Augenmusik’s Significance in the 14th and 16th Centuries
Alexandra Krawetz
Supervisor: Dr. Peter Loewen
The Shepherd School of Music, Rice University
Abstract
Renaissance Augenmusik (music notated "for eyes" as shapes) might be dismissed as frivolous. However, Augenmusik can strengthen music’s connection to text and society. Augenmusik achieves this by inventing an interdisciplinary medium, allowing audience
members to recognize at sight a composer's intentions, and giving composers an additional way of expressing their ideas. My case studies of two pieces --Baude Cordier’s “Belle Bonne Sage” (1400) and Ghiselin Danckerts’s “Ave Maris Stella” (1535) -- demonstrate
composers' use of Augenmusik to reflect upon social issues and to engage their audiences. In “Belle Bonne Sage” Augenmusik notation appears to be a method of escapism through contrasting subject matter and visual distraction from societal issues. Coloration,
madrigalisms, and incorporation of shapes in “Belle Bonne Sage” appealed to courtly society and possibly diverted attention from the problems of war, papal conflict, and the Black Death. In a similar way, Danckerts uses chessboard notation, a riddle motet, and
madrigalisms as didactic tools in his riddle motet, “Ave Maris Stella." Danckerts’s use of Augenmusik reflects important Christian humanist ideas such as antiquity, morality, and education. These composers’ applications of Augenmusik encapsulate historical ideas,
validating these works as relics of social commentary.
Introduction
The term Augenmusik (“eye music”) was coined by German scholars. Although its etymology is uncertain, it is clear that it was originally used to describe music notated in the form of shapes (such as works from the Ars Subtilior). The Renaissance definition of
Augenmusik also included subtle aspects of visual notation (such as the black coloration of notes in funeral pieces).1 It was even regarded as and associated with a visual form of madrigalism. Although the visual aspects of Augenmusik unified notation with rhetorical
meaning, many considered it to be less serious work. For instance, Vincenzo Galilei disparaged these types of embellishments. He believed that madrigalisms decreased a work’s authenticity; they were “indirect and artificial imitations.”2 Although Augenmusik has not
received a wide appreciation and has been viewed as frivolous, in some instances it serves an important cultural function. Augenmusik, in these instances, strengthens music’s connection with text and society.
Baude Cordier’s “Belle Bonne Sage” (1400)
Ghiselin Danckerts’s “Ave Maris Stella” (1535)
Baude Cordier’s “Belle Bonne Sage” (a rondeau notated in the shape of a heart, which appears in the Chantilly Codex) was
composed in 1400 against the backdrop of late fourteenth and early fifteenth century problems. These problems included the black
plague, papal conflict, and war. By coupling an expression of visual art with rondeau form, Cordier provides rhetorical reinforcement.
The listeners were able to see the social function of “Belle Bonne Sage,” to evoke love and pleasant feelings.
Textual
The Aristocracy
Reinforcement
“Belle Bonne Sage” in
Heart shape provides
heart notation was passed
viewer with instant
on for generations.3
understanding of
piece’s romantic
context
Visually paints the
idea of gifting a new
song
Cuer (heart) replaced
with an actual red
heart. Furthers
metaphor of the
Figure 1: The fleur de lis
speaker physically
imprinted in the background
is associated with royalty and
giving his heart to
aristocrats
someone.
MS Chantilly, Musée Condé,
Cantus line notated
564, f. 11v.
inside
of
heart’s
curve
4
Annotated from original image
“le don d’une chanson
nouvelle” presented
on new, curved line
The Text
Augenmusik’s relationship with its text and its cultural context are also shown through Ghiselin Danckerts’s “Ave Maris Stella.”
Danckerts’s Augenmusik disseminates ideas of the Christian humanist movement. Danckerts’s music, specifically the chessboard
riddle motet “Ave Maris Stella,” reflects Christian humanism such as a return to antiquity, and the importance of religion, morality, and
education.
Lovely, good, wise, gentle and noble one,
On this day that the year becomes new
I make you a gift of a new song
Within my heart, which presents itself to you.
Do not be reluctant to accept this gift,
I beg you, my sweet damsel;
(Lovely, good, wise…)
For I love you so well that I have no other purpose,
And know well that you alone are she
Who is famous for being called by all:
Flower of beauty, excellent above all others.
(Lovely, good wise…)
Figure 3: “Belle Bonne Sage” in
Augenmusik notation
Figure 2: An English translation of the poetry set by Cordier5
Annotated from original image6
.
Selected Sources
Chessboard Notation
Allusion to changes in the game of
chess in the late 1400s/early 1500s8
Introduced bishop, could move
any unlimited number of
squares diagonally
Created a systemized set of
rules across the continent
Textual Reinforcement
Fulgens (bright, brilliant, glittering) is
in the king’s place on the chessboard
It is the most accentuated star
as in the motet Stella fulgens
summi dei (the brightest star in
the supreme god)
Encourages textual associations
Accentuates the Virgin Mary’s
purity
Virgo (virgin) and Mater
(mother) are only notated
in white squares
Numerology
Conclusions
As illustrated above Augenmusik
notation increased Cordier’s
reinforcement of text and the piece’s
association with the aristocracy. This
notational form established the song’s
loving message, contrasting its dark
historical context.
1. Richard Taruskin, The Oxford History of Western Music: The Earliest Notations to the Sixteenth Century, Vol. 1 (Oxford: Oxford University,
2005), 778.
2. Ibid., 801.
3.Ursula Güther, “Unusual Phenomena in the Transmission of Late 14th Century Polyphonic Music,” Musica Disciplina 38 (1984): 92 and 98.
4.Ibid., 110.
5. Leo Treitler, Reflections on Musical Meaning and its Representations (Bloomington: Indiana University, 2011), 132.
6. Willi Apel, The Notation of Polyphonic Music 900-1600, 5th ed. (Cambridge: The Mediaeval Academy of America, 1961), 424.
7. Hans Westgeest, “Ghiselin Danckerts’s Ave Maris Stella: The Riddle Cannon Solved,” Tijdschrift van de Vereniging voor Nederlandse
Muziekgeschiedenis 36 (1986): 66.
8. David Shenk, The Immortal Game: A History of Chess (New York: Doubleday, 2006), 65.
9. John MacQueen, Numerology: Theory and Outline History of a Literary Mode (Edinburgh: Edinburgh Univeristy, 1985), 31.
Figure 4: “Ave Maris Stella” score in chessboard notation
Annotated from original image7
Conclusions
Through Augenmusik notation Danckerts
reinforced his motets’ text and demonstrated
Christian humanist ideas such as: antiquity (the
Lambda formula, a formula related to Plato),
education (the work’s didactic potential), and the
importance of religion (the bishop’s new
importance in chess).
Figure 5: The Lambda number
sequence applied to Danckerts’s
performance directions
Annotated from original image9
Numerological connection to the left side of the Lambda formula: 1 and then 2x
Continues past the basic expression of the Lambda formula
32 (the number of squares in the outer frame of the composition)
64 (the entire number of squares of music)