solo motets from the 17th centuryby anne schnoebelen

Solo Motets from the 17th Century by Anne SchnoebelenReview by: Margaret MurataNotes, Second Series, Vol. 45, No. 4 (Jun., 1989), pp. 836-839Published by: Music Library AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/941234 .

Accessed: 14/06/2014 04:31

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

Music Library Association is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Notes.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 91.229.229.96 on Sat, 14 Jun 2014 04:31:06 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=mulias

http://www.jstor.org/stable/941234?origin=JSTOR-pdf

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


NOTES, June 1989 NOTES, June 1989

its didactic informality. There are no critical notes, and there is little discussion of the many disparities between edition and source. In the bibliography, which fails to mention the 1974 reprint of the Methode (Geneva: Minkoff), some items are supplied with their original publication dates, whereas only a reprint date is given for others; only in one instance does the editor give both. The translation of the manual, while serviceable, is not without faults. Some sentences obscure the original meaning, while others simply do not make sense. In several instances, an ill-chosen English equivalent for the original French hinders

comprehension (for example "chord" for corde).

In the edition, the pieces do not always appear in the same order as in the source, and since the many appoggiaturas are re- alized and supplied with editorial slurs, the reader is deprived of a clear picture of what the music originally looked like. In one instance, an important point is missed alto- gether: the discussion of thoroughbass in the manual includes references to illustra- tive passages in which figures are em- ployed; but turning to the exercises in question, we find that the editor has real- ized the bass and omitted the figures without comment. There are some misspell- ings, many added fingerings (some in brackets, some not), and numerous added dynamic markings (most of these are marked with brackets or vertical slashes). The edition includes a small number of

its didactic informality. There are no critical notes, and there is little discussion of the many disparities between edition and source. In the bibliography, which fails to mention the 1974 reprint of the Methode (Geneva: Minkoff), some items are supplied with their original publication dates, whereas only a reprint date is given for others; only in one instance does the editor give both. The translation of the manual, while serviceable, is not without faults. Some sentences obscure the original meaning, while others simply do not make sense. In several instances, an ill-chosen English equivalent for the original French hinders

comprehension (for example "chord" for corde).

In the edition, the pieces do not always appear in the same order as in the source, and since the many appoggiaturas are re- alized and supplied with editorial slurs, the reader is deprived of a clear picture of what the music originally looked like. In one instance, an important point is missed alto- gether: the discussion of thoroughbass in the manual includes references to illustra- tive passages in which figures are em- ployed; but turning to the exercises in question, we find that the editor has real- ized the bass and omitted the figures without comment. There are some misspell- ings, many added fingerings (some in brackets, some not), and numerous added dynamic markings (most of these are marked with brackets or vertical slashes). The edition includes a small number of

footnotes. Some are translations of marginal instructions in the source while others are supplied by the editor, but the reader cannot tell one from the other. Elsewhere the omission of certain performance instructions dilutes the value of the edition as a source of insight into late-eighteenth- century thought and custom. For example, in a piece titled Dialogue, the original has marginal instructions for performance on a two-manual instrument, and the music is marked with directions for a hypothetical alternation of organo grande and organo pic[colo]. In the edition, both the performance instructions and the marginal notes are excised.

Both Rasch's and Erdely's endeavors may be welcomed as contributions to an ever- growing wealth of newly available sources that enrich our knowledge of music-mak- ing in the eighteenth century. Of the two, the edition of Kirnberger's Clavieriibungen comes far closer to acceptable editorial standards, but neither fully succeeds in promoting modern-day pupils' efforts to relive their eighteenth-century counter- parts' experience: the Kirnberger edition because it fails to provide crucially important performance instructions, the Bach- Ricci Method because of the editorial accre- tions and bowdlerizations that keep us from getting as close to the original as we should like in order to recapture its all-too-fragile essence.

FLOYD GRAVE Rutgers University

footnotes. Some are translations of marginal instructions in the source while others are supplied by the editor, but the reader cannot tell one from the other. Elsewhere the omission of certain performance instructions dilutes the value of the edition as a source of insight into late-eighteenth- century thought and custom. For example, in a piece titled Dialogue, the original has marginal instructions for performance on a two-manual instrument, and the music is marked with directions for a hypothetical alternation of organo grande and organo pic[colo]. In the edition, both the performance instructions and the marginal notes are excised.

Both Rasch's and Erdely's endeavors may be welcomed as contributions to an ever- growing wealth of newly available sources that enrich our knowledge of music-mak- ing in the eighteenth century. Of the two, the edition of Kirnberger's Clavieriibungen comes far closer to acceptable editorial standards, but neither fully succeeds in promoting modern-day pupils' efforts to relive their eighteenth-century counter- parts' experience: the Kirnberger edition because it fails to provide crucially important performance instructions, the Bach- Ricci Method because of the editorial accre- tions and bowdlerizations that keep us from getting as close to the original as we should like in order to recapture its all-too-fragile essence.

FLOYD GRAVE Rutgers University

Solo Motets from the 17th Century. Edited with introductions by Anne Schnoebelen. New York: Garland, 1987-. [Scores in facsim. Vol. 1: Venice: Alessandro Grandi-Motetti a voce sola (Venice, 1621); Orazio Tarditi-Celeste fiori musicali. . . libro secondo, op. 8 (Venice, 1629); Giovanni Antonio Rigatti-Motetti a voce sola; Filiberto Laurenzi- Spiritualium cantionum . .. liber primus, op. 3 (Venice, 1644); intro., critical apparatus, 7 p.; facsims., 378 p., cloth, $75.00. Vol. 2: Northern Italy, Part 1: Francesco Turini-Motetti a voce sola . . . libro primo (Brescia, 1624); Giovanni Battista Bassani-Motetti a voce sola, op. 12 (Venice, 1692); intro., 8 p.; facsims., 233 p., cloth, $70.00. Vol. 3: Northern Italy, Part 2: Ghirlanda sacra . . . libro primo, opera se- conda (Venice, 1625; compiled by Leonardo Simonetti); Motetti a voce sola de diversi eccelentissimi autori . . . libro primo (Venice, 1645); Sacre armonie a voce sola di diversi celebri autori (Milan, 1692; compiled by Federico Vigoni); intro., 13 p.; facsims., 276 p., cloth, $75.00. Vol. 4: Novara, Part 1: Gasparo Casati-Sacri concenti a voce sola . . .

Solo Motets from the 17th Century. Edited with introductions by Anne Schnoebelen. New York: Garland, 1987-. [Scores in facsim. Vol. 1: Venice: Alessandro Grandi-Motetti a voce sola (Venice, 1621); Orazio Tarditi-Celeste fiori musicali. . . libro secondo, op. 8 (Venice, 1629); Giovanni Antonio Rigatti-Motetti a voce sola; Filiberto Laurenzi- Spiritualium cantionum . .. liber primus, op. 3 (Venice, 1644); intro., critical apparatus, 7 p.; facsims., 378 p., cloth, $75.00. Vol. 2: Northern Italy, Part 1: Francesco Turini-Motetti a voce sola . . . libro primo (Brescia, 1624); Giovanni Battista Bassani-Motetti a voce sola, op. 12 (Venice, 1692); intro., 8 p.; facsims., 233 p., cloth, $70.00. Vol. 3: Northern Italy, Part 2: Ghirlanda sacra . . . libro primo, opera se- conda (Venice, 1625; compiled by Leonardo Simonetti); Motetti a voce sola de diversi eccelentissimi autori . . . libro primo (Venice, 1645); Sacre armonie a voce sola di diversi celebri autori (Milan, 1692; compiled by Federico Vigoni); intro., 13 p.; facsims., 276 p., cloth, $75.00. Vol. 4: Novara, Part 1: Gasparo Casati-Sacri concenti a voce sola . . .

836 836



Music Reviews

op. 2 (Venice, 1641); Isabella Leonarda-Motetti a voce sola, op. 11 (Bologna, 1684); Isabella Leonarda-Motetti a voce sola, op. 12 (Milan, 1686); intro., 10 p.; facsims., 348 p., cloth, $80.00. Vol. 5: Novara, Part 2: Isabella Leonarda-Motetti a voce sola, op. 14 (Bologna, 1687); Mo- tetti a voce sola, op. 15 (Bologna, 1690); Motetti a voce sola, op. 17 (Bologna, 1695); intro., 9 p.; facsims., 316 p., cloth, $75.00.]

The first five volumes of Garland facsimiles of Italian Baroque motets for solo voice present music by forty-nine composers that ranges from Venetian monodies of the first quarter of the seventeenth century to the 1695 print of motets by the nun and provincial superior Isabella Leonarda. Five further volumes of motets by Bolognese composer Maurizio Cazzati and by Roman composers will complete the series. Gar- land now provides, mostly in facsimile, the bulk of scores available for the study of seventeenth-century Italian music. Anne Schnoebelen's motets complement Gary Tomlinson's seven Garland volumes of Italian Secular Song, 1606-1636, Carolyn Gianturco's sixteen volumes of cantatas, Howard Brown's series of twenty-three op- eras and their librettos, Howard Smither's collection of twenty-three oratorios, and instrumental music in volumes edited by Alexander Silbiger (keyboard) and James Ladewig (ensemble music).

Latin sacred and devotional music is perhaps the least explored of seventeenth-century musical genres, no doubt because the usual jump from Palestrina at the end of the Renaissance to Fux's species counter- point at the end of the Baroque implies that music for the church composed between these periods was not an arena for exper- imentation. The present series, however, focuses on the solo motet which, as far as we know, parallels the stylistic develop- ment of secular solo music from monody to cantata. Furthermore, the changes in style of the solo motet confirm the persistent cross-generic spread of contemporary vocal styles. These motets certainly have the same expressive musical and textual re- sources as do contemporary spiritual cantatas in Italian. The Salve Regina set by Monteverdi for tenor and basso continuo (in Garland volume 3) has all the harmonic flavor and declamatory pathos of his operatic lament for Ariadne, and the motets of a 1692 anthology (also in vol. 3) have recitatives and da capo arias and possess a full-blown tonality.

Of the 257 individual motets in these five volumes, two-fifths come from before 1630 and a third from around 1640. The re- mainder were published after 1686; forty of these are by Isabella Leonarda. A con- venient framework in which to place all the earlier composers and prints can be found in Jerome Roche's North Italian Church Music in the Age of Monteverdi (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1984). Most of the 257 are scored for soprano and continuo (and can be sung by tenors), but 51 specify alto reg- ister, 27 specify tenor, and 33 are scored for the bass voice. The seventeenth-century world did not consider all vocal ranges equal in character, and this variety of scor- ing is a welcome resource to test that idea. In fact, Schnoebelen reprints Francesco Turini's unusual 1629 print of eighteen motets that are all transposable for soprano, alto, or tenor, and the same eighteen texts over the same continuo lines with the vocal line altered for a bass soloist (Garland vol. 2). The anthology Ghirlanda sacra (in vol. 3), issued at Venice in 1625, includes compositions by Monteverdi, Grandi, and Cavalli, as well as Barbarino, who was among the first to publish solo motets, and the Neapolitan Sabino. It also provides alternative vocal lines for eleven of its 45 motets, in either ornamented ver- sions or simplified, de-ornamented ones. The facsimiles are all of prints, fifteen separate publications in all, and all but one (opus 12 of Leonarda in vol. 4) are given complete, with title pages, dedications, en- comia, and original tables of contents.

Some of the works are clearly intended for virtuoso singers. Others are of "aver- age" difficulty for the period, meaning that some motets-for example "Pati pro Christo" by G. B. Treviso (pub. 1645; Gar- land vol. 3)-while not demanding in rhythm or range, require quick changes in melodic style and expressive delivery, as do mid-century cantatas. Some are quite long. Uncertainty exists, in fact, about the function of many motets of this period and about the intended users of these prints. Schnoe-

837



NOTES, June 1989

belen gives sources of the texts wherever possible. Thus we see that the volumes of- fer Marian antiphons, psalms, and a hand- ful of liturgical texts for the Office, but most of the texts are non-liturgical. Roche con- siders much of the repertory-at least that of the earlier motets-to be devotional music "appropriate to extra-liturgical use in secular surroundings" (North Italian Church Music, 67). But this still allows wide differences in vocal demands between pious entertainments for amateur, gentlefolk nuns and performances by Sistine Chapel solo- ists during the Pope's meals. The function and difficulty of most motets must fall in the middle of this range. James Moore's study, Vespers at St. Mark's (Ann Arbor: UMI Research Press, 1981), shows that the Pa- triarch of Venice tried to suppress music with non-liturgical texts "in churches, oratories and chapels ... in convent churches" and in "services in the scuole" (pp. 151-52, citing documents dating from 1628, 1633, and 1639). It appears that motets were heard in many venues under a variety of circumstances, all of which should speak to their accessibility for listeners then and now and their suitability for different kinds of programming today.

On the whole, the facsimiles are quite legible, with many pages reproduced in half- tone for clarity. The scale is often large (a half-inch per five-line staff for Laurenzi's 1644 print in vol. 1), sometimes just read- able from an organ console (5/16 of an inch per staff). It is nevertheless difficult when sight-reading to distinguish eighth-notes from sixteenths-and both are abun- dant-because they are all printed as sin- gle note-heads with bent flags or flags with tails. Groups of them barred together had not yet appeared in type. To perform from such scores, the best solution is to note the rhythm above the staff, as in lute tablature. Schnoebelcn gives complete lists of all the errors she has found in each print, and she comments in her introductions, perhaps too briefly, on other notational features, such as coloration and mensuration signs. As in the case of all seventeenth-century scores, vocal parts other than those for the bass voice are almost always in C-clefs, figures for the basso continuo player(s) are non-ex- istent (as in the 1625 anthology) or incom- plete, and the vocal part and continuo line are often notated in score but are not rhythmically aligned.

The texts are also quite legible. A separate edition of them was not necessary, as in the case of the manuscript poetic texts found in the Garland cantata volumes. In view of the numerous non-liturgical texts, translations or even paraphrases would have been welcome, though providing them is admittedly beyond the aims of any of the Garland series.

Each print follows its own original pagination, with often two or three original pages reproduced on one Garland page. There is no separate continuous modern pagination throughout the volumes, nor are there any running heads to set off the sec- tions devoted to different prints-these have to be distinguished by eye according to ty- pography. The last part of volume 4 (Leonarda's op. 12) is odd in this regard. It has the blobbiness of music blown up too big (whatever its original size), and since it offers selections from the original print, not the whole print, it has no continuous pagination, original or modern.

The locations of the original prints reproduced in these volumes are given on the copyright pages (but without their current call numbers); their RISM sigla appear no- where.

On the whole, how can the selection of the prints in these five volumes be judged? Clearly, in deciding to choose complete publications, Schnoebelen tilted the bal- ance in favor of musical value over histor- ical curiosity. For example, she represents Barbarino by compositions in the 1625 anthology (vol. 1) rather than by his entire 1610 motet collection, the first in Northern Italy for solo voice. Filiberto Laurenzi's 1644 print-with works sounding very much like Luigi Rossi's-is especially welcome, since we have so little of his operatic music and his secular songs fell outside of the dates covered by Tomlinson's series. Forty compositions by Isabella Leonarda is a little ex- cessive, but work on other women composers of spiritual music, such as Maria Francesca Nascimbeni (whose Canzoni e madrigali morali e spirituali was published at Ancona in 1674), is barely under way. In 1986 Carolyn Gianturco gave a paper at the Birmingham (U.K.) Conference on Late- Renaissance and Baroque Music on "Ca- terina Assandra and Other Early Seven- teenth-Century Nun Composers." These educated, musically trained women who passed their lives in convents form a spe-

838



Music Reviews Music Reviews

cial class of composers, although we do not yet know if the female and religious con- text of their lives is discernible in the scores.

The choice of publishing works from the seventeenth century itself dictates the choice of several other works in the collection. Two prints of 1629 and one of 1644, as well as six composers, are listed in a 1662 Vene- tian bookseller's stock (see index 10 in Os- car Mischiati's Indici, cataloghi e avvisi degli editori e librai musicali italiani dal 1591 al 1798 [Florence: L. S. Olschki, 1984]). The Si- monetti 1625 anthology appears in a Ro- man bookseller's index in 1676! Schiitz must have heard some works like these, too.

Finally, the appearance of the Garland volumes, like Roche's book, heralds the formation of a newly organized interna-

cial class of composers, although we do not yet know if the female and religious con- text of their lives is discernible in the scores.

The choice of publishing works from the seventeenth century itself dictates the choice of several other works in the collection. Two prints of 1629 and one of 1644, as well as six composers, are listed in a 1662 Vene- tian bookseller's stock (see index 10 in Os- car Mischiati's Indici, cataloghi e avvisi degli editori e librai musicali italiani dal 1591 al 1798 [Florence: L. S. Olschki, 1984]). The Si- monetti 1625 anthology appears in a Ro- man bookseller's index in 1676! Schiitz must have heard some works like these, too.

Finally, the appearance of the Garland volumes, like Roche's book, heralds the formation of a newly organized interna-

tional research team, which includes Roche (University of Durham, England), David Bryant (Fondazione Cini, Venice), and a number of Americans, including Anne Schnoebelen (Rice University) and Jeffrey Kurtzman (Washington University in St. Louis). The thrust of their work will at first be bibliographical-there is no Vogel old or new for sacred music-combining their research on motets, masses, Vespers, etc. into one large database. Only after this and other localized liturgical and musical stud- ies, such as James Moore's for San Marco, will we know the background against which these diverse and many wonderful motets stand.

MARGARET MURATA

University of California, Irvine

tional research team, which includes Roche (University of Durham, England), David Bryant (Fondazione Cini, Venice), and a number of Americans, including Anne Schnoebelen (Rice University) and Jeffrey Kurtzman (Washington University in St. Louis). The thrust of their work will at first be bibliographical-there is no Vogel old or new for sacred music-combining their research on motets, masses, Vespers, etc. into one large database. Only after this and other localized liturgical and musical stud- ies, such as James Moore's for San Marco, will we know the background against which these diverse and many wonderful motets stand.

MARGARET MURATA

University of California, Irvine

Orlande de Lassus. Chansons. Ed. by Jane A. Bernstein. (The Six- teenth-Century Chanson: Previously Unpublished Full Scores of Chan- sons from the Ateliers of Le Roy and Ballard, Moderne, and Waelrant and de Laet, 11-14.) New York and London: Garland, 1987. [4 vols.; intro., editorial notes, 16 p. (each vol.); score, 190 p. (vol. 1), 186 p. (vol. 2), 194 p. (vol. 3), 185 p. (vol. 4); cloth, $75.00 (each vol.).] The Oxford Book of French Chansons. Ed. by Frank Dobbins. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1987. [Intro. in Eng., Fr., Ger., 14 p.; score, 322 p.; notes, pp. 323-38, $18.95.]

Orlande de Lassus. Chansons. Ed. by Jane A. Bernstein. (The Six- teenth-Century Chanson: Previously Unpublished Full Scores of Chan- sons from the Ateliers of Le Roy and Ballard, Moderne, and Waelrant and de Laet, 11-14.) New York and London: Garland, 1987. [4 vols.; intro., editorial notes, 16 p. (each vol.); score, 190 p. (vol. 1), 186 p. (vol. 2), 194 p. (vol. 3), 185 p. (vol. 4); cloth, $75.00 (each vol.).] The Oxford Book of French Chansons. Ed. by Frank Dobbins. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1987. [Intro. in Eng., Fr., Ger., 14 p.; score, 322 p.; notes, pp. 323-38, $18.95.]

The industrious folks at Garland Pub- lishing are producing yet another new series, The Sixteenth-Century Chanson: Previ- ously Unpublished Full Scores of Chansons from the Ateliers of Le Roy and Ballard, Modeme, and Waelrant and de Laet, in thirty volumes under the editorship of Jane A. Bernstein. These three sixteenth-century music printers were "chosen to illuminate different as- pects of the sixteenth-century chanson" in order to "provide a complete picture of the genre." Jacques Moderne, a music printer in Lyons, represents the provincial tradi- tion in his Parangon des chansons, of which all ten surviving volumes will be included in this series. Hubert Waelrant and Jean de Laet represent the mid-century Nether- landish style in their publications of LeJar- din musical. Collections published by the Parisian firm of Adrian le Roy and Robert Ballard provide the material for over two- thirds of this series, owing to the stature, influence, and prodigious output of these music printers during the second half of the sixteenth century.

The industrious folks at Garland Pub- lishing are producing yet another new series, The Sixteenth-Century Chanson: Previ- ously Unpublished Full Scores of Chansons from the Ateliers of Le Roy and Ballard, Modeme, and Waelrant and de Laet, in thirty volumes under the editorship of Jane A. Bernstein. These three sixteenth-century music printers were "chosen to illuminate different as- pects of the sixteenth-century chanson" in order to "provide a complete picture of the genre." Jacques Moderne, a music printer in Lyons, represents the provincial tradi- tion in his Parangon des chansons, of which all ten surviving volumes will be included in this series. Hubert Waelrant and Jean de Laet represent the mid-century Nether- landish style in their publications of LeJar- din musical. Collections published by the Parisian firm of Adrian le Roy and Robert Ballard provide the material for over two- thirds of this series, owing to the stature, influence, and prodigious output of these music printers during the second half of the sixteenth century.

Bernstein and Garland have attempted to avoid duplication of "music currently available in collected editions" in favor of composers whose chansons "have not as yet appeared in modern edition." It therefore seems surprising at first that they should have elected not only to include the complete chansons of Orlande de Lassus in this series (vols. 11-14) but to initiate it with these volumes. Of the 145 chansons of Las- sus included here, 135 already appear in modern edition in the Sdmtliche Werke (ed. Adolf Sandberger [Leipzig: Breitkopf & Hartel, 1894-1926], vols. 12, 14, and 16). The differences between these two editions, however, outweigh the apparent duplication. Since scholarly editions rarely make good performing editions, it has been much too time-consuming and difficult un- til now to prepare performances of Las- sus's secular works. This great master's chansons are gems of the genre and were substantially important to the success of the publishers Le Roy and Ballard. While the Samtliche Werke provides modern barring,

Bernstein and Garland have attempted to avoid duplication of "music currently available in collected editions" in favor of composers whose chansons "have not as yet appeared in modern edition." It therefore seems surprising at first that they should have elected not only to include the complete chansons of Orlande de Lassus in this series (vols. 11-14) but to initiate it with these volumes. Of the 145 chansons of Las- sus included here, 135 already appear in modern edition in the Sdmtliche Werke (ed. Adolf Sandberger [Leipzig: Breitkopf & Hartel, 1894-1926], vols. 12, 14, and 16). The differences between these two editions, however, outweigh the apparent duplication. Since scholarly editions rarely make good performing editions, it has been much too time-consuming and difficult un- til now to prepare performances of Las- sus's secular works. This great master's chansons are gems of the genre and were substantially important to the success of the publishers Le Roy and Ballard. While the Samtliche Werke provides modern barring,

839 839



solo motets from the 17th centuryby anne schnoebelen

Documents