Prayers for the dead and simple polyphony in a French music manuscript of c. 1500 (Amiens, Bibliothèque Centrale Louis Aragon, MS 162 D)
The project consists in several related elements, namely an article intended for publication in print and some other sections – among them a catalogue and an edition – which from the very start were planned as open access documents accessible only on the Internet.
The forthcoming article with the above (preliminary) title contains a reconstruction of the manuscript’s (or the collection of MSS’) original disposition and a description of its contents; then it discusses the genesis in the years around 1500 and the provenience of the musical section of the MS, which is closely connected to the Benedictine abbey of S. Peter in Corbie, and its possible use in the rites of a local confraternity. Another important strand in this story concerns the role of Antoine de Caulaincourt, one of the monastery’s leading personalities during the turbulent first decades of the 16th century. Another important topic is a discussion of the simple polyphony used for prayers, as commemoration music and in the sequences of the Mass and how its way of presenting the words of the Latin poetry may have influenced the art music of its time.
My resent online publication of a conference paper may provide some impression of the article’s themes, see ‘The Music Sections of Amiens, BM 162: Copyists, Purpose, Corbie, Confréries and the Role of Antoine de Caulaincourt’, paper presented at the Colloque International »In Seculum Amiens. Les manuscrits musicaux d’Amiens au Moyen Âge«, November 22-24, 2007 in Amiens.
The Catalogue and the Introduction to the Edition still await a final revision and translation, while the music itself is ready for prepublication here (110 pages of music).
A prepublication of
Amiens, Bibliothèque Centrale Louis-Aragon (Bibliothèques d’Amiens Métropole) An edition of the polyphonic repertory (c. 1500) used at the Benedictine abbey of Corbie |
This project will probably later find a permanent address on the net along with the other parts of the project. At the moment the music edition can be downloaded as single PDF-files, which each contains one piece from MS Amiens 162 D and in some cases related settings that I have found useful to publish as part of the project – and some links to facsimiles on the Internet. Later the whole edition will become available also as a complete PDF-file including the Introduction and List of sources etc.
The preliminary edition is in fact finished as of February 2008. However, experience tells me that translating and polishing the catalogue and commentary probably will cause some editorial decisions to be revised – and some errors of mine will be disclosed.
The research for this project is nearly complete, and most of my findings have been written up in Danish, but I welcome any comments or critical remarks on the pre-published sections, which can help me to improve the final version. The interactivity of this home page is also awaiting implementation, so you will have to send me a mail with your comments. I shall also be very happy to know if this edition is of any use to the reader. Please send a word to pw@pwch.dk.