Musical Borrowing
An Annotated Bibliography

Contributions by Mary Ellen Ryan

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[+] Baillie, Hugh. "Squares." Acta Musicologica 32 (January/March 1960): 178-93.

A collection of Kyrie tenors called "Squares" existed in English sources at least by 1496 and had a strong rhythmic and melodic character. These tenors were used as cantus firmi in polyphonic Kyries, and their use called for a special technique. Three masses "upon the Square" make extensive use of a three-part texture rather than two- or four-part writing. The cantus firmus likewise does not appear in any one part but migrates and is frequently elaborated upon. Because the borrowed material is usually the lowest in register, frequent voice crossings are also prevalent. In addition to Kyrie "squares," there are other manuscript sources that provide "squares" for the rest of the mass movements. In these cases, the Kyrie movement uses a Kyrie "square," the Gloria movement uses the Gloria "square," and so on. However, Ludford's Lady Masses are an exception, since they are built on the Kyrie "square" throughout.

Works: William Mundy: Mass I Upon the Square (179, 181-82), Mass II Upon the Square (179, 181-82); William Whitbroke: Mass Upon the Square (178, 181-82); Ludford: Lady Masses (185-186), Missa feria iiij (186).

Index Classifications: 1400s, 1500s

Contributed by: Mary Ellen Ryan

[+] Barnett, Gregory. "Handel's Borrowings and the Disputed Gloria." Early Music 34 (February 2006): 75-92.

Although the authorship of the "Handel" Gloria has been disputed in past studies, an analysis of an overlooked borrowing shared between the Gloria and one of Handel's earliest-known compositions, Laudate pueri in F, supports the Handel attribution. Both are scored for solo soprano, two violins, and continuo, which is uncommon in other German and Italian mass and psalm settings of the period. The material shared between the works, a sixteenth-note melismatic progression through the circle of fifths, appears in the sixth movement of Laudate pueri in F on the text "Ut collocet eum" and in the Gloria in the "Cum Sancto Spirito" section. In the Gloria, the melisma occurs on "Amen," linking it with two of Handel's later works, Laudate pueri in D and Zadok the Priest, which both contain similar Amen flourishes. Accepting that the Laudate pueri in F was composed first, it is quite plausible and chronologically fits within the young composer's oeuvre that Handel composed the Gloria, expanded the melismatic embellishment from his earlier Laudate pueri, and used it as an Amen motif, a practice which he continued in his later Laudate pueri and Zadok the Priest. It is right to be circumspect about accepting a new work into Handel's output, but the attribution of the Gloria to Handel finds support in the earlier and later usages Handel made of material found within this piece.

Works: Handel(?): Gloria (75-90); Handel: Laudate pueri in D, HWV 237 (76-83, 86), Zadok the Priest, HWV 258 (77-83, 86).

Sources: Handel: Laudate pueri in F, HWV 236 (75-90); Handel(?): Gloria (76-78).

Index Classifications: 1700s

Contributed by: Mary Ellen Ryan

[+] Bick, Sally. "Political Ironies: Hanns Eisler in Hollywood and Behind the Iron Curtain." Acta Musicologica 75 (2003): 65-84.

By borrowing a musical passage from his film score Hangman also Die within the opening of his song Auferstanden aus Ruinen, Hanns Eisler utilized the same music for two extremely different political and social circumstances—a paradox that illustrates music's ability to mediate meaning through cultural encoding. The 1943 motion picture Hangmen also Die by Fritz Lang is a product of the Hollywood entertainment industry and American capitalism, whereas Auferstanden aus Ruinen is a patriotic song adopted by the communist German Democratic Republic as its national anthem. In the film, the story centers on the struggle of the united Czech people to overcome the brutal Nazi occupation; the relevant musical passage is heard in a scene in which the leading Czech resistance leader lies on his deathbed after a Nazi raid. The slow, syncopated rhythm in the bass line and the three-note descending sequential figure in the melody symbolize the patriotism and heroism of the Czech people fighting against fascism. Eisler borrows these same gestures in the opening of the anthem, and in both cases exploits the emotional power of music to mediate a political and social message. The paradox of Eisler's self-borrowing emphasizes music's ability to cross social and political boundaries.

Works: Eisler: Auferstanden aus Ruinen.

Sources: Eisler: Score for Hangman also Die.

Index Classifications: 1900s, Popular, Film

Contributed by: Mary Ellen Ryan

[+] Bloxam, M. Jennifer. "A Cultural Context for the Chanson Mass." In Early Musical Borrowing, ed. Honey Meconi, 7-35. New York: Routledge, 2004.

Scholars have analyzed the fifteenth-century chanson Mass for its role in the development of cantus firmus technique, but there have been few attempts to contextualize the borrowing of a secular love song in the most solemn ritual of the Church. An exploration of the origins and developments of this practice across a range of expressive media situate these masses within a culture that juxtaposed secular with sacred love and the courtly lady with the Blessed Virgin Mary. Some of the same chanson tenors used within Marian-texted motets of the period were also borrowed in these masses, indicating a Marian reading for them. Three centuries prior to the chanson mass, interpretive traditions had already developed on the themes of sacred and profane love in theology and the vernacular. Commentaries on the Old Testament Song of Songs suggested that the erotic love expressed between the female and male voices represented the love between God and the Virgin Mary, authors of vernacular sources discussed the commingling of the cloister and court, and in visual representations of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries artists increasingly emphasized the humanity of the Virgin, depicting her as a contemporary woman within the courtly environment. Likewise, the writers Jean Gerson and Jean Molinet both used courtly and secular language to address the divine beloved. Molinet's poem Oroison a Nostre Dame carries the line, "A poem that may be addressed either to the Virgin Mary or by a lover to his lady." Within this text, which was directed explicitly to the Virgin Mary, Molinet incorporated several chanson incipits, six of which were also borrowed in the chanson mass. It is clear from these connections to poetry, theological writing, and visual art that out of the courtly environments, the chanson mass became another outlet for elevating profane love to the sacred realm.

Index Classifications: 1400s

Contributed by: Mary Ellen Ryan

[+] Bloxam, M. Jennifer. "Plainsong and Polyphony for the Blessed Virgin: Notes on Two Masses by Jacob Obrecht." The Journal of Musicology 12 (1994): 51-75.

The Marian masses Sicut spina rosam and Sub tuum praesidium by Jacob Obrecht exhibit connections to local devotional and liturgical usages. Obrecht's Missa Sicut spina rosam borrows from Ockeghem's Missa Mi-mi and takes a verse from the responsory Ad nutum Domini nostrum as its cantus firmus. Obrecht borrowed a segment of the chant corresponding with the text "sicut spina rosam, genuiut Judea Mariam" ("As the thorn brought forth the rose, so did Judea bring forth Mary"). The isolation of this fragment can be connected to its particular liturgical usage in the locale of Antwerp, where Ad nutum domini nostrum served as the culmination of the Matins service and as the great responsory for Vespers on the Feast of the Nativity of the Virgin. Likewise, Obrecht's Missa Sub tuum praesidium contains associations to local Marian traditions through its use of seven Marian plainsongs. Sub tuum praesidium is the main structural cantus firmus, four borrowed chants are drawn from internal verses of sequences for the Blessed Virgin, and two popular Marian antiphons Salve Regina and Regina caeli serve as cantus firmi in the final Agnus Dei. A comparison of the chants and their local usages in places where Obrecht was employed suggest that the Missa Sub tuum praesidium was probably written while he was working in Antwerp or possibly Bergen-op-Zoom.

Works: Obrecht: Missa Sicut spina rosam (52, 56-63); Missa Sub tuum praesidium (52, 64-74).

Sources: Responsory Ad nutum Domini nostrum (56-61); Ockeghem: Missa Mi-mi (56); Antiphons Sub tuum praesidium (65-71), Ave praeclara (65, 67, 70) Aurea virga (65-66, 68, 70-71), Verbum bonum (65, 67, 70), Regina caeli (66, 71), Salve Regina (66, 73).

Index Classifications: 1400s

Contributed by: Mary Ellen Ryan

[+] Curtis, Alan. "Josquin and 'La belle Tricotée.'" In Essays in Musicology, in Honor of Dragan Plamenac on His 70th Birthday, ed. Gustave Reese and Robert J. Snow, 1-8. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1969.

Josquin's Je me complains should be interpreted as a mock lament because the last line of text and music is a quotation from a bawdy ditty La belle Tricotée, a tune famous since medieval times. The tune Josquin borrows is also used in three other works, all of which are written to different words but in most cases hold the text "la tricotée fut par matin levée" in common. These pieces include the tenor part of a three-voice chanson from the mid-fifteenth century in Bologna Q. 15, a contratenor part from a three-voice quodlibet in Escorial IV.a.24, and an upper voice of La tricotea Samártin la vea, a Spanish reworking of the tune. The term "tricotée" has often been translated as "knitting," but it is actually a term applied to a lively dance from the sixteenth through the eighteenth centuries.

Works: Josquin: Je me complains (1-8); Anonymous: Belle tenes moy la promesse/La triquotée est par matin levée (3), Rolet ara la tricoton/Maistre Piere/La tricotée (3), La tricotea Samártin la vea (3-4).

Sources: Anonymous: La belle Tricotée (1-8).

Index Classifications: 1400s

Contributed by: Mary Ellen Ryan

[+] Daniel, Ralph T. "Contrafacta and Polyglot Texts in the Early English Anthem." In Essays in Musicology: A Birthday Offering for Willi Apel, ed. Hans Tischler, 101-6. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1968.

Although one might expect contrafacta to be a prevalent type in the early liturgy of the Anglican church, there are surprisingly few anthems that can be identified as adaptations of motets, secular pieces, or instrumental works. Of the known contrafacta, most can be dated to the seventeenth century. In light of this lack of contrafacta during the formative years of the Anglican church, one can conclude that the earliest examples have not survived, that there was not a great demand for choral music, or that some anthems are in fact contrafacta for which their earlier forms have not been identified. It appears that the majority of adaptations were made in the seventeenth century, most of which were contrafacta of compositions by recognized masters. This further suggests that the intrinsic merit of the music was the greater motivation for substituting English for Latin, rather than fulfilling a utilitarian purpose during the formation of the Anglican liturgy.

Works: Thomas Causton: In trouble and adversity (101), O give thanks unto the Lord (101); Anonymous: Wipe away my sins (102), Blessed be thy name (102), I call and cry (102), Discumfit them (102), Bow down thine ear (103), O sacred and holy blanket (103), Arise, O lord (103), Behold now, praise the Lord (103), Let not our prayers (103), Let us arise from sin (103), O Lord deliver me (103), Praise the Lord O my soul (104), Behold I bring you glad tidings (104), And there was with the angel (104), Lift up your heads (104), O Lord, give ear to the prayer (104), Let not thy wrath (104), Out of the deep (104), Arise, O lord (104), Forgive me Lord (104); Robert Johnson: Benedicam Domino . . . O Lord with all my heart (102).

Sources: Taverner: "In nomine" from Missa Gloria Tibi Trinitas (101); Tallis: Absterge Domine (Wipe away my sins) (102, 104), Fond youth is a bubble (103), Salvator mundi (103-4), O sacrum convivium (103); Morley: Nolo mortem peccatoris . . . Father, I am thine only Son (102), De profundis (104); Weelkes: Gloria in excelsis . . . Sing my soul (102); Thomas Ford: Miserere, my maker (102); Peter Philips: Cantai mentre (103); Byrd: Exsurge, Domine (103), Now enim pro peccatis (103), Attolite portas (103-4), Memento, homo (104), Ne irascaris (104); Robert White: Manus tuae (103), Domine non est exaltatum (103).

Index Classifications: 1500s, 1600s

Contributed by: Mary Ellen Ryan

[+] Elias, Cathy Ann. "Mid-Sixteenth-Century Chanson Masses: A Kaleidoscopic Process." In Early Musical Borrowing, ed. Honey Meconi, 149-78. New York: Routledge, 2004.

An evolutionary view of the development of the imitation mass should be revised in favor of an approach that accounts for particular techniques a composer used and how his incorporation of new and borrowed material contributed to his own style. In the mid-sixteenth-century chanson masses of Nicolas Gombert, Clemens non Papa, Thomas Crecquillon, and Pierre de Manchicourt, compositional techniques such as cantus firmus, ostinato, and paraphrase methods were not novel in themselves but were interwoven in ways that transformed older conventions. Instead of controlling the entire structure through one particular approach, composers used cantus firmus and paraphrase technique as short-term procedures within the imitation mass. The following techniques are representative of compositional borrowing within chanson masses of the period: cantus firmus, ostinato and derived techniques, motivic rescaffolding, partial scaffolding, block structuring, block restructuring, block manipulation, block interpolation, and varied block reiteration. Of these techniques, cantus firmus, block interpolation, partial scaffolding, and varied block reiteration provide new insights into the compositional procedure. With cantus firmus technique, composers such as Gombert and Manchicourt integrated the borrowed material into the contrapuntal fabric and accommodated material written in any fashion from any style of model. Crecquillon utilized several structural methods for variety: (1) block interpolation, inserting sections of chanson material throughout the mass; (2) partial scaffolding, in which he fragmented a segment of the chanson, rearranged its parts, and wrote points of imitation around various components; and (3) varied block reiteration, rearranging blocks of chanson material without adding additional counterpoint. These examples illustrate the need for analysis based on compositional process, one that accounts for the difference in composer styles. A comparison of Palestrina's and Gombert's masses based on Je suis desheritée shows the stylistic preferences of both composers: Palestrina declaimed the text clearly and constructed a counter-theme equal in weight to the main borrowed theme; Gombert adhered more literally to the chanson and retained its original rhythms. This example suggests that the next stage in research on borrowing procedures may be to focus on the role of the text and how it determined stylistic decisions. Codifying diverse compositional techniques will help us understand how the same borrowed passages can be transformed and how a particular setting of a chanson is emblematic of a composer's style.

Works: Gombert: Missa Je suis desheritée (154-57, 171-76), Missa Sur tous regrets (154), Missa Fors seulement (153-54, 157-59); Crecquillon: Missa Doulce memoire (161-65), Missa Mort m'a privé (165-67), Missa D'amours me plains (165-70); Palestrina: Missa Je suis desheritée (171-76).

Sources: Pipelare: Fors seulement (154, 157-59); Cadéac: Je suis desheritée (154-57, 171-72); Févin: Fors seulement (154, 157); Richafort: Sur tous regrets (154); Sandrin: Doulce memoire (161-65); Crecquillon: Mort m'a privé (165-66); Pathie: D'amours me plains (165-70); Gombert: Missa Je suis desheritée (175-76).

Index Classifications: 1500s

Contributed by: Mary Ellen Ryan

[+] Fitch, Fabrice. "Agricola and the Rhizome: An Aesthetic of the Late Cantus Firmus Mass." Revue belge de musicologie/Belgisch tijdschrift voor muziekwetenschap 59 (2005): 66-92.

Although Agricola's sacred music has been understudied in comparison to other contemporary composers, an analysis of his cantus firmus masses reveals a highly particularized approach to such compositional procedures, especially in relation to composers such as Josquin and Obrecht. In Agricola's four masses based on secular models, the prevalent technique is isomelism: the tenor retains the song's pitches but the durations are substantially manipulated, thereby removing the model from its metrical context. An extreme example can be found in Missa Malheur me bat, where in a run of semiminums some are augmented up to sixteen times their original value. Agricola's mass on Je ne demande stands apart from the other masses in its predominant use of the paraphrase type and ornamentation within the outline of the model. A predilection for using free and cantus firmus passages is visible in Missa In minen sin, a technique also reminiscent of Ockeghem, who blurred the boundaries between quotation and free melody. Agricola, in contrast to Ockeghem, incorporates more exact quotations alternating with free passages. Other types of borrowing procedures include strict tenor statements situated late in a mass as a culmination device and a restricted use of polyphonic quotations. The multiple and varied approaches to cantus firmus treatment within Agricola's masses has posed a problem for scholars who have taken "classicizing" or systematic approaches to the music of Josquin and Obrecht. Because Agricola's music does not exhibit a systematic taxonomy, it may be more useful to use the framework of the rhizome developed by Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, which provides a useful theory of asystematic tendencies incorporated into an organicist approach.

Works: Alexander Agricola: Missa Malheur me bat (70-72, 74-76, 78-80), Missa Le serviteur (72, 75-77), Missa Je ne demande (71, 77), Missa In minen sin (72-73, 76-83).

Sources: Malcourt (?): Malheur me bat (70-72, 74-76, 78-80); Dufay: Le serviteur (72, 75-77); Busnois: Je ne demande (71, 77); Anonymous: In minen sin (72-73, 76-83).

Index Classifications: 1400s

Contributed by: Mary Ellen Ryan

[+] Fromson, Michele. "Melodic Citation in the Sixteenth-Century Motet." In Early Musical Borrowing, ed. Honey Meconi, 179-206. New York: Routledge, 2004.

The practice of quoting a chant melody in passing within a larger work, known as chant citation, occurred within motets of the sixteenth century. Although it was not written in the vocal part, the text of the borrowed chant melody had a semantic relationship with the words being sung at that moment in the motet. Chant citation normally conveyed meaning to the professional singers and composers who had extensive training and knew the repertory well enough to identify the theme and remember its original text. In mid-sixteenth-century motets, chant citations typically exhibited the following characteristics: the citation was prominently displayed at the beginning of a composition or a new section; about nine consecutive notes of the chant were presented; the citation spanned one statement of a syntactically complete unit of the polyphonic text; if the borrowed melody was liturgical, it would have been sung regularly during the church year or was associated with important feasts; the borrowed melody circulated widely or in areas where the composer worked. A major criticism of reading melodic units as chant citations is the possibility that a reference may actually be coincidental to the contrapuntal procedure. If this is the case, then citations should be found throughout the literature as a ubiquitous part of the texture. In sampling and closely analyzing nineteen motet settings on the text Congratulamini mihi omnes, it is clear that only two by Willaert and one by Festa utilize a chant melody. Having now established that chant citations exist, it is possible to explicate possible meanings and relationships by comparing different citations of the well-known Marian antiphon Salve Regina that conveyed different meanings through different associations. In several settings the antiphon is used to invoke other "Salve" texts: in Willaert's Germinavit radix, the antiphon is connected with "Salvatorem" (the Savior) rather than "Salve" (Hail), and in still other settings, the Marian antiphon invokes the Virgin Mary as comforter and protectress. This example and others demonstrate that chant citations acquire meaning in relation to the words of the motet and allow composers an opportunity for textual expression.

Works: Verdelot: In te Domine speravi (180-84); Willaert: Verbum iniquum et dolosum (180-84), Confitebor tibi Domine (185), Congratulamini mihi . . . quia quem quarebam (191), Germinavit radix (199); Festa: Congratulamini mihi omnes (188-91); Morales: Andreas Christi famulus (199); Guerrero: Ave Virgo sanctissima (199); Palestrina: Missa Salve Regina (199); Gombert: Sancta Maria succure miseris (199-200); Layolle: Domine, exaudi orationem meam (200).

Sources: Hymn: Te Deum laudamus (180); Responsory: Judas Mercator pessimus (180); Tromboncino: Ostinato vo' seguire (185); Antiphon: Descendi, in hortum nucum (188), Ecce quam bonum (191-92), Salve Regina mater misericordia (194-201)

Index Classifications: 1500s

Contributed by: Mary Ellen Ryan

[+] Glauert, Amanda. "'Nicht diese Töne': Lessons in Song and Singing from Beethoven's Ninth Symphony." Eighteenth-Century Music 4 (March 2007): 55-69.

The solo baritone's recitative intervention in the fourth movement of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony has often been interpreted as a commentary on the instrumental discourse of the symphony, but a newer interpretation of the recitative hears the baritone's words as a call to song in both a literal and idealized sense. Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" tune, which is borrowed from his setting of Bürger's poem Gegenliebe and was also used as the basis of his Choral Fantasy, Op. 80, provides added layers of meaning, especially in relation to the poetic sources. The connection between Bürger's Gegenliebe and Schiller's An die Freude is provocative when considering that both Schiller and Goethe rejected Bürger as a poet who failed to keep any sense of the "general" within his poetry. By using the Gegenliebe tune for An die Freude in the Ninth Symphony, Beethoven brings Bürger's folksy nature aesthetic and advocacy of simple, diagetic song (as heard in the laundry or sitting rooms) to bear on Schiller's abstract idealism of song. In addition to investigating the song-like aspects of the Finale, the effects of silences are also explored as folk elements and compared with Beethoven's settings of Johann Gottfried Herder's poetry.

Works: Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 in D Minor, Op. 125.

Sources: Beethoven: Gegenliebe (60-63), Choral Fantasy, Op. 80 (60-62).

Index Classifications: 1800s

Contributed by: Mary Ellen Ryan

[+] Hodgson, Jenny. "The Illusion of Allusion." In Early Musical Borrowing, ed. Honey Meconi, 65-89. New York: Routledge, 2004

Fifteenth- and sixteenth-century borrowing is apparent not only in a composer-to-composer context but also in the extemporized practice of singing. Contrapuntal procedures that developed out of discanting or coordination of consonances were not borrowed from individuals but belonged instead to the community. Though the relationships between the singers' improvised performances and the actual notated form are ambiguous, scribal alterations to chansons indicate that notated works were not "fixed" once they were committed to paper. Didactic exercises containing embellishments for chant tenors further suggest a strong relationship between the use of improvisatory gestures and their notated versions. Christopher Reynolds and other scholars have also identified these patterns or fundamental contrapuntal procedures as melodic and contrapuntal allusions—a process by which composers quoted or paraphrased short melodic fragments from each other with the intent of establishing a musico-textual allusion between the work and its model. Like the scribal variants and embellishment formulas, the allusions are found in the superius lines of chansons and masses and are typically no more than two perfections in length. It is clear, however, that these patterns are not allusions in many cases but resulted from shared compositional processes. The concordances between the anonymous Naples set of six L'homme armé masses and Caron's masses provide such examples: the highly stylized and commonplace contrapuntal and melodic gestures are the result of shared discant frameworks, which owe more to a particular institution's improvisational practices rather than to any individual author. The compositional frameworks within these masses thus illustrate that communal borrowings within extemporized polyphony continued even after the beginning of the "composer" era.

Works: Anonymous: Missa L'homme armé in Naples I (80-81), II (74-75, 83-84), VI (73-74); Caron: Missa L'homme armé (73-76, 80), Missa Jesus autem transiens (76, 80), Missa Clemens et benigna (77-78, 80), Pour regard doeul (78-79), Missa Accueilly m'a la belle (78-79).

Index Classifications: 1400s, 1500s

Contributed by: Mary Ellen Ryan

[+] Hudson, Barton. "Two Ferrarese Masses by Jacob Obrecht." The Journal of Musicology 4 (Summer 1985-86): 276-302.

Although the Missa Malheur me bat and Missa Fortuna desperata of Jacob Obrecht pose problems for chronology and dating, it is likely that both masses were composed during Obrecht's first visit to Ferrara in 1487-1488. This conclusion is based on three elements: (1) the models are located in sources that circulated first in Italy and were probably written by composers working there; (2) the stemmata suggest that their transmission began in Italy; and (3) the earliest manuscript sources predate Obrecht's second visit to Ferrara, which took place in 1504-1505. It is further likely that these masses originated in Italy because Josquin also wrote two masses on the same models. Obrecht quoted from Josquin's Missa Fortuna desperata in the Osanna section of his mass, and he also drew from Josquin's cantus firmus techniques overall.

Works: Obrecht: Missa Malheur me bat (277-89, 298-300), Missa Fortuna desperata (277, 289-300).

Sources: Martini or Malcourt: Malheur me bat (279-83); Busnois (?): Fortuna desperata (290-96); Josquin: Missa Malheur me bat (298-99), Missa Fortuna desperata (298-99).

Index Classifications: 1400s

Contributed by: Mary Ellen Ryan

[+] Lincoln, Harry B. The Italian Madrigal and Related Repertories: Indexes to Printed Collections, 1500-1600. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1988.

The following indices help to locate works within the madrigal repertoire: a composer index with incipits, an index to first lines, a thematic locator index, and an index to sources. In the composer index, the comment line lists possible musical borrowings where applicable. Additionally, the thematic locator index allows users to identify melodies by their interval sequence and indicates whether a particular melodic line appears in other sources.

Index Classifications: 1500s

Contributed by: Mary Ellen Ryan

[+] Lincoln, Harry B. The Latin Motet: Indexes to Printed Collections, 1500-1600. Wissenschaftliche Abhandlungen 59. Ottawa, Canada: Institute of Mediaeval Music, 1993.

The following indices help to locate works within the motet repertoire: a composer index with incipits, an index to first lines, a thematic locator index, a short title index to sources, and a bibliography of modern editions. In the composer index, the comment line lists possible musical borrowings where applicable. Additionally, the thematic locator index allows users to identify melodies by their interval sequence and indicates whether a particular melodic line appears in other sources.

Index Classifications: 1500s

Contributed by: Mary Ellen Ryan

[+] Meconi, Honey, ed. Early Musical Borrowing. New York: Routledge, 2004.

This collection of essays concerns the practice of musical borrowing within fifteenth- and sixteenth-century music. Topics explored include questions of allusion and citation in motets and masses, the cultural contexts of masses, the process for naming masses, and types of borrowing utilized by composers. See the following authors for abstracts of individual articles: M. Jennifer Bloxam, Cathy Ann Elias, Michele Fromson, Jenny Hodgson, Honey Meconi, Christopher Reynolds, Murray Steib, and Andrew H. Weaver.

Index Classifications: 1400s, 1500s

Contributed by: Mary Ellen Ryan

[+] Meconi, Honey. "Habsburg-Burgundian Manuscripts, Borrowed Material, and the Practice of Naming." In Early Musical Borrowing, ed. Honey Meconi, 111-24. New York: Routledge, 2004.

In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, there was no uniform practice for titling masses in manuscript sources. Though modern scholarship has traditionally listed masses under the name of the borrowed material, works within manuscript sources were often identified by number of voices, by a title indicating the devotional function, or by no title at all. This is typical of Pierre de La Rue's output—contained in large quantities within the Habsburg-Burgundian court manuscripts—and provides a basis for investigating the justification of our modern practice and understanding the nature of naming in the Renaissance. The Habsburg-Burgundian manuscripts contain an extensive amount of rubrification, often citing the presence of preexisting material. Scribes wrote the model under one voice or provided multiple under-texting within the opening of the mass. La Rue's works show that even in the case of citations, masses were not titled according to the borrowed model. If the under-texting by scribes did not influence the name of the mass, then its primary purpose could have been to create more visual appeal and, more importantly, to call attention to the presence of the borrowed material. In addition, the popularity of the parody mass at court made musicians and scribes more attuned to the presence of polyphonic borrowing. A mass with preexisting material was more likely to be copied than sine nomine masses or those with modal identities. Modern scholars identify the mass by its model because of the analytical value attached to the borrowed model and because early music historiography emphasized naming masses in this way. Closer attention to the naming of compositions within their sources will highlight the complexities of identity and construction within this music.

Index Classifications: 1400s, 1500s

Contributed by: Mary Ellen Ryan

[+] Meconi, Honey. "Introduction." In Early Musical Borrowing, ed. Honey Meconi, 1-5. New York: Routledge, 2004.

The study of borrowing has been a powerful tool for analysis of music in the Renaissance period and has provoked arguments and fierce debates over defining borrowing types, providing a terminology for them, and understanding why and how composers did what they did. Controversies have arisen over "imitation" or "parody" as terms for polyphonic borrowing, differences between paraphrase and cantus firmus technique, issues of overt and covert borrowing, and whether borrowing is taking place at all. Compiling a history of borrowing in the Renaissance—in light of these challenges and when considering that much more basic research needs to be completed for many composers—seems an impossible task at this stage, but the essays within this book provide a guide to further investigation and show how borrowing remains a compelling approach to analysis and criticism of early music.

Index Classifications: 1400s, 1500s

Contributed by: Mary Ellen Ryan

[+] Melville, Ruth. "The Chorale Preludes of Johann Pachelbel." Bulletin of the American Musicological Society 3 (April 1939): 11-12.

Pachelbel combined traits of the Catholic and Protestant schools of organ playing, assimilating polyphonic and homophonic elements in the development of the prelude form. His chorale preludes can be grouped into two types: chorale fugue and setting of the complete chorale as a cantus firmus. A third type uses a combination of these two, with the fugue leading into the full cantus firmus statement. In setting the chorale as a cantus firmus, Pachelbel is innovative, treating the cantus firmus imitatively while also presenting it in two-, three-, or fourfold augmentation. The cantus firmus is often paired with either a figurative accompaniment or with a purely harmonic accompaniment in which the voices move independently. In Pachelbel's chorale preludes he reveals a desire to achieve harmonic clarity and to showcase the melody.

Index Classifications: 1600s, 1700s

Contributed by: Mary Ellen Ryan

[+] Payne, Ian. "A Tale of Two French Suites: An Early Telemann Borrowing from Erlebach." The Musical Times 147 (Winter 2006): 77-83.

In his Trio Sonata in D Minor TWV 42:d11, Telemann appears to have borrowed directly from Johann Heinrich Erlebach's VI Ouvertures using the technique of "transformative imitation." This technique is defined as borrowing a motive or phrase from a respected model and adapting the material as part of a new composition, bringing a fresh, critical reading to the piece, and creating a new product. In his second movement, En Menuet, Telemann reworked the first four-bar phrase from Erlebach's Air Menuet I, creating a quasi-imitative texture that was not part of the original, and he also manipulated a cadential block of the model by placing it within the middle of a new phrase. Both of these borrowings helped transform the model from a simple binary form into an extended and highly developed rondeau form. In addition, Telemann may have borrowed from Erlebach in the opening Gravement, though he disguised this heavily through fragmentation and melodic elaboration. Telemann's method of borrowing in these passages mirrors his borrowing of material from the composers Fux and Campra in which he lifted short blocks of material, changed them slightly, and reorganized them within the context of new material.

Works: Telemann: Trio Sonata in D Minor for Two Treble Instruments, TWV 42:d11.

Sources: Erlebach: Overture No. 6 in G Minor from VI Ouvertures.

Index Classifications: 1700s

Contributed by: Mary Ellen Ryan

[+] Picker, Martin. "The Cantus Firmus in Binchois' Files a marier." Journal of the American Musicological Society 18 (Summer 1965): 235-36.

Scholars have often noted the exceptional character of Binchois's Files a marier but have not realized that the melody employed by Binchois is also found in an anonymous triple chanson, Robinet se veult marier/Se tu t'en marias/Helás pourquoy. The tenor of the quodlibet chanson, Se tu t'en marias, is borrowed in Binchois's chanson and supplies the text for Binchois's part, since the only surviving source does not provide it. Based on this newfound borrowing, the composition could possibly be referred to as a double chanson, Files a marier/Se tu t'en marias, as it parodies the learned motet genre by using a popular tune as a cantus firmus.

Works: Binchois: Files a marier (235-36).

Sources: Anonymous: Robinet se veult marier/Se tu t'en marias/Helás pourquoy (235-36).

Index Classifications: 1400s

Contributed by: Mary Ellen Ryan

[+] Planchart, Alejandro Enrique. "Fifteenth-century Masses: Notes on Performance and Chronology." Studi musicali 10 (1981): 376-83.

Although Craig Wright, Frank D'Accone, and Albert Seay have recently hypothesized an a cappella performance practice of liturgical and ceremonial music in the fifteenth century, borrowed tenors often pose problems for the application of this practice. In the final Kyrie of Dufay's Missa Se la face ay pale, one source has the incipit "tant je me deduis," a phrase that does not occur in the ballade and would probably not have been sung during the performance. In the tenor of Dufay's Missa L'homme armé, the canonic and retrograde version of the cantus firmus in the Agnus Dei makes it much more probable that the part was played by the organ or trumpet or vocalized without any text. Ockeghem's Missa L'homme armé also presents a problem because of his transposition of the cantus firmus by means of canons, creating a range of two octaves and a second throughout the Mass. Likewise, Obrecht's Missa Caput uses shifts in the pitch level of the cantus firmus. In these situations, an organ would have been the only instrument able to accommodate such a wide range. Another group of masses indicate the borrowed text in the tenor while the Mass text is present in the other voices, for example Dufay's Missa Ecce ancilla domini and Missa Ave regina caelorum, and Regis's Missa L'homme armé, Missa Haec dies quam fecit dominus, and Missa Pax vobis ego sum. Finally, English scribal traditions suggest the performance of the tenor either by the organ or by the voice singing the mass text.

Works: Dufay: Missa Se la face ay pale (5-8), Missa L'homme armé (5-8), Missa Ecce ancilla domini (18-19), Missa Ave regina caelorum (18-19); Ockeghem: Missa L'homme armé (9-12), Missa Caput (20); Obrecht: Missa Caput (13-17); Regis: Missa L'homme armé (19), Missa Haec dies quam fecit dominus (19), Missa Pax vobis (19); Anonymous: Missa Caput (20-23).

Index Classifications: 1400s

Contributed by: Mary Ellen Ryan

[+] Plumley, Yolanda. "Intertextuality in the Fourteenth-Century Chanson." Music and Letters 84 (August 2003): 355-77.

The practice of intertextual citation and allusion in lyric poetry during the fourteenth century is also apparent both musically and textually in the Ars Nova chanson repertory. Examination of these songs provides new evidence that the practice of citation and allusion was more widespread, more developed, and more varied in its function than previously argued by scholars such as Ursula Günther. Furthermore, looking at cases of borrowing from this period allows one to consider contemporary significance and meaning of works, contacts between composers, and transmission of works. Uses of pre-existing music are noticeable in Mauchaut's Pour ce que tous mes chans fais, where he borrows the opening of the chace Se je chant as a way of conveying ironic humor. In the following Ars Subtilior generation, composers often quoted Machaut's lyrics or made references to his poems in their works. For example, Matteo da Perugia cited both text and music from Machaut's De Fortune in Se je me plaing de Fortune, calling upon a previous authority and developing the model for his own purposes. Subtle musical connections in interrelated works between composers (such as the En attendant songs of Galiot, Senleches, and Philipoctus de Caserta, which all cite the anonymous Esperance qui en mon cuer s'embat) suggest citation games or contests. These examples demonstrate a variety of borrowing methods within the music, creating a web of connections that the audience would have recognized and appreciated.

Works: Machaut: Se je me pleing, je n'en puis mais (Ballade 15) (361), Pour ce que tous mes chans fais (Ballade 12) (363-64); Matteo da Perugia: Se je me plaing de Fortune (365-69); Galiot: En attendant d'amer la douce vie (370); Senleches: En attendant, Esperance conforte (370); Philipoctus de Caserta: En atendant souffrir m'estuet (370); Matheus de Sancto Johanne: Je chant ung chant (371-73); Trebor: Passerose de beauté (374-77).

Sources: Machaut: Se je chant (363-64), De Fortune me doy pleindre et loer (Ballade 23) (365-69); Anonymous, Esperance qui en mon cuer s'embat (370); Philipoctus de Caserta: En attendant souffrir m'estuet (370); Jean Haucourt: Se j'estoye aseürée (371-73); Egidius: Roses et lis (374-77).

Index Classifications: 1300s

Contributed by: Mary Ellen Ryan, Karen Anton Stafford, Hyun Joo Kim

[+] Range, Matthias. "A New Handel Borrowing?" The Musical Times 148 (Fall 2007): 2-4.

In composing the overture to Music for the Royal Fireworks, Handel most likely borrowed material from William Croft's overture in D Major to his ode With Noise of Cannon. The beginning Allegro section of Handel's overture greatly resembles Croft's ode in the trumpets' fanfare-like statements and the dotted rhythmic answers of the other instruments. Though Croft's piece was more than forty years old at the time, the circumstances of both works as occasional music, each written for civic and secular celebrations, show that Handel wanted to draw from a long musical tradition and looked to secular instead of sacred music as a model.

Works: Handel: Overture to Music for the Royal Fireworks, HWV 351.

Sources: Croft: Overture to With Noise of Cannon.

Index Classifications: 1700s

Contributed by: Mary Ellen Ryan

[+] Reynolds, Christopher. "Interpreting and Dating Josquin's Missa Hercules dux ferrariae." In Early Musical Borrowing, ed. Honey Meconi, 91-110. New York: Routledge, 2004.

A new interpretation and dating of Josquin's Missa Hercules dux ferrariae is possible based on evidence that in composing the famous hexachordal motive for the mass, Josquin alluded to the works of other composers. Allusion is a form of play that provided fifteenth-century composers an opportunity to show their wit and learning and to imbue their compositions with symbolic meaning as Josquin did in Missa Faisant regrets. Though Josquin constructed the motto from the vowels of Duke Ercole's name, he could have adapted the motto from a phrase in Walter Frye's Missa Nobilis et pulchra and the opening phrase from an anonymous Marian composition Salve regis mater (possibly by Marbriano de Orto). Josquin's motive alludes to the contratenor part of Frye's mass, a phrase that appears only once in Frye's entire work on the words "ex Maria virgine." The motivic resemblances between Josquin's Missa Hercules, the anonymous Salve regis mater, and Frye's Missa Nobilis infuse Missa Hercules with Marian symbolism, resonating with Ercole's religious devotion to the Virgin Mary. Josquin's allusions to these masses and his modeling both on Antoine Brumel's hexachordal Missa Ut re mi fa sol la and Agricola's song-motet Si dedero additionally suggest a later dating of 1503 for the mass. The connections between Missa Hercules and the above pieces thus illuminate the Marian associations of the work and support an early sixteenth-century dating.

Works: Josquin: Missa Hercules dux ferrariae (91-110), Missa faisants regrets (94-97).

Sources: Walter Frye: Missa Nobilis et pulchra (93, 97-101), Tout a par moy (94, 102-3); Anonymous/De Orto?: Salve regis mater (93, 99); Antoine Brumel: Missa Ut re mi fa sol la (105-6); Agricola: Si dedero (106-7).

Index Classifications: 1400s, 1500s

Contributed by: Mary Ellen Ryan

[+] Rodin, Jesse. "'When in Rome . . .': What Josquin Learned in the Sistine Chapel." Journal of the American Musicological Society 61 (Summer 2008): 307-72.

New biographical information on Josquin des Prez has forced us to reconsider his compositional output and to revise our perceptions of him in comparison to his contemporaries. Recent archival discoveries now place Josquin's birth date around 1450 and date his arrival in Italy twenty-five years later than previously believed. From these revisions, it is clear that Josquin was contemporary with his generation and that he reached his first compositional maturity around 1490, during which time he was employed as a singer in the Sistine Chapel. It is further possible to draw comparisons between Josquin and other musicians at the Chapel such as Marbrianus de Orto, who produced a large body of work while employed there. Although Josquin did not directly quote from de Orto's works, he learned and borrowed a range of compositional techniques from cantus firmus treatment to contrapuntal and melodic writing. Examples of Josquin's procedural borrowings from de Orto include: (1) using a variety of mensuration signs and presenting the cantus firmus in the "wrong" mode in his Missa L'homme armé super voces musicales, a technique employed by de Orto in his Missa L'homme armé; (2) incorporating an ostinato cantus firmus, which appears on multiple pitch levels in the tenor motet Illibata; (3) composing strict canons in a clear reference to de Orto's Missa Ad fugam; (4) employing "conspicuous repetition," in Missa Fortuna desperata and in Missa La sol fa re mi, a method also used by de Orto in his L'homme armé and Ad fugam masses; and (5) absorbing compositional procedures from de Orto in a setting of Si j'ay perdu mon amy. These examples show Josquin's competitive drive and his absorption of compositional techniques around him as a way of establishing a distinctive voice.

Works: Josquin: Missa L'homme armé super voces musicales (322-30, 341), Illibata (331-37, 341-42), Ave maris stella (340-41), Missa Fortuna desperata (342), Missa La sol fa re mi (348-50), Si j'ay perdu mon amy (353-58).

Sources: Marbrianus de Orto: Missa L'homme armé (322-30, 344-47, 352), Ave Marie mater gratie (332-37), Da pacem Domine (337), Missa Ad fugam (338-41, 347-48), Si j'ay perdu mon amy (353-58).

Index Classifications: 1400s

Contributed by: Mary Ellen Ryan

[+] Schrade, Leo. "Organ Music and the Mass in the Fifteenth Century." Papers of the American Musicological Society: Annual Meeting, 1940, Cleveland, Ohio, ed. Gustave Reese, 49-55. Richmond: The William Byrd Press, 1946.

The organ sections of alternatim masses in the fifteenth century are not arrangements of pre-existent polyphonic works but instead involve a newly composed duplum of an instrumental texture set above the Gregorian chant tenor. The organ alternates with the chorus that sings the chant in unison rather than with a polyphonic composition. This process of composition reveals an astonishing originality because the model for organ compositions comes from the organum of the twelfth century, a historical distance of three hundred years. Although it may seem strange that vocal organum could inspire fifteenth century organ music, there is evidence that suggests this vocal idiom was in use over a longer period of time in a number of European regions. There were also phases in the development of the organ mass, the first of which involved an elaborate duplum against the unrhythmical and sustained tenor. In the second stage, the tenor became more rhythmicized as a way of coordinating harmonies but usually only during limited sections of clausulae. The third development is the conductus style in which both voices move in chords, a form that is idiomatic to the instrument.

Index Classifications: 1400s

Contributed by: Mary Ellen Ryan

[+] Steib, Murray. "Ockeghem and Intertextuality: A Composer Interprets Himself." In Early Musical Borrowing, ed. Honey Meconi, 37-64. New York: Routledge, 2004.

In comparison to other contemporary composers such as Isaac, Martini, and Josquin, Johannes Ockeghem is the only composer who varied his approach to borrowed material within his masses. In the second half of the fifteenth century, composers used polyphonic quotation, a method of borrowing the tenor melody and other voices from a polyphonic work within their masses. Three kinds of polyphonic quotation were employed: literal (adhering to the model but with an occasional ornamental note), paraphrased (extensive use of ornamentation, often obscuring the actual model), or mixed (an incorporation of both literal and paraphrased techniques within a piece). Four of Ockeghem's masses are based on a polyphonic model with a cantus firmus as the structural basis, and two of his masses allude to polyphonic models making occasional reference to the model but not as a cantus firmus. In Ockeghem's Missa Fors seulement and Missa Ma maistresse, both based on his own chansons, the borrowed cantus firmus and discant are stated literally within the new work. In Missa De plus en plus, based on Binchois's rondeau, Ockeghem paraphrased the cantus firmus melodically and rhythmically. Ockeghem's Missa Au travail suis is based on a rondeau of uncertain authorship, but like Missa Fors seulement and Missa Ma maistresse, the chanson tenor is stated literally and in its entirety within the Kyrie. In Missa Mi mi, Ockeghem alludes briefly and literally to his bergerette Presque transi, and similarly in the Missa L'homme armé, Ockeghem alludes once to Robert Morton's chanson Il sera pour vous/L'homme armé. It appears, then, that Ockeghem had a different approach to borrowing depending on whether he wrote the model himself or borrowed from another composer. He borrowed literally in the masses that were based on his own work or in masses with brief allusions. Because Ockeghem used literal quotations in cases where he borrowed from himself, this suggests that Missa Au travail suis is based on his own chanson. Ockeghem's polyphonic quotations demonstrate his individuality as a composer who used different borrowing techniques depending on the authorship of the model.

Works: Ockeghem: Missa Fors seulement (40-43), Missa Ma maistresse (43-45), Missa De plus en plus (45-49), Missa Au travail suis (49-53), Missa Mi mi (53-57), Missa L'homme armé (57-60).

Sources: Ockeghem: Fors seulement l'actente (40-43), Ma maistresse (43-45), Presque transi (53-57), L'aultre d'antan; Binchois: De plus en plus (45-49); Barbingant or Ockeghem: Au travail suis (49-53); Morton: Il sera pour vous/L'homme armé (57-60).

Index Classifications: 1400s

Contributed by: Mary Ellen Ryan

[+] Stoycos, Sarah M. "Making an Initial Impression: Lassus's First Book of Five-Part Madrigals." Music &Letters 86 (November 2005): 537-59.

Orlande de Lassus's Primo Libro di Madrigali a cinque voci, published by Antonio Gardano in 1555, was an attempt by Lassus to write serious music in the style of the Venetian masters. He borrowed material from several of Adrian Willaert's madrigals—published only later in the Musica nova from 1559—hoping to attract notice from the Venetian clientele. Because Lassus's earlier madrigal books were published in Rome, some scholars have asserted that Book I à 5 was also printed in an earlier edition. It appears, however, that Lassus intended this manuscript to be published in Venice from the start, evidenced by its borrowings and appeal to Venetian tastes. The poetry within this work is overwhelmingly devoted to Petrarch—a distinctive characteristic in comparison with Lassus's other madrigal collections, however in keeping with Willaert's and Rore's collections. The more extensive use of chromaticism and cross relations in this collection is probably drawn from Rore, while several of Lassus's madrigals show resemblances with Willaert. In Lassus's and Willaert's settings of Pien d'un vago pensier, the melodic and harmonic similarities are striking within the prima parte. In their settings of Cantai, hor piango, both use the same tonal type and evade cadences on the E final. Lassus also uses chromaticism sparingly, following Willaert's restraint with regard to textual expression. Lassus's Book I à 5 is an effort both to pay homage to Willaert and to strengthen his prestige as a composer writing for the Venetian audience.

Works: Lassus: Pien d'un vago pensier (548-52), Cantai, hor piango (552-56).

Sources: Willaert: Pien d'un vago pensier (548-52), Cantai, hor piango (552-56).

Index Classifications: 1500s

Contributed by: Mary Ellen Ryan

[+] Strunk, Oliver. "Origins of the L'homme armé Mass." Bulletin of the American Musicological Society 2 (1936): 25-26. Reprinted in Oliver Strunk, Essays on Music in the Western World, 68-69. New York: W. W. Norton, 1974.

The Missa L'homme armé by Jacob Obrecht is a parody of Busnois's mass on the same theme. Obrecht's mass quotes the tenor exactly as does Busnois, and even Obrecht's free sections correspond to the other composer's mass. These similarities are, however, contrasted by Obrecht's use of new canons, more extensive use of imitation, and new harmonic schemes. The relations between these masses supports the theorist Aron's notion that Busnois had written the model and that Obrecht's work is a tribute to the "authority" of that model. Morton's chanson setting of L'homme armé also gives credence to Busnois as the author of the model, since his work is almost entirely a borrowing of the "Tu solus altissimus" section of Busnois's mass.

Works: Obrecht: Missa L'homme armé; Busnois: Missa L'homme armé; Morton: L'homme armé.

Sources: Busnois (?): L'homme armé; Busnois: Missa L'homme armé.

Index Classifications: 1400s

Contributed by: Mary Ellen Ryan

[+] Strunk, Oliver. "Some Motet-Types of the 16th Century." In Papers Read at the International Congress of Musicology: Held at New York, September 11th to 16th, 1939, ed. Arthur Mendel, Gustave Reese, and Gilbert Chase, 155-60. New York: Music Educator's National Conference for the American Musicological Society, 1944.

The correspondence between the liturgical situation and musical style of motets in the sixteenth century justifies a classification of types. One can view these particular types in the music of Palestrina. The most distinctive motet form for the Mass is the sequence, which lent itself well to the motet form because of its adaptable parallel structure. Palestrina wrote twelve motets based on sequences, some of which paraphrase the borrowed material and others of which utilize homophonic textures without the chant melody. The bulk of Palestrina's motets can be divided into two main classes of antiphon and respond. In the motets utilizing an antiphon, the paraphrase technique is much more pronounced, and in the cases of Ave reginia coelorum and Salve regina, the structure of the borrowed material results in a division into two choirs. In motets in which a respond is borrowed, the works more often have clearly delineated sections, and the first section sets the text of the Respond proper and the second section sets the verse and concludes with the final lines of the respond. This structure also offers an opportunity to experiment with contrast between the sections. Palestrina's motet Libera me Domine is a respond setting that features a number of exceptional characteristics; it includes paraphrase technique although that is not commonly used in respond settings, and it distinctly sets the plainsong model in a polyphonic setting. Finally, motet settings of the psalms or canticles call for yet another treatment. In this case the eight-part chorus is typically used, the chant is not present, and the text is often set homophonically because of its extensive length.

Works: Palestrina: Alma redemptoris mater (157), Ave regina coelorum (158), Salve regina (158), Libera me Domine 159-60).

Sources: Antiphons Alma redemptoris mater (157), Ave regina coelorum (158), Salve regina (158); Respond Libera me Domine 159-60.

Index Classifications: 1500s

Contributed by: Mary Ellen Ryan

[+] Todd, R. Larry. "Retrograde, Inversion, Retrograde-Inversion, and Related Techniques in the Masses of Obrecht." The Musical Quarterly 64 (January 1978): 50-78.

In the Missa L'homme armé, Missa De tous bien plaine, Missa Fortuna desperata, and Missa Petrus Apostolus, Jacob Obrecht presents the cantus firmus in retrograde, inversion, or a combination of the two. On occasion, Obrecht also uses the original or a derivative form of the cantus firmus in transposition, apparent in his Missa Graecorum, which requires adjustments to the cantus firmus to accommodate Obrecht's canonic inscription. In other masses, Obrecht manipulates the cantus firmus through his segmentation technique witnessed in masses such as Maria zart, De tous bien plaine, Malheur me bat, Rose playsante, Je ne demande, and Si dedero. Obrecht's use of predetermined formal elements shows a great consideration for unity and cyclic structure in his works. The fascination with strict "serial-like" cantus firmus procedures, however, finds precedent in the masses of other fifteenth century composers. Retrograde can be found in thirteenth- and fourteenth-century manuscripts, and retrograde-inversion appears in an anonymous Gloria from the "Fountains Fragment" and in the more famous Dunstable isorhythmic motet, Veni sancte spiritus et emitte. Busnois makes use of these techniques in more than one work, including his L'homme armé mass, which contains an inversion in the Agnus Dei according to a canonic rule written under the vocal part, and in his motet In Hydraulis, which derives its tenor from a three-note figure that may be interpreted as a large-scale palindrome. A close musical relationship might exist between Busnois and Obrecht, particularly between their L'homme armé masses. Obrecht's mass is indebted to Busnois in using the techniques of retrograde and inversion during sections of the mass where Busnois had also incorporated those procedures. A striking deviation occurs during the Agnus Dei, where Obrecht uses retrograde-inversion in contrast to Busnois's use of inversion. In Obrecht's Missa De tous bien plaine, an even more radical transformation of the cantus firmus takes place in which he orders the borrowed pitches in terms of their rhythmic value from the longest to the shortest. Furthermore, his Missa Graecorum involves rhythmic reordering of the cantus firmi, inversion, and retrograde-inversion. These masses thus demonstrate Obrecht's affinity for systematic and "serial" cantus firmus organization and associate him with Busnois, who employed similar compositional tools.

Works: Obrecht: Missa Graecorum (51-52, 66-69), Missa L'homme armé (51, 56-57), Missa De tous bien plaine (51-52, 5860), Missa Fortuna desperata (51, 61-62), Missa Petrus Apostolus (51, 64-65), Missa Maria zart (52), Missa Malheur me bat (52), Missa Rose playsante (52), Missa Je ne demande (52), Missa Si dedero (52), Missa Salve diva parens (63-64); Dunstable: Veni sancte spiritus et emitte (53-54); Busnois: Missa L'homme armé (55), In hydraulis (55), Conditor alme siderum (55), J'ai pris amours tout au rebours (55).

Sources: Busnois: Missa L'homme armé (56-57), Fortuna desperata (61-62); Hayne van Ghizeghem: De tous bien plaine (58-60); Antiphon: Petrus Apostolus (64-65).

Index Classifications: 1400s

Contributed by: Mary Ellen Ryan

[+] Weaver, Andrew H. "Aspects of Musical Borrowing in the Polyphonic Missa de feria of the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries." In Early Musical Borrowing, ed. Honey Meconi, 125-48. New York: Routledge, 2004.

Placing ferial masses within their cultural contexts illuminate particular instances of musical borrowing and appropriation. Two distinct "families" of ferial masses arose in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries—one in the courts of northern Europe and another at the papal chapel in Rome. In the northern courts, Pierre de la Rue's and Antoine de Févin's five-voice masses contain a canon in each movement. La Rue carefully structures the canon within the tenor voices, while Févin treats the motive freely, suggesting that he borrowed La Rue's original concept. La Rue and Févin may also have borrowed from Matthaeus Pipelare's Missa de feria, which contains canon-like writing in several sections. A separate family of four masses originated in Italy. The earliest mass is Johannes Martini's Missa ferialis, followed by three masses written for the papal chapel by Andreas Michot, Johannes Beauserron, and Palestrina. In the Kyrie movement, all four masses open with a point of imitation based on a decorated version of the Kyrie chant Melnicki 7. Palestrina also borrowed Beauserron's opening motive and took material from Michot in the remaining sections of the mass. VatS 35, the source that contains Martini's mass, is the earliest known choirbook compiled by the singers for their use. Because these pieces were sung repeatedly within the repertory, it is probable that Michot, Beauserron, and Palestrina drew ideas from the papal choir's performances. The different circumstances of the two Missa de feria "families," reflecting different historical, social, and liturgical contexts for masses, provide a tool for understanding the various instances of musical borrowing.

Works: Pierre de la Rue: Missa de feria (130-37); Antoine de Févin: Missa de feria (130-37); Andreas Michot: Missa de feria (137-40); Johannes Beauserron: Missa de feria (137-40); Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina: Missa de feria (137-140).

Sources: Pierre de la Rue: Missa de feria (130-37); Matthaeus Pipelare: Missa de feria (136-37); Johannes Martini: Missa ferialis (137-40).

Index Classifications: 1400s, 1500s

Contributed by: Mary Ellen Ryan



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