Amiens 162 D, f. 117 Without text (erased) 4v
Notation: Entered by Hand D in white mensural notation on four-line staves originally drawn for music in chant notation (staff system 3); brown ink, which now is visible as a weak yellow colour. It was erased, and the staves were reused for two songs in chant notation – also later erased.
Disposition of parts: [Superius]-[Tenor]-[Altus]-[Bassus] below each other.
Edition: Amiens 162 Edition no. 17 (PDF).
Comments:
A very simple composition of 41 brevis-bars. The composer has heard four-part music in imitative style, the sound of which he has tried to recreate by letting the four voices enter one after the other. This, however, only produces a sort of distributed monophony as the voices drop out before the entrance of the next. It happens twice (bb.1 ff and bb. 26 ff), and both ‘imitative’ passages are followed by four-part homorhythmic declamatory textures (bb. 9 and 31). This is not music by someone who had learned the craft, but close to improvisation and recreation of music heard. Superius and tenor deliver the structural frame, it cadences on G every time, and the text, which was never entered, must have guided the development. The piece, lauda-like, was probably an effort to develop the intercessory music towards art music – but failed for lack of knowledge. It was entered in the MS as a fair copy, but was erased again (by the composer?); as it stands, the errors make it difficult to perform; they are, however, easy to see through.
PWCH January 2014