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The Music of the Old Hall Manuscript--A PostscriptAuthor(s): Oliver StrunkSource: The Musical Quarterly, Vol. 35, No. 2 (Apr., 1949), pp. 244-249Published by: Oxford University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/740123

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THE MUSIC OF THE OLD HALLMANUSCRIPT--A POSTSCRIPT

By OLIVER STRUNKPROFESSOR ManfredF. Bukofzer's xhaustiveand penetrating

study of the Old Hall MS will have served to reawaken generalinterest in this crucial insular document whose interpretation isdecisive for the interpretation of subsequent Continental develop-ments. With the settling of the controversy over the date of the MSit at last becomes possible to relate it to the general scene. Particu-larly helpful from this point of view are the additional concordanceswith Continental MSS,which show that the Old Hall repertory wasrather more widely diffused than formerly supposed, and the demon-stration that the MS itself contains at least one additional piece ofContinental origin. Significant, too, is the bearing of the date ofthe MS upon the date of Leonel Power's removal from England toContinental Europe.

Early in the first installment of his study ProfessorBukofzer dis-claimed any intention of dealing with all aspects of the Old Hallrepertory. The purpose of this brief postscript, which ProfessorBukofzer has encouraged me to prepare for publication, is to drawattention to a group of pieces discussed only briefly in what hasgone before. This seems worth doing, not only because the piecesare in themselves important, but also because they are imperfectlyand incompletely represented in the published edition.

As published in the edition brought out by the Plainsong &Mediaeval Music Society, the Old Hall MS contains five canonicsettings of texts belonging to the Ordinaryof the Mass-three Glorias

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The Music of the Old Hall Manuscript-A Postscriptby Pycard (I, 76, 84, and 119) and two anonymous Credos (II, 82and loi). For the solution of the canons in all but one of these piecesthe MS itself gives explicit Latin directions. In the one case remain-ing (II, 82) there is no direct indication that canonic writing isinvolved, but an attempt to score the three voices found in the MSshows unmistakably that something is missing. Mr. H. B. Collinsoffers a brilliant and altogether convincing solution of this piece-as a three-part canon with two accompanying voices-in the secondvolume of the Society's edition, and in a note printed with histranscription he remarks that at several points within the piece thewritten cantus part has two sets of words-at "Genitum non factum"the second set begins from "Qui propter nos", while "Et in Spiri-tum" is similarly combined with "Qui cum Patre", and "Confiteor"with "Et exspecto". At the corresponding points in his transcription,Collins adapts the upper lines of text to the voice beginning thecanon and to the first of the two voices that follow it, leaving thelower lines to the second of the consequent voices. In effect, theresult is not unlike that seen in the familiar "telescoped" settingsof Gloria and Credo.

Thanks to Mr. Collins and his remark about the double set ofwords in his anonymous Credo, it is not difficult to add a new itemto the list of canonic settings in the Old Hall MS and to show thatanother item, already on this list, is not a simple canon, as indicatedin the MS, but a double one. For once it is recognized that a singlevoice-partprovided with a "telescoped"double text may in itself bean indirect indication of the presence of canonic writing, the rest iseasy and the surprising thing is that the obvious conclusions werenot drawn long ago.

The first of the two pieces in question is a Gloria by Byttering(I, 47)-No. 15 in Barclay Squire's thematic list of contents. Thisis a setting in three written parts,with vocal cantus and instrumentaltenor and contratenor. Here the "telescoped"double text runs with-out a break from the first measure of the cantus part to the last,the upper line giving the beginnings of the successive clauses, thelower line the endings. If one approaches this piece with the pos-sibility of unspecified canonic writing in mind, the solution leapsto the eye-in the first section (Tempus imperfectum cum prolatione

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The Musical Quarterlymajore) the consequent voice enters at the unison after four mea-sures, with this result:

ExiBo - e vo- lun-

Et in ter- ra pax hmin - bus Lau- da - muS te Be-

A8 3 3

rn _ 3 -, n -- z 31 rT 3 3_ i 3- ...e. -

5vJ 54i ' ),t#J- i /.ta - - tI AAo-ja -mus te G1Q-r-fii-eaimu4te Propter

-.di-inu te Ga-ci-as a-gimus ti - - b Do-3 -,r=]-MF"

Not only does the consequent voice fit perfectly with those givenin the MS, it also supplies the missing fifths and thirds for a numberof incomplete triads and fills in occasional gaps in the texture. Withthree voices only, the sudden cessation of movement in measures 5and 6 of the tenor and contratenor has an awkward appearance;with four voices, it is seen to be a deliberately calculated refinement.Indeed, it is no exaggeration to say that without the fourth voicethe piece makes no real sense at all.In the second section of Byttering's Gloria (Tempus perfectum,with the contratenor in Tempus imperfectum at the beginning) theentrance of the consequent voice is again at the unison; a nice strokeis the reduction of the time-interval from four measures to three

for this, the final section of the piece:

246

V . .-

ere.

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The Music of the Old Hall Manuscript-A Postscript 247Ex.2

t---^- -^- --- NI. JU ^ JMi - se-re - re ni-hioQui tol-lis pec-ca-ta mlundi_ Quitl- li pec-ca - ta mund

J I IJlr IJ _-N IS ef.A particularly attractive feature of Byttering's little piece is thecarefully planned coordination of words and music. As a result of thecanonic structure, the first section falls into periods of four measures,the second into periods of three. In dividing the liturgical textbetween antecedent and consequent, Byttering follows this over-all

periodization exactly, with the result that in each period the conse-quent voice completes the clause left unfinished by the antecedent,echoing the notes that have just been sung, while the antecedentvoice is simultaneously propounding the first half of the clause thatfollows. A further result, characteristic of many canonic and quasi-canonic settings of the Gloria text, but unusually well worked outin this one, is the symbolically simultaneous declamation of theappeals to Father and Son: while the consequent voice is singing"Deus Pater omnipotens", echoing the "Domine Deus Rex caelestis"that has just been heard, the antecedent voice is already beginningthe "Domine Fili unigenite". Similarly, but with another shade ofmeaning, "Domine Deus, Agnus Dei" and "Jesu Christe" are heardat the same time.1We ought now to be ready to assume that any voice providedwith a "telescoped" double text is a potential canonic antecedent,and meeting with one more such voice among the Glorias of theOld Hall MS we shall naturally put it to the test. This time (I, 84)the composer is Pycard,by whom we have two other canonic Glorias(I, 76 and 119) and-if ProfessorBukofzer'sattribution is accepted-1 Compare the comments of Friedrich Ludwig on a similar treatment of theGloria text in Modena 568 (Die mehrstimmige Messe des 4. Jahrhunderts, in Archiv fiurMusikwissenschaft, VII [1925], 423).

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The Musical Quarterlya canonic Credo (II, o10); his piece is No. 24 in Barclay Squire'sthematic list. There are two vocal parts, one with a "telescoped"text that is alternately single and double (as in the Credo transcribedby Mr. Collins), the other with the complete text in the usual form.Accompanying them is an instrumental tenor with the direction:Tenor et contratenor in uno, unus post alium fugando quinquetemporibus. The MS has also a "solus tenor" part which may be sub-stituted for the canonic tenor and contratenor if a reduction inthe number of voices is desired. As it stands, then, the piece appearsto be for four voices (or for three, if the "solus tenor" is used). Butthe "telescoped" text below the one cantus part suggests that it isactually for five voices (or for four), and an attempt to apply thetenor's rule to the cantus confirms this. In the example that follows(four five-measureperiods from the concluding "Amen"), the alter-native "solus tenor" is omitted.

Ex3

| 3 13 (A3 3*' _ X'-r-' '--- '--" . -' rJC3e - Su ChristeCum an,o Sp-ri-tu ingl.ia De-i Pa- tri

r< r J. f. --J0 ~P~ d.ij _^ ^ z_ j-==.

-. j -4 - I . j"-

-_M A.Jj -=r Pr _" r __ J_J r;1" ["

etc.

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The Music of the Old Hall Manuscript-A PostscriptAs in the Gloria by Byttering, the added consequent voice fills outa number of incomplete triads. What is more striking, it also com-pletes the hockets: the construction of the antecedent voice, whichsings alternately after and on the beat in the corresponding measuresof the successive five-measureperiods, is now seen to be a deliberateand ingenious calculation. Once again the piece becomes fullyintelligible only when the unspecified canon is resolved; it is thiscanon that is the truly essential one-not the specified canon of tenorand contratenor, whose omission the composer expressly sanctions.Pycard'scanonic Gloria is doubtless somewhat earlier than Dufay'sfamiliar Gloria ad modum tubae and is in any case one of the veryfew multiple canons that we have from the time before Josquinand the later Ockeghem. * *

Surely it is significant that of the six canonic pieces in the OldHall MS four are Glorias while only two are Credos. Throughoutthe earlier 15th century the Gloria text is the preferred text forcanonic treatment: we have no Credosto offset the canonic Glorias ofModena 568,2 of Arnold and Hugo de Lantins,3 of Trent 90,4 ofDufay. It is also significant that of the six canonic pieces in the OldHall MS only the two Credos involve three-part canonic writing.For their time, these six pieces constitute the largest known groupof their kind. And they follow too closely on the heels of the pairihl Modena 568 to justify the assumption of a direct borrowing fromItaly; it is at least equally possible that the application of the canonicprinciple to the Ordinaryof the Massbegan independently and moreor less simultaneously on both sides of the Channel.

2 An anonymous dialogue-like setting with accompanying instrumental canon (fol.2V), published in part by Jacques Handschin in Zeitschrift fur Musikwissenschaft, X(1927/28), 552-55, and an accompanied canon ("Fuga", fol. gv) by Matteo da Perugia,cantor at the Milan Cathedral from 1402 to 1414.

3 Charles van den Borren, Polyphonia sacra (Nashdom Abbey, 1932), pp. 1o (thecanon broken off at "Laudamus te") and 118.4 Nos. 925 and 927 of the thematic catalogue.

249