The Flower of Paradise
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The Flower of Paradise
Marian Devotion and Secular
Song in Medieval and
Renaissance Music
D AV I D J. R O T H E N B E R G
1
1
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Rothenberg, David J. (David Joseph)
The flower of paradise: Marian devotion and secular song in medieval
and Renaissance music / David J. Rothenberg.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978–0–19–539971–4
1. Music—500–1400—History and criticism. 2. Music—15th century—
History and criticism. 3. Mary, Blessed Virgin, Saint—Prayers and devotions—History
and criticism. 4. Love songs—History and criticism. I. Title.
ML172.R68 2011
780.9'02—dc22
2010026546
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
For My Parents
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This book grew out of my 2004 Yale dissertation, which examined Marian symbolism in medieval and Renaissance music through the lenses of liturgy, devotion,
and secular song, not always at the same time. I address many of the same topics
and musical works here, but my focus has shifted so that interactions between
Marian devotion and secular song are at the center of the inquiry, receiving much
more thorough treatment than in my dissertation. As the project developed, it
benefited from the help of numerous friends and colleagues whom it is my pleasure to acknowledge here.
Craig Wright, whose scholarship provided the most important model for my
own work, advised my dissertation and read several chapters of the book manuscript in various stages, always providing steady mentorship and encouragement. Rebecca Baltzer, Teodolinda Barolini, Margaret Bent, Ross Duffin, and
Jennifer Saltzstein all read portions of the manuscript, offering keen insights
and constructive criticism that greatly improved the final version. I received
additional insight, assistance, and support from Peter Bennett, Susan Boynton,
Benjamin Brand, Francesca Brittan, Georgia Cowart, Marina Davies, Mary
Davis, Margot Fassler, Daniel Goldmark, John Hand, Stephen Hefling, Leofranc
Holford-Strevens, Robert Lagueux, Patrick Macey, Tim Mauthe, Debra Nagy,
Anne Robertson, Alison Stones, Philippe Vendrix, Rob Wegman, Blake Wilson,
and Mary Wolinski. Bonnie Blackburn copy-edited the manuscript, using her
unique combination of erudition and editorial skill to improve it in ways too
numerous to count; I could not have wished for a better final reviewer of my
work.
Suzanne Ryan and the editorial staff at Oxford University Press have been
strong advocates of this project since they agreed to take it on and have overseen
a smooth and efficient production process. A grant from the Case Western Reserve
University College Stimulus Fund for Faculty Research, Scholarship, and Creative
Endeavors helped cover the permission costs for the numerous images and music
examples reproduced here, and a generous AMS 75 PAYS Subvention from the
American Musicological Society assisted with production costs.
vii
viii
Acknowledg ments
I am grateful, above all, for the support of my family. My wife Liz, who reappeared magically in my life and married me while I was working on this project,
read the entire manuscript, sharpening my prose and strengthening my arguments, and offered her companionship, encouragement, humor, and love when
I needed these things the most (“ch’ i’ dicea sospirando: / ‘Qui come venn’ io o
quando?’ / credendo esser in ciel, non là dov’ era”). Finally, my parents, Lawrence
and Laura Rothenberg, wholeheartedly encouraged all of my musical and scholarly endeavors from my first piano lessons to the present day, and for that I dedicate this book to them, with deepest gratitude and with love.
CONTENTS
List of Illustrations xi
Abbreviations xv
A Note on Texts and Translations
xvii
1. Introduction: Devotion to the Virgin and Earthly Love
S AC R E D A N D S E C U L A R R E A L M S
3
4
S Y M B OL IC H A R M ON Y I N M E DI E VA L A N D R E N A I S S A N C E P OLY P HON Y
L I TURGIC A L A ND DE VO T ION A L F R A MEWOR K
F OUNDAT ION S A ND C A SE S T UDIE S
9
13
19
2. The Assumption Story in Two Thirteenth-Century Motet Families
T H E N A R R AT I V E OF F I R S T A N D S E C ON D A S S U M P T ION V E S PE R S
26
T H E F L O W E R , C HR I S T, A N D M A RY I N A F R E NC H M O T E T ON
F L O S F I L I U S E IU S 39
M A RY ’S A S C E N T TO H E AV E N I N A B I L I N G UA L R E G NAT MO T E T
49
3. Springtime and Renewal over the In seculum Tenor
58
S PR I N G , E A S T E RT IDE , A N D M A RY
60
S PR I N G T I M E DA N C E , A PA S TO U R E L L E M O T E T, A N D T HE
I N S E C U L U M HO CK E T S 66
IN T E RT EXTUA L I T Y IN A N I N S E C U L U M M O T E T FA M I LY
IN TO T HE F OURT E E N T H C E N TURY
79
87
4. Guillaume Dufay’s Vergene bella, the Cantilena Motet,
and the Italian Lyric Tradition 92
C A N T I L E NA , C H A N S ON , A N D C A N T I L E N A M O T E T
T H E OL O G I Z I N G L OV E I N I TA L I A N LYR IC
T H E C A NZONE A ND V E R N AC U L A R E L O Q U E N C E
ix
97
105
118
24
C ontent s
x
5. Walter Frye’s Ave regina caelorum in Musical and Visual
Culture 123
F RYE’S T E NOR A S A S E C U L A R C A N T U S F I R M U S
127
AV E R E G I N A C AE L ORU M A S T H E S ON G OF A N G E L S
141
P O S T S CR IP T: E A RT H LY A N D H E AV E NLY M U S IC I N A PA I N T I N G
OF T HE A S S UMP T ION 150
6. Mary, De tous biens plaine
159
“ F OR T H E S A LVAT ION OF S I N G E R S ” : L OY S E T C O M PÈ R E ’S OMNIUM
BONORUM PL E NA A ND T H E A NN UN C I AT ION 163
DE T O U S B I E N S PL A I N E I N A C R E D O A N D A N AG N U S DE I
172
T HE VOIC E OF T HE VIRGIN IN JO SQ UIN’S V IC T I M A E PA S C H A L I L AU DE S
178
7. Comme femme desconfortée and the Redemptive Power
of the Virgin’s Sorrow 193
JO SQ UIN’S S TA B AT M AT E R A N D M A RY ’S L A M E N TAT ION
198
T H E C RU C I F I X ION , T H E R E S UR R E C T ION , A N D T WO M O T E T S B Y J OH A N N E S
GHI SE L IN 211
T H E D OR M I T ION A N D A S S U M P T ION I N H E I N R IC H I S A AC ’S A N G E L I,
A RC HA N G E L I 217
H I E R ON Y M U S V I N DE R S ’S M I S S A S TA B AT M AT E R A ND T HE E N D
OF A T R A DI T ION 233
Works Cited
Index 257
241
I L L U S T R AT I O N S
Figures
2.1
2.2
3.1
3.2
4.1
5.1
5.2
5.3
5.4
5.5
6.1
7.1
7.2
7.3
Dormition and Coronation of the Virgin (northwest portal, cathedral
of Notre Dame, Paris) 27
Styrps Jesse (stained glass window, cathedral of Notre Dame,
Chartres) 37
Montpellier Codex (Mo), opening of third fascicle 64
Montpellier Codex (Mo), opening of fifth fascicle 76
Giovanni di Paolo, illumination of Dante’s Paradiso XXXIII 117
Hans Memling, Madonna and Child in the Rose Garden 144
Master of the Embroidered Foliage, Madonna and Child Surrounded
by Angels 145
Master of the Embroidered Foliage, Madonna and Child 146
Oratory ceiling (Château de Montreuil-Bellay, Loire Valley) 148
Master of the Saint Lucy Legend, Mary, Queen of Heaven 152
Rogier van der Weyden, Christ Appearing to Mary 189
Michelangelo, Pietà 201
Albrecht Dürer, Assumption and Coronation of the Virgin 230
Giotto, Baroncelli Altarpiece 231
Tables
1.1
2.1
2.2
2.3
Calendar of Marian liturgy and devotion 20
Antiphons, responsory, and chapter for first and second vespers on the
feast of the Assumption in the usage of Paris 31
The motet family Plus bele que flor / Quant revient et feuille et flor /
L’autrier jouer m’en alai / Flos filius eius 42
Texts of the musically identical two- and three-voice motets within the
Flos filius eius family 43
xi
xii
2.4
3.1
3.2
3.3
5.1
5.2
6.1
6.2
6.3
7.1
Illustrations
The motet family Quant repaire la verdor / Flos de spina rumpitur /
Regnat 54
Chronology of Eastertide within the liturgical Easter cycle 61
The five In seculum hockets in Ba and their concordances in Mo 73
Li doz maus m’ocit / Trop ai lonc tens en folie / Ma loiautés m’a nuisi / In
seculum and related motets 80
Noteworthy quotations of Walter Frye’s Ave regina caelorum in the late
fifteenth Century 126
Choirbook layouts 157
Selected sacred works in which De tous biens plaine appears 164
Selected sacred works in which D’ung aultre amer appears 180
Text and cantus-firmus structure of Josquin’s Victimae paschali
laudes 182
Sacred works with Comme femme desconfortée tenor as cantus
firmus 195
Music Examples
2.1
2.2
2.3
2.4
3.1
3.2
3.3
3.4
3.5
4.1
4.2
4.3
4.4
5.1
5.2
5.3
5.4
5.5
Styrps Jesse chant, Doxology omitted 29
Alleluia Hodie Maria chant 30
Anon., Plus bele que flor / Quant revient et feuille et flor / L’autrier jouer
m’en alai / Flos filius eius 40
Anon., Quant repaire la verdor / Flos de spina rumpitur / Regnat 50
Haec dies chant 59
Anon., L’autre jour / Au tens pascour / In seculum 67
Two compositions on In seculum: (a) In seculum longum: opening;
(b) In seculum breve: opening 73
Anon., Ja n’amerai autre que cele / In seculum [longum]: opening 78
Anon., Li doz maus m’ocit / Trop ai lonc tens en folie / Ma loiautés m’a nuisi /
In seculum: opening 83
Dufay, Vergene bella: (a) setting of line 1; (b) setting of line 4 95
Dufay, Vergene bella: setting of lines 12–13 96
Dunstable, Quam pulchra es: opening 100
Textural shifts in works of Dunstable and Dufay: (a) Dunstable, Quam
pulchra es; (b) Dufay, Resvellies vous 100
Frye, Ave regina caelorum: opening 124
Obrect, Missa Ave regina caelorum: Kyrie I 128
(a) Obrecht, Ave regina caelorum: opening; (b) Ave regina caelorum chant:
opening 130
Anon., O decus innocentie / Ave regina caelorum: opening 131
(a) Salve regina chant: opening; (b) Agricola, Salve regina: opening 134
Illustrations
5.6
5.7
5.8
5.9
6.1
6.2
6.3
6.4
6.5
6.6
6.7
6.8
6.9
6.10
6.11
6.12
7.1
7.2
7.3
7.4
7.5
7.6
7.7
7.8
7.9
7.10
7.11
7.12
7.13
7.14
7.15
7.16
7.17
xiii
Agricola, Salve regina: setting of “Ad te suspiramus, gementes et
flentes” 138
Agricola, Salve regina: setting of “Et Jesum benedictum” 139
Agricola, Salve regina: setting of “O clemens, O pia, O dulcis” 141
Music sung by angels in Mary, Queen of Heaven by the Master of the
Saint Lucy Legend 153
Hayne van Ghizeghem, De tous biens plaine: (a) opening; (b) ending 161
Compère, Omnium bonorum plena: entry of cantus firmus in
prima pars 167
Compère, Omnium bonorum plena: beginning of secunda pars 169
Compère, Omnium bonorum plena: entry of cantus firmus in
secunda pars 170
Compère, Omnium bonorum plena: ending 171
Josquin, Credo De tous biens plaine at “Et incarnatus est” 173
Credo I chant at “Et incarnatus est” 174
Salve regina chant: phrase 5 176
Peñalosa, Missa Ave Maria peregrina: Agnus Dei II: ending 176
(a) Ockeghem, D’ung aultre amer: opening; (b) Josquin, Victimae paschali
laudes: opening of prima pars 184
Josquin, Victimae paschali laudes: opening of secunda pars 186
Virgini Mariae laudes chant 191
Comme femme desconfortée: opening 194
Josquin, Stabat mater: opening 203
Josquin, Stabat mater: setting of “O quam tristis et afflicta . . .” 205
Josquin, Stabat mater: setting of “Quae maerebat, et dolebat,
et tremebat, dum videbat . . .” 205
Josquin, Stabat mater: setting of “Christi matrem si videret in tanto
supplicio” 207
Josquin, Stabat mater: opening of secunda pars 208
Josquin, Stabat mater: setting of “Fac me tecum plangere” 208
Josquin, Stabat mater: setting of “inflammatus et accensus” to end 209
Ghiselin, Inviolata, integra et casta es: opening 213
Ghiselin, Regina caeli: opening 214
Isaac, Angeli, archangeli: opening 218
Isaac, Angeli, archangeli: setting of “Beata Trinitas, unu Deus” 226
(a) Te gloriosus apostolorum chant at “te prophetarum”;
(b) Isaac, Angeli, archangeli: setting of “te prophetarum” 228
Vinders, Missa Stabat mater: opening 234
Vinders, Missa Stabat mater: Credo: “Et incarnatus est” 236
Vinders, Missa Stabat mater: Sanctus: “Hosanna” 238
Vinders, Missa Stabat mater: Agnus Dei I 239
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A B B R E V I AT I O N S
LU
NG II
Catholic Church, Abbaye Saint-Pierre de Solesmes. Liber usualis missae et
officii pro dominicis et festis cum cantu Gregoriano quem ex editione typica in
recentioris musicae notulas translatum Solesmenses monachi rhythmicis
signis diligenter ornaverunt. Tournai: Desclée & Socii, 1956.
Stanley Sadie, ed. The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd
ed., 27 vols. London: Macmillan, 2001.
xv
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A N O T E O N T E X T S A N D T R A N S L AT I O N S
Poetic texts are quoted in the original language with parallel English translation.
Prose texts are quoted only in English translation. Latin, French, and Italian texts
are quoted directly from the sources consulted, with no attempt at standardization of spelling or punctuation. Where suitable published translations were available I have used them and cited their sources. Where no source is cited, the
translation is my own. All biblical passages are quoted from the Vulgate and the
Douay–Rheims translation.
xvii
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The Flower of Paradise
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1
Introduction
Devotion to the Virgin and Earthly Love
More beautiful than a flower, in my opinion, is she to whom
I belong. For as long as I live, no one will have joy or pleasure of my
love except the flower that is of paradise: she is mother of the
Lord, who placed us here and wants us to return to him forever.1
So goes an anonymous French song of the later thirteenth century. It begins with
its male lover comparing his lady to a flower, a poetic conceit that was common
within the tradition of medieval lyric initiated by the troubadours and cultivated
in various guises through the early sixteenth century. It was a conceit characteristic
of the elevated courtly love song, a song of praise and devotion to a noble and
beautiful—but nevertheless earthly—lady. After the first sentence, however, the
song effects a remarkable transformation, revealing that the lover sings not of
such a woman, but of the Virgin Mary. His beloved’s beauty surpasses that of a
flower not simply because she is more physically beautiful than an earthly bloom,
but because she resides in heaven with Christ, her Son, whose judgment upon
mortals like the singer was a chief preoccupation of medieval society.
The song, moreover, does not stand alone. It is the fourth voice (quadruplum)
of a polytextual motet, a musical composition in which four different voices simultaneously sing four different texts that interact with and comment upon one
another in numerous ways. The lowest voice (the tenor) is in Latin and quotes a
snippet of a Gregorian chant from the liturgy of the Assumption of the Virgin.
The two remaining voices (the motetus and triplum) sing French songs, one a
high-register courtly song of the sort that the quadruplum at first appears to be,
and the other a low-register pastoral song. The quadruplum voice, with its Marian
praise expressed in lyric that bears a stylistic resemblance to these secular voices,
brings them into symbolic alignment with the sacred Latin tenor.
1
A translation of the quadruplum voice of the thirteenth-century motet Plus bele que flor / Quant
revient et feuille et flor / L’autrier jouer m’en alai / Flos filius eius. On this piece and for relevant literature,
see chapter 2.
3
the flower of paradise
4
What allows the quadruplum to align the other voices symbolically with
one another is a stylistic similarity and devotional resonance between Marian
prayer and courtly verse that had existed since the early twelfth century, when
troubadour song was emerging in the south of France and devotion to the Virgin
Mary was proliferating throughout Europe. Within their separate realms, Marian
devotion and the courtly love lyric continued to display significant similarity to
one another from this time until the early sixteenth century, when the Reformation
and related societal forces caused great changes in both traditions. Beginning in
the thirteenth century, moreover, poets and composers—including the composer
of the quadruplum voice quoted above—began unambiguously using the vernacular language of courtly love to express Marian praise, so that the traditions of
courtly love and Marian devotion became inextricably linked.
This book is about their relationship in polyphonic music. More specifically, it
is about the use of secular song to express Marian devotion in polyphonic music
from the Middle Ages and early Renaissance (ca. 1200–ca. 1500). Polyphony,
with its unique ability to interweave diverse musical and poetic materials, was an
especially rich field for symbolic interaction between secular song on the one
hand and Marian devotion on the other. And as we shall see, Marian devotional
songs and secular love songs often sounded together within individual compositions in sonic harmony that medieval and early Renaissance readers and listeners
understood to be symbolic of a spiritual harmony between these diverse materials. At other times musical styles that were clearly associated with secular song
were used in settings of devotional texts to the Virgin, creating a song-like
musical devotion that humanized Mary. All of the music analyzed in the
subsequent chapters elevates the earthly beloved of secular song by likening her
to Mary, while simultaneously making Mary more accessible and immediate by
likening her to the earthly beloved of secular song.
Sacred and Secular Realms
It is a simple fact that prayers to the Virgin Mary and secular love lyrics of the
high and late Middle Ages often sound alike. Though the former are generally in
Latin and the latter in the vernacular, the former overtly religious and the latter
not, both frequently feature stylized praise of an idealized, impossibly virtuous
woman, and both originated within traditions of medieval song—Marian prayer
in Gregorian chant, love lyric in the courtly song of the troubadours. The troubadours sang of an elevated and noble type of love, which they called fin’ amor
(refined love).2 It is the earliest form of what is now commonly called Courtly
Love, a term scholars have been using in diverse ways for over a century, usually
to describe a system of courtly behavior for a lover that informed medieval liter2
For a useful introduction to fin’ amor in the troubadour tradition, see Paterson, “Fin’ amor.”
Int roduc tion
5
ature, especially narrative poetry.3 Just what that system is, though, whether it
really existed, and whether it is useful at all as a model for understanding medieval literature are questions that have been hotly debated for some time.4 Rather
than engage in such debates, this book avoids invoking Courtly Love (capital
letters) as a formalized system of love, instead using the term courtly love
(lower-case letters) very loosely to describe a wide range of devotional amorous
sentiments that pervaded European vernacular love lyric from the twelfth to the
early sixteenth century. Rather than attempting to define the term, it will allow
the characteristics that define courtly love to emerge from the analysis of
numerous songs and poems below.
For the moment it will suffice to say that, aside from an earthly love object,
courtly love has much in common with medieval veneration of the Virgin. In
Sylvia Huot’s words, “It is a commonplace that the language of devotion to the
Blessed Virgin is so similar to that used to express love and devotion to ladies of
this world that at times the two registers can scarcely be distinguished.”5 Indeed,
it is often misguided to draw an interpretive distinction between sacred and
secular materials in the Middle Ages and early Renaissance because the two
existed within a single hermeneutic universe and diffused freely into one another.
But despite their cross-pollination, it is important to be mindful of generic and
material distinctions between the two. Marian devotion and secular love were
generally expressed in literary, artistic, and musical genres that were, respectively,
either sacred or secular at their core. A trouvère chanson, for instance, though it
may contain devotional language, is found in a chansonnier, a secular book; a
Marian antiphon, on the other hand, though it may contain praise reminiscent of
courtly love, is found in an antiphoner, book of hours, or some other sacred book.
The chanson and the Marian antiphon have much in common, but they stand on
opposite sides of a material divide between the sacred and the secular.
Polyphonic music too was divided into sacred and secular genres. Organum,
the early Latin motet, and later the polyphonic mass were clearly sacred, while the
polyphonic chanson was secular, and each genre was disseminated in books or
sections of books devoted to like material, either sacred or secular. But from ca.
1200 until the early sixteenth century—that is, virtually from the moment that
the first vernacular polyphony appeared to the onset of the Reformation—
polyphonic composition proved an especially fruitful venue in which to explore
symbolic connections between the genres of Marian devotion and of earthly love.
3
The term was first used in 1883 by Gaston Paris in discussion of Arthurian romances (Paris,
“Études”). On Paris’s invention of the term, see Hult, “Gaston Paris.” Twentieth-century articulations
of a code of Courtly Love are too numerous to cite here; the following three can serve as representative
examples: Lewis, Allegory of Love, 1–43 (first published in 1936); Rougemont, Love in the Western
World, trans. Belgion, 108–22 (first published in 1939); and Denomy, “Courtly Love.”
4
For critiques of the concept of Courtly Love, see, for instance, D. W. Robertson, “The Concept of
Courtly Love” and Kay, Courtly Contraditions—to cite just two of many.
5
Huot, Allegorical Play, 85.