Juno's Four Grievances; The Taste for the Antique in Canonic Inscriptions

Sonderdruck aus

Musikalische Quellen —

Quellen zur Musikgeschichte

Festschrift ftir Martin Staehelin

zum 65. Geburtstag

In Verbindung mit

Jurgen Heidrich and Hans Joachim Marx

herausgegeben von Ulrich Konrad

Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht

c, ;;-1-6,"-c-p,, zoo3

Juno's Four Grievances: The Taste for the Antique

in Canonic Inscriptions

By

BONNIE J. BLACKBURN and LEOFRANC HOLFORD-STREVENS*

Among the canonic instructions Hermann Finck lists in Book III, De canonibus`, of

his Practica musica (Wittenberg, 1556) is ,Manet alta mente repostum`, which, he

explains, Significat artificiose cantilenam factam esse, ita ut ex una voce duae vel

tres aliae, aut etiam plures cantari possint` (sig. Cc it-v). Of the two definitions with

which Book III begins, Canon est imaginaria praeceptio, ex positis non positam

cantilenae parterre eliciens; Vel, est regula argute revelans secreta cantus`, the former

clearly applies, for an unwritten component must be inferred from a written; but

,Manet alta mente repostum` also satisfies the latter definition, being a rule ,clever-

ly revealing the secret of the composition' — but only if one is well enough educa-

ted to recognize not only a quotation from the Aeneid, but its context: the grievan-

ces that impel Juno to a pre-emptive strike against the Trojans before their descen-

dants can fulfil their destiny of destroying her beloved Carthage:

manet alta mente repostum

iudicium Paridis spretaeque iniuria formae

et genus invisum et rapti Ganymedis honores (1. 26-8)

,There remain, stored in the depths of her mind, the judgement of Paris and the insult

of her beauty spurned, and her hatred of the [Trojan] race, and the honours bestowed

[by Jupiter] on Ganymede [whom he had] carried off.' There are four grievances,

suggesting a canon in four parts, though the first two grievances are essentially the

same, which perhaps justifies Finck's specification of a canon in three as well as four

parts.'

* It gives us great pleasure to present this joint article, combining music and classics, to Martin

Staehelin, not only a musicologist but also the grandson of a classical scholar. That it has Swiss

connections through Glareanus and Senfl and is a small contribution to ,Obrechtiana` pleases us all

the more. The first-signed author has known him for nearly thirty years, and would have known him

even longer had not Swiss military service compelled him, with tears in his eyes', to decline parti-

cipation in the International Josquin Festival-Conference of 1971; as it is, from Chicago in early

1970s to Basel in 2001 Martin has been friend, colleague, and inspiration.

1 Servius reports that some expositors attempted to disjoin the second grievance from the first. Finck

offers the same choice for his second inscription, De ponte non cadit, qui cum sapientia vadit`, an

unmetrical distortion of ,Non de ponte cadit, quicum [vel quocum] sapientia [vel prudential vadit`

(cf. Hans Walther, Proverbia sententiaeque Latinitatis medii aevi, Gottingen, 1963-9, nos. 17454,

33865b1); the canon would be more easily deduced from the similar proverb ,Non de ponte cadit

sapiens, qui non equitando I Loro ducit equum, pedetemptim, non titubando` (Walther, no. 17453),

which offers three prescriptions or four according as not riding and leading one's horse by the rein

be accounted one or two.

160 Bonnie Blackburn and Leofranc Holford-Strevens

As it happens, Finck includes the canon itself in the large compendium of exam-ples that occupies the rest of Book III. It occurs on sig. Gg ir, labelled CANON QUA-TUOR VOCUM, followed by the heading ,Manet alta mente repostune. The single voice part, lacking text (as do all Finck's examples except the two chansons), is pro-vided with three signa congruentiae, indicating entrance of canonic voices at the interval of two breves. The starting pitches are not specified, but since the notated voice is in the soprano clef, it seems likely that the other voices are lower — perhaps ,alta`, which in the text means ,deep` not ,high`, is a hint. Indeed, each voice enters at successive lower fifths. In the form in which Finck presents the canon the inscrip-tion is not necessary; one wonders how the composer himself presented it.

Finck passes over in silence the names of the authors of the canonic works in his compendium. Many examples come from Petrucci prints, and especially the volu-mes of masses by Josquin (Books I and II), Obrecht, Brumel, Ghiselin, Pierre de la Rue, De Orto, and Isaac.2 Some works are taken from more recent sources, such as Clemens non Papa's Circumdederunt me viri mendaces (sigs. 0 iiir—P iiiir), fast published in 1553. ,Manet alta mente repositue, with normalized prose spelling and underlaid as text, was included by Johannes Stomius in his Prima ad musicen instructio, eaque simplicissima, pro artis huius tirunculis congesta (Augsburg, 1537), which, though no more than nineteen folios in length, is illustrated with (a few) ,exemplis exquisitis`. There the canon is attributed to Ludwig Senfl.3 Finck includes other works by Senfl as well: Fortuna ad voces musicales (sigs. D iiiiv—E iiir), a favourite of theorists, used to illustrate hexachords as well as simple and liga-ted notes;4 Quomodo fiet istud (sigs. I iiiv—K ir), as an example of tempus perfectum and imperfectum, but also canon (published in Ulhard, RISM 15452); Crux fidelis (sig. Dd iiir), a double retrograde canon with the inscriptions ,Misericordia & veri-tas obviaverunt sibi` and ,Iusticia & pax se osculatae sunt`;5 and a three-in-one

2 The different uses of music examples in theoretical treatises are explored in Cristle Collins Judd, Reading Renaissance Music Theory: Hearing with the Eyes, Cambridge 2000. On the examples taken from Josquin's two L'homme arme masses, see Bonnie J. Blackburn, Masses Based on Popular Songs and Solmization Syllables, in: The Josquin Companion, ed. Richard Shen•, Oxford 2000, pp. 50-87 at 58 n. 20.

3 Fols. C2v—C3r, with the heading ,Mimesis. IIII. uocum. Authore Ludouico Senflio.' The time signa-ture is C2, whereas Finck has 4, and the voice entries are labelled A, T, B. There are a few rhythmic differences. Walter Gerstenberg first brought Senfl's canon to the attention of musicologists in his article Senfliana, in: Festschrift Helmuth Osthoff zum 65. Geburtstage, ed. Lothar Hoffmann-Erb-recht and Helmut Hucke, Tutzing 1961, pp. 39-46, transcribing the canon after Stomius, identifying the text, and placing the work in the context of German humanism (Senfl set a number of Latin odes). The underlay requires multiple repetitions of words and phrases, with awkward declamation. It is im-probable that Senfl intended the text to be sung; he will have regarded it only as a canonic inscription, as it is in Finck (a source Gerstenberg was unaware of).

4 As it also does in Sebald Heyden, De arte canendi, Nuremberg 1537 and 1540, Book 1, ch. 6, and Glareanus, Dodekachordon, Basel 1547, pp. 222-5. The work was published in a collection of Ger-man songs largely devoted to Senfl, Der erst Teil. Hundert and ainundzweintzig newe Lieder (Form-schneider, RISM 1534'7). There is a modern edition in Senfl, Samtliche Werke, ed. W. Gerstenberg et al., Wolfenbtittel 1937-74, vol. 4, pp. 20-23.

5 It was published as a broadsheet, printed in the form of a cross, according to the article in New Grove II (vol. 23, p. 84). Senfl may have known the anonymous double retrograde canon with these bibli-cal inscriptions (both from Ps. 84: 11) at the beginning of Petrucci's Motetti A.

Juno's Four Grievances 161

canon headed ,Omne Trinum perfectum` (sig. Ff iiiv), also given by Glareanus (Dodekachordon, p. 444), who calls it a work ,civis nostri Lutuichi Senflij Tigurini, docti nostra aetate Symphonetae.

Glareanus, first and foremost a humanist, cannot resist adding that although Senfl himself inscribed the canon ,Omne trinum perfectum`, he might also have pre-fixed a canonic inscription from the Odyssey; ,Tpic Roxap€3 Llavaost Kai TETpCiK1.3. Quod in kneide Virgilius ita vertit: 0 terque quaterque beati` (respectively Odyssey 5. 306 and Aeneid 1. 94). These hypothetical canons offer an instructive contrast to ,Manet alta mente reposturn`: Odysseus, in danger of drowning, declares thrice and four times blessed those Greeks who perished in the Trojan War, because they recei-ved honourable burial; Aeneas in like case invokes the Trojan dead who died in their parents' sight. It would be uncharitable to suppose that the singers, like the heroes, needed divine assistance to keep their heads above water; only the words themsel-ves are relevant, not their context, and even then one may wonder what ,four times' has to do with a canon for three voices.

The taste for the antique in canonic instructions is particularly marked in Finck's extensive list. For many of his inscriptions no musical setting has been discovered; one suspects that in some cases he happily proposed or made up apposite tags that might inspire composers. However, by the time his treatise was published, the vogue for enigmatic canons had long diminished to a trickle. Abstruse canons continued to capture the imagination of some theorists — Zacconi and Cerone in particular — and a few composers, most prominently Romano Michele. Finck lists the following canonic inscriptions from classical sources for which we have not been able to trace a composition:

I prae, sequar: inquit cancer (,,,Go ahead, follow", said the crab`). Finck describes this as a canon a 2, both voices beginning from the end: ,Id est, quando ex postrema cantilenae parte duae voces se post aliquot pausas sequuntur, (sig. Cc ii').

prae, sequar` comes from Roman comedy (Terence, Andria 171, cf. Eunuchus 908, Plautus, Cistellaria 773), and is used in canons by Johannes Martini and Marbriano de Orto (see below). Finck has added ,inquit cancer', which calls for a retrograde canon applying to both voices. It would be possible to take any canon and transcribe it in reverse order to achieve such a composition.

Nescft vox missa reverti? (,Does the voice once uttered not know how to return?`) signifies an ordinary retrograde canon. Finck lists several instructions with the same intent: ,Hos Canons addunt, quando volunt significare ex una voce duas cantandas esse, quarum altera, incipiendo ab initiali nota, iusto ordine usque ad finem progreditur: altera vero a finali incipiens, procedit contrario modo, donee ad initialem perveniat, (sigs. Bb iiiiv_C ir). The textual source is Horace, justifying the advice that the poet should be slow to release his work, to give himself time for second thoughts:

nonumque prematur in annum, membranis intus positis; delere licebit quod non edideris; nescit vox missa reverti. (Ars poetica, 388-90)


,and let it be confined for eight whole years,6 your scraps of parchment stored away at home; you will be free to rub out [with the back end of the pen] what you have not published; the voice once uttered knows not how to return.' Oh, doesn't it, said the author of this canon.

Ranam agit Seriphiam (,He acts the frog of Seriphos`). This is one of a num-ber of inscriptions signifying ,tacet`: ,Hunt Canonem plaerunque usurpant in Missis, in textu: Benedictus qui vent in nomine domini; Et notat silendum esse, etiamsi vox adscripta sit' (sig. Cc iii). As Finck notes, one voice often drops out in the Benedictus section of masses; we are not aware, however, of any source where the voice is written though not to be sung. The source of the inscription is a Greek proverb, e.g. Diogenian 3. 44: Berrpaxos EEpi$tos• Eni T611/ a(1)WVGIV. 0f yap iV

p1,4X0 13aTpaX01. Of) 4)04yov-rat. (A Seriphian frog: [said] of the dumb. For the frogs on [the island of] Seriphos do not make a sound), Latinized as rana Seriphia by Ermolao Barbaro on Pliny 8, ch. 58, §227 and Erasmus, Adagia 1. 5. 31.7

Roma caput mundi, si verteris, omnia vincit (,Rome the head of the world, if you turn it, conquers all'). Retrograde canon; for Finck's explanation see above under ,Nescit vox'. ,Roma caput mundi` is proverbial (Walther, Proverbia, nos. 26920-3), being derived from Lucan 2.655-6,s but read Roma backwards and you have Amor, which conquers all (Verg. Buc. 10. 69 ,omnia vincit Amor'). A palin-drome is an elegant way to indicate retrograde; the same device is used in another of Finck's canons (sig. Cc ii), Mitto tibi metulas,9 erige si dubitas (,I am sending you some little posts; put them up if you don't trust me`): metulas, read upwards, i.e. backwards, is salutem.

Signa to signa temere me tangis et angis, Roma tibi subito motibus ibit amor.

,Cross, aye, cross thyself; 'tis all for nought that thou strikest and plaguest me, since my pace will soon bring before thee Rome, the goal of thy desire:10 Although pre-sented as an elegiac couplet, the two verses, both palindromic, are originally inde-pendent: the older is the pentameter, so well known in antiquity that the first few words sufficed to recall it,ii and adduced by. Sidonius Apollinaris, Ep. 9. 14. 4 as an ,ancient` (antiquum) precedent to justify palindromic verses of his own; the hex-ameter (Walther, Proverbia, no. 29616), clearly medieval with the false quantity temere, is cited by Christanus Campililiensis (Christan von Lylinfeld/Lilienfeld, d.

6 Literally, by Latin idiom, into the ninth year'. 7 Hermolai Barbari Castigationes Plinianae et in Pomponium Melam, ed. Giovanni Pozzi, 4 vols.,

Padua 1983-9, vol. 2, p. 597; Opera omnia Desiderii Erasmi Rotterodami, 11-1: Adagiorum chilias prima, ed. M. L. van Poll-van de Lisdonck, M. Mann Phillips, and Chr. Robinson, Amsterdam 1993, pp. 504-6.

8 ,Ipsa, caput mundi, bellorum maxima merces, l Roma capi facilis, (Rome herself, the head of the world, the chief prize of war, is easily captured).

9 The e of metula is properly long, but here is scanned short. 10 The Letters of Sidonius, trans. 0. M. Dalton, 2 vols., Oxford 1915, vol. 2, p. 252. 11 Abbreviated citations are attested in the governor's palace at Aquincum (Obuda) and in the Casa

degli Aurighi at Ostia; see Margerita Guarducci, 11 misterioso „Quadrat° magico", in: Archeologia classica 17,1965, pp. 219-70 at 249-56.


after 1330), Tractatus de versu 2. 89,12 in the company of another palindromic hex-

ameter (Mane tace rixe si vis exire catenam)13 that elsewhere precedes our penta-

meter.14 In Basel, Universitatsbibliothek A. XI. 67, fo. 235, Finck's two verses

appear in reverse order and preceded by yet another hexameter, Sede data baro sedes

orabat ad edes (Walther, Proverbia, no. 27838).15 The distich as presented by Finck

was allegedly spoken to a holy man (St Martin or another) riding to Rome by his

mount, none other than Satan, whom he had turned into a beast.16 Tarda solet magnis rebus inesse fides (,great things are usually slow to be

believed`). Sing without rests: ,Hic observabis: cantum, qui aliquem istorum cano-

num habet [Finck lists seven inscriptions, including ,Clama ne cesses', Isa. 58: 1],

cantari debere omissis pausis, etiamsi pausae adscriptae fuerint` (sig. Bb iiiiv). The

source is Ovid, Heroides 17. 130, where Helen begs Paris not to be angry if she has

been slow to heed his suit. By this the singer of the canonic part is warned not to be

slowed down by the rests, lest the other singers become angry.

Vox faucibus haesit (,my voice stuck to my throat'). This is another `tacee

instruction; see above under ,Ranam agit Seriphiam`. The phrase appears at Aeneid

2. 774, said by Aeneas when he saw the ghost of his wife Creusa, and again in 3. 48,

4. 280, and 12. 868. Others of Finck's classical inscriptions can be associated with known composi-

tions, several of which are included in his compendium: Contraria contrarijs curantur (,contraries are cured by contraries'). Although

one might imagine that retrograde is meant, for Finck this instruction means to sing

in inversion: ,Hoc est, quantum ascendit nota, tantum descendere illam imagineris,

& econtra' (sig. Cc iiv). ,Contraria contrariis curantur` is a medical commonplace,

going back to to the Hippocratic treatise De flatibus, §1 Ta extv-ria Tc7w &av-rlum,

(:)--riv Ham-a. Amongst his examples Finck includes a four-voice composition

(sigs. Mm ir) headed ,CANON. Contraria contrarijs curantur` over the tenor,

which is not identified but is in fact the tenor of the chanson De sous biens plaine.17

The inscription is also found in the Osanna of Johannes Ghiselin's Missa Narayge

(Petrucci, Misse Ghiselin, 1503), likewise indicating inversion.18 A relatively late

12 Christani Campililiensis opera poetica, ed. Walter Zechmeister, 2 vols., Corpus Christianorum,

Continuatio Mediaevalis 19A—B, Turnhout 1992, vol. 2, p. 481.

13 Walther, Proverbia, no. 14412; see too Analecta Hymnica, vol. 18, p. 7.

14 See Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores, vol. 17, ed. G. H. Pertz, Hanover 1861, p. 239.

15 Information kindly provided by Prof. Dr. Martin Steinmann, who dates the 'neat bookhand' to the

late 14th c. or c.1400. 16 Dalton loc. cit., without source; the couplet is also cited, again without source, by J. B. Friedreich,

Geschichte des Rathsels, Dresden 1860, p. 27, and (with the no less diabolical hexameter In girum

imus node et consumimur igni, not in Walther) by Edouard Andre, Vers anacycliques, in: Biblio-

theque de l'EcoIe des Charles 53,1982, pp. PM 6 (not, pace Zechmeister, vol. 2, p. 515, from Ar-

ache, Archives 1 4). 17 This work, for which we have not found a concordance, is not included in De sous biens plaine:

Twenty-Eight Settings of Hayne van Ghizeghem's Chanson, ed. Cynthia J. Cyrus, Recent Researches

in the Music of the Middle Ages and Early Renaissance 36, Madison, Wis. 2000. It is not the same

as Japan's four-voice setting with the tenor in inversion (see n. 22).

18 Modern edition in Johannes Ghiselin-Verbonnet, Opera omnia, ed. Clytus Gottwald, Corpus men-

surabilis musicae 23, n.p., American Institute of Musicology, 1961-8, vol. 2, pp. 74-96.


source that uses the canon is Johannes Cleve, Mirabilia testimonia tua (Montanus &

Neuber, RISM 15584, no. 47„Contrarijs contraria curanturl: the sexta pars pars

inverts the tenor beginning two breves later at the upper ninth.

Itque reditque frequens (,he goes there and back frequently`). This inscription

indicates an ostinato: ,Significat, cantilenam, absoluta serie notarum, iterum atque

iterum ab initio repetendam, donec reliquae voces etiam cessent` (sig. Cc ir). The

source is Aeneid 6. 122: ,itque reditque viam totiens`; Pollux traverses the road from

Elysium to the underworld and back so many times because, though son of Zeus, he

shares his immortality with his twin brother Castor, son of Tyndareus. While ostina-

to alone might be understood from ,itque reditque frequens`, knowledge of the con-

text would suggest to the singer that the pitch levels alternate between high and low.

Finck gives a complete composition in two partes in his compendium (sigs. Ee

iiiv—Ff HO, which turns out to be a motet by Morales, Tu es Petrus et super hanc

petram. The same inscription is found in the concordant source Liber secundus sacr-

arum cantionum (Susato, RISM 15467).19 The Cantus II in both partes sings the six-

note motto, derived from the chant, as an ostinato alternating between entries on g'

and d'. Tolle moras placido maneant suspiria cantu (,away with delays; let your breaths

remain in calm song`). This canon instructs the singer to ignore all rests larger than

a minim. The inscription cited by Finck is ,Cantus duarum facierum`, which he

explains as: ,Id est, qui potest cum & sine pausis cantari, attamen ut suspiria tantum

maneant quae tactus incolumitati inserviunt, iuxta versum: -Tolle moras placido

maneant suspiria cantu` (sig. Cc ir). ,Suspirium`„breath`, is also the word for a

minim rest.29 ,Tolle moras` goes back to Lucan 1. 281: ,Tolle moras: semper nocuit

differe parade (,Out with delay! Putting things off was ever harmful to those ready

for action`); in the Middle Ages several replacements were devised for the last four

words (Walther, Proverbia, nos. 31436-9, 4856a), but we have not found any sour-

ce for the present phrase, which may well have been made up for the occasion. The

example, on sigs. is headed ,CANON. Duarum facierum. Tolle moras pla-

cido maneant suspiria cantu.' It is the Et in terra of Moulu's Missa Alma redempto-

ris mater/A deux visages, which has the added conceit that one may sing the music

with all the rests as well. Finck probably took his example from Petreius, Liber XV

missarum (RISM 15391), where it is called Missa duarum facierum and provided

with the inscription he cites 21

Interest in enigmatic canons reached a high point in the last quarter of the fif-

teenth century. Whereas earlier in the century canonic inscriptions had tended to be

19 Modem edition in Cristobal de Morales, Opera omnia, vol. 2, ed. Higinio Angles, Barcelona 1953,

pp. 149-56. Angles was aware of only three sources (Susato; Scotto, R1SM 15413; and Toledo,

Catedral 17); there are a number of others where it is anonymous or ascribed to Simon Moreau (e.g.

Phalese 155311); for a complete list of sources see Bonnie J. Blackburn, Music for Treviso Cathe-

dral in the Late Sixteenth Century: A Reconstruction of the Lost Manuscripts 29 and 30, Royal Mu-

sical Association Monographs 3, London 1987, p. 75. Since all Moreau's works appear in the 1550s

but this motet was published as early as 1541, it seems more likely that Morales is the author.

20 Hence, in modern values, un soupir in French for a crotchet rest.

21 Gustave Reese gives the fast Kyrie in both versions; see Music in the Renaissance, 2" edn., New

York 1959, p. 277. The mass was first published in Giunta's Missarum decem (RISM 1522).


straightforward (,Crescit in triplo') though not always immediately comprehensible

(,Iste dicitur bis, primo de modo et tempore perfectis, secundo per tercium sed prime

pause non dicuntue; Brassart, Magne decus potencie/Genus regale), in the second

half of the century a variety of types are found: biblical quotations (e.g. ,Decimas

do omnium quae possideo`, Luke 18:12, to indicate duplication of a voice in tenths,

used by Isaac in the Agnus III of his Missa Quant j 'ay au cor and by Obrecht in the

Agnus II of his Missa Je ne demande); well-known maxims (e.g. ,de minimis non

curat praetor', used by Josquin in the Agnus I of his Missa Malheur me bat); clever

ways of indicating performance (e.g. ,Cancer eat plenus sed redeat medius`, retrog-

rade then straightforward in diminution in the Agnus III of Dufay's Missa L'homme

acme; ,Hic dantur antipodes',22 inversion in Japart's De tous biens); these include

puns, e.g. ,Jejunabis quatuor tempora' in the Sanctus of Josquin's Missa de Beata

Virgine,23 and visual plays such as ,Luna to docet` in Jo. Lebrung, Saule quid me

persequeris in Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Cappella Sistina 46, fo. 85", where c

indicates augmentation. The composer-theorists Ramos, Gaffurius, and Spataro were also fond of enig-

matic canons. In 1520 Giovanni del Lago asked Spataro for an explanation of some

canons in his works, such as ,sexties [sic] sine pausis prioribus repetito, et prima

superparticularis intensa sit septima remissa et remissa intensa' in the Gloria of his

(lost) Missa Da pacem. Spataro replied that the tenor is to be sung seven times, but

the rests at the beginning only once; the first ascending species of the superparticu-

lar (3:2, ascending fifths) are to be sung as the seventh descending species of the

same genus (9:8, descending whole tones); and all descending fifths are to be sung

as ascending whole tones. He was rather surprised, however, to be asked about these

matters, since the music was composed ,sino at tempo de la mia quasi adolescentia'

and the canons ,a me al presente son pia incognite et laboriose circa la sua inteli-

gentia the non erano in quello tempo'.24 Spataro's fascination with enigmatic canons was obviously inculcated by his tea-

cher, Bartolome Ramos, who has a chapter in his Musica practica (Bologna, 1482)

,In quo canones et subscriptiones subtiliter declarantur` . While reading Boethius in

Salamanca, he says, he composed a mass with the inscription ,Medietas harmonica

fiat et quaelibet vox suum numerum salvet`. The harmonic mean (8:6:4, explained

two chapters later in his treatise) is applied twice in this four-in-one canon, to the

initial pitches of the parts and to the time intervals: one voice enters at the unison

after 8 rests, another voice after 6 rests at the lower fourth, another voice after 4 rests

at the fifth beneath that.25 Since canonic inscriptions tend to differ between sources, it is not always possi-

ble to be sure what version the composer intended. For example, in the Agnus II of

22 Canti C, fos. 79v-80r, ed. Cyrus, no. 27. In a widespread ancient construction, the Antipodes were

the people whose feet pressed the earth diametrically opposite to ours in Europe, and were hence

upside-down in respect of us. 23 ,You will fast at the four seasons', i.e. at the four Embertides, but also ,you will go without singing

for four breves'. 24 Letter of 20 July 1520 to Del Lago, in A Correspondence of Renaissance Musicians, ed. Bonnie J.

Blackburn, Edward E. Lowinsky, and Clement A. Miller, Oxford 1991, no. 3, §7. 25 Musica practica, ed. Johannes Wolf, Leipzig 1901, p. 91.


Josquin's Missa L'homme arme super voces musicales, is it ,Noli me tangere (John 20:17, Cappella Sistina 197)„Redde unicuique secundum opera sue (eleven simi-lar biblical texts; Cimello),26 ,Sancta trinitas, salva me' (Basel F. IX. 25); ,Trinitas et unitae (Finck, sig. Ff iiiv); ,Trinitas noli me tangere (Jena, UB 32); or simply ,Trinitas` (three MSS)? Many composers are fond of biblical quotations, some used quite imaginatively, for example ,Dum lucem habetis credite in lucern` (John 12: 36), which instructs the singer to ignore all the black notes.27 Few fifteenth-century composers, however, appear to be interested in the learned quotations that Finck took such delight in, with the exception of Jacob Obrecht.

Obrecht's use of classical and scholastic sources may stem from his university training; he had become a master of arts by 1480, but it is not known where he stu-died.28 All are unique to him, as far as we know:

A maiori debet fieri denominatio (,The name should be taken from the greater parr). The principle is distilled from Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics 9. 1168b31-5, 10. 117862-3 in the Auctoritates Aristotelis, 12. 186 ,omnis denominatio debet fieri a principaliori`, 12. 214 ,demonstratio fit a principaliori`;29 for the philosophical a principaliori the more everyday a maiori is substituted. This canon appears twice in the Credo of Obrecht's Missa De tous biens plaine.30 The cantus firmus is to be sung in the order of descending rhythmic values: first longs, then breves, etc. (the rests are treated similarly). At the Et incarnatus the same procedure is repeated, but retro-grade. A similar process underlies the Credo of Obrecht's Missa Grecorum, but here with the inscription ,Digniora sunt priore .31 Finck gives the first section as an example (sigs. Gg iiiir—Hh ijr, with resolution) and explains the canon thus: ,Id est, notae quae maiorem habent valorem, primum cantandae sunt, deinde illae quae minus valent: ut longa brevem superat valore, brevis semibrevem, semibrevis mini- mam, &c. simili modo de pausis iudicandum est' (sig. Cc iv).

Accidens potest inesse et abesse preter subiecti corruptionem (,An accident may be present or absent without corrupting the subject`). The source is a definition in Porphyry's Isagoge or introduction to logic, 6up.0413riKes• 84 EUTIV O yiverat Kai.

26 See James Haar, Lessons in Theory from a Sixteenth-Century Composer, in: The Science and Art of Renaissance Music, ed. Paul Comeilson, Princeton 1998, pp. 149-75 at 157.

27 This inscription is cited by Pietro Aaron, Libri tres de institution harmonica, Bologna 1516, fo. 26. John Hothby mentions a similar canon by Bernardus Ycart, ,Ethyops albos dentes`, but here the black notes are to be sung as if void; see Dialogus Johannis Octobi Anglici in arte musica, ed. Albert Seay, in: Tres tractatuli contra Bartholomeum Barnum, Corpus scriptorum de musica 10, Rome 1964, p. 74: ,Tuus igitur Ycart, quern quoquomodo defendere conaris, nonne aliquos tenores facit quorum figuras per contrarium vult intelligi; quo magis ineptum aut magis absurdum esse quid potest? Cum enim nigrae sint, albas accipi vult, quorum subscriptio est Ethyops albos denies.' It does not appear to have survived.

28 For the evidence and some speculation, see Rob C. Wegman, Born for the Muses: The Life and Masses of Jacob Obrecht, Oxford 1994, pp. 70,72-6.

29 Auctoritates Artistotelis, Senecae, Boethii, Platonis, Apuleii et quorundam aliorum, ed. Jacqueline Hamesse, 2 vols., Louvain 1972, vol. 1, p. 45.

39 Modern edition in Obrecht, Collected Works 4, ed. Barton Hudson, Utrecht 1986, pp. 1-24, with commentary on pp. xi—xxv.

31 Modem edition in Obrecht, Collected Works 5, ed. Thomas Noblitt, Utrecht 1985, pp. 1-33, with commentary on pp. xi—xvi. Fink's example is not noted in the edition.


diroyivcrat )003 TOU inroKELOvou 40opds,32 which Obrecht and his con-

temporaries would have known in the translation by Boethius: ,Accidens vero est

quod adest et abest praeter subiecti corruptionem` .33 The label is attached to the alto

voice of the Agnus II of the Missa Je ne demande34 and is an elegant way of indica-

ting a ,si placet` voice. That voice, however, is not as elegant; it is found only in

Petrucci's Misse obreht and may not be Obrecht's own.35

In medio consistit virtus (,virtue consists in the mean`). This commonplace

expresses the basic principle of Aristotelian ethics, set out at length in Nicomachean

Ethics 2.1106a26--1107a27, and sometimes used, as by Horace in Odes 2. 10, to com-

mend a moderation neither elated by good fortune nor cast down by bad; perhaps it

was in this spirit that Obrecht used the canon in the Gloria and the Credo of his

Missa Fortuna desperata.36 In the tenor in each section of the Gloria the middle note

(= virtue, a long), underneath which the inscription is placed, is sung first, then the

part retrogrades to the beginning, returns to the middle note, and sings straight to the

end. In each section of the Credo the reverse happens: the middle note is sung first,

then the part begins retrograde from the end, sings the middle note, and then the first

part from the beginning. In this way the mean is sung twice, and the retrograde of

the tune (ill fortune) is always succeeded by the normal version (good fortune); one

might also think of Fortune's wheel, casting down before raising up. Obrecht has

added a three-bar rest to the second half of the chanson melody in order to make the

two sections equally long, and ,virtus` exactly in the middle.

Other composers who chose inscriptions from classical sources are Johannes

Martini, Marbriano de Orto, and the anonymous composer of a three-part canon in

Motetti B: I pre sequar (,Go ahead, I'll follow`; see above under ,I prae, sequar: inquit can-

cer`). This very logical inscription for an imitation canon was chosen by Johannes

Martini for his setting of J'ay pris amours, where he borrowed the superius and

tenor of the original anonymous rondeau and added a contratenor in canon at the

minim.37 Marbriano de Orto used the same inscription in his Missa ad fugam (Cap-

32 Porphyrii Lsagoge el in Aristotelis categorias commentarium, ed. Adolf Busse, Commentaria in

Aristotelem Graeca, vol. 4/1, Berlin 1887, p. 12.

33 Porphyrii Isagoge translatio Boethii, in: Aristoteles Latinus 1/6-7: Categoriarum supplementa, ed.

Lorenzo Minio-Paluello, Bruges and Paris 1966, p. 20.

34 Modern edition in Obrecht, Collected Works 5, pp. 35-84, with commentary on pp. xvii—xliii.

35 On this see Thomas Noblitt, Problems of Transmission in Obrechts Missa Je ne demande, in: Musi-

cal Quarterly 63,1977, pp. 211-23. For an explanation of the canonic inscription and a speculation

on the original version of the Agnus II see Bonnie J. Blackburn, Obrecht's Missa Je ne demande and

Busnoys's Chanson: An Essay in Reconstructing Lost Canons, in: TVNM45,1996, pp. 18-23, repr. in

Blackburn, Composition, Printing and Performance: Studies in Renaissance Music, Aldershot

2000, no. IV. 36 Modern edition in Obrecht, Collected Works 4, pp. 49-91, with commentary on pp. xxvi—liii. The

order of the segments is clarified by handwritten notes in the Mewes print (c.1510), labelling the

sections in the order ,a`„b`, and ,Canon: cancrisa` under the first section of the Gloria warns

the tenor not to sing this part straight forward; the same word is mistakenly placed in the same place

in the Credo in Berlin 40021 and Mewes.

37 There are two modern editions: Johannes Martini, Secular Pieces, ed. Edward G. Evans, Jr., Recent

Researches in the Music of the Middle Ages and Early Renaissance 1, Madison, Wis. 1975, pp.


pella Sistina 35, fos. 104v-1109, but here to prescribe a canon at the lower fifth, indi-

cated by the placement of signa congruentiae at varying time intervals; the instruc-

tion applies to the whole mass, though it is written only once. Sic unda impellitur unda (,Thus wave is driven by wave). The source is Ovid,

Metamorphoses 15. 179-83, in which Pythagoras expounds the succession of time:

ipsa quoque adsiduo labuntur tempora motu, non secus ac flumen. neque enim consistere flumen nec levis horn potest, sed ut unda impellitur unda urgeturque eadem veniens urgetque priorem, tempora sic fugiunt pariter pariter sequuntur

The tyme itself continually is fleeting like a brooke. For neyther brooke nor lyghtsomme tyme can tanye still. But looke As every wave dryves other foorth, and that that commes behynd Bothe thrusteth and is thrust itself: even so the tymes by kynd Do fly and follow bothe at once, and evermore renew.38

This is an apt inscription for the anonymous three-in-one canon at the unison at the

distance of three breves that occupies the last page of Petrucci's Motetti B.39 The

canon reappears in Glareanus (Dodekachordon, pp. 258-9) as an example of the

Aeolian mode and in Heyden (De arte canendi, 1540, p. 35), in both without the

canonic instruction. The inscription is listed as title in the index of St. Gallen,

Stiftsbibliothek 463 at no. 4, but the partbook containing the music is lost.

Inscriptions from classical sources are sometimes used to indicate voice parts

that are ,tacer Quite likely these stem from the scribe—such inscriptions are fre-

quent in some of the Alamire codices—but might have been present in a composer's

original copy (possibly this is the case with Festa). We have found the following

classical inscriptions used to mean ,tacet`: Cantabat [sic for cantabit] vacuus coram latrone viator appears in the tenor

part of two masses by Pierre de la Rue in Cappella Sistina 36: Missa Ave sanctissi-

ma, Agnus III, and Missa de septem doloribus, Pleni. It comes from Juvenal 10. 22:

pauca licet portes argenti vascula puri, nocte iter ingressus, gladium contumque timebis

35-7, and A Florentine Chansonnier from the Time of Lorenzo the Magnificent: Florence, Biblioteca

Nazionale Centrale MS Banco Rani 229, ed. Howard Mayer Brown, 2 vols., Monuments of

Renaissance Music 7, Chicago 1983, vol. 2, no. 179, pp. 408-10. Commentary, vol. 1, pp. 91,282.

While the resolution of the canon is unproblematic despite the absence of a signum congruentiae,

the meaning of the inscription escaped both editors: Evans transcribed it as ,Canon I. pre-sequar',

Brown as ,Canon. 1. pre sequar`. The inscription is written vertically in the inside margin of the uni-

que source (Florence, Bibl. Naz. Cent., Banco rani 229, fo. 1891. The ,1` looks like a long I with a

head serif or a long 1 and is followed by a small dot, centrally placed above the writing line, which

explains why they read it as a roman or arabic numeral; evidently it puzzled the scribe as well.

38 Ovids Metamorphoses: The Arthur Golding Translation (1567), ed. John Frederick Nims, New

York 1967, pp. 382-3. 39 An edition by Warren Drake is forthcoming in the series Monuments of Renaissance Music.

Lodovico Zacconi, Prattica di musica (Venice, 1596), fo. 45*, attributes the canon to Pierre Moulu,

but gives as inscription ,Trinitas in unitate, & unitas in Trinitate.


et mota ad lunam trepidabis harundinis umbra:

cantabit vacuus coram latrone viator.

,Though you carry only a few small vessels of pure silver, having embarked on a

journey by night, you will fear sword and staff and tremble at the flickering shadow

of a reed in the moonlight; the traveller without goods will sing in the highwayman's

face.' Conscius ipse sibi de se putat omnia did is found in the Pleni of the anony-

mous Missa de S. Johanne Baptista in Cappella Sistina 160. Like some other

canons, this comes from a work far more familiar to Renaissance schoolboys than to

modern adults, the Dicta Catonis, a collection of breves sententiae in prose and hex-

ametrical pairs called disticha, giving commonsense advice on life. Purportedly

addressed by the ferocious politician and zealous upholder of old Roman ways M.

Porcius Cato, consul 195 BC, censor 184 BC, to the son whom he was known to

have educated in person, they were widely disseminated both in Latin and in ver-

nacular languages. The present canon derives its sense from its context:

Ne cures si quis tacito sermone loquatur:

Conscius ipse sibi de se putat omnia dici (Disticha 1. 17)40

,Take no notice if someone is speaking confidentially; the man with a bad cons-

cience will think everything he hears refers to him.' Or, in an old German transla-

tion,

LaB dich muhen nit zu vil Ob yemant heimlich reden wil

Welcher mensch ist selber boll

Der furcht heimlich affterkoB.41

The same wisdom underlies the admonition Digito compesce labellum, marked in

the Pleni of Hottinet Barra, Missa Ecce panis angelorum, in the Occo Codex.42 Its

source is Juvenal, warning against free speech in the presence of a prosperous vil-

lain:

qui dedit ergo tribus patruis aconita, vehatur

pensilibus plumis atque illinc despiciat nos?

cum veniet contra, digito compesce labellum:

accusator erit qui verbum dixerit ,hic est.' (Satires 1. 158-61)

,So shall the man who poisoned three uncles with aconite be borne aloft on a feathe-

red litter and look down from thence upon us? (Yes,) when he comes your way, hold

down your lip with your finger: the man who says „It is he" will pass for an accu-

ser.' Dormi quod satis est (,sleep as much as suffices', sc. and no more), one of a

number of ,sleepy` canons for ,tacet`, is used in Costanzo Festa's Veni creator spi-

40 See Disticha Catonis, ed. Marcus Boas, Amsterdam 1952, p. 53.

41 Catho in latin and tutsch, [Basel], Martin Furter c.1495 = GW 6332, sig. [M]'.

42 Occo Codex (Brussels, Royal Library Albert 1, MS. IV922). Facsimile Edition, ed. Bernard Huys,

Buren 1979, fo. 24r.


ritus, verse Accende lumen sensibus, alto (Cappella Sistina 21, fos. 12v-16). The

source is again ,Cato`, this time not a distich but Brevis sententia 19.43 Raro mordet canis qui multum post tergum latrat (,Rarely does the dog bite that

barks a great deal behind one's back') notes the Agnus I of La Rue's Missa Ave sanc-

tissima in Cappella Sistina 36. The source has not been traced, but the thought is

commonplace.44 Rumores fuge is found in the Sicut locutus of Festa's Magnificat tertii toni in

Cappella Sistina 21, fos. 37v_44; rumores has borrowed its meaning from the Italian

rumore ,noise, but the source is ,Cato`:

Rumores fuge, neu studeas novus auctor haberi; nam nulli tacuisse nocet, nocet esse locutum. (Disticha 1. 12)

,Avoid rumours, and do not strive to start a new one; it hurts no one to have been

silent, but does harm to have spoken.'45 Finally, one important category of canonic inscriptions comprises those we

should like to call ,pseudo-antique': straightforward (for the most part) instructions,

but substituting Greek or astrological nomenclature for the normal Latin terms.46

Busnoys was especially fond of these, and his influence is evident on Obrecht,

Japart, and the author of the Missa L'ardant desir. A favourite term, particularly of

Obrecht, is ,antiphrasis' (properly the use of a word to express its opposite), which

may be employed either for inversion or retrograde: Antiphrasis tenorizat I ipos dum epipthongizat (,The opposite is in the tenor

while the ipos sounds on top'). That is, intervals written as descending must be sung

as ascending, and vice versa; but what is ipos? Apparently a conflation of ypo, repre-

senting into, the Greek preposition and prefix meaning ,under', and ippos ='inTros•

,horse, in ordinary life underneath the rider. The canon has had to be reconstructed

out of its garbled sources: Ramos (or his printer) gives ,Mutatur etiam canone

modus procedendi ut tantum quantum vox debebat elevari deprimitur. ut fecit

Busnois antiphrasis shtenorizat ipos dum epiptonzizat: Cuius sententia est fiat sub-

tus quod supra erat fiendum et econtra.47 The reference is to Busnoys's J'ay pris

amours. In the Segovia codex (Catedral, MS s.s.) the work is attributed to Johannes

Martini (fo. 110y), with the canonic inscription ,Antifrasis tenorizat / yposdum epi-

tonpluzat', similar to that in Ramos, whose ascription strengthens the attribution to

Busnoys; the ascription to Martini may stem from a confusion with the J'ay pris

43 Ed. Boas, p. 17. ,Schlaff nit zu vil durch drackeit', Catho, Aijr.

44 Besides Ennius' verse, Annales 542, ed. Otto Skutsch (Oxford, 1985) ,tantidem quasi feta canes sine

dentibus latrat' it is found at Q. Curtius, Historiae Alexandri Magni 7. 4. 13 (as a Bactrian proverb,

along with ,Still waters run deep') and at an earlier point in the story as told by Pseudo-Callisthenes

in Greek (1. 37. 2) and Julius Valerius in Latin (1.37). Of the variations cited by Walther, Proverbia,

nos. 2287a, c, 2896a, 3865, 11377, 16318, 17147, 18066, 35388, 35388a1, closest is no. 35388:

,Canis qui s lurimum latrat erraro mordet`.

45 Ed. Boas, p. 44• ,Dormi s uod satis est'. ,Flush nuwe mer I BiB nit ein sager I Schwygen schadet kei-

nen tag I Klaffen wol geschaden mag' (Catho, Aiiir).

46 Aaron mentions this category: ,PrQterea greci quidam Canones faciunt, qui propter vocabula lingug

*risque ignotg obscuriores videntur. Sed non admodum difficiles sunt‘ (Libri tres, fo. 26).

47 Reading from the facsimile; Wolf, p. 91, emends.


amours noted above.48 By contrast, in the Odhecaton, fo. 44v, which also gives the

work to Busnoys, the tenor is written out in inversion and without the canonic

inscription, though the heading in the superius explains what has happened: ,Jay pris

amours tout au rebours`. In diapente per antiphrasim canta (,sing in inversion at the fifth`). Obrecht,

Missa Petrus apostolus, Qui tollis and Osanna. The tenor is transposed up a fifth and

inverted.49 The Gloria of the Missa Libenter gloriabor has a similar instruction (,Tu

tenorista per antifrazim canta`), indicating inversion.50

Per antiphrasim (,by [its] opposite).51 Obrecht, Missa Scaramella, Pleni. The

tenor is inverted.52 Tu tenor cancrisa et per antiphrasim canta (,you, tenor, sing crabwise and by

the opposite). This inscription is used no fewer than in three masses by Obrecht:

Missa Petrus apostolus, Agnus Dei III; Missa L'homme arme, Agnus Dei I;53 and

Missa Grecorum, Et resurrexit (,Tu tenor cancriza et per antifrasim cum fureis [sic]

in capite antifrasizando repete). All three are examples of retrograde inversion.

Antiphrasim facies qui vis bene promere cantor (,You, singer, who wish to

perform properly will proceed by opposites`): Josquin, Missa Una musque, Credo

(Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin — PreuBischer Kulturbesitz 40021). The tenor is inverted

(it is also augmented ninefold through the sign of major prolation); a resolution is

provided for ,vos nondum adulti cantores`.54

Other composers, prominently Busnoys, like to name specific pitches in Greek:

Voces a mese nonnullas usque licanosypato<n> recine singulas (,sing back

again some syllables one by one from mese to lichanos hypaton`). Busnoys, second

part of Maintes femmes (Conti C). The solmization syllable and its companions from

a to d are sung and then repeated retrograde.55

Ne sonites cace<n>faton, some lichanos hypaton (,Do not sound a cacophony,56

take lichanos hypaton`). Busnoys, Missa L'homme arme, beginning of Credo (all

48 Ramos's testimony to Busnoys's authorship is discussed in Blackburn, Obrecht Missa Je ne

demande, p. 29 and n. 25.

49 Modern edition in Obrecht, Collected Works 8, ed. Barton Hudson, Utrecht 1988, pp. 43-84, with

commentary on pp. xvii—xxxiii.

59 Modern edition in Obrecht, Collected Works 6, ed. Thomas Noblitt, Utrecht 1986, pp. 35-70, with

commentary on pp. xxi—xxix. 51 This is the pseudo-etymological principle known to moderns as locus a non hicendo; cf. Georg

Bilchmann, Geffligelle Worte, 33rd edn. rev. Winfried Hofmann, Frankfurt am Main 1981, p. 291.

52 Modern edition in Obrecht, Collected Works 11, ed. Barton Hudson, Utrecht 1990, pp. 51-89, with

commentary on pp. xxxv—xxxvii. The mass is imperfectly preserved, and the tenor and canonic

voice are lacking in this section.

53 Modern edition in Obrecht, Collected Works 6, pp. 1-34, with commentary on pp. xi—xx.

54 Modern edition in Josquin des Pres, Werken, ed. A. Smijers, Missen, no. 10, Amsterdam 1948.

55 For the explanation of this canon, see Helen Hewitt, Two Puzzle Canons in Busnois:s Maintes fem-

mes, in: Journal of the American Musicological Society 10, 1957, pp. 104-10. Seville, Bibl. Colom-

bina, MS 5-1-43, fos. 107v-109r, has a slightly different inscription: ,Voces a mese nonnullas usque

lycanosipaton psallens recurre singulas`. The canon is resolved in Petrucci, but not in Seville.

56 Although KasiOaTov is the utterance of words that suggest an indecency in sound or sense,

Isidore, Etymologiae 1. 34. 5 extends it to cacophony, innocently mistaking Servius' objection to

Vergil, Aeneid 2. 27 ,Dorica castra`.


sources are similar, including the citation in Ramos). The tenor is not to be sung at the written pitch (g), which would lead to dissonance, but transposed down to d.57

Ne sonites lycanosypaton I Sume in proslambanamenon [sic] (,Do not sing lichanos hypaton; start on proslambanomenos"). Obrecht, Missa L'homme arme,

Credo (Vienna, Osterreichische Nationalbibliothek 11883). The tenor is not sung at

the written pitch (d) but transposed down a fourth to A. This inscription seems a deli-berate response to Busnoys's, especially since the cantus firmus elsewhere in the mass begins on e.

Arma virumque cano, vincorque per arma virumque; Alterni gradimur: hic ubi58 signo tacet.

Sub lychanos hypaton oritur, sic undique pergit, Visceribus propriis conditur ille meis.

,Arms and the man [the armed man = the canonic voice] I [the tenor] sing, and am

overcome by arms and the man. We march in alternation; here, where I sign, he is

silent. He rises (just) under lichanos hypaton, and thus does he proceed all over; he

is formed from my very entrails.' That is to say, the canonic voice and the tenor pro-

ceed alternatim; where the tenor has signa congruentiae, the canonic voice is silent.

It begins on c, the next note below lichanos hypaton; both voices sing the L'homme

arme melody from beginning to end. The inscription is found in the sixth of the ano-

nymous masses on L'homme arme in Naples, Biblioteca Nazionale Vittorio

Emanuele III, VI. E. 40; the cantus firmus easily evoked the opening words of the

Aeneid. Ne sonites a mese — Lycanosipaton summite [sic] (above S; ,Do not sound from

mese, but take lichanos hypaton'); Antiphrasis baritonat (in margin; ,the opposite

sings the bassus`). Japart, J'ay pris amours (Florence 229, fos. 158v--1599.59 The

superius, which begins on a' (not mese but nete hyperbolaion, an octave above), is

sung retrograde and transposed down a twelfth to become the bass. Every source of

this composition has a different inscription. In Canti B it is ,Fit aries piscis in lica-

nos hypaton', indicating retrograde but also perhaps the level of transposition. In

Florence, B.N.C. Magl. XIX. 178, fo. 4v it is ,Antiphrasis flapu-romr`. Cappella

Giulia XIII, 27 (fos. 59v-600 has ,Vade retro Sathanas' (cf. Mark 8:33), indicating

retrograde but not the precise degree of transposition, only the direction of the

underworld. Verona, Bibl. Cap. DCCLVII (fos. 48v-49r) lacks the inscription (and is

therefore unperformable except by those in the know; parallel fifths in the first two

bars will alert the singers that something is wrong). Eodem modo preit altera vox in lycanosypathon (,In the same way the other voice

precedes on lichanos hypaton'). Vaqueras, Missa L'homme arme, Et in terra (Cappella

Sistina 49). The canonic voice enters one breve earlier, at the lower fourth.60

57 Modem edition in Busnoys, Collected Works, Parts 2 and 3: The Latin-Texted Works, ed. Richard

Taruskin, Masters and Monuments of the Renaissance 5, New York 1990, pt. 2 (Music), pp. 1-48;

pt. 3 (Commentary), pp. 1-46.

58 Although sicubi„wherever`, would better fit sense and metre, the MS reading is clearly ,hic vbi`.

" Modern edition in A Florentine Chansonnier, ed. Brown, no. 152.

60 Modem edition in Vaqueras, Opera omnia, ed. Richard Shen-, Corpus mensurabilis musicae 78, Neu-


In paripatheypaton aries vertatur in pisces (,On parhypate hypaton, let Aries be turned into Pisces'). Obrecht, Missa Grecorum, Agnus III. Retrograde at the lower octave beginning on c.

Monostempus silens (bell] Modi sine me non / Sit tot anthipsilens Nethesine-menon; beyond translation but with a pun on sine me non (,not without me') and sinemenon. Busnoys, Anthoni usque limina.61

Si tenes cum domino, Agamenon, I de capite nullos amines capillos I in para-nete neteque sinemenon; I illorum sed opera secuntur illos (,If you stick with the Lord, Agamemnon,62 you will lose no hairs from your head on paranete and nete synemmenon; but their works follow thee). Source: cf. Luke 21:18: ,et capillus de capite vestro non peribit'; Acts 27:34: ,quia nullius vestrum capillus de capite peri-bit; Rev. 14:13 ,et audivi vocem de caelo dicentem: scribe, Beati mortui qui in Do-mino moriuntur. Amodo iam dicit Spiritus ut requiescant a laboribus suis, opera enim illorum sequuntur illos.' This is one of the inscriptions from Ramos's Requiem, which has not survived.63 The c' and d' omitted in the previous canon (Ut requies-cant a laboribus suis, reinterpreted as ut re quiescant, i.e. ut and re are not to be sung) are to be restored. Agamemnon's presence, in prehumanistic form,64 is obvious-ly required by the rhyme with sinemenon.

Hoc in hypate meson precipue cantabis; in tertia minoris multiplicis canen-do reverteris; per maius in mesen per sinemenon reiterabis (,This you shall first sing on hypate meson; you shall return by singing in the third species of the minor multiplex genus; you shall repeat on mese, using synemenon, with the larger [time values]`). Spataro, Missa La tradictora, Cum sancto spiritu.65 The tenor is to be sung three times, first beginning on e, then retrograde in subquadrupla, i.e. multiplied by four, then again beginning on a with bb, in regular note values.

Ubi a ibi co et ubi w finis esto (,Where there is alpha let there be omega and where there is omega let there be the end'). Ramos: ,Quandoque etiam canon docet cantare per contrarium incipientes a fine in principio finiunt: ut fecit Busnois. ubi alpha ibi o et ubi o finis esto.'66 This prescription for retrograde movement does not match any inscription in a piece attributed to Busnoys. Retrograde is used only in Maintes femmes, which is provided with canonic inscriptions, and In hydraulis.

hausen—Stuttgart, 1978, pp. 1-52. At the Qui tollis the inscription is ,Qui sequebatur preir rever-sing the previous order, and at Cum sancto spiritu ,Ordine priori'. Similar canons underlie the Credo.

61 Modern edition in Busnoys, Collected Works, pt. 2, pp. 138-48; for the explanation, see pt. 3, pp. 64-9 and the literature cited there. Anthipsilens is a corruption based on avnikiXX€ tv„to play/sing in answer', used by Aristophanes (Birds 218) and St Basil (Epistles 207. 3).

62 The form Agamenon is guaranteed by the rhyme with sinemenon; it must be vocative (for Agamemnon) not ablative (Agamemnone), presumably by antonomasia for a king in general. Compared with the others, the verse is a syllable short.

63 He gives them in his treatise (Wolf, p. 92). 64 But cf. Spanish Agamenon, Italian Agamennone; even in antiquity Latin-speakers tended to simplify

-mn- to -nn- or less often -mm-. See Veikko Vdananen, Introduction au latin vulgaire, 3rd edn., Paris 1981, p. 64, §120; Salvatore Contino, Iscrizioni latine volgari, Palermo 2000, pp. 40-1.

65 Explained in his letter to Giovanni del Lago of 20 July 1520; Correspondence of Renaissance Musicians, no. 3, §3.

66 Ramos, ed. Wolf, p. 90; Wolf substitutes a and to.


Ramos's inscription might have been used in the tenor of In hydraulic, which is a

palindrome, each segment presented under a different mensuration; the two sources

are resolved, without an inscription.67 And yet the inscription would apply more

logically to a cantus firmus or cantus prius factus.

The ne plus ultra of pseudo-antique canonic inscriptions is surely that in the

Benedictus of the anonymous Missa L'ardant desir (Cappella Sistina 51, fos.

100v-1010.68 Over the single voice (the superius) is written Baton In tribolon lyca-

nosipatonizasco secundo occentantem cum secundo sed in mese condo. The

initial phrase appears to mean ,[I turn] the bramble, 13ci-ros.,69 into thistle, TpCf3o-

Xos`,70 but if we accent the first word f3crrOv, and allow our composer an even bet-

ter knowledge of Greek, we shall have ,I turn a passable road into thistle.' In any

case he is aware that -rptpoXos is literally ,three-thruster', for this is a three-in-one

canon, the superius beginning on d', the bass on d after a breve, and the alto on a

after two breves. That would appear to be the sense of the remaining words: ,I sing

lichanos hypaton in my second, but ground the voice that sings against me with the

second on mese.' Although this instruction alone is needed for the canon, in the

space of the altos is written Accedet homo ad cor altum et exaltabitur dens = Ps.

63: 7-8;71 in that of the bassus Similis ero altissimo. Ysaye 14°. Isa. 14:14 runs:

,ascendam super altitudinem nubium, similis ero Altissimo', but the opening words

did not suit the composer's purpose. If he is not Busnoys himself, as has been pro-

posed,72 he is clearly trying to out-Busnoys him.

And thus we make an end: Sileamus ibi quia dominus noster silere nos fecit.73

67 Modem edition in Busnoys, Collected Works, pt. 2, 151-65; pt. 3, pp. 74-81. The canon in the first

of the Naples L'homme arme masses is treated similarly.

68 Modem edition in An Editorial Transnotation of the Manuscript Capella Sistina 51, Biblioteca Apo-

stolica Vaticana, Cita del Vaticano, Liber Missarum, ed. Rex Eakins, Collected Works 17, vol. 3,

Ottawa 2001, pp. 65-167 (Benedictus on pp. 140-4).

69 Used in the LXX for the burning bush from which the Lord addresses Moses in Exod. 3:2-4A

70 Off which, at Matt. 7: 16, men do not gather figs. See too Job 31:40: ,dvrl nupoii apa ijX8ot

got in,i811, dirri Si Kpailis Pros - pro frumento oriatur mihi tribulus et pro hordeo spina'.

71 For ,ad', as in the Clementina (,Man shall come to a deep heart', Rheims-Douay-Challoner), the

older MSS have ,et", better matching LXX: Kai Kao8ict f3a8da (,and the heart is deep') and the

otherwise very different Hebrew.

72 See Rob C. Wegman, Another Mass by Busnoys?, in: Music & Letters 71,1990, pp. 1-19, followed

by Correspondence in 71,1990, pp. 631-5, and 72,1991, pp. 347-50; with further discussion in id.,

Petrus de Domartos Missa Spiritus almus and the Early History of the Four-Voice Mass in the

Fifteenth Century, in: Early Music History 10,1990, pp. 235-303 at 266-71, and id., Mensural

Intertextuality in the Sacred Music of Antoine Busnoys, in: Antoine Busnoys: Method, Meaning, and

Context in Late Medieval Music, ed. Paula Higgins, Oxford 1999, pp. 175-214 at 201-2. As

Wegman pointed out in his original article, the tenor must have existed in a notational archetype

similar to the chanson tenor; it would have been provided with canonic instructions like those in the

Benedictus, but these are lost since only the resolutions are given in Cappella Sistina 51. The trans-

formations involve replacement of note values (maxima by minim, etc.), omission of stems, inver-

sion, and omission of notes a step higher.

73 Jer. 8:14; Missa L'ardant desir, Pleni.

Juno's Four Grievances; The Taste for the Antique in Canonic Inscriptions

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