matthaeus greiters fortuna - an experimen in chromatism and in musical iconography - e.e. lowinsky

Matthaeus Greiter's "Fortuna": An Experiment in Chromaticism and in Musical Iconography--IIAuthor(s): Edward E. LowinskySource: The Musical Quarterly, Vol. 43, No. 1 (Jan., 1957), pp. 68-85Published by: Oxford University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/740384 .Accessed: 24/01/2015 15:02

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MATTHAEUS GREITER'S FORTUNA: AN EXPERIMENT IN CHROMATICISM AND IN MUSICAL ICONOGRAPHY-II

By EDWARD E. LOWINSKY

Gregorius Faber, who published Greiter's Fortuna, was completely aware of its symbolic character. This is evident from his commentaries on musica ficta, to which he devoted a substantial chapter (cap. XIII). We need not discuss his definition: Quid est cantus fictus? and his clear distinction between musica ficta by key signature and by accidentals, since they only re-state traditional views. His argument becomes more interesting when he tries to answer the question: To what purpose did the musicians invent musica ficta? First, he covers well known ground when he adduces the two causes: of necessitas, to avoid prohibited intervals, and of suavitas, to give delectation to the ear. But his commentaries on both purposes of musica ficta deserve attention.

As to necessity, he demands that the note E if sounded together with Bb be changed to Eb so as to avoid a diminished fifth, which is admissible only in cadential formulas.41 He defines prohibited intervals as those that arise from the addition or subtraction of a half tone from perfect intervals.

With regard to suavitas as a consideration for musica ficta he writes:

41 Faber has in mind progressions like these:

Ex. 5 'Af _______________

68


Matthaeus Greiter's Fortuna 69

Quae est ratio suavitatis? Ea est ut primum cantio per se iucunda efficiatur orationiqueqa cui adhibetur, per omnia conveniat, et suis quasi flosculis ita exomrnetur condia- turque, ut audientium animos dulciter influens, harmoniae varietate delectet. Nam quemadmodum ridetur chorda qui semper oberrat eadem: ut ille canit: sic quoque symphoneta, nisi cantionem variis fugis, clausulis, fic- tisque vocibus decoram iucundamque reddat, eiusque maiestatem iis inter- dum exprimat, tautologos merito habebitur, tantumque abest ut delectet, ut potius iteratis ijsdem clausulis ac vocibus ceu Crambe bis cocta, nau- seam audientibus moveat. Ad vitandum igitur tautologian in cantu, non leve momentum affert Musica ficta, quae miram cantionibus gratiam conciliat in loco adhibita.

What is the consideration of sweetness of sound? It is in the first place that a composition be made agreeable in itself and that it correspond throughout with the text to which it is set. It should be so adorned and embellished as it were with figures that it flows sweetly into the listener's soul, giving pleasure through the variety of harmony. For as he who constantly dances around one and the same note is ridi- culed --- as the poet sings 43 - so, too, will a composer rightly be held to be monotonous unless he renders his composition decorous and agreeable by the use of a variety of fugues, clausulas, and feigned voices [i.e. musica ficta], and in this manner express its majesty. Far from giving pleasure, he rather creates tedium in his audience by the use of the same themes and tones that are like warmed over cabbage.44 Therefore, to avoid repetitiousness in composition, musica ficta is of no slight importance, bringing, as it does, an admirable grace to compositions if used at the right place.

Faber's theory of musica ficta, although based on the traditional distinction between causa necessitatis and causa pulchritudinis, goes considerably beyond it. He postulates the use of musica ficta as an esthetic element of harmonic variety without which a composition runs the risk of becoming dull and monotonous. Not a word about the danger of jeopardizing the integrity of the modes stressed so urgently by Glareanus and other theorists of an earlier period!

a Orig. orationisque. 43 See Horace's Ars Poetica 356 . . . citharoedus Ridetur chorda qui semper

oberrat eadem. This passage agrees with Juvenal VII, 154: occidit miseros crambe repetita

magistros. I owe both this and the preceding identification to Prof. K. Gries. It is possible, however, that Faber knew both passages from his readings in Erasmus's Adagia, one of the most widely read books of the time. Both quotations occur there, the second one attributed to Suidas, who treats it as a Greek proverb. Incidentally, the Greek words in this and the following quotation appear in Faber's text in Greek letters.


70 The Musical Quarterly

But Faber does not stop here. Musica ficta, in his view, is more than an element of esthetic variety, it is an indispensable element of expression:

Deinde cum orationis, quae notulis applicanda est, non unus sit tenor, sed quaedam eius verba et sententia su- binde aliam atque aliam pronuntia- tionem, aliumque affectum postularet, ideo ut to prepon observetur, sua cuilibet dictioni harmonia tribuenda est. Nam non solum curare oportet quam suavis aut iucundus cantus efficiatur, sed quam bene et apposite tractandis rebus adhibeatur: siquidem omnis harmoniae varietas ex rerum diversitate oboritur. Videas autem plaerasque cantiones ad aurium vo- luptatem tantum esse comparatas, nihilque in se habere quod vim atque naturam orationis exprimat, idque authorum inscitia evenire solet, qui orationi non inservientes, absque omni discrimine quemlibet textum cuilibet modo accomodando, res hilares lugu- bri harmonia exprimunt, et e contrario. Sed illi mihi perinde facere videntur, ut poeta ille qui cornutam cervam fingebat.

Finally, since the text to which the music has to be set is not of one single mood, but continually demands for certain words and sentences now this, now another pronunciation, and another expression, therefore, so that decorum be observed, every mode of expression must receive its own harmony. For one should not only aim at sweetness and attractiveness in composition, but also at a successful and appropriate rendering of the subject matter to be treated, since indeed harmonic variety arises from the di- versity of subject matter. But observe that most compositions are arranged merely for the pleasure of listening and lack entirely those elements that express the power and the character of the text. And this stems from the ignorance of the authors, who pay no attention to the text and adapt in- discriminately any text to any style. They write lugubrious harmony to a gay text and vice versa. Those seem to me therefore to proceed like that poet who presented a hind with horns.45

Evidently Gregorius Faber was well aware of the fact that the radical style of musica fcta adopted by Matthaeus Greiter had its origin in the composer's intention to create a musical image of Fortuna as the incon- stant goddess of luck. It needs hardly to be stressed how precisely Faber expresses the ideas of the musica reservata without using the term. Samuel Quickelberg, humanist and physician at the court of Albert V of Bavaria, defines musica reservata as the art of "adjusting the music to the text and its subject matter, of expressing the power of the different human emotions and of suggesting the textual content as vividly as if

5 I was unable to find the specific passage to which Faber refers here. The general sentiment expressed corresponds to the beginning of Horace's Ars Poetica: Humano capiti cervicem pictor equinam iungere si velit . .



you saw it before your very eyes."46 And Coclico demands of the composer "that he ruminate the text well as to which mode or harmony it asks for, and that he apply that text with taste to its proper place; for those who set words full of consolation and joy to sad music, and who, vice versa, compose gay melodies to sad words are in a plight worse than the blind groping in the dark.. ."47 But Faber goes beyond Coclico and Quickelberg in singling out the element of musica ficta in the composer's effort to lend expression and eloquence to music.

Both in his commentaries and in the publication of Greiter's Fortuna Gregorius Faber shows himself bolder and more outspoken than the theorists around and before him. This may perhaps be explained through the fact that he was not a professional musician or theorist. In 1554 he received his degree as doctor of medicine at the University of Tiibingen; Hans Albrecht48 suggests the possibility that he exercised his office as Musices Professor ordinarius at Tiibingen so as to be able to study medicine there at the same time. At any rate, after 1554 no trace of musical activity on his part remains. Being a physician, Faber shared neither in the pride of the professional musicians in preserving "guild secrets" nor in their fear of publishing bold experiments without dis- guising them. Indeed, had not Vesalius, ten years earlier, published his epoch-making work on anatomy in that same city of Basel where now Faber's music treatise was printed? Why should the "anatomy" of musica ficta in its most advanced form not be published with that same clarity? Besides, there is significance in the fact that the three theorists of the mid-16th century who transmit the most modern use of musica ficta - Listenius, Greiter, and Faber - were Protestants and thus free from certain inhibitions that tradition imposed on their Roman Catholic confreres.

One vital question needs now to be answered: did the performers of that time have the theoretical tools necessary to understand and master as audacious a work as Greiter's Fortuna? We know that John Hothby in his Calliope legale developed the theory of mutations in systematic fashion; but he did not go beyond hexachords based on Db

46E. E. Lowinsky, Secret Chromatic Art . . ., p. 92. 47 Ibid., p. 108. 48 See Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, under Gregorius Faber.



and F4.o Theory, in other words, had by 1480 advanced to the use of five flats and five sharps. Hothby's example did not remain isolated. Pietro Aron devotes twenty chapters of his treatise on the modes50 to a demonstration of how each of the twenty tones of the Guidonian scale can be solmizated in six different ways, i.e. as ut, re, mi, fa, sol, and la. Oddly enough, Aron uses only hexachords involving flats. Hence, if he wants to show how, for example, G can be interpreted as fa, he changes it to Gb and bases it on the hexachord starting on Db. However, in his last great treatise, Lucidario in Musica of 1545, Aron uses hexachords constructed with flats and with sharps for the same demonstration. I have long been puzzled by this contradiction. I found the explanation finally in the correspondence between Aron and Giovanni del Lago of Venice on the one hand and Spataro and his Bolognese musicians51 on the other. In this correspondence, now preserved in the Vatican Library,52 Spataro and his Venetian colleagues discuss among many other problems that of solmization and mutation. In a letter of January 4, 1529, Spataro points out the fallacy of Aron's attempt in the treatise on modes to derive all mutations solely from hexachords involving flats. He quotes his teacher, Ramis, and Hothby and shows that hexachords involving sharps are just as necessary as those involving flats. When Aron, four years after Spataro's death, which occurred in 1541, published his Lucidario reversing his former stand, he showed himself con- vinced by Spataro's arguments.

Even more interesting in our context is the fact that one question hotly debated in the most searching detail is whether or not the tones C and F may be lowered half a tone by notating a flat and the tones B and E raised by notating a sharp. We cannot here go into the very detailed and intricate argumentation. Suffice it to state that Aron and Lago stop with their theory of mutations before C and F with regard

SCf. E. E. Lowinsky, The Goddess Fortuna in Music, loc. cit., pp. 67-68. o60 Trattato della natura et cognitione di tutti gli tuoni di canto figurato non

da altri piu scritti composti per Messer Piero Aaron Musico Fiorentino . . . Impresso in Vinegia . . . 1525.

511 nostri Musici Bolognesi, as Spataro proudly calls them. 52 Vat. Lat. 5318. K. Jeppesen, Eine musikhistorische Korrespondenz des friihen

Cinquecento, in Acta Musicologica, XIII (1941), pp. 3-38, gives an admirable survey of the contents of the Vatican codex. In referring to a letter by Spataro of Oct. 24, 1530 (No. 89) Jeppesen states that one can see from it that Aron must have sent Spataro a treatise on problems of solmization that is now unknown. I believe that Spataro referred to the 1529 edition of Aron's Toscanello containing the famous Aggiunta del Toscanello, a complacenza de gli amici fatta which, indeed, treats of solmization and the setting of accidentals.



to flats and before B and E with regard to sharps, whereas Spataro and his Bolognese musicians take the position that all tones can be flattened or sharpened. The main part of the correspondence on this problem was written in 1533.53 Thus twenty years before Greiter's Fortuna and twenty-seven years before Rossetti's chromatic madrigal were published Italian musicians engaged in a lively debate on the possibility of using Cb and Fb as well as B$ and E$. In the same year 1533 the Scintille de Musica were published in Brescia by Giovanni Maria Lanfranco, "whose practical tuning rules seem to agree with no system other than equal temperament."54 Incidentally, Lanfranco is one of the musicians who is represented among the letter-writers of the musical correspondence in the Vatican codex.55

It seems that Matthaeus Greiter, to our present knowledge, is the first composer to have conceived of basing a polyphonic work on the systematic transposition of an ostinato motif in the circle of fifths. It happens that the Fortuna desperata motif used by him employs the first three tones of a hexachord in ascending and descending order. From this piece to the instrumental compositions of John Bull,56 Alfonso Ferrabosco,"57 and Girolamo Frescobaldi58 based on ascending and de-

53I refer specifically to Lago's letter to Spataro of Aug. 15, 1533, and Spataro's letter to Aron of Oct. 30, 1533.

54 j. Murray Barbour, op. cit., p. 11. 55 Cf. Jeppesen, loc. cit., p. 16, letters Nos. 70-72 and 109. 56 The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book, ed. by J. A. Fuller Maitland and W. Barclay

Squire, I, 183ff.

5 Jacobean Consort Music, ed. by T. Dart and W. Coates, Musica Britannica, IX, Nos. 23 and 39. While Greiter proceeds in the circle of fifths, Ferrabosco arranges his transpositions of descending hexachords in a chromatic order, going down in half steps from G to C; Bull, on the other hand, arranges his hexachords - each of which is presented ascending and descending - in two rows, one starting from G, the other from Ab, each time shifting his transpositions by one whole step upward. Thus Bull employs hexachords on all twelve tones, whereas the younger Ferrabosco, like Greiter, uses only eight different hexachords. It is regrettable that the editors of Musica Britannica did not see fit to publish Ferrabosco's twin fantasia in its entirety, but suppressed the remarkably beautiful and original fantasia on the ascending chromatic hexachord (from C to A) which is available only in a rather remote corner of musicological publication, in The Musical Antiquary, III, 70. I am indebted to Dr. Vincent Duckles of the University of California, Berkeley, for putting his transcription of the complete work at my disposal.

68 Frescobaldi (Fiori Musicali, 1635) uses the ascending and descending motif ut mi fa re ut first on hexachords with sharps, G, D, A, E, D, G, then on those with flats, F, Bb, Eb, F, starting and ending each time on the hexachord of C. The



scending hexachords arranged in varying patterns of systematic transposition through part or whole of the circle of fifths there is only one step. A connection between the English composers and Greiter would be hard to prove, but is not impossible in view of the spread that Greiter's composition must have enjoyed, having been published in Basel in a theoretical work written in Latin.

From a comparison of Greiter's work with these later instrumental compositions it would appear that the technical design survived, while the iconological meaning was lost. That this is not necessarily true can be shown through a very curious and little-known print. The library of the monastery of the Minorites at Vienna contains in a booklet of eight folios59 a beautiful engraving of the fantasia by John Bull on the chromatic hexachord cited above; it is wrongly attributed to Poglietti. The title shows a ladder with the inscription Musica Aulica, i.e. court music. On the rungs of the ladder are inscribed the six syllables of the hexachord do, re, mi, fa, sol, la. A richly dressed man stands on the lowest rung whereas a bareheaded man falls from the highest rung, losing all his money on the way. Between the middle rungs of the ladder one reads the legend: in medio consistit virtus - there is virtue in modera- tion. To the left of the ladder one reads: Dum tollitur Aulicus inquit, i.e. "while carried upward the courtier says" (add: do re mi etc.); on the right side: Dum cadit Alter ait, "while falling the other says" (add: la sol fa etc.) At the end follows the wise counsel:

In gliick ubernimb dich nicht In good luck don't overdo Undt in ungliick Verzweyffle nicht In hard luck don't despair.

Finally there follows the observation: In fine videbitur Cuius Toni, i.e. the mode will become manifest at the end of the piece. The distinct double meaning of this phrase is highlighted by the death's head placed below.

composition is entitled Recercar con obligo del Basso come apare; it is part of the organ Mass "delli Apostoli" based on the Gregorian Mass Cunctipotens Genitor Deus (In Festis Duplicibus 1) and appears after the toccata for the elevation. Possibly Frescobaldi intended to convert the pagan symbolism of mutation into the Christian symbol of transubstantiation.

59 The print is described by H. Botstiber in his edition of the keyboard works of Alessandro Poglietti and other Viennese Baroque masters in D.T.Oe. XIII, 2, p. XVII. Our attempts to secure a photographic reproduction of this engraving and its illustrations failed. Professor Leopold Nowak, director of the music division of the Austrian National Library, whom we thank for answering our inquiry, re- ported that the music library of the monastery was being moved to other quarters.



The relation between the pictorial representations with their accompanying legends and the traditional symbolism of Fortune's wheel is obvious. The connection of the hexachord moving up and down with the wheel of Fortune goes back to the beginning of the 16th century. Senfl's Fortuna ad voces musicales, published first in Sebald Heyden's De arte canendi in 1511 but also quoted in its entirety by Faber (pp. 102-115), has the Fortuna desperata melody in the tenor, while "the discant goes up and down the hexachord like this: c d, c d e, c d e f... a g, a g f, a g f e . . . While the tenor, the centre of the polyphonic setting, personifies Fortuna, the up and down motion of the discant is a perfect musical symbol of the wheel."00

The rare print containing John Bull's chromatic hexachord fantasia, which combines the idea of Senfl's ascending and descending hexachord motion with Josquin's and Greiter's idea of mutation, proves the inter- national and lasting character of the musical Fortuna symbolism that

60 See E. E. Lowinsky, The Goddess Fortuna in Music, loc. cit. p. 74. A sense of the symbolic significance of the ascending and descending hexachord seems to linger on in a madrigal by John Farmer from his First Set of Madrigals (1599), reprinted in Vol. 8 of E. H. Fellowes's The English Madrigal School (No. 16). The tenor of the madrigal moves up and down the hexachord on F in varying rhythmic patterns accompanying the following text:

Take time while time doth last, Mark how fair fadeth fast; Beware if envy reign, Take heed of proud disdain; Hold fast now in thy youth Regard thy vowed truth, Lest when thou waxeth old Friends fail and love grow cold.

These words may well be interpreted as a warning of the pitfalls of Fortuna: the transi- toriness of worldly beauty, the evil power of envy and disdain, the loss of friends and love. Against all this the poet sets a man's loyalty to his own "vowed truth." In consonance with this sentiment Fortuna turns her wheel up and down, but the key of F is never abandoned. John Farmer's model was probably Alessandro Striggio's five-part madrigal

Ahi dispietato Amor, come consenti Ch'io meni vita si penosa e ria . .

It is found in the second book of six-part madrigals of 1571. The composer added to the five parts of the madrigal a "sesta parte si placet which, in keeping with the meaning of the text, winds its way laboriously and painstakingly through the other voices, in constantly changing rhythmic variants of the ascending and descending hexachord" (Alfred Einstein, The Italian Madrigal, Princeton, 1949, II, 765).

I owe my acquaintance with Farmer's madrigal and its Italian model to Professor Joseph Kerman, University of California, Berkeley.



stretches over nearly two centuries.6' The pictures and legends in the 17th-century print that Botstiber found "entirely obscure" now make sense.

How consciously composers cultivated the musical design of Fortuna through the two devices of ascending and descending motion and mutation may be shown in one last example by Marco da Gagliano, who dedicates his composition, La Fortuna," Al Serenissimo Gran Duca di Toscana Cosmo Secondo. Fortuna is introduced by the poet as singing:

Ovunque irato Marte in terra scende Wherever irate Mars on earth de- lo'l seguo ogn'hor sh la mia rota scendeth

errante. I follow on my fleeting wheel all over.

Marco da Gagliano sets these lines for soprano with figured bass:

Ex. 6

OVW un - - que i - ra - to Mar - +e in terra scende.

Io'l se - 9uo ogn'- hors~ lamia ro .- . . . .

- taer-ren - - fe.

The turning of the wheel is projected in the rapid up and down motion of the melody ("rota"), while Fortune's fickleness is reflected in the harmonic progression oscillating between B-flat major, F major, C major, C minor, G minor, D minor, and D major. Instead of falling downward, however, the harmonic motion is contained within a narrow circle. This is symbolic of the continuation of the poem, in which Cosmo is praised for having Virtue as guide and Fortuna as servant.63 Though Fortune

61 Botstiber dates the print as of the end of the 17th century. 62 Musiche a una dua e tre voci di Marco da Gagliano Maestro di Cappellh

del Serenissimo Gran Duca di Toscana Novamente composte et date in luce. In Venetia MDCXV. Appresso Ricciardo Amadino, p. 2.

63 Duce Virti fortuna ancella is an old motto very popular in the Renaissance.



is still true to her fickle nature, the prince knows how to bridle her whims by the power of his virtue. Monteverdi, in his Prologue to L'Incoronazione di Poppea, represents Fortuna by constant change of meter, rhythm, and key, Virtue by complete stability of key and meter.64 Monteverdi's opposing of Fortune and Virtue in tones is the musical counterpart of Alciati's pictorial contrast of Fortune and Hermes. In both cases the accompanying text makes the meaning unmistakable.

Indeed, the musical symbolic tradition of Fortuna may perhaps account for the designs of the fifth and sixth canons in Bach's Musical Offering. Canon No. 5 uses contrary motion and augmentation, canon No. 6 modulates through the entire circle of fifths - an extraordinary undertaking even for Bach - but in ascending order. The two canons are accompanied by the following inscription:

Notulis crescentibus crescat Ascendentique Modulatione ascendat Fortuna Gloria

Regis.

Augmented notes stand here for augmented fortune, ascending modulation for ascending glory. Augmentation occurs in some of the earliest Fortuna pieces," and if descending modulation symbolizes the evil aspects of Fortuna desperata, ascending modulation may well be equated with Fortuna bringing glory"6 to her favorite as he ascends to the peak of power.

How does Greiter's Fortuna affect the theory of the secret chromatic art in the Netherlands motet? A comparison shows interesting points of similarity and difference: the Netherlanders as well as Greiter use modulation in the circle of fifths, they prefer the subdominant region of flats, they use ostinato or freely repeated motifs in transposition, they employ modulation for expressive and symbolic purposes. Indeed, Faber's commentaries on the esthetic and expressive function of musica ficta fit the Netherlandish technique marvelously well. As to points of difference: in the Netherlandish motet modulation usually occurs within

4 E. E. Lowinsky, The Goddess Fortuna in Music, loc. cit., p. 77, n. 58. a Ibid., p. 75. 66 "Since Fortune sends victory in warfare to one side or the other, since her

gifts include dignities most conspicuously, . . . she is therefore much concerned with the bestowal of fame. She and Fame are at all times closely associated, but sometimes she appears actually doing the work of Fame." H. R. Patch, op. cit., p. 110.



the diatonic mainstream of music, from which it emerges at a well chosen point of textual emphasis and to which it returns. Greiter's Fortuna is one constant modulation. The Netherlanders of the middle of the century use implied modulations in serious, non-experimental, music to express texts of a deep religious emotion vibrating with over- tones of Reformed sentiment and doctrine. Greiter uses modulation, as did Josquin, to depict a pagan deity.67 The choice of Ovid's verses reveals humanistic inspiration. The most conspicuous difference lies naturally in the openness of Greiter's operations as compared with the secret character of Netherlandish procedure. But even if we assume - and it is likely - that Greiter himself notated the piece with regard to accidentals as plainly as Gregorius Faber published it, the important point is this: given the key signature of one flat, the ostinato motif ut, re, mi, re, ut, consistent transposition of this motif in the direction of the lower fifth (or upper fourth), the harmonic implications in the four-voice complex, and the rules of musica ficta, Greiter's series of modulations is virtually mandatory and inevitable.

For this we have authentic proof in the composer's own treatise, Elementale Musicum luventuti accommodum Matthaeo Greitero au- thore, 1544. This tract, the only copy of which Eitner places in the Stadtbibliothek of Mainz, has, to my knowledge, not yet been described.68 It was published in Strassburg in aedibus lacobi lucundi, according to the imprint at the end of the treatise. A woodcut shows Arion sailing on the back of the dolphin and playing his harp. The treatise is unusu- ally brief; it is one of the many elementary textbooks on music for school instruction. In the praefatio Greiter outlines the three areas with which he intends to deal: the Guidonian table, solmization and mutation, and

67 Pirro (loc. cit., p. 275) points out that Greiter imitates Josquin also in others of his compositions such as his Ich stund an einem Morgen (published in Ambros's Geschichte der Musik, Vol. V, Leipzig, 1889, pp. 361-62). Here Greiter "repeats obstinately in the bass Lass sy faren (la, sol, fa, re and through transposition mi, re, ut, la) - another allusion to a work of the same master" (i.e. Josquin). The work in question is naturally Josquin's Missa La sol fa re mi (see Smijers' edition, Werken, Elf de Aflevering, Missen, II). Robert Eitner in his study on Das alte deutsche mehrstimmige Lied und seine Meister (in Monatshefte fiir Musik- geschichte, XXVI, 1894, p. 40) speaks of Greiter's song as perhaps the oldest example of a chaconne because of the ostinato motif in the bass, but it suffices to refer to the Kyrie of Josquin's Mass, where the bass is treated in the same manner.

68 I wish to thank Dr. Diepenbach, director of the Stadtbibliothek of Mainz, for his kindness in sending me a microfilm of the treatise.

It is not mentioned in Schiinemann's Geschichte der deutschen Schulmusik, 2nd ed., Leipzig, 1931, which gives the most comprehensive survey of musical treatises written for German schools (see especially pp. 60-69 and 99-121).



mensural notation. Like other Protestant writers of the early period of the Reformation, Greiter takes his examples from Gregorian Chant. The treatise conforms in general to the requirements and standards of a method for the instruction of choirboys. Remarkable is the chapter on musica ficta, in which Greiter goes considerably beyond what one might expect in an instruction book for children. We quote the most important part of this chapter:

MUSICA FICTA EST immutatio & alteratio totius tabulae praedictae: fingit in quacunque claue, quamcunque uocem, seruato tamen ordine uocum. Nam in F potest cani re uel sol, uel etiam mi aut la. Eaedem & in c. In G & in d autem fa uel mi. Sic in a & e, sol fa uel ut, Item in b molli & 4 duro potest cani, ut re sol & la: & sic in alijs clauibus, praeter ordinem praescriptum antea. Signa autem huius Cantus ficti sunt, b molle: aut 4 durum in locis non solitis. ut b molle in G uel in d, aut alijs, cuius rei hoc est paradigma.

Musica ficta is the mutation and al- teration of the whole aforesaid [Gui- donian] table: it feigns any solmization syllable on any key, preserving, however, the order of solmization. For F can be sung as re or sol or also mi or la. The same obtains for C. On G and on D you can take fa or mi. Like- wise you can solmizate A and E as sol, fa, or ut. On Bb and Bh you can sing ut re sol and la and thus on other keys, outside of the order pre- scribed before [in the Guidonian table]. The signs of this cantus fictus, however, are b molle or 4 durum in un- usual places such as b molle on G or D or other keys, of which the following is an example:

Ex. 7 a

b

If F can be solmizated as re, sol, mi, and la, or E as sol, fa, and ut, that means that Greiter asks for familiarity with the hexachords on Eb, Bb, Db, Ab, A, B, and E, progressing to tones as far removed as Gb on one side and Dj on the other.

It is true that in his musical illustration Greiter goes no farther than Ab. But the significance of the example rests on the fact that it corrobor- ates the principle of "secret chromaticism" to the effect that, once one note - "the code-note" - has been shown in need of being raised or, mostly, flattened, a chain of melodic and harmonic progressions involving the intervals of the fourth or fifth often supported by motif transposi-



tion is used by the composer to enforce-without writing the accidentals -a modulation logical and convincing in its harmonic and melodic evolution.

This principle is clearly demonstrated in Greiter's example, which starts on G without key signature and introduces then the notes Bb, Eb, and Ab. Once the first Bb is established, Greiter brings about the Eb and Ab by the skip of a fourth and by motif transposition (a and b). It is remarkable that the progression mi re ut fa mi re mi appears both times in identical rhythmic form. The accidentals are notated as usual in theoretical discussions on musica ficta, but only at the turning points of the modulation. Once a flat has been written, its continuation is taken for granted, except when it recurs in another octave. Thus, while we need 15 accidentals throughout the passage, only four are notated. The example with accidentals is meant to point the way to the correct inter- pretation of the contemporary music without written accidentals.

Clemens non Papa uses at the end of his motet Vox in rama69 almost literally the same motif as does Greiter in his example of musica ficta. He intones it first on E, then on A prescribing the Bb, finally on D imply- ing the transposition; this leads into a finely wrought modulation as logical and effective in its building up to a climax - leading from D minor to G minor to C minor - as it is surprising in its resolution back to A minor and its ending on an A-major chord.

Matthaeus Greiter's ideas on musica fcta agree furthermore entirely with the example of cantus fictus given by Listenius in his Musica of 1537, where the same effect of a chain reaction of musica ficta is demonstrated in a melody touching upon Bb, Eb, Ab, Db by melodic progressions of fourths and fifths without benefit of motif transposition.70 Greiter and Listenius are two German theorists who enlarge the concept of musica fcta, which usually refers to the raising or flattening of one tone only, into that of a logical modulation in the circle of fifths.

In his Fortuna Matthaeus Greiter elaborates in indubitable fashion upon his theory of musica fcta. This astonishing composition places the secret chromatic art of the Netherlanders in a new perspective: if a German master of minor stature, whose death-date is recorded by Eitner as December 20, 1552, by F6tis as December 20, 1550, by Muller (see note 72) in December 1550 (if this latter year be correct, it would mark

69 E. E. Lowinsky, Secret Chromatic Art, Ex. 34, discussion pp. 35-37. To Ibid., pp. 84-86.



the latest possible date of the Fortuna composition), and who lived in a conservative musical climate, was capable of conceiving and executing a chromatic piece of such boldness involving Db, Gb, Cb, Fb, and Bbb, then the much tamer, but technically similar, chromatic construc- tions of Netherlandish masters of recognized superiority are more easily understood. Greiter must have known Netherlandish compositions in this vein. It is only from them that he could have learned the technique he uses in his Fortuna.71 The Italians started publication of their chromatic experiments only about 1550 - if we leave Willaert's early chromatic duo out of consideration. Looking back at Rossetti, we can have little doubt that this Italian composer intended to use Cb, Fb, and Bbb in a madrigal published almost ten years after a German composer had used these same notes in a secular work devoted to a pagan deity treated with awe by Catholics and Protestants alike.

In conclusion, a word about Matthaeus Greiter and the possible purpose of his Fortuna. The sparse data known of his life" are quickly summarized: he was a monk and chorister at the cathedral in Strass- burg; he left the monastery, turned Protestant, and married in 1524. In 1529 he became deacon at the Reformed St. Martin's Church, in 1529 he held the same position at St. Stephen's Church. In 1538 he became music teacher at the Gymnasium Argentinense. His various activities did not secure an income large enough for a family with ten children. He lost some sources of income in 1546 when he was accused of adultery. In 1549 he and his Protestant colleague Wolfgang Dachstein acknowledged the Interim and established together a school of choir- singers for the service of the Interim, bringing upon himself the hostility of the Protestant city council. He lost his position at the Gymnasium in January 1550 and died, according to his newest biographer, that same year as a victim of the plague.

As a poet and composer he put his talents into the service of the 1 Here it may be pertinent to record that Gregorius Faber does not quote a

single Italian composition (neither do Glareanus, Coclico, Hermann Finck, and other theorists of this period belonging to the German-language circle). He does, however, print whole pieces by Ockeghem, Obrecht, Josquin, Brumel, Senfl, and Stoltzer.

72 Quellenlexikon and Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, III, cols. 799- 802.


82 The Musical Quarterly Protestant movement. He is known as the author of texts and melodies for a small number of German chorales - at most 16 to 20 - and as the composer of over a dozen secular German songs, mostly in cantus firmus technique."

In such a modest output, limited almost exclusively to the genre of German spiritual and secular song, the Fortuna composition stands in mysterious isolation. What could possibly have prompted Greiter to such an extraordinary artistic enterprise? The only clue to this puzzle is pro- vided by Carl von Winterfeld in his Der evangelische Kirchengesang.74 In a footnote in Vol. I (p. 179) we read the following:

Greiter found a special delight in ingenious compositions. Thus he handed Albrecht of Brandenburg, first duke of Prussia, a four-part setting on the distich:

Passibus ambiguis fortuna volubilis errat Et manet in nullo certa tenaxque loco,

in which three voices imitating each other in fugal style express the faltering step, the restlessness, through appropriate melodic turns, while the fourth, the tenor, executes a short phrase repeated on different tone levels after various pauses with indication of the canon: Omnia facit fortuna in omnibus.

Unfortunately, Winterfeld gave no reference whatever either to a book or to an old print or manuscript."75 Yet the following conclusions are inescapable: Winterfeld must have known a source of Greiter's Fortuna other than Faber, for Faber does not give the canon mentioned nor does he refer to Albrecht of Brandenburg. The source known to Winter- feld, most likely a manuscript, if not a single-sheet print - perhaps with a dedication to Duke Albrecht - seems to have remained unknown

73 For sources of his compositions see MGG, loc. cit. To the list of reprints offered there add the following: Monatshefte fiir Musikgeschichte, XXVI, 40; R. von Liliencron, Die historischen Volkslieder der Deutschen, Nachtrag, Leipzig, 1869, pp. VI-VII, XXXVIII-XLI. The statement in MGG that Passibus ambiguis was published in Hugo Leichtentritt's Musikalische Formenlehre, Leipzig, 1911, is erroneous. The only work of Matthaeus Greiter's reprinted by Leichtentritt is his quodlibet, Elslein, liebstes Elslein mein. To the literature dealing with Greiter's music listed in MGG should be added: K. von Winterfeld, Der evangelische Kirchen- gesang, Leipzig, 1843 (see below); E. Koch, Geschichte des Kirchenliedes, Stuttgart, 1866-77, I, 145; O. Douen, ClIment Marot et le Psautier Huguenot, Paris, 1880, I, 307, 313; H. J. Moser, Geschichte der deutschen Musik, 4th ed., Stuttgart-Berlin, 1926, p. 442; A. Pirro, op. cit., p. 275.

74 Leipzig, 1843. 1 An inquiry directed to the one-time Staats- und Universittitsbibliothek in

KSnigsberg concerning the composition remained unanswered.



to all other modern writers who mention Greiter's Fortuna, including Fitis,"6 Eitner, Pirro, and Levitan.7

Even in the absence of the source itself, von Winterfeld's information is invaluable. Duke Albrecht of Prussia, an adherent of the Reformation, was a great friend of music." Under him the court chapel of Kdnigsberg grew beyond its modest beginnings and comprised a choir of four- teen to twenty singers, the official instrumental music of trumpet players and drummers consisting of twelve to fifteen members, and a smaller number (from three to five) of string instrument players. Naturally, the church music would have been incomplete without an organist, and Albrecht's chamber music without the lutenists whose play he especially enjoyed.7"

Duke Albrecht engaged in correspondence with famous musicians such as Ludwig Senfl, Thomas Stoltzer, and Johann Walter.80 He always asked for new compositions and a great number of the compositions sent to him are known. He must have shared the general admira- tion of his contemporaries for Josquin, some of whose works were secured for him by his agents in Munich.81 From old catalogues in the Staats- und Universit~itsbibliothek at Kanigsberg we know that the duke's personal music library contained not only the current publica- tions of practical music from the printing shops of Nuremberg and Wittenberg, but also beautifully written choirbooks in folio, the whole

7 Biographie Universelle des Musiciens, 2nd ed., Paris, 1862, III, 98. Of all writers who spoke of Greiter's Fortuna none has recognized more clearly its significance as an experiment in musica ficta than F~tis. In his article on Greiter he has this to say on our composer: "But he deserves special attention for a Latin song set for four voices the text of which begins with the words: Passibus ambiguis. Over a tenor phrase repeated after pauses of varying length and ascending from fourth to fourth or descending a fifth, and consequently passing constantly from one key to another by that ancient method called cantus fictus, Greiter established between the other three parts a net of imitations of a remarkable elegance in which the voices sing in a natural manner, and without introducing a single difficult intona- tion. This piece, a masterwork for its time of origin, is contained in the book of Gregorius Faber..."

? Levitan in his article mentioned above lists Greiter's composition as one of many pieces exemplifying cantus fictus.

78 Cf. Maria Federmann, Musik und Musikpflege zur Zeit Herzog Albrechts, Kiinigsberger Studien zur Musikwissenschaft, Band XIV, Kassel, 1932.

* Ibid., pp. 13ff, 47ff, 113ff, 117ff, 101ff. In the account-book of 1541-42 we find expenses for strings, frets, and repairs on four viole da gamba. Obviously, Duke Albrecht had the players and the instruments needed to perform Greiter's Fortuna.

o Ibid., p. 148ff, where the pertinent literature is listed. 81 Ibid., p. 148.



theoretical literature of the time - the works of Glareanus, Heyden, Lampadius, Listenius, Rhau, Spangenberg, Luscinius, Hermann Finck, and others - and finally a complete collection of the humanistic odes published in the thirties (the catalogue in question was written in 1540), such as the Melodiae Prudentianae et in Virgilium of 1533, Hofhaimer's Harmoniae poeticae of 1539, and Ducis's Harmoniae in odas P. Horatii Flacci of 1539, now lost. Undoubtedly, the prince shared the strong humanistic tendencies of the prominent Italian, French, and German courts of his time. The music-loving court of Munich was apparently Albrecht's model. His extensive correspondence with Senfl and his num- erous agents in Munich, who were always on the lookout for new or rare music for the duke's chapel, suggest this. From Munich Albrecht was bound to hear about the musica reservata. He must have been greatly intrigued by this new trend in music. When Adrianus Petit Coclico, who served the duke from 1548 to 1550,82 tried to restore himself in his favor,83 having been banished under a charge of bigamy, he sent the former patron his psalm collection published in Nuremberg in 1552 under the title of Musica Reservata and his Compendium Musices published in the same year, in which latter work he promised to bring to light musica reservata.

Matthaeus Greiter must have been well aware of all this when he attempted to paint a picture of Fortuna in tones in the best tradition of musica reservata, using the new and as yet highly esoteric technique of radical chromaticism. Besides, he knew also that the duke was thoroughly acquainted with Fortuna in all of her aspects. Refusing to recognize Poland's suzerainty, Albrecht was involved in war and suf- fered defeat in 1521. He fled, but returned in 1525 and bowed to Poland in the peace of Cracow. Because of his establishment of a secular duchy he was outlawed by Charles V. In spite of political and religious trouble of all kinds he ultimately secured the safety of his new duchy. Certainly, Greiter's canon Omnia facit Fortuna in omnibus had a special meaning for him. At the same time this canon had another meaning for the composer who equated Fortuna with the power of mutation. As Fortuna facit omnia in omnibus, so mutation, in Greiter's own words, fingit in quacunque clave quamcunque vocem.

If we place Greiter's composition against this background the extraordinary work begins to make sense from a historical point of view. If

82 Cf. M. van Crevel, Adrianus Petit Coclico, The Hague, 1940, p. 177ff. * See Coclico's letters to the duke published by van Crevel, op. cit., pp. 401-04.



the composition was destined for a music-loving prince inclined towards the modern trends of musica reservata, we can understand both its humanistic inspiration and its boldness of design. But while the socio- logical background may explain the origin of a work of art, while the iconographic intent may account for its design, neither can explain the individual genius with which it is executed. For with his Fortuna Matthaeus Greiter lifted himself for one artistic moment from the level of a mere talent to that of a genius - if it is a sign of genius to con- ceive and felicitously execute an extraordinarily bold design.

ERRATA

The following corrections should be made in Ex. 3 of Part I, proofs of which could not be submitted to the author:

m.38, alto: F should be a half note instead of a whole note. m.44, discant: place a natural sign above G. m.47, the text syllable under the discant should read "er" instead of "e". m.70, discant: the third note should be an E whole note instead of a D

half note. m.78, the text under the tenor should read "certata" instead of "Astata." In footnote 28, line 12, the correct name of the famous art-historian and founder

of the Warburg Institute should read Aby Warburg.


Article Contentsp. 68p. 69p. 70p. 71p. 72p. 73p. 74p. 75p. 76p. 77p. 78p. 79p. 80p. 81p. 82p. 83p. 84p. 85

Issue Table of ContentsThe Musical Quarterly, Vol. 43, No. 1 (Jan., 1957), pp. 1-150Front MatterLeon Kirchner [pp. 1-20]Musical Aspects of the Dead Sea Scrolls: For Curt Sachs on His 75th Birthday [pp. 21-37]Mid-Nineteenth-Century American Beliefs in the Social Values of Music [pp. 38-49]The Determinants of Tonal Construction in Tribal Music [pp. 50-56]Organs, Organ-Builders, and Organists in Milan, 1450-1476: New and Unpublished Documents [pp. 57-67]Matthaeus Greiter's "Fortuna": An Experiment in Chromaticism and in Musical Iconography--II [pp. 68-85]Errata: Matthaeus Greiter's "Fortuna": An Experiment in Chromaticism and in Musical Iconography--I [pp. 85]Editorial [pp. 86-89]Current Chronicle [pp. 90-110]Reviews of BooksReview: untitled [pp. 111-112]Review: untitled [pp. 112-116]Review: untitled [pp. 116-122]Review: untitled [pp. 122-128]

Reviews of RecordsReview: untitled [pp. 129-130]Review: untitled [pp. 130-132]Review: untitled [pp. 132-134]Review: untitled [pp. 134-135]Review: untitled [pp. 136]Review: untitled [pp. 136-138]Review: untitled [pp. 138-139]Review: untitled [pp. 140-142]Review: untitled [pp. 142]

Quarterly Book-List [pp. 143-148]Back Matter [pp. 149-150]