the hours of charles the noble: musicians and musical instruments

letin of The Cleveland Museum of Art

THE HOURS OF CHARLES THE NOBLE

Musicians and Musical Instruments The Hours of Charles the Noble contains, among its many wonderful marginal decorations, a great number of musicians and musical instruments. They provide, in fact, a good cross section of the instru

mentarium of the period. These marginal decora tions differ very much in scope and character. Those

pages with miniatures showing large scenes have flower borders interspersed with fruits, birds, and

butterflies, and little naked humans engaged in vari ous playful activities. Other pages have their mar

gins covered by vines, tendrils, and a profusion of little monsters, most of them combinations of animal bodies with human heads, shoulders, and arms, al

though other anatomical combinations also occur. Before studying these delightful musicians one

by one, the thoughtful reader may be struck by sev eral paradoxes. One concerns the relation between the sacred and the profane: in fact, the funny or demonic creatures which people the margins pay not

the slightest attention to the venerable words written in the center of the page. A separate, rich, and dense

web of fantastic life is spun around the sacred words

and, while entertaining the eye and teasing the

imagination, belongs to a totally different compart ment of the soul. These little monsters and demons late-born Northern cousins of the centaurs, sphinxes, sirens, and gryphons of antiquity-strangely seem to

thrive under the protection of the Church, frivolous

and sinful as they are. As gargoyles, they people the

roofs and buttresses of Gothic cathedrals; as drol

leries, they frolic in the margins of miniature prayer books.1

If one is aware of all this, it goes without saying that the instruments depicted are by no means those

for use only in the church, but represent also folk

and pastoral instruments, and even the musical tools

of the juggler. Yet there seems to exist a certain limit to the free play of fantasy, at least as far as the

musical instruments are concerned. The anatomy of living creatures may combine elements from man

and beast, and even plant forms, but there is hardly

a musical instrument that is not depicted with real istic precision and loving care for its minutiae: strings, pegs, sound holes, and the bowing and plucking fingers are rendered exactly. And whether the lute or

harp is played by a dog or cat, by a monkey or

gryphon, still the functional design of the musical machine is respected.2

All the main families of musical instruments are

represented: strings, plucked and bowed; winds, woodwinds as well as brass; percussion instruments of various materials including those with membrane, that is, drums of different shapes.

Among plucked instruments we find, of course, the fashionable lute in its early small, round (apple, rather than pear) shape. The lute, although a stand ard instrument in ancient Egypt, was a latecomer to

European civilization. It was imported there through contact with Arabic culture. The Arabic word al'ud,

meaning "the wood," became laud in Spanish, and liuto in Italian. The lute in our illustration (Fig. 50) is finger-plucked, not struck with the plectrum as often occurred in the early Renaissance. The pegs are clearly depicted, projecting from the sharply bent neck. There is a small and a large sound hole, the latter probably with an ornamental rosette of Moor ish design. But there are also several lutes repre sented which have only one large sound hole.

Similar to the lute because of its vaulted back, but with a different neck, is the mandola, which was

very common during the Middle Ages. Its neck forms sometimes a half circle, sometimes a sickle, and usu

ally terminates in a carved head of a man or animal. The pegs are inserted at the side, and are clearly visible in our illustration (Fig. 51).

Another plucked instrument is the psaltery, repre sented by several specimens which all have the typi cal trapezoidal outline. They differ in size and orna

mentation. The little one (Fig. 52) played by a

bearded half-man, is the simpler one, with only one

sound hole; another one, plucked by a meditative

naked youth, has a wide border and two sound holes.

84

This content downloaded from 146.96.128.36 on Mon, 02 Mar 2015 22:03:37 UTCAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

9L

a- i

:

Figure 50. Detail of page 540.

The harp, which appears in our illustrations here

played by a naked amoretto (Fig. 11), has the fash

ionable Gothic shape that fuses the curved pillar and

neck with the tapering sound box, into a homogene ous frame.

The bowed instruments are represented by vari

ous kinds of fiddles, called vielles at the time. One,

played by a left-handed dog-man, has the flat peg disc that was later perpetuated in important instru

ments of the Renaissance, such as the lira da braccio. The four pegs are inserted around the rim of the peg disc (Fig. 53). Another type, bowed by a lively lion

man, has the sickle-head characteristic of the Ren

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~.. . ...~ :.. .

! ;fw~~lma

igue. 1 ae58(eue)

'. ....-L. ' d .,,,,.,i-,...

Figure 51. Page 568 (reduced).


;.. _-:: * ' *'

rs.: *-;.

EmW.. 1,9.f, ref

Sousa ok ~~~~~~~. of_

A if

sI:i


.. ... . .... ...I *.'....... j. . .. .. ......


S He L ~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~. . :.... .. X..ii

h ?... -

,.: ..., j-j.~ . . ... .. ~,llt~,.,~'"~ ~"~'~~'~'~~ .. a

:i:: ~ ~ ~

85



ngft munlptmra

......................e a p g 5 ')l t Figuret .Dtmailofhag 565


: ..... . .. ... . :.. ..,., . d_. . ' ' '

US


ts..'.v? i ~II ?rrrr~* l - ri cn* ?I?*r??r..?ub u??l?.?? ?I :;. .....l???l*?~*r;:.r... l??a .x ????-* .... .

Figure 57. Detail of page 552

Figure 57. Detail of page 552

Figure 58. Page 644 (reduced). ~~~~~~~~~~~~~... . . . . _ . - ???- ..... ........... .. x?? , l. . _ ., ., , i,, , .............. . ... ,,.". i

. ...... .. :

??I k

> %. ' s~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~::: ?I?-??;- .?*???--V- ?? ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~~. .......

:..~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~??; ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ . ..... n.,-A 0 *

ol??li ii:iA

?: : . :::': ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ L

Bill Vale'llaaatftit?mr~

Figure 59. Page 613 (reduced), showing St. Genevieve miniature ...... ....

* ;fl Ka~bi&

86



aissance rebec, a derivative of the North African rebab (Fig. 54). And again, another version played by a man-beast monster has an unusual, complex body with a scalloped outline and a beautiful carved head on the end of the sickle (Fig. 55).

Related to the bowed instruments are those bowed

by a friction wheel which is turned by a crank at the lower end of the sound box. This kind of mechanized fiddle played a great role from the Middle Ages on, almost up to our own time. It was known by many names: hurdy-gurdy, ghironda, lira tedesca, vielle a

roue, "der umblaufenden Weiber-Leier" ("the lyre of the vagrant women"). It is still played by French peas ants in the Auvergne, Bourbonnais, and Savoy.

Haydn wrote several concertos and notturni for the

vielle, and Schubert imitates its sound in his tragic song, "Der Leiermann." A cat-man in one of our

miniatures plays such a vielle a roue. The wheel is not visible but is hidden under a semi-round cover; the player's right hand turns the crank and the left

stops the strings (Fig. 56). Turning now to the wind instruments, we may

begin with the brass and mention the horns, which at that time were not part of the polyphonic ensembles, but rather were single instruments used, for instance, in hunting (Fig. 57). The noble trumpet, instrument

of the knights and cavalry, is represented by two dif ferent shapes: the straight trumpet (Fig. 51), as we find it, for instance, in Giotto's paintings and still

later, in one of the reliefs of Luca della Robbia's Can toria in Florence; and the trumpet bent in an S-shape (Fig. 58), which appeared during the first half of the fifteenth century, for example, in the hands of the

angels painted on the frame of Fra Angelico's famous Linaiuoli altar in the Uffizi, dated 1433. Soon after ward the much closer bending of the tube into three

parallels was achieved, as in our modern instruments. In looking at miniatures, it is not always easy to

distinguish between reed and brass instruments, since the small reeds that generate the vibration of the air in the tube were not usually touched by the lips of the player as in our modern oboes, but were held

entirely inside the mouth so that the position of the

lips to the upper end of the tube appears vaguely the same as in some brass instruments. However, the

shape of the tube may give a clue and often also the

position of the hands and fingers. Some of the little

musicians (e.g., Fig. 59) probably blow shawms, which are forerunners of the baroque oboe. More difficult is the identification of an instrument (Fig. 2) which has a slender tube ending in a large, ungainly, cylindrical bell. The upper end of the instrument seems to have a mouthcup like that used in brass

instruments, but it may also be meant to show a

pirouette, that is, the flat upper end of a double reed instrument which served as a support for the lips

while the reed itself was held inside the mouth. The

question would, of course, be decided in favor of the double reed instrument if the tube had side holes. But in our illustration the little dots on the tube could be

merely decorative, and the position of the hands is not very telling.

Just as the family of stringed instruments had a mechanized member-the hurdy-gurdy-so the wood wind instruments have developed a mechanized

variety-the bagpipe. Our illustrations show the sim

plest form, which consists of the bag, the blowpipe through which the player's lungs fill the bag, and one chanter-that is, the pipe fitted with finger holes to

produce the melody (Fig. 60). One extremely interesting woodwind (Fig. 61) is a

double pipe, an example of the tenacious continua tion of the use of double pipes from antiquity (Egypt and ancient Greece), through many centuries in secular music and especially folk music. Another

striking example is found, for instance, in the min iatures of the Cantigas de Santa Maria, written for


Itm bto(m ~~~t4

qw


V:i

87



:i


itmnwnrffnwiw

4. .... ' . ..



id; Z:::::;ti~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~??::t:1:::?'iii

F g ::f p .

# . 5' . # . .

* . L : . .L. 2 F . . S |~~~~~:i: A.~11~ " ,,r

Figure 64. Deta~~~il f ae 5

::i?:?:?.: :::?:?:: 'i '~

~: ~i /! i~~


Figure 68. Page 599 (reduced), showing St. Louis miniature.

..'A

ei: "":':: :~ s?. . . .... : . ... A

:: . .. ..

? ': .1.

... ..... . . BA

my

: .~

.-. :j......... ..c? ,- I~:*?.ji ??-?

p, K

_ .b.: I.:i, Y.' ....

,..-. }...

_ .s Ma

*fafwhN#*.?.? ...~~l? ...--. __~--~..'.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~:i :~F. ~"~~~.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~:'

[.,,,,, ~ ?j?Y? ,,~,:-:,:. :i'.:i;~. ~ ~ i B 1L i .:.:.' ":...

Alfonso el Sabio of Castile between 1252 and 1284. We cannot part from wind instruments without

mentioning the organ, which at the time of our min iatures was by no means confined to church music.

The organetto played by a dog-woman on one page (Fig. 62) is a beautiful specimen of the portable or

gans fashionable at the time. Two rows of pipes and the push buttons (forerunners of the more modern

organ keys) are clearly visible. Angels, who often, in pictures of the time, seem to have trouble in hold

ing the heavy organetto while one hand is busy touching keys or buttons and the other occupied in

working the bellows, may envy our little dog-woman who has her instrument snugly sitting on her behind.

Many percussion instruments also appear: hand bells occurring singly (Fig. 63) or in pairs (Fig. 64); triangles played by a man with a monkey face (Fig. 65), or a dressed-up wolf; the cymbals, played by a

lady with the hind legs of a dog (Fig. 66). Still more

amusing is a gryphon, evidently angry at being dis turbed while writing in a book. Around his bird-neck is fastened a large jingle bell of the type used by court

jesters (Fig. 4). Of drums, finally, we find also a

variety: a simple side drum hit by a beater (Fig. 67); a hand-beaten jingle drum with membrane (Cover); and a pair of tiny kettle drums (Fig. 68). Like the

lute, kettle drums had invaded the Occident from the Islamic south, chiefly through Spain. Their French

name, nacaire-nachere in Italy, nakers in England stemmed from the Arab naqquara, and as early as



Figure 66. Detail of page 635. Figure 67. Detail of page 554.

1309, Joinville, the chronicler of Louis the Saint, reported of the Saracens that, "La noise que il

menoient de leur nacaires et de leurs cors sarrazin

noiz, estoit espoventable a escouter."3 It is charac teristic of the longevity of folk instruments that the nacaire was still used in the nineteenth century in Provence under the name timbalou and still hung to the belt of the player, as in our drolleries.

The music-minded draughtsmen of our Hours did not restrict themselves to the representation of instru

ments, but also showed music books used by clerics, and music sheets and books studied and performed from by musical monsters. One of the larger minia

hures is on a page which opens the Office for the Dead

(Fig. 30). Two clerics sing-evidently in two-part polyphony-from a typical choirbook of the time laid

open on a high music stand. The painter took the trouble to. draw on each of the pages five lines of

text, but although the writing is too small to show actual notes, the singing is very realistically depicted, both clerics having their mouths wide open so that their teeth show. One lifts his hand to the book, per haps to turn the page. Of the marginalia, one shows a

monster seriously studying his music, which is merely suggested on the page (Fig. 69); another monster

sings while paging through his book (Fig. 70); and a most temperamental gryphon sings for all he is

worth from a large choirbook placed on a stand

(Fig. 71). The last two musicians mentioned are somewhat handicapped in their motion, but also per haps acoustically inspired, by the tintinnabula at tached to their legs.

We meet only one actual ensemble, although oc

casionally more than one player appears on one mar

gin. It is in the scene of the Coronation of the Virgin (Fig. 19), where, according to firmly established

iconological tradition, angels celebrate the event with music. Here, with space so scarce, a mere allusion had to suffice. At the left and right sides of the archi tectural throne, groups of angels pray and play. On the left we recognize a bowed vielle and a lute; on the right, a harp and a small wind instrument, prob ably a treble shawn (forerunner of the modern oboe).

All this is characteristic of "soft" music bands, that

Figure 69. Detail of page 168. ...__ . ....

__#ff~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ .. ............ a A*_; i ,... Ao

tAti' ''..sn Fp!

,. 1,...}s X" An...

i...i; a sae.. ' *A


; 0i

.:M. M


- w or _

89



is, of silvery timbre, different from the later enor mous angel concerts in the frescos of church cupolas, by Benozzo Gozzoli, Correggio, and Gaudenzio Ferrari.4

It is also highly significant that angel musicians

appear only in the larger paintings and not among the drolleries. Angels would never condescend to enter the low life of fantastic creatures and monsters,

who actually are derived from the musical jugglers, acrobats, and vielle players who still decorate the

margins of miniature books such as the Queen Mary Psalter and the Lutrell Psalter of the fourteenth cen

tury. EMANUEL WINTERNITZ

Curator of Musical Collections The Metropolitan Museum of Art

0On the sacred and the vulgar in close proximity, see my article, "Bagpipes for the Lord," Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, XVI (June 1958). 2This is not always the case in drolleries. Grotesque, mixed, or parodistic forms occur occasionally in other Books of Hours, and I have discussed this in "Bag pipes for the Lord," pp. 278, 281.

3"The noise they made with their nacaires and their Saracen horns was frightful to hear."

4 n the character of ensembles with different timbre in angel concerts, see my article, "On Angel Concerts in the 15th Century: A Critical Approach to Realism and Symbolism in Sacred Painting," Musical Quarterly, XLIX (October 1963).

Collation of The Hours of Charles the Noble

112, 2-68, 710, 811, 96, 10-128, 1310, 148, 156, 16-238, 241, 258, 2610, 27-408, 416, = 329 leaves numbered on both sides 1 to 329, 340 to 663. Pages 329 and 340 are the recto and verso of the same folio. The last three folios (six pages) are unnumbered. Blank pages are indicated in the subsequent list of contents. No loss of text is apparent.

This collation is largely based upon the appearance of catchwords at the bottom of the last page (verso folio) of each gathering. These catchwords were used to assist the binder in assembling the quires or gatherings of vellum sheets. The gatherings here numbered as 2, 8, 16, 17, 21 and 23 lack such catchwords. All of these, except for the first and last, are still a little uncertain because the tightness of the binding precludes checking the stitching and because other clues have not vet been detected.

Contents of The Hours of Charles the Noble

Pages Text Illustrations 1-24 Calendar of Saints and On recto folios (odd

Holy Days (in French, numbered pages): Signs whereas the remainder of the Zodiac in the of the manuscript is in right margin and Latin). depictions of scenes of

seasonal occupations in the miniatures at the bottom of the page (bas de page) (Figs. 5, 6)

25-33 Prayer to the Virgin: Page 25, Historiated Obsecro te, domina ... initial showing a bust of

the Virgin in prayer. 33-46 Prayer to the Virgin: Page 33, Historiated

0 intemerata... initial showing a bust of the Virgin and Child.

41-55 Sequentiae of the

Gospels 41 In principio erat Portrait of St. John

verbum ... John 1:1-14 (Fig.7)

45 In illo tempore. Missus Portrait of St. Luke est angelus ... (Fig. 8) Luke 1:26-38

49 In illo tempore. Cum Portrait of St. Matthew natus esset ... (Fig. 9)

Matthew 2:1-12 53 In illo tempore. Portrait of St. Mark

Recumbentibus... (Fig. 10) Mark 16:14-20

56 Blank 57-209 Little Office of the

Blessed Virgin containing services for each of the Canonical Hours with the approximate times:

57 Matins (Ad Matutinum, The Annunciation to 2:30 A.M.) beginning the Virgin (Fig.11) Domine labra mea

aperies ...

109 Lauds (Ad Laudes, The Visitation (Fig. 13) 5 A.M.) beginning Deus in adjutorium meum intende . . .

133 Prime (Ad Priman, 6 The Nativity (Fig. 14) A.M.) beginning same as Lauds

148 Terce (Ad Tertiam, 9 Annunciation to the A.M.) beginning same as Shepherds with scroll Lauds inscribed: Gloria in

excelsis Deo (Fig. 15) 90



Pages Text Illustrations

156 Sext (Ad Sextam, noon) Adoration of the Magi beginning the same as (back cover) Lauds

165 None (Ad Nonam, 3 Presentation in the P.M.) beginning the Temple (front cover) same as Lauds

175 Vespers (Ad Vesperas, Rest on the Flight into

sunset) beginning the Egypt (Fig. 18) same as Lauds

191 Compline (Ad Coronation of the Completorium, 9 P.M.) Virgin (Fig. 19) beginning Converte nos deus salutaris noster ...

204 Verbum caro factum Historiated initial est de virgine maria ... showing a bust of the

Virgin reading.

210 Blank

211-254 Psalms of Penance, Page 211, The Inferno beginning Domine ne in (Fig. 22) furore tuo ...

255-272 -Hours of the Passion, Page 255, Man of beginning Domine Sorrows with the labia mea aperies . . . Virgin and Instruments

of the Passion

(Fig. 24)

273 No text Full page devoted to the Coat of Arms of

Charles the Noble (Fig. 1)

274-286 Hours of the Holy Spirit Page 274, The Pentecost beginning the same as (Fig. 26) the Hours of the Passion

287-414 Hours of the Cross, each Hour beginning the same as in The

Hours of the Virgin (see above pp. 57-210)

287 Matins Betrayal of Christ (Fig. 37)

322 Lauds Mocking of Christ (Fig. 31)

347 Prime Christ Before Pilate (Fig. 32)

355 Terce Christ Carrying the Cross (Fig. 38)

367 Sext Preparation of the Cross (Figs. 41, 42)

379 None Crucifixion (Fig. 28)

395 Vespers Descent from the Cross (Figs. 43, 44)

405 Compline Entombment of Christ (Fig. 45)

Pages Text Illustrations

415-521 Office of the Dead Page 415, Service sung beginning Placebo in choir over a coffin

attended by mourners (Fig. 30)

522-528 Blank pages 529-623 Memoriae or Suffrages An unusually long

to various Saints ... series of historiated

beginning Memoria de initials illustrating the beatissima.... following:

529 The Trinity (Fig. 35) 531 Virgin and Child

535 Instruments of the Passion

536 Two Angels with Scales

537-600 Begins with St. John the "Portraits" of 61 male Baptist and ends with saints, some in groups the Confessors (e.g., Figs. 3, 68)

601-623 Begins with St. Anne "Portraits" of 17 female and ends with St. Barbara saints, some in groups

(e.g., Fig. 59) 624 Blank

625-638 Mass of the Holy Spirit Page 625, Historiated initial showing a bust of

Christ

638-654 Mass of Our Lady Page 638, Historiated initial showing a half length Virgin and Child

654-661 Mass of the Dead Page 654, Bust of Death 662 Blank

3 Blank unnum

bered folios, ending with

penciled p. 668

Evidence for Paris use for Hours of Charles the Noble HOURS OF THE VIRGIN Matins

Hymn p. 61 0 quam glorifica luce coruscas ...

Antiphon after the Psalms

p. 70 Exaltata es sancta Dei genetrix ... Lauds

Capitulum p. 127 Te laudant...

Hymn p. 127 Virgo Dei genetrix ...

91



the hours of charles the noble: musicians and musical instruments

Documents