal framework within the eight-mode system, differentiated according to Western and Eastern chant genres. The second is an introduction into the labyrinth of the eight-mode system, which was used for a musical art of memory in Byzantine chant. The third analyses the embellished design of a traditional chant: a hymn for St. Peter taken from the Byzantine sticherarion and from the Roman antiphoner, and its elaboration in monodic kalophonia and polyphonic organum.

A second part is dedicated to two living chant traditions: The fourth essay describes the integration of makamlar among Greek church singers of Istanbul, and the final essay is a portrait of two important singers of the Bulgarian Orthodox tradition.

Prepared for the BMus Edition course at University of Glasgow. This paper takes a look at some performance issues of W1, and offers transcriptions of a few Conducti from Fascicle 8.
Edited a year later (2016), including Latin script for Latin text; a fix of a consistent spelling error; and a general clean up of textual mistakes and alignment.

What is Polyphony? Merriam Webster defines polyphony as " a style of musical composition employing two or more simultaneous but relatively melodic lines " (Merriam-webster.com, 2015). This is how we understand polyphony as it exists today, and is something that is commonly employed in multi-part song/chant without question, but has this always been the case? At some point along the timeline of musical development, polyphony was not a common feature of music, perhaps not even existing at all due to a multitude of reasons (including but not limited to modes of transmission of repertory and a lack of notation). How do we trace polyphonic performance back to it's origins, and at what point did it reach a point of popularity and frequency that it became acceptable to employ it regularly in song?

For a complete performance recording with a score/manuscript animation video see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTvMQgfygDY

Organum duplum on the Easter Sequence, Victime paschali laudes," realized following the Saint Martial rhythmic hypothesis of Theodore Karp.

"Parisian organum and related genres emerged in the last quarter of the 12th century and are preserved in a handful of voluminous codices and in scattered fragmentary sources. So far, no manuscript dating before the 1230s has been discovered, and most of the “Notre-Dame” sources date back to no earlier than the decade 1240-50. Craig Wright observed that the registers of Notre-Dame cathedral do not mention books of polyphony before the late sixteenth century. Moreover, none of the lost polyphonic manuscripts described by Rebecca Baltzer was mentioned before 1240.
Anna Maria Busse Berger interpreted the absence of early thirteenth-century manuscripts as evidence of the oral transmission of the repertoire. The later use of notation was therefore determined by the need of preserving music that could no longer be committed exclusively to memory, resulting in the ‘sudden explosion of sources’ of the years 1240-50.
The incomplete flyleaves in the binding of a manuscript now in Troyes (F-T 1471) alter this picture. This source transmits the text of eight conducti and two Benedicamus Domino, set to receive two-part music that was never entered. Relying on codicological and historical evidence, in this paper I will argue that these flyleaves suggest a Parisian origin and a possible dating to 1210-20 for a source comparable to such manuscripts as Florence as W1. Such an early date makes these flyleaves, which have been completely neglected by musicologists, the earliest extant witness to the production of books of Parisian polyphonic music. Even though this source is musically “silent”, its significance cannot be underestimated: while its early date does not necessarily question the role of memory in the process of learning and transmitting the repertoire, it suggestively accords with Anonymous 4, who reports that written notation (signa materialia) was in use ‘at the time of Perotin the Great and little before’ (a tempore Perotini Magni, et parum ante). Ultimately, the manuscript F-T 1471 offers the opportunity to address the implications of polyphonic book production in the generation preceding the great “Notre-Dame” manuscripts. "

In this paper, I explore the relationships between the motets of the IOHANNE tenor family found in the Wolfenbuttel, Florence, Roman de Fauvel, Montpelier and London manuscripts. Texts and musical style shed light on chronology, performance and multiple layers of meaning, closely related to the original plainchant while still apt for use in various liturgical contexts.

Resumen

A partire dalla rilettura di Notre Dame proposta da Davide Daolmi, si indagano le ragioni che hanno permesso l'invenzione moderna dell'esecuzione polifonica del XII-XIII secolo, ripercorrendo gli esperimenti promossi nel corso del primo Novecento e consolidatisi, in pieno early music revival, verso la fine degli anni Settanta. Le scelte musicali compiute appaiono espressione del mainstream culturale più che dell'evidenza documentaria e tuttavia, se all'inizio le ragioni musicologiche, pur provvisorie e pregiudiziali sul Medioevo, rimangono riferimento per le prime esecuzioni, in seguito le proposte vocali del Dopoguerra hanno preferito una strada slegata dalla ricerca storica (in realtà priva di nuovi apporti) per trovare ragioni e alibi estetici in ambiti alternativi (sociali, politici, di mercato).


Abstract

In connection with the interpretation of Notre Dame proposed by Davide Daolmi in this journal, the article analyzes the reasons that allowed the modern invention of polyphonic performance of 12th and 13th centuries, tracing experiments promoted during the early 20th century and strengthened in the early music revival in the late Seventies. The musical choices appear as expressions of a cultural mainstream more than documentary evidence: at the beginning the musicological reasons are references for the first performances (with preconceptions about Middle Age), then the vocal interpretation of the second Postwar became extraneous to the historical research (moreover lacking of any new contribution) and found aesthetic alibis in different environment (social, politic, market).

Con este trabajo presentamos una colección de piezas de la Escuela de Notre Dame conservadas en el archivo de la Biblioteca
Capitular de Toledo, únicamente citada anteriormente pero no descrita. Constituye una importante aportación al repertorio de
polifonía antigua conservada en España, especialmente por la presencia de una versión a tres voces del hoquetus In seculum, así
como de un nuevo texto poético, Agmina malicie junto con el conocido Agmina milicie. El estudio codicológico, textual, musical
y de notación permite proponer un origen de copia francés para la colección, y datar su realización en los primeros años del siglo
XIV. Se puede defi nir la fuente como una “copia terminal” de música de Notre Dame, pero todavía utilizable en la práctica musical
dada la sincronización de las voces en el manuscrito.
With this paper we present a new source of Notre Dame polyphonic pieces held at the Biblioteca Capitular in Toledo, Spain,
which remained unstudied until now. This is an important addition to the repertory of this music preserved in Spanish sources,
thanks especially to the inclusion of a three-voice setting of the In speculum hoquetus and a new poetic text, Agmina malicie
alongside the well-known Agmina milicie. The study of the codex, texts, music and notation point to a French origin of the source,
copied around 1300, which can be defi ned as a “terminal” copy of Notre Dame music, but still conceived as a performing source,
given the synchronization of all the voices in the manuscript.

Das Vergangene ist in der erklingenden und verklingenden Musik der Gegenwart auf ganz eigene Weise präsent. Entscheidende Voraussetzungen hierzu führen bis ins Mittelalter zurück, das zugleich die erste Epoche der Musikgeschichte ist, deren er- klingende Musik sich in wesentlichen Teilen aufspüren, nachempfinden und nachbil- den lässt. Dieser Band gibt einen Überblick über die Musikgeschichte der Zeit von ca. 900 bis 1400, also vom Beginn der Aufzeichnung musikalischer Erscheinungen, eng verbunden mit der Rückbesinnung auf die antike Musiktheorie, bis hin zur Entfal- tung eines mehrstimmigen weltlichen und geistlichen Repertoires im 14. Jahrhundert. Dabei steht vor allem das Verständnis dessen, was Musik zu jener Zeit überhaupt bedeutete im Fokus, insbesondere im Hinblick auf die damalige neuartige theore- tische Selbstvergewisserung. Der Band ermöglicht Studierenden und Interessierten einen kritischen und bewussten Blick und eröffnet den Weg zu einer angemessenen Interpretation.

De todas las fuentes musicales que nos ha legado la Edad Media, algunas sobresalen por su prestancia y significado, amén de por la belleza que contienen. Tal es el caso del Códice Calixtino, de la catedral de Santiago. Copia del Liber Sancti Iacobi –sin duda, la más completa– y atribuida de forma apócrifa al papa Calixto II, se trata de una compilación de textos literarios y musicales (oficios, misas, nova cantica, homilías, milagros, relatos, una guía del peregrino, etc…) en honor al culto del Apóstol Santiago, a cuya advocación, como bien marcan dos tradiciones paralelas sobre el descubrimiento de su tumba en el siglo IX, está consagrada Compostela entera (campus stellae/compostum) y, por supuesto, su formidable catedral que, con el palio arzobispal de Diego Gelmírez (1100-1139), alcanzaría una fama, esplendor y prestigio sin precedentes hasta aquel momento.

Tras la estela de este impulso de esplendor de Gelmírez, así como con la promoción, carisma y presencia cluniacense en la catedral que, en buena lid, lo favoreció, la sede compostelana se situaría nada menos que como uno de los grandes centros de peregrinación –equiparable por momentos a Roma y a Tierra Santa– para toda la Cristiandad. Es este el líquido amniótico en el que sería necesario entender la concepción y ejecución de la copia de nuestro manuscrito para la catedral, al igual que, como tal centro privilegiado de recepción de cultura, ayudaría a explicar el lugar intersticial para la historia de la música de su celebrado apéndice polifónico –el cual, no en vano, a caballo entre los rasgos estilísticos de la polifonía de Saint-Martial de Limoges y la de Notre-Dame de París, muy bien hace remisión a repertorios y sonoridades del norte de Francia–.

Según su propia voz, por tanto, en el Calixtino encontraremos todo un mundo concentrado en un libro, todo un tiempo adecuado a la atemporalidad de un culto, y, en definitiva, haciendo nuestras las palabras de Paul Claudel cuando asocia a Santiago con la constelación de Orión (única que abarca y visita alternativamente ambos hemisferios y, así, al mundo entero), tendremos la posibilidad de adentrarnos en una colección de cantos sublimes soñados para "el gran Apóstol del Firmamento que existe convertido en estrella".

Whenever we attempt to perform organa we face a broad array of challenges caused by the ambiguity inherent in the notation. Our only guide in this endeavor is the knowledge gleaned from the late thirteenth century theoretical treatises, primarily those of Johannes de Garlandia, Anonymous of St. Emmeram, Anonymous IV, and Franco of Cologne. Unfortunately, even this guide is a problematic one in that these
theorists often contradict each other; so, if we wish to take their advice, we must be selective in what we take. This is what we see in the recent transcriptions of organa from Roesner’s seven-volume Magnus Liber Organi. Each editor takes all of the information about organum garnered from these theorists and then decides what to ignore and what to follow; a method which leads to controversy when dealing with the rhythm of organum purum and this music’s (in)famous appoggiatura cadences.  Thomas Payne and Mark Everist, the editors of W2 and F respectively, hold
diametrically opposed views on these two elements of the music and, much to the chagrin of those seeking definitive answers on how this repertoire was performed, both of these views find support in the theoretical writings. Payne primarily follows the Sanders/Bukofzer view of cadence, which itself is based strongly on Franco, while Everist follows the view of this cadence as seen in Anonymous IV. Rather than seeking a single method for performing these cadences and organa in general, I separate the contrasting views of performance into three distinct phases: a late phase based on Franco of Cologne, a middle phase based on the two Anonymous treatises and the Garlandia treatise, and an early, pre-modal phase based on the Vatican Organum Treatise and the fifteenth chapter of Guido’s Micrologus.

In the multifaceted repertoire of the Notre-Dame conductus, some compositions mention Jews as religious antagonists of Christians. Certain pieces do this in a singular way: the Jewish element is brought in using the words lutum (mud), later (brick) and palea (straw), with reference to the biblical account of Egyptian enslavement of the Jews. In some conducti these three words are used as an embodiment of the Jewish people, who are either invited to conversion or bitterly criticised for not embracing Christianity.
The Judaic element in these conducti might be interpreted as a device used by the authors to reinforce Christian self-identity. Yet, the direct references to, and censure of Jews suggest a wider propagandistic purpose for these pieces. Moreover, the musical setting of the above-mentioned words displays a peculiar balance between cum littera and sine littera sections in some cases: these conducti were perhaps not exclusively meant for Christian ears. The compositions examined in this paper occupy the same ground as the sculpted representations of Ecclesia and Synagoga found on the façades of Gothic cathedrals, Notre-Dame of Paris included. These conducti, using specific musical devices to underline textual meanings, provide the same message of Christian supremacy with a sonic dimension, and shed new light on the problematic question of the function of the conductus.

One of the three principal genres to flourish at the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris during the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries was organum.  Two-part organum, termed organum duplum, was preponderant.  In its main texture, organum purum, the tenor elongates the notes of a plainchant melody, while the other voice, the duplum, sings a newly composed line predominantly above the tenor.  The central question of this thesis is: are the duplum melodies in passages of organum purum structured according to the melodic modes?

Chapter 1 surveys the Notre Dame treatises for passages connecting polyphony with mode or with plainchant, for which modal theory was developed.  Mixed attitudes are revealed, highlighting the need for analysis, for which working definitions and parameters of mode are needed.

Contrary to the standard method of modal determination by reference to a final, Chapter 2 argues, based on close readings of medieval modal treatises, that mode was heard throughout each chant, that many chants modulate, and that perceptual modal determination relied on pervasive, abstract structures, most of which remain unidentified.  Rereading modal treatises through the lens of music perception, Chapter 3 argues that the treatises suggest that mode-dependent pitch class hierarchies constituted by mode degrees are cognitively in competition with or blended with mode-independent pitch affinities.  From these observations, the analytical methodology of the subsequent chapters is derived: three computer-assisted statistical analyses: Mode Profiles (pitch class frequencies), Tendency (probabilities of successive pitch classes), and Leaps and Melodic Outlines.

Because the form of modal results is unknown, Chapter 4 applies the analyses to two chant repertories (responsorial chants and twelfth-century Parisian sequences) to create modal reference points.  The styles of organum and of the chant repertories are first compared.  Beyond the creation of reference points, the analyses’ results suggest that final-dependent pitch class hierarchies exist, but with few well-defined levels, some of which are shared by multiple pitch classes.  Additionally, in one sub-analysis, the results are secondarily determined by a unique coordination of sets of pitch class and mode degree outlines.

Chapter 5 analyzes organum, but with two sampling methods: organa by final and organum phrases by tenor pitch class, the latter based on the concepts of dronality and the continuous perception of mode.  The results are compared to Chapter 4’s results and analyzed to ascertain whether pitch classes or mode degrees were the primary determinant of musical material, and if the latter, whether mode or consonance best explains the results.  It is argued that the results show that mode was the primary determinant of melodic material, except for one analysis whose results are explained primarily by consonance.  Additionally, the same coordination of pitch class and mode degree outlines found in Chapter 4 is observed in organum.  These findings answer the central question of modality while also supporting a dronal hearing of organum purum.  Faults and limitations to the analyses as well as avenues for future research are also discussed.

One of the three principal genres to flourish at the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris during the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries was organum.  Two-part organum, termed organum duplum, was preponderant.  In its main texture, organum purum, the tenor elongates the notes of a plainchant melody, while the other voice, the duplum, sings a newly composed line predominantly above the tenor.  The central question of this thesis is: are the duplum melodies in passages of organum purum structured according to the melodic modes?

Chapter 1 surveys the Notre Dame treatises for passages connecting polyphony with mode or with plainchant, for which modal theory was developed.  Mixed attitudes are revealed, highlighting the need for analysis, for which working definitions and parameters of mode are needed.

Contrary to the standard method of modal determination by reference to a final, Chapter 2 argues, based on close readings of medieval modal treatises, that mode was heard throughout each chant, that many chants modulate, and that perceptual modal determination relied on pervasive, abstract structures, most of which remain unidentified.  Rereading modal treatises through the lens of music perception, Chapter 3 argues that the treatises suggest that mode-dependent pitch class hierarchies constituted by mode degrees are cognitively in competition with or blended with mode-independent pitch affinities.  From these observations, the analytical methodology of the subsequent chapters is derived: three computer-assisted statistical analyses: Mode Profiles (pitch class frequencies), Tendency (probabilities of successive pitch classes), and Leaps and Melodic Outlines.

Because the form of modal results is unknown, Chapter 4 applies the analyses to two chant repertories (responsorial chants and twelfth-century Parisian sequences) to create modal reference points.  The styles of organum and of the chant repertories are first compared.  Beyond the creation of reference points, the analyses’ results suggest that final-dependent pitch class hierarchies exist, but with few well-defined levels, some of which are shared by multiple pitch classes.  Additionally, in one sub-analysis, the results are secondarily determined by a unique coordination of sets of pitch class and mode degree outlines.

Chapter 5 analyzes organum, but with two sampling methods: organa by final and organum phrases by tenor pitch class, the latter based on the concepts of dronality and the continuous perception of mode.  The results are compared to Chapter 4’s results and analyzed to ascertain whether pitch classes or mode degrees were the primary determinant of musical material, and if the latter, whether mode or consonance best explains the results.  It is argued that the results show that mode was the primary determinant of melodic material, except for one analysis whose results are explained primarily by consonance.  Additionally, the same coordination of pitch class and mode degree outlines found in Chapter 4 is observed in organum.  These findings answer the central question of modality while also supporting a dronal hearing of organum purum.  Faults and limitations to the analyses as well as avenues for future research are also discussed.

The making of a book of polyphony such as the renowned manuscript Pluteo 29.1 of the Biblioteca Medicea-Laurenziana (F) was a fairly complicated business that involved at least four individuals: a scribe, a notator, a decorator, and a painter, all working in culturally fervent mid-thirteenth-century Paris. The level of craftsmanship displayed by this unique artefact, as well as the breadth of musical repertory that the manuscript covers, remain unparalleled to this day. So far, only the second section of the composite polyphonic manuscript Egerton 2615 of the British Library (LoA)—now fragmentary—is known to have originated in the same workshop that produced F.  However, it does not seem to share the same all-inclusive approach to repertory that characterises F. Moreover, until recently, there was no evidence for a Parisian production of “Notre-Dame” polyphonic manuscripts before the making of F and LoA in the mid-thirteenth century.
Two recent findings challenge this scenario. I have recently identified the unfinished conductus fragment now in the Médiathèque of Troyes (F-T 1471) as a Parisian manuscript dating to the first quarter of the thirteenth century. Similarly, a forthcoming article by David Catalunya, Nuria Torres and myself argues that a conductus fragment from the national library in Madrid (E-Mn 6528) was copied in the same workshop as F and presents almost the identical music readings and the exact ordering of pieces as found in the better known manuscript. In light of these findings, this paper reconsiders the Parisian culture of polyphonic book production in the thirteenth century. The Troyes and Madrid fragments invite us to re-engage with issues of both chronology and polyphonic manuscript compilation. While the vexata quaestio of what the exemplars from which ars antiqua manuscripts were copied looked like has indeed been addressed multiple times, this has been done almost exclusively in relation to the Magnus liber organi. By bringing the Troyes and Madrid fragments into the picture, we are afforded a new perception of Medieval Parisian book-making culture, which allows us to explore the chronology and modality of polyphonic manuscript construction in thirteenth-century Paris under the lens of the conductus.

A perplexingly discordant note sounds through historical writing about the Dominicans’ attitude towards polyphonic music. On the one hand, the newly founded Order of Friars Preachers is seen to adopt an exceptionally radical policy on polyphony, prohibiting even its simplest form, the singing in parallel octaves, and by proposing a universal ban of the motet to the Council of Vienne in 1311. On the other hand, the surviving sources of polyphonic and measured music from the 13th century and a major music treatise by Jerome de Moravia, which provides up-do-date instruction on musica mensurabilis, suggest that the Dominicans exceeded other monastic orders in cultivating and teaching this very repertoire they ought to have rejected.
My paper seeks to resolve the jarring dissonance between norms and practices through a close-reading of the Order’s legislative texts, which are then contextualised with the surviving polyphony from Dominican sources. This re-investigation also sheds light onto the order’s dismissive stance towards the motet. Rather than springing from an opposition on principal grounds, they had mixed feelings about this genre for concrete historical reasons.

The conductus repertoire was widely cultivated between c.1160 and the late thirteenth century, and it comprises Latin texts set to both monody and polyphony. Unlike the organum and the motet, the conductus does not normally exploit any pre-existing musical or poetic material. This makes the polyphonic share of conductus material the first newly composed, coherent repertoire for more than one voice.
This thesis focuses on the two-part conductus. It aims at exploring the authorial and historical context in which it was created, analysing and categorising the interaction between its syllabic and melismatic sections, and describing its development over the life span of the corpus.
The conductus is introduced and presented within the broader context of music of its time. It is argued that most of the extant testimonies of conductus were subject to several stages of reworking, and a multitude of personalities are credited with the creation of the repertoire as a whole. Furthermore, the study discusses some particular cases of contested attribution and proposes new authorial identifications.
The analytical description that follows challenges the current view of the polyphonic conductus as a rigid juxtaposition of syllabic cum littera and melismatic sine littera sections. Such a sharp division does not take into account the complex structure of the syllabic cum littera music. The analytical study consequently undertaken describes all melismatic features of the two-voice conductus. Two groups of melismas are identified. The first, framing caudae, typically covers a structural role. The second, internal caudae, interacts actively with all the components of the song: text, meter, rhymes, and meaning of the poem.
The last section of this work examines the evolution of the use of melismas throughout the lifespan of the genre. The study is accomplished by building on the previous analytical investigation, diminishing ambiguities due to the relatively small sample of datable songs. The terminal cauda results being the main feature of the repertoire, initially set to all stanzas. The initial cauda was instead either set to all stanzas or not used at all. The approach to framing caudae becomes more flexible after the end of the twelfth century. Internal caudae were instead always used by conducti composers.