Marian Motets in Petrucci' s Venetian Motet Anthologies
Jane Daphne Hatter
Schulich School of Music
Department of Research
McGill University, Montreal
August 2007
A thesis submitted to McGill University in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the
degree of Master of Arts in Musicology.
© 2007 by Jane Daphne Hatter
Ali rights reserved.
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Abstract
Although there is a marked increase in the number of surviving motets from the
earl y sixteenth century, the context in which they were performed remains a mystery.
The frrst five printed anthologies of motets, pub li shed by Petrucci in Veni ce between
1502 and 1508, include a_significant proportion of Marian motets (95 of the 174 pieces).
In the first chapter 1 provide evidence that these polyphonie Marian motets were used in
the Venetian confratemities, or "scuole." The second chapter draws connections between
the musical needs of the scuole and the Marian text types ofthe motet anthologies. The
final chapter looks at settings of the most common devotional pray er of the early
sixteenth century, the Ave Maria. This thesis thus proposes a new context- the Venetian
scuole - for the consumption of printed motet books and the performance of motets, with
a special emphasis on their role in lay Marian devotions.
11
Résumé
Bien qu'il y ait un accroissement significatif quant au nombre de motets
provenant du début du 16e siècle, le contexte dans lequel ceux-ci furent interprétés
demeure un mystère. Les cinq premiers recueils imprimés de motets, publiés par Petrucci
à Venise entre 1502 et 1508, comprennent un nombre important de motets consacrés à la
Vierge Marie (95 des 174 œuvres). Le premier chapitre présente des éléments de preuve
que ces motets polyphoniques à la Vierge Marie étaient utilisés dans les confraternités, ou
« scuole ». Le deuxième chapitre fait tm rapprochement entre les besoins musicaux des
scuole et les différent types de textes consacrés à la Vierge Marie des recueils de motets.
Le dernier chapitre examine diverses réalisations musicales de la prière dévotionnelle la
plus commune du début du 16e siècle, l'Ave Maria. Ce mémoire propose un nouveau
contexte -les scuole vénitiennes- pour l'usage des recueils de motets imprimés ainsi que
de leur interprétation musicale, avec une emphase toute particulière sur leur rôle lors de
dévotions laïques à la Vierge Marie.
Traduction par Claudine Jacques
111
Contents
Abstract ................................................................ .
,
,
R es ume ................................................................ .
'
..
11
HI
.
Contents ............................................................... .
IV
Lists of Tables, Figures and Siglia ................................ .
v
Acknowledgements .................................................. .
VI
Introduction ........................................................... .
1
Chapter 1: Motets and Confratemities ............................. .
27
.
Chapter 2: Marian Motets in the Context
of the Venetian Scuole...........................................
56
Chapter 3: Ave Maria Settings.................................... ..
78
Conclusion.............................................................
105
Bibliography ........................................ -...................
108
Appendix 1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
118
Appendix 2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
123
IV
List of Tables
1.1
1.2
2.1
2.2
2.3
2.4
2.5
2.6
3.1
3.2
3.3
3.4
3.5
3.6
Music at the scuole circa 1500
Scuole Grandi in the early 1500s
The Marianfeste of the Scuole Grandi
Marian occasions celebrated by the Scuole Grandi
Marian motets in the Venetian motet anthologies
Column 2, text type
Motets with texts from the Marianfeste
Motets with texts from devotionalliterature
The source oftheAve Maria
Ecclesiastical Ave Maria texts
Ave Maria sequence
Votive Ave Maria prayer, standardized in 1525 and 1568
Votive Ave Maria prayer versions used in Petrucci
Motets using the Ave Maria
33
43
63
64
65
69
72
74
84
85
85
87
89
90
List of Figures
0.1
1.1
3.1
3.2
3.3
3.4
3.5
3.6
3.7
3.8
3.9
4.1
Motet Anthologies printed by Petrucci in Venice, 1502-1508
Bellini, Processione in Piazza San Marco, Venice, 1496
Dürer, Der Rosenkranz/este, Prague, 1506
Antiphon melody from Liber Usualis
Altus from 120, Craen, Ave Maria
Superius and Tenor from 230, Crispinus van Stappen, Ave Maria
Motet text compared to responsory text
Text for mm. 1-41, Mis sus est angelus Gabriel (317)
Text for Virgo precellens (321)
Craen, Ave Maria (120), mm. 19-29
Crivelli, Annunciation
Defining the Middle Space
13
36
80
86
94
95
98
98
99
101
102
105
List of Sigla
Bologna Q 18
Brussels 228
Cappella Sistina
15
Florence27
SienBC K.1.2
Bologna, Civico Museo Bibliografico Musicale, MS Q 18.
Brussels, Bibliothèque royale Albert 1er, Ms.228 ff.
Rome, Vatican City, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, MS Cappella
Sistina 15
Florence, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, MS Panciatichi 27.
Siena, Biblioteca comunale degli intronati, MS K.1.2.
v
Acknowledgements
This thesis has been a part of my life for two years. During the course of tho se
two years we have grown together. Throughout this joumey there have been many
wonderful people who have generously
giv~n
of their time and knowledge to make that
growth fruitful.
My most heartfelt thanks go to my advisor, Julie Cumming, who has inspired me
to formulate my questions and helped me refine my ideas. I am grateful for both her
encouragement and her careful pruning. I thank her also for access to the wealth of
information she has gathered in her Petrucci Motet Database.
I gratefully acknowledge the kind comments and criticism of the participants in
the international conference, "On the relationship of imitation and text treatment: the
Motet c. 1500" in Bangor, Wales, where I presented a draft of"Chapter 3: Ave Maria
Settings." The questions raised at that conference shaped the direction of the final
version of this the sis.
I owe much thanks also to my friends in the music community at the Schulich
School of Music. Thanks to the wonderful staff of the Marvin Duchow Music Library. I
am indebted to Claudine Jacqùes for her comments on my early drafts and to Loren Carle
for checking references when I was away. Many warm thanks also to my friends, who
gather on Tuesday evenings to sing motets and debate deep questions officta.
And finally I turn to my family, Laura, Mark, Sky, Clare and Ansel. You have
graciously endured my enthusiasm from the beginning. Thank you.
My work on this thesis has been funded in part by SSHRC in the context of the
MCRI, "Making Publics: Media, Markets, and Association in Early Modem Europe,
1500-1700" <http://www.makingpublics.mcgill.ca>.
VI
Introduction
On the ninth day of May 1502 Ottaviano Petrucci printed his first anthology of
motets, Motetti A numero trentatre, in Venice. Ninety-four of the 174 motets included in
the five motet anthologies printed by Petrucci in Venice between 1502 and 1508 utilize
Marian prose or poetry for their texts. The Virgin Mary bad been the recipient of
beautiful and complex polyphony for hundreds of years in ber role as intercessor with
Christ. It was believed that Mary's status as a mortal woman made ber sympathetic to the
plight ofhumanity, and responsive to the prayers of earthly sinners. In Venice, Mary's
blessing was invoked by the many images of ber that lined the streets. Why did Petrucci
include so many motets in praise of the Virgin? Whom did he expect to buy his prints?
How did Marian motets function in the culture of sixteenth-century Venice? These
questions are central to my research into the repertoire of Marian motets found in
Petrucci' s Venetian motet anthologies.
Petrucci's Marian motets include a wide range oftext types and styles, from a
straightforward setting of an established liturgical item, Pierre de la Rue' s Salve regina,
to Loyset Compère' s Sile .fragor, a complex setting of a contemporary poem mixing
popular Marian devotions with humanist images and ideas. Although Howard Mayer
Brown bas identified the Marian motet as an important text type in the sixteenth century
and Bonnie Blackburn bas studied sorne of the non-liturgical prayers to the Virgin,no
study bas addressed the diversity of Marian motet types or their function for Petrucci and
his buyers. Building upon Stanley Boorman's meticulous study ofPetrucci's prints and
Jonathan Glixon's extensive investigation into the musical activities ofVenetian
confratemities or scuole, 1 will suggest that the Marian motets included in Petrucci's
2
prints have contextual relevance to and were probably perfonned as part of the feasts and
ceremonies of the scuole. 1 believe that in loo king at this microcosm of specifically
Marian motets in Venetian confratemallife 1 will build a convincing argument for
discussing confratemal environments throughout Europe as significant venues for
performance of motets in general.
Before launching into my evidence for the confratemities of Venice as a specifie
market for Marian polyphony and as influential forces in the formation of the motet
anthologies produced by Petrucci, it is necessary to examine the motet as a genre and to
define the various ways that the motet functioned in society during the fifteenth and
sixteenth centuries.
What was a motet in the late fifteenth and earl y sixteenth centuries?
In her book The Motet in the Age ofDu Fay Julie Cuniming addresses the problem
of what the term "motet" means in theoretical writings, sources and archivai documents
1
of the fifteenth century. Lacking a theoretical description from earlier in the century, she
uses Johannes Tinctoris' rather vague description from his Terminorum Musicae
Difjinitorium of 14 76. He de fines the motet as "a sacred composition of moderate length,
to which words of any kind are set, but more often those of a sacred nature," situated as a
middle genre between mass and chanson. 2 U sing evidence from manuscript sources that
label pieces "motets," and contemporary usage of the term, Cumming determines that the
motet is a vocal composition with Latin text and a style elevated beyond that offunctional
liturgical settings. Paolo Cortese's 1510 description of the motet reinforces Tinctoris'
1
2
41-62.
Tinctoris, Terminorum, 42-3.
3
middle genre definition. He emphasizes the flexibility of the motet, bot-h in subject matter
and in function. "The theorists Tinctoris and Cortese portray a genre that is textually and
functionally flexible, with no fixed subject matter and no prescribed liturgical position,
that lies in the middle of the genre hierarchy, and thus has a broad range oftone and style
height."3 The motet can then be differentiated from polyphonie prescribed liturgical
items that use chant, such as magnificats, hymns and mass proper movements, based on
its elevated tone and musical complexity.
The motet became the main genre for composers of sacred music in the late
fifteenth and early sixteenth century. Jennifer Thomas surveys the abundance of motets
composed in the sixteenth century in her dissertation, The Sixteenth-Century Motet: A
Comprehensive Survey of the Repertory and Case Studies of the Core Texts, Composers,
and Repertory. She uses a database to address a large segment of the motets written and
transmitted in ali known manuscripts and printed anthologies from 1475 to 1600.
Thomas does not include single composer prints, the main type of printed source in the
second half of the sixteenth century because she feels that single composer prints do not
represent the popularity of individual pieces and hence are not representative of the core
repertory. She estimates that her database contains records that "may represent as many
as 18,000 different motets.'"* The proportion of motets preserved from this period is
probably greater than in the previous century because the ad vent of printing increased the
number and circulation of motet sources but there were also more people writing motets.
Allan Atlas cites the sheer quantity as proof of the genre's prominence and observes that
motets began to outnumber masses composed by individual composèrs beginning with
·
3
4
Cumming, Motet in the Age ofDu Fay, 60.
SiXteenth-Century Motet, 414.
4
the Josquin generation. He claims "that with the Josquin generation, Mass and motet
exchanged places in a way: the motet now took on the cutting-edge quality that the cyclic
Mass had displayed during the previous two generations."5
The main composer of this pivotai generation, Josquin Desprez, has dominated
motet research in the decades before and after the tum of the sixteenth century. Two
complete works editions have been undertaken in addition to extensive scholarship
regarding the attribution of many of his works. 6 Despite the obvious appeal ofhis music
any modem scholar of the Renaissance must ask ifthis Beethovenian figure, casting his
shadow across polyphonie composition of the sixteenth century truly warrants the
centrality he has assumed in twentieth and twenty-first century scholarship. 7 In her
database Jennifer Thomas determines that nine of Josquin's motets are among the core
repertory of the sixteenth century. This core repertory consists of fifty-four motets that
appear in twenty or more sources before 1600. Josquin's Benedicta es caelorum is the
most common piece and his Miserere mei deus remained in circulation for up to sixty
years. Josquin is the preeminent composer of the early part of the sixteenth century. For
this reason it is possible to speak of a "Josquin generation" but it is important to recognize
the many other composers and styles of this pivotai time period. The current study, while
accepting the importance of Josquin's oeuvre in the motet repertoire of the early sixteenth
century, will attempt to avoid his eclipsing influence by looking at content and
performance context for a particular collection instead of individual composers.
~Renaissance Music, 269.
6
Smijers, Werken van Josquin des Près; Eiders, New Josquin Edition; for a survery of recent scholarship,
see Sherr, ed., The Josquin Companion.
7
For an interesting investigation into this, see Higgins, "Apotheosis of Josquin des Prez," 443-51 O.
5
Allan Atlas and Jon Banks, among others, have noted a new kind of audibility in
the sixteenth century motet. Referring to the "free" motets of the Josquin generation
Banks suggests, "it is in these works that the ascendant influence of humanism can most
clearly be seen to assert itself, in the adoption of a structural method based on aurally
perceptible contrasts and varieties of texture designed to follow the meaning of the text,
instead of one governed by an abstract numerical pattern. " 8 F oreshadowing the
development of the Italian madrigal, Atlas comments that "Josquin and his
conte111poraries hit upon a new aesthetic of music-text relationship, one with which we,
half a millennium later, are still very much in tune." 9 Where were these new, pathosfilled compositions heard, and how did they function within the sacred life of the late
fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries?
What was the function of the motet?
In 1961 Jacquelyn Mattfeld proposed that the main use for Josquin's motets using
related texts and cantus firmi was to replace the liturgical chants they borrowed from,
inserting polyphonie motets into the mass and office. 10 In his article published in 1981,
"Toward an Interpretation of the Sixteenth-Centwy Motet,'' Anthony Cummings presents
a study of references to the motet in the diaries of the Sistine Chapel from the mid
sixteenth century until the early seventeenth. Cummings concludes that the motet was
only used ornamentally in the Offertory, Communion and Elevation, it was not used
8
Banks, "The Motet as a Formai Type," 38.
Atlas, Renaissance Music, 270
10
"Sorne Relationships between Texts and Cantus Firmi,"l59-83.
9
6
liturgically and therefore should be considered a "para-liturgical compositional type," 11
heard at limited points in the Mass and in various non-ritual contexts.
Jeremy Noble, presenting at the Josquin Symposiwn in Cologne three years later,
affirms Cummings' claim, going on to proffer three different types of polyphonie settings
of sacred texts and possible contexts for performance:. 1) prescribed items performed in
the service, 2) votive antiphons and sequences performed in extra liturgical devotions,
and 3) motets proper performed in processional or secular contexts. 12 Noble immediately
problematizes these clear-cut categories with the documented performanc~ of Josquin' s
Salve Regina, a straightforward setting of the Marian antiphon with cantus firmus, at
Pope Leo X's dinner table. Noble contends that there are significant differences in
compositional style between Josquin's complex Salve Regina and his simple liturgical
hymn settings in the same manuscript, Cappella Sistina 15. The musical complexity of
the Salve Regina is evidence of a different approach to motets, paralleling Cumming's
criteria for distinguishing motets from prescribed liturgical music. Noble, like Cumming,
daims that motets require a more virtuosic compositional style, even when they set
antiphons and liturgical items.
Noble discusses the Milanese tradition of motetti missales as an instance in latefifteenth century sacred music where musical considerations take predominance over
liturgical propriety. 13 Hedraws on the work ofThomas Noblitt, who identified the
motetti missales as groups of eight related motets, unified by mode and clef, ''that
replaced certain of the traditional musical sections of the Mass" including both Proper
59.
"The Function of Josquin's Motets," 14.
13] 8.
Il
12
7
and Ordinary items. 14 Noblitt proposed that sometimes the motetti missafes were also
bound together through continuity ofthematic material between movements. He limited
the motetti missales to manuscripts that either used the label inotetti missales conseq. in
the tabula or designated motets as replacements, using the term loco to show where in the
mass the motet should be performed. 15 Noble and Lynn Halpern Ward both use the
musical considerations presented by Noblitt, and subject matter to expand the motetti
missales repertoire to include other motet-cycles associated with Milan, including
Josquin's Vultum tuum cycle from Petrucci's Motetti libro quarto. 16 Ward proposes that
later manuscripts with groups of motets related thematically or by subject matter preserve
partial motet cycles and were compiled after the vogue for strict motetti missales services
had passed. She believes that these fragmentary pieces were still used together in the
Mass and other services. 17 A 1496 diary entry from Burckardus, a Roman vi sitor to
Milan cited by Noble,
describe~
a performance ofpolyphonic music during a spoken low
Mass, a practice Burckardus believes to be customary in Milan. 18 Noble links the subject
matter of the motet cycfes with the subjects of weekly votive masses, noting that the high
percentage of Marian texts corresponds to the importance of the Saturday votive Mass for
the Virgin. "Furthermore this theory provides us, by analogy, with a likely function for
the surviving motet-cycles on the Passion by Josquin, on the Cross by Compère, and on
the Holy Spirit by Weerbecke." 19
Howard Mayer Brown develops the argument for votive services as performance
contexts for motets in his article from 1990, "The Mirror of Man's Salvation: Music in
14
"Ambrosian motetti missa/es Repertory," 77.
"Ambrosian motetti missa/es Repertory," 83. Also, see Macey, "Josquin's 'Little' Ave Maria," 38-53.
"Motetti Missales Reperory Reconsidered," 523.
17
"Motetti Missales Reperory Reconsidered," 516.
18
Noble, "Function of Josquin's Motets," 17.
19
Noble, "Function oflosquin's Motets," 18.
IS
16
8
Devotional Life About 1500." Brown uses the first four motet anthologies printed by
Petrucci to explore and defme the newvariety oftext types in motets after 1475, a period
marked by what he calls an "explosion ofactivity."20 He finds that devotional texts form
the largest segment of the Petrucci volumes. Devotional texts are defined as extraliturgical adornments written in the preceding three or four centuries to enhance persona!
piety. Many of the se texts ask for Mary or the saints to intercede for the speaker and
request time off purgatory. Although sorne texts can be connected to the liturgy they "are
more regularly to be found in prayer books, Books of Hours, and other devotional
literature than in the antiphoners, breviaries, missals and graduais that form the core of
strictly liturgical repertories."21 In addition, he discovers that very few of the texts
conform to the major feasts of the church year, dividing instead into two major groupings,
Marian texts and texts of "adoration of the Cross, the Passion, the Holy Spirit, the Blessed
Sacrament, the Trinity, and a few other miscellaneous subjects."22
Brown's research confirms the para-liturgical defmition ofCumming, Cummings
and Noble, and proposes side chapels and votive services as appropriate venues for
performance of the rapidly expanding body of sacred polyphony represented by
Petrucci's motet anthologies. He aptly ties the motet as a devotional genre to "the desire
of individual men and women in the Renaissance to gain salvation," a trend also active in
prompting production in literature and the visual arts. 23 Although Brown concedes that
these motets could have been performed in a secular context he sees them primarily as
"containing that music essential for the musical requirements of the various kinds of
20
"Mirror of Man's Salvation," 744.
"Mirror of Man's Salvation," 753.
22
"Mirror of Man's Salvation," 755.
23
"Mirror of Man's Salvation," 766. For additional information on the other arts see, Kieckhefer, "Major
Currents in Late Medieval Devotions," or Humfrey, "Competitive Devotions."
21
9
choirs that regularly sang in the first decade of the sixteenth century," in his opinion
cathedral and chapet choirs. 24 Brown suggests that performance of these motets could
have been sponsored by private citizens. The small format of the prints indicates to him
that these motets were intended for "small groups of singers performing, for example, in
side chapels"25 and not in the main church during Mass. He implies that the same private
citizens who had "accumulated enough wealth ... to buy pious images to decorate their
homes or ... to endow side chapels for the salvation oftheir own and their family's
souls"26 would also sponsor votive motet performance, a long-standing devotional
practice. Brown refers to the motetti missales as devotional cycles that support a similar
performance context and the Mensa Cornelia of Verona as an organization of wealthy
citizens that sponsored the performance of "polyphonie music sung at the cathedral. " 27
Bonnie Blackburn also explores private patronage and devotions as an impetus for
performance ofpolyphony in her articles "For Whom do the Singers Sing?" (1997) and
"The Virgin in the Sun: Music and Image for a Prayer Attributed to Sixtus IV" (1999).
She looks at the link between images of devotion, pray ers and their polyphonie settings as
part of the culture of indulgences that permeated late fifteenth- and early sixteenthcentury religious life. Her discussion centers on the Ave sanctissima Maria, a prayer set
to music at least 45 times, and linked to performance before an image of the Virgin. In
the first opening of Brussels 228, Margaret of Austria, the owner of the manuscript, is
depicted kneeling, facing an image of the Virgin on the opposite page. Both women are
surrounded by the notes of Pierre de La Rue's musical setting of the Ave sanctissima
24
"Mirror of Man's Salvation," 746.
"Mirror of Man's Salvation," 745.
26
765.
27
"Mirror of Man's Salvation," 766.
25
10
prayer. Blackburn determines that in placing the motet in a manuscript containing both
an image ofthe Virgin and an image of the patron, not only is the image of the patron
continually contemplating the Virgin, but the singers who perform the motet gaze upon
the patron's act of devotion and amplify it with their voices.Z 8 She maintains that the
proliferation of prayer motets in the late fifteenth century indicates a need for them, "and
it is likely that the greatest demand [for performance ofprayer motets] was at courts with
chapels, where sacred and secular often flowed together in easy interchange.',z 9 It is
certain that motets and images contained in deluxe manuscripts were limited to the elite,
but images of devotion were common across Europe, often on every street corner. The
combination of prayer, image and motet in this persona! manuscript has clear devotional
implications. Can we infer the same lay spiritual function for motets in other fifteenthcentury sources?
Julie Cumming has found that there are no extant sources from the fifteenth
century containing only motets. Instead "Motets could mix with everything: with the
aristocratie Mass cycles, the hardworking liturgical service music, and the fun-loving
secular songs.'' 30 This reinforces the flexibility of the genre, implying that the motet was
like a Renaissance chameleon, deriving its function and characteristics from its
environment. Looking at sources for the motet can therefore tell us something about how
motets were used. Timothy Dickey provides convincing evidence in his dissertation that
the motets included in SienBC K.1.2, a Vespers manuscript, were actually meant to
replace liturgical hymn settings in polyphonie Vespers services on Marian feast day s. 31
28
"For Whom do the Singers Sing?" 594.
"For Whom do the Singers Sing?'' 598.
30
Motet in the Age ofDu Fay, 54.
31
Reading the Siena Choirbook, 188-97.
29
11
Similarly the textless motets included in collections of chansons are often considered to
be pieces for instrumental performance in secular contexts. Susan Weiss links the
repertory of Bologna Q 18 with the two groups of wind players, both the professional
Concerto palatino and the circle ofaristocratic amateurs surrounding the Bentivoglio
household. 32 The motet, then, can have devotional implications as easily as it can
function within a liturgical service. It is al ways a matter of context.
The works within a manuscript are tied to the institution that owned it and
probably paid for its creation, whether ecclesiastical or secular. 33 Brussels 228, Margaret
of Austria' s manuscript discussed by Blackburn, contains mostly chansons and sorne
motets. It is a lavish expression of one woman's musical taste and the musical culture of
her court. The manuscript itself would have had a relatively small influence on the
outside world, but it may reflect, to a certain extent, current tastes and devotional trends.
Just as the singularity of a manuscript helps define its function, so the multiplicity of the
print may expand the range of possible uses. Unless a print is endorsed by an individual
or institution, as sometimes happened with patrons honoring specifie composers, the
content of a print would be market driven. As Stanley Boorman says, "a printer had to be
sure of his market if he were to make a secure living,"34 and for a printer this meant
anticipating the needs of the musically literate across ltaly and perhaps even Europe as
whole.
32
"Bologna Q 18: Sorne Reflections on Content and Context," 81-91.
Strohm, "Introduction" 93-6, and Bent "Manuscripts and Repertoires," 138-52, in Pompilio, Atti de XIV
Congresso della società internazionale di musicologia.
34
"Early Music Printing," 226.
33
12
Music printing and Petrucci's motet anthologies.
As a result of its broader distribution, a printed book of polyphony would have
influence on a greater number of people than a manuscript. Allan Atlas comments that
"music printing had a major effect on the transmission of music. Not only did printed
copies of music reach a vastly wider audience than any single manuscript could, they did
so far less expensively."35 Brian Richardson, looking at non-music printing, estimates
that the normal print run for early Venetian prints was between 300-400 36 and Stanley
Boorman estimates that no initial print run for Petrucci' s books could have been more
than 300. 37 Ifwe consider that each music print, bought by one person, would require at
least four people to perform from it, we determine that potentially as many as 1200
people were using each ofPetrucci's motet anthologies, if they ail sold. These prints
were making their way into the hands a vastly larger number of people than a manuscript
possibly could and the lowered cost of printing opened the market to conswners of a
different economie class.
Ottaviano Petrucci has been known for over 500 years as the first printer of
polyphonie music, beginning with Odhecaton A produced in 1501. In 1502 he published
the first printed anthology of motets, Motetti A numero trentatre. This is the first of five
motet anthologies Petrucci would publish during his time in Venice. Figure 0.1 lists
chronologically these five motet anthologies, including RISM number, title and date of
publication. Petrucci, originally from Fossombrone, moved to Venice to begin publishing
music. Venice was an obvious choice, as an important center for publishing in Europe
during the late fifteenth century and an excellent hub for a publisher seeking to exploit the
35
Atlas, Renaissance Music, 261.
Printing, Writers and Readers, 21.
37
Catalogue, 366.
36
13
international market. Richardson states that for printing "the city which offered the best
conditions of ali was V enice. Intellectuallife flourished in the city and in its subject
towns of Padua, with its important university, Verona and Vincenza; its government and
territory were relatively stable .. ·.; and it had a thriving mercantile system whose links
38
reached throughout the Mediterranean and north of the Alps."
Figure 0.1: Motet Anthologies printed by Petrucci in Venice, 1502-1508
RISMNo.
Title
Date of publication
1502 1
[1505 7]
1503 1
Motetti A numero trentatre
2nd edition
Motetti de passione de cruce de sacramento de
beata virgine et huiusmodi B
9 May 1502
13 February 1505
10 May 1503
1504 1
Motetti C
15 September 1504
1505L
1508 1
Motetti libro quarto
Motetti a cinque libro primo
4 June 1505
[28 November 1508]
Although Petrucci had a tremendous influence on polyphonie music by beginning the
process of reproducing and distributing it to a wider audience, he does not seem to have
been a musician, but was instead a businessman and publisher who evidently recognized a
potential product and market. 39
It was Petrucci's music editor, Petrus Castellanus, who was a musician and left his
musical fingerprints on the pieces included in sorne of Petrucci' s printed volumes.
Bonnie Blackburn has discussed the life and implications of Castellanus' involvement
with Petrucci in her articles "Petrucci' s Venetian Editor: Petrus
Ca~tellanus
and his
Musical Garden" (1995) and "The Sign ofPetrucci's Editor" (2001). She determines that
Castellanus was both a Dominican friar, the first reference to him being in 1486, and in
38
39
Printing, Writers and Readers, 5.
Boorman, Catalogue, 23-33.
14
1505 "he was hired as the maestro di cappella for a second time ... " 40 at the Dominican
church of Santi Giovanni e Paolo in Venice. Castellanus seems to have been a fairly
famous and respected musician in his day, a teacher of"discantus" to the choirboys in
Venice and possibly the author of an anonymous treatise on music useful to clerical
musicians in both Italy and Spain. Blackburn suggests that the common practice of
transferring friars between ho uses of the Order provided Castellanus with the opportunity
to compile the large repertoire of sacred and secular music published in Petrucci' s printed
volumes. 41
In exploring Castellanus' place of employment Blackburn's research proves that
"not only did this Dominican church [Santi Giovanni e Paolo] have a polyphonie choir,"
but they actively sought out and hired the most skilled musicians from other churches and
Orders in Venice. 42 The beauty and diversity of the music performed as part of the
services at Santi Giovanni e Paolo was remarked upon with disdain by sorne of the more
austere pilgrims traveling through Venice. Felix Fabri, a German Dominican of the
Observant branch, remarked that ''the observance of the rule is scanty, nor has it been
reformed, but the friars there live as it were in the pomp of secular glory, so that on feast
days they sing the office of the Mass, Vespers, and Cornpline in polyphony with secular
ceremony, for which reason young people and ladiesflock there not so much because of
the divine service but in order to hear melodies and discantors.'.4 3 Petrus Castellanus
would probably have been one of the orchestrators of this sort of extravagance, clearly
40
Blackburn, "Petrucci's Venetian Editor," 25-6.
"Petrucci's Venetian Editor," 28-9.
42
"Petrucci's Venetian Editor," 20.
43
Quoted in Blackburn, "Petrucci's Venetian Editor," 39-40.
41
15
accustomed to using the popular appeal of music to attract an audience for an important
event. 44
In his extensive catalogue raisonné of the printing house of Petrucci, Stanley
Boorman proposes that the initial market for motet anthologies, specifically Motetti A and
Motetti B, was similar to the market for the chanson collections, Odhecaton A, Canti B
and Canti C. Boorman observes that many of the pieces in Motetti A and Motetti B are
not significantly different from those included in the Canti series
45
and the Canti
volumes, like manuscript chanson collections, included a. small number of motets.
Considering the economie limitations of printing, Boorman surmises that a profitable
market for ail these volumes must include both professionals and amateurs. "Any
estimate of the smallest practical print-run has to assume that Petrucci was selling (in
large part) outside these circles [courtiers and clerical musicians, previous consumers of
polyphony ], to businessmen, amateurs, and so on.'.46 At the same time, in his article
"Barly Music Printing," Boorman asserts that this whole market must be a performing
market in sorne sense, saying that "the purchasers of any volume must have been either
perfmmers or promoters of performances."47
But what does it mean to print an anthology of a genre so often dependant upon its
source for definition? Julie Cumming argues that with the motet anthology "Petrucci
detached the motet from its sacred and devotional contexts, and provided a generic
identity for the motet that was independent of any particular function. ,,4s She speculates
that in printing a motet anthology in oblong format, a common format for the
44
1 wonder if the translation ofthe word "melodies" might imply chanson rather than chant?
s Boorman, Catalogue, 272.
46
Boorman, Catalogue, 270.
47
222.
48
Cumming, "From Chape! Choirbook to Printed Partbook," 4.
4
16
chansonnier, Petrucci was secularizing the motet and disseminating a sacred genre to an
unkno\vn lay public. 49 The Italian text of the title pages and inclusion oftextless motets
and instrumental works suggest to Cumming, as it does to Boorman, that these prints
were directed at a more secular audience, for either vocal or instrumental performance. 50
John Kmetz, in his article "Petrucci's Alphabet Series: the ABC's of Music, Memory and
Marketing," argues that textless pieces in the Canti volumes would open the international
market both to instrumental performance and vocal performance substituting vernacular
texts. 51 Patrick Macey has shown that a similar thing was happening with the cantasi
come laude in Florence, religious poetry set to popular Italian songs. 52 Unlike the
chanson and lauda, motets were already available equally to consumers of music in Italy
and abroad since Latin was the most international language in Europe and motets could
also be performed instrumentally.
Although Boorman argues that the first two Motetti volumes filled the same niche
as the chanson collection, he notes a significant change in character and format with the
next two motet anthologies. Motetti C and Motetti libro quarto are printed in partbooks,
not in the choirbook format of the previous anthologies. "These two new books have a
higher preponderance of works that seem to be designed for professional performance,
either because of their liturgical functions (as in psalm settings or a work for the
dedication of a church), or perhaps from the structure and style of the work (as in the
Liber generationis attributed to Josquin, or Obrecht's 0 beate Basili.)"53 For this reason
he links these anthologies more closely with the volumes of complete mass settings,
49
Cumming, "From Chapel Choirbook to Printed Partbook," 4.
"From Chapel Choirbook to Printed Partbook," 6.
51
127-141.
52
Bonfire Sangs, 5.
53
Boorman, Catalogue, 279.
50
17
which he began printing in partbooks in 1502. The final motet anthology printed in
Venice, Motetti a cinque, represents yet another change in Petrucci's approach to the
motet repertoire. "The selection of five-voiced motets suggests a collector interested in
the technical as weil as the musical or religious aspects of composition."54 These pieces
are mostly old fashioned,.including many pieces from the previous generation, but also a
few more recent works, including one with a specifically Venetian text in honor of the
doge. 55 The motets included in Petrucci' s five Venetian motet anthologies cover a broad
range of styles and musical complexity, from pieces clearly aimed at an amateur audience
to pieces that could only have been performed by the most elite singers in Venice and
Europe as a who1e.
A musical niche for the printed motet anthology.
The five motet anthologies, published over the course ofPetrucci's time in
Venice, demonstrate a general trend toward more musical comp1exity and, with Motetti a
cinque, an increase in the performing forces. The fact that Petrucci continued to print
motet anthologies throughout his career indicates that there was a consistent market for
motets, a market he continued to cater to during his time in Fossombrone where he
published the four volume Motetti de la corona series. Despite changes in content these
anthologies are unified by generic designation. Boorman argues for a secular market but
the inclusion of complex large-scale works weakens the appeal of these volumes to an
amateur audience, securing the motet volumes, especially the later ones, in the realm of
ecclesiastically trained, clerical musicians. This does not completely exclude the
34
Boonnan, Catalogue, 301.
Weerbeke's Dulcis arnica dei which is dedicated to "Leonardo [Loredan] duce nostro," Boonnan,
Catalogue, 301. In Cappella Sistina 15 it is dedicated to the pope.
33
18
amateurs but indicates that Petrucci was gearing his motet volumes, at least in part,
toward a sizable market of people capable of and interested in performing complex
polyphony. 56 Outside the small circle of court musicians and courtiers trained in the
upper class environment, ali the institutions providing instruction in polyphony were
connected to the church.
Julie Cumming asserts that "professional performers of sacred music continued to
live in a predominantly manuscript culture, even after printing became widespread."57
Most ecclesiastical institutions maintained fairly weil organized manuscript collections,
providing a repertoire of polyphonie music for important celebrations of the church year.
The Sistine Chapel choir continued to perform Josquin motets from its manuscripts weil
into the sixteenth century. 58 For ecclesiastical institutions, performing in a set location, a
cathedral or chapel, the print has little advantage over the manuscript. An established
singing organization is unlikely to completely change its repertoire based on the
availability of a new print.
If the musical complexity limited the amateur market and at the same time the few
ecclesiastical institutions performing mensurai polyphony did not have a great need for
prints, who was buying hundreds of copies ofthese motet anthologies? The markets
previously proposed for the motet anthologies do not adequately account for the large
number ofprints and their continued production throughout Petrucci's career. Where can
we find a sizable market for fairly complex polyphony that Petrucci, Castellanus or their
investors would have beenaware of? We cannot look for answers to surviving copies
because very few ofPetrucci's prints survive, not surprising considering that these
56
Boorman, "Early Music Printing," 227.
"From Chape) Choirbook to Printed Partbook," 6.
58
Sherr, "Performance Practice in the Papal Chapel," and Dean, "Listening to Sacred Polyphony."
57
19
anthologies were essentially working editions, created for use. 59 lt is logical that the
copies purchased by the groups most actively performing them would be less·likely to
survive and would therefore be underrepresented in extant documentation. While this
lack of material evidence greatly impedes our ability to know who actually bought and
performed with the motet anthologies, the knowledge that this was considered a working
repertoire at the time can help us determine who Petrucci and Castellanus thought would
use them.
Gauging from the content of the first four Petrucci motet anthologies, Brown has
proposed personal devotions in endowed side chapels as an important context for
performance. 60 As Brown has observed, a large number of the motets included in the
Petrucci motet anthologies set devotional texts, texts that would have special resonance
within the culture of lay devotional societies. Although he makes a connection between
the devotional motets and lay spirituality he offers only musicians performing devotions
in endowed chapels and the Mensa Cornelia, a Veronese group of citizens supporting
polyphonie music in their cathedral, as possible consumers of motet anthologies. It is
unlikely that the number of private individuals wealthy enough to sponsor a side chapel
and musical services within that chapel could serve as a large enough market to support
Petrucci's continuous motet publications.
Confratemities and other lay devotional societies represent a much larger market
with more regular opportunities for polyphonie performance both in regular monthly
services and in more elaborate feast day celebrations and processions. As a commercial
.venture directed to a broad segment of the musically literate population, creating a motet
59
60
Boorman, "Early Music Printing," 222.
"Mirror of Man's Salvation," 766.
20
anthology containing a high percentage of prayer motets would increase its appeal to a
prospective market concerned with contemporary lay devotion, like the confraternities.
Previous studies have failed to recognize the centrality of lay piety, especially as
represented by the confratemities, in Italian culture c. 1500 and its potential role in the
cultivation of the motet. The para-liturgical motet genre was subject to the many currents
and trends of contemporary religious life. Many of the new musical textures and
imitative deviees used so effectively by the Josquin generation are present in music of the
previous generation of composers. What prompted the sudden cohesion of these
elements? What were the extra-musical motivations for this new style of composition?
Julie Cumming explores the_move from variety to repetition in connection to the move
from patronage by established northem rulers to the more unstable Italian courts, courts
of princes using music as a tool to establish their power and authority.61 The description
of the new style as "affective" and "aurally perceptible" indicates that modem scholars
believe someone was going to hear these motets, even that the composer was motivated to
use the new musical toolbox to communicate the meaning of the text to a receptive
audience. 62 Placing the motet in the culture of sixteenth century Europe, Thomas
observes that "because it uses Latin texts, drawn primarily from scripture and the Roman
Catholic liturgy, the motet transcends the barriers of vernacular language and speaks
through texts often recognizable from a shared religious experience."63 But what was the
context for musical realization of this shared religious experience? What was
significantly different in the religious environment of late fifteenth- and early sixteenthcentury Europe to promote such an "explosion of activity" in the motet repertory?
61
"From Variety to Repetition," 1-16.
Finscher, "Zum VerMltnis von Imitationstechnik," 57.
63
Sixteenth-Century Motet, 1.
62
21
The confratemal context for motet performance in Europe.
1 would like to suggest that lay religious organizations, specifically confraternities,
representa prosperous market for Petrucci's printed motet anthologies and a significant
audience for performance of motets in general. The culture of late Medieval and early
Modem Europe was steeped in the discourse of lay religiosity. This expansion of the
sacred into the secular is evident in the extensive circulation of both manuscript and
printed books of hours and the popularity of images of devotion not only for side chapels
but also for other public and private spaces. Boundaries between ecclesiastical and
profane were not clearly defined as they are today. Images of Christ, the Virgin and the
Saints lined the streets, watching over market place and churchyard alike. The seasons
were punctuated by important feasts of the Church calendar, and lesser feasts of more
regional importance added to the local identity of a place. Confraternities became
important organs for the expression of lay spirituality, often taking musical form. The
motet, as a para-liturgical composition and vehicle of spiritually edifying texts, would be
highly appropriate to performance in lay religious contexts.
The new rhetorical style of motet composition can be seen mirrored in the trend in
lay religion toward "affective" piety, beginning in the monastic environments of the
twelfth century. This movement, as exhibited in the writings of St. Bernard of Clairvaux,
encouraged the devotee to use human, earthly experiences to understand the divine. For
example in one of St. Bemard's Marian sermons the reader is encouraged to identify with
the emotions of Mary watching the suffering of her son on the cross. Bernard of
Clairvaux was writing to clerics of the new Cistercian order in the twelfth century, men
who had come into the order as adults and had experience with secular life. By the late
22
fifteenth century the ideas of Bernard had transgressed the monastery walls and in many
ways shaped the public devotional discourse. 64 Donna Spivey Ellington, looking at
representations of Mary in popular preaching in the early modem era, states that "the
sermons that St. Bernard delivered for the great Marian festivals became a virtual
textbook for Marian homiletics. His themes and even his exact words were repeated
again and again in the succeeding centuries."65 The new motets bring to life the texts
they set in the same way Bernard and his followers render the distant figures of
ecclesiastical discourse accessible to lay devotees, including confratemity members.
Past studies of the musical culture of late medieval and early modem Europe have
often failed to recognize the importance of the musical activities of confratemities
because musicology has long imposed what Blake Wilson calls a ''two-tiered model. '.66
In the most caricatured form of this system, polyphony and the ability to read from
mensurai notation were strict!y in the purview of the elite courtly or church musicians
while simple monophonie songs were consumed and transmitted orally by the lower
classes. This view does not take into account the actual diversity and interchange taking
place especially in the mercantile classes of late medieval and early modem cities.
Courtly circles would not stop enjoying the monophonie oral traditions just because they
had access to musicians trained in complex polyphony and similarly, despite lower
musicalliteracy rates, musicians of the oral traditions could perform simple improvised
polyphony and enjoy composed polyphony. 67
64
For an in depth discussion of this in relation to the motet, see Chiu, "You have Wounded My Heart."
·
66
Merchants and Musicians, l.
67
For a discussion of simple polyphony see, Strohm, Rise of European Music, 333-39.
6
~ From Sacred Body to Angelic Sou/, 27.
23
In addition, the middle class had the means to draw on both traditions, funding
polyphonie perfonnance of religious music in confratemal contexts. Reinhard Strohm
asserts that in Bruges "there was an enormous amount of polyphonie performance which
was endowed by guilds and confraternities in private chapels."68 He argues that although
musicologists have generally dismissed this as an important venue for polyphony because
the audience was limited to members, "almost every working individual in the town
belonged to one or more confraternities who ali had their musical 'programme' .'.69 Blake
Wilson reminds us that "in Trecento Italy the largest number of extant polyphonie motets
may be found in the music manuscripts belonging to two of the smaller Florentine laudesi
companies, and the largest and most stable polyphonie chapels of Quattrocento Florence
were those maintained by these same lay confratemities."70 It seems likely that Petrucci,
printing polyphony in the late Quattrocento, would have seen a market for collections of
devotional motets in simiiar lay devotional societies in Venice and across Europe.
Extreme expressions of persona! piety in a secular context, represented by
Margaret of Austria's manuscript Brussels 228, with its beautiful images of Mary and the
patron, were certainly beyond the means of ali but the most wealthy and elite individuals.
Printed prayer motets, on the other hand, performed in confratemal contexts, beautifully
decorated chapels and elaborate processions, evince the same multilayered lay devotional
environment as expressed by the rising middle class in early sixteenth-century European
cities. It is not without precedent that the mercantile class would want to appropriate the
music and complexity ofthe musical establishments ofboth the wealthy elite and the
powerful clerics. This trend is matched by the progression ofthe Book of Hours from
68
Music in Late Medieval Bruges, 8.
Music in Late Medieval Bruges, 8.
70
Music and Merchants, I.
69
24
prayer manuscripts in the bands of bishops and priests, to decadent possessions of elite
lay patrons during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, often kings and queens, and,
finally, to common belongings of the urban middle class. Roger Wieck states that "Books
of Hours reflect at the same time lay religious piety and the pride, or possibly
conspicuous acquisitiveness, of ownership... More than one satirical broadside aimed at
the social pretensions of the urban middle class singled out the vogue for carrying about
richly adomed Books of Hours.'m The printed Book of Hours, like the printed motet
anthology, made ownership even more widespread. Brown bas made the observation that
"the contents ofthe Petrucci anthologies are largely made up of the kind oftexts to be
found in Books of Hours, and that the motet volumes might almost be described as the
music~ equivalent of one ofthese devotional books.''72 The devotional prayer motet
generally and Petrucci' s motet anthologies provide a musical development parallel to the
Books of Hours.
In a similar way the Book of Hours pro vides a model for understanding the way
performance ofLatin-texted motets might have functioned in the secular societies of
confratemities. Even though members of the middle class might not comprehend each
word of a sung Latin prayer text they would still have considered the prayer to be useful
and affective in fulfilling their spiritual aims. Books of Hours, items probably owned by
a majority ofmembers, included a large amount ofLatin prayer even when they also used
the vernacular. Paul Saenger, discussing uses of Books of Hours, notes that there were
numerous levels ofliteracy and one, phonetic literacy, "was the ability to decode texts
71
72
Time Sanctified, 34.
"Mirror ofMan;s Salvation," 764.
25
syllable by syllable and to pronounce them orally."73 Richardson points out that the first
texts learned by pupils in the Renaissance were Latin prayers, including the Pater Noster
and the Ave Maria, not vemacular texts. 74 Most members of confratemities in early
modem cities probably had daily interaction with Books of Hours and had an appreciation
for, if not a subtle comprehension of, the Latin prayers contained in them, and often set to
music in devotional motets. The clear text setting of the new style of the Josquin
generation would render more comprehensible the meaning of the texts, texts that had
relevance to lay devotion. Hence, the Latin language of motets would not inhibit
members of the middle-class confratemities from enjoying and being edified by their
performance. As musical renderings of devotions from Books of Hours, Latin-texted
motets could be consumed by lay confratemities across Europe, regardless of the local
vernacular.
Conclusion.
In the following chapters I hope to demonstrate, through a discussion of the
Marian motets of the Petrucci motet anthologies, how motets were used in and served the
needs of popular, lay devotion, and more specifically confratemities. If confratemities
represent a viable market for motets and a context for motet performance, their musical
needs, symbols, and ceremonies would have in:fluenced composers and publishers of
motets. I argue that the Marian motets ofPetrucci's Venetian prints employa language of
devotion that could be easily understood and utilized by the scuole and by other
confratemities.
73
74
"Books of Hours," 142.
Richardon, Printing, Writers and Readers, 108.
26
The frrst chapter, Motets in the Confratemal Environment, describes the
devotional environment in Italy at the end of the fifteenth century and lays out an
argument for performance of motets in the scuole. Drawing upon the research of
Jonathan Glixon, this chapter describes both the performance contexts of the scuole and
the musical styles necessary for those contexts. It includes a description of the main
confratemal genre, the lauda, and connections that Petrucci' s Marian motets have to this
genre. The second chapter, Marian Motets in the V enetian Context, will discuss the
Marian aspects of the lay religious environment of Venice and describe sorne of the main
topics of Marian devotion. 1 will de fine the different Marian text types, and explain how
they are used in my database of the Marian motets included in Petrucci's Venetian
anthologies (Appendix 1). ln this chapter 1 hope to lay the groundwork for a more subtle
discussion of motets in terms of Mariology in Venice and in Europe as a whole.
The third chapter is a more detailed look at settings of the most popular Marian
text type, the Ave Maria. By the turn of the sixteenth century, in part through the
influence of German confratemal activities, the Ave Maria had gained cultural capital
both as the words of the angel Gabriel and as a votive prayer that permeated Renaissance
Iife. This text itself became a symbol of piety, maintaining considerable cultural capito l
in both lay and ecclesiastical environments. Through a number of comparative analyses
of the various ways that the Ave Maria is used in motets, this chapter demonstrates the
influence of popular religion on motet production. The Marian motets of Petrucci' s
Venetian anthologies can provide answers to sorne ofthe questions surrounding the
performance context of the rapidly rising number of motets circulating in Europe at the
turn of the sixteenth century.
27
Chapter 1
Motets and Confratemities
The confratemal context in Italy.
Confraternities in Europe and Italy fit in to the broader movements of the
mendicant orders. Through their preaching and lifestyle choices the mendicants brought
spirituality out of the confined spaces of the church and into the streets and homes of the
laity. In his discussion of the religious environment of late medieval Italy, Timothy
V erdoli states that "new contexts of religious experience were taking shape: the pious
confratemities and compagnie that flourished under the impetus ofFranciscan and
Dominican spirituality from the trecento to the Council of Trent." He goes on to make
the point that such "devotional environments allowed their members to touch sacred
realities through liturgical, penitential, and charitable activities formerly reserved for the
clergy."75 To begin his book Italian Con.fraternities in the Sixteenth Century, Christopher
Black defines the confraternity as "a voluntary association of people [normally laymen]
who come together under the guidance of certain rules to promote their religious life in
common."76 He notes the diversity offratemal organizations in the early modem period,
from strict devotional societies to trade-based guilds. In his introduction to a collection of
essays entitled Early Modern Con.fraternities in Europe and the Americas he concludes
that these groups are "the key to much lay religious enthusiasm and activity in western
Christendom."77 For the devotional movements beginning in the thirteenth century Black
determines that the Dominicans encouraged fraternal organizations ''to ensure the
salvation of souls, and the proper undertakings of works of charity," while the
75
"Christianity, the Renaissance, and the Study ofHistory," 4.
76
1.
77
"Confraternity Context," 6.
28
Franciscans were more fixated on penitential flagellation. 78 Theroots of the powerful
confraternities of late fifteenth-century Italy are found in these mendicant-sponsored
organizations.
Confraternities had been important social forces in Italy since the processions of
flagellants swept across the peninsula in the wak:e of the devastating plagues of the midfourteenth century. These groups provided opportunities for lay people to express the
anxiety they felt as a result of the plague. They assembled to do penance and to pray for
the rapidly increasing number of souls in Purgatory. Such groups continued because they
created a sense of solidarity amongst the growing urban society as the plague persisted.
Brian Pullan states that in Venice "the rituals of the flagellants were, among much else, a
spiritual complement to the long series of highly practical measures against the plague ...
Over the half century from 1478-1528, the pestilence was to recur at intervals of five or
six years." 79 Jacques Le Goff, in TheBirth of Purgatory, notes the way that the doctrine
ofPurgatory creates "bonds between the living and the dead," bonds that required action
on behalf of the dead by the living. 80 He goes on to explain that "little by little, between
the thirteenth and the sixteenth centuries, the solidarity of Purgatory would become
involved in the new forms of sociability associated with confratemities."81 Membership
in confratemities provided insurance that you would be rememberèd in prayer after your
death, shortening the time that you would spend in Purgatory.
There were essentially two varieties of confratemities in Italy, the laudesi, those
that emphasized pray er, and the jlagellanti, those that practiced flagellation. Blake
78
"Confratemity Context," 7.
79
"Scuole Grandi in Venice," 275.
80
293.
Le Goff, Birth ofPurgatory, 294.
81
29
Wilson states that "the laudesi companies, along with their penitential counterpart, the
disciplinati (or flagellant) companies, were the distinctive result ofthe interaction
between the forces of mendicant spirituality, urban piety, and the merchant culture of the
early Italian city-republics."82 Many of the most important and oldest confraternities,
begun as flagellant groups, remained influential, but by the late 1400s had broadened
their activities to include acts of charity and communal religious edification. Brian
Pullan's book, Rich and Poor in Renaissance Venice, discusses the way that the
charitable works ofthe Venetian scuole contributed to the stability and longevity ofthe
Venetian Republic by providing secure assistance for the poor. In many cases communal
prayer and musical services rivaled in importance the public displays of penance. Wilson
determines that for the Florentine laudesi companies, sorne of which began as flagellant
confraternities, the performance of complex services with music became the primary
focus and activity. 83 By 1502, the year that Petrucci printed his first motet anthology in
Venice, music was an important aspect of both laudesi and flagellant confraternities in
Italy.
The scuole of Venice.
Venetian confraternities, called scuole, 84 were fundamental to the profile ofthe
city ofVenice. In Civic Ritual in Renaissance Venice Edward Muir discusses the way
that processions and public displays reinforced the political structure of Venice through
the combination of sacred and secular elements in their portrayal of the famous myth of
82
Merchants and Musicians, 2.
Merchants and Musicians, 2.
84
This is the Italian word for school and the Venetian term for their confraternities. It will not be capitalized
because it is used so frequently.
83
30
Venice. In another article Muir discusses Venice in terms of a "theater state," astate in
which the iconic language of the sacred was completely "interwoven into the urban
fabric" and where "the authorities made certain that they wrote the script and dominated
the stage." 85 The doge was presented as botha political and a religious figure with
ceremonies and processions that emphasized his dual role. 86 Brian Pullan concludes that
through their lay devotional activities, specifically their processions, confratemities
enforced the legally rigid, castelike social structureofVenice.87 For this reason they were
not viewed with suspicion by the patrician govemment.
The scuole represented the middle classes in the drama of the Venetian "theater
state." Jonathan Glixon observes that "the members of the confratemities were middleclass laymen, chiefly merchants, tradesmen, and craftmen. These men, several hundred
in each Scuola, gathered to do honour to God, the Virgin Mary, and the saints,"88 as well
as the city ofVenice and, consequently, themselves. 89 The scuole grandi were the largest
and most wealthy confraternities, boasting memberships between 500 and 600
individuals, including ali the important businessmen of the city. Membership in the
scuole grandi was not limited by region but drew equally from across the city, mostly
from the cittadini, the civil servants and professional class, and the upper stratum of the
popolani, the merchants and tradesmen. 90 Membership also included a small number of
patricians, excluded from holding office, and sorne members of the lower classes, called
fadighenti, who "in exchange for free membership and full benefits, performed all the
85
"Virgin on the Street Corner," 39.
Fenlon, "Magnificens as Civic Image," 1.
87
"Scuole Grandi ofVenice," 280.
88
"Music at the Venetian Scuole Grandi: 1440-1540," 194.
89
Glixon, Honoring God, 8.
90
Glixon, Honoring God, 15.
86
31
difficult and unpleasant tasks that the middle-class regular brothers no longer wished to
undertake," sometimes including flagellation. 91
Other groups, called scuole piccole, fulfilled the need for devotional organizations
and guild-like groups for less wealthy or socially advanced citizens. 92 These scuole were
smaller in membership than the scuole grandi. Although they were generally less wealthy
than the scuole grandi the scuole picco le were still important patrons of the arts. Art
historian, Peter Humfrey has identified forty-eight major altarpieces commissioned by
scuole piccole between 1440-1600, including Bellini's S. Giobbe altarpiece from ca. 1480
and Dürer's Rosary painting from 1506. 93 The scuole piccole can be divided into various
categories and often represented the interests and spiritUal needs of the diverse
subpopulations living in Venice. For example the community of Germans living in
Veni ce formed their own scuola piccola, the Confraternity of the Rosary, a branch of a
universal prayer fellowship, very different from the Venetian scuole. The scuole piccole
also participated in and were an influential part of the Venetian political theater. 94
Music was integral to the elaborate, ceremonial functions of the Venetian
Republic. The processions of the doge, called the andate, included elaborate music
performed by the cappella marciana, the singers of polyphony from San Marco. Iain
Fenlon suggests that these singers from San Marco not only brought elite music into the
streets and squares ofVenice, expanding the audience, but also amplified ducal authority
through musical magnificence. 95 He implies that music was experienced not only
passively by this new audience, but also actively when they walked in the processions
91
Glixon,HonoringGod,17.
Honoring God, 195.
"Competitive Devotions," 401-23.
94
See Pullan, "Scuole Grandi ofVenice," 275 and Fenlon, "Magnificence as Civic Image," 19.
95
"Magnificence as Civic Image," 13.
92
· Glixon,
93
32
"chanting litanies and singing laude."96 In his description of the celebrations after the
defeat ofthe Turks in 1571 Fenlon observes the importance of music in both the sacred
and the secular context. He states that "the passage from official rituals to public
celebration was accompanied by the change from strictly liturgical ceremonies to popular
modes which incorporated different orders ofvisual and musical experience," including
fireworks displays accompanied by the music of drums, fifes and trumpets, and "more
decorous ensembles" playing in pergolas. 97 The members of the scuole, as part of
Venetian society, had an appreciation for the spiendor that elaborate music adds to civic
and religious events.
Music in the scuole.
The Venetian scuole were significant contributors to the musical magnificence of
Venice in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. Jonathan Glixon' s book
Honoring God and the City: Music at the Venetian Confraternities, 1260-1807, represents
more than twenty-five years ofresearch into the musical activities in the scuole and their
complex position within the politi cal and religious drama of the Venetian Republic. At
the conclusion of this meticulous study he maintains that ''the scuole ... sponsored music
on approximately three hundred days each year, in more than one hundred churches (on
sorne days in several dozen simultaneously),throughout every district of the city, with
processions in nearly every public space, bringing music not only to the brothers and
sisters of the confratemities, but to practically the·entire population."98 Through
sponsorship of music in processions and public services the scuole symbolically added
96
"Magnificence as Civic Image," 13.
"Magnificence as Civic Image," 19.
98
253.
97
33
their voices to the musical portrait of the city throughout the year and also participated in
a broader lay devotional movement in Europe.
In the late fifteenth and early sixteenth century the scuole sponsored an increasing
amount of polyphonie music. Although the scuole did not seem to require communal
singing except at funerals, Glixon notes that from the early fifteenth century the scuole
weré assembling musically skilled brothers to sing on behalf of the group in processions,
possibly "out of a desire to sing more complex music (perhaps polyphony?) beyond the
capabilities of any large group of untrained laymen. " 99 Loo king at the payment registers
and petitions to the Council ofTen, Glixon claims that ''the second half of the fifteenth
century represents an awakening of sorts for the scuole, as they adapted their longstanding traditions to make room for a new role for music, ever more valued during the
Renaissance. The occasions remained the same as before but the music itself was more
up-to-date. The new polyphonie styles required a level of musical sophistication" that
prompted the scuole to hire professionals. 100
Table 1.1: Music at the scuole circa 1500 (Assembled from Glixon, 250-52)
1
2
Type of Music
Chant
Simple polyphony
3
Polyphonie laude
4
Instrumental music for
bowed and plucked strings
Sophisticated motets and
Masses
5
99
Honoring God, 85.
Honoring God, 105.
100
Performer
Clerical musicians
cantadori di corpi (poor
confratemity brothers)
cantadori de laude (semiprofessionals)
Hired instrumentalists or poor
brothers
cantadori solenni (professional
singers often from ducal chape!)
Context
Mass or Vespers
Funerals
Processions and
services
Processions and
services
Processions and
services on
important feast
days
34
In Table 1.1 I have distilled from Glixon the five types of music sponsored by the scuole
circa 1500, including the performers and the performance context. This table indicates
the wide range of music consumed by the scuole, from chant and simple polyphony to ·
sophisticated motets and polyphonie masses. Although the music most often sponsored
by the scuole was chant and laude, there was an increasing role for polyphonie music and
possibly motets. 101
In addition to priests, the scuole supported up to three different ensembles, sorne
of which were brought together from the membership while others were hired
professionals. From their beginnings the scuole celebrated funerals and perhaps other
processions with the communal singing of laude. 102 The cantadori di corpi was the first
group designated specifically as musicians, beginning in the early fifteenth century. 103
They were assembled from the musically skilledfadighenti, and as their name suggests
they were required to sing at ali the funerals of confratemity members and at weekly
services. 104 Mid-century, the best singers were culled from the fadighenti to create the
cantadori de laude, a group that was paid per occasion to perform more complex
music. 105 Trained instrumentalists were also more consistently hired from outside the
membership of the scuole in the second half of the fifteenth century. 106 By the early
decades of the sixteenth century the scuole had expanded their musical palate to include
the complex music ofthe most prestigious musical establishments in the city, hiring
cantadori solenni for special events from "the major monasteries and St. Mark's itself."107
101
Glixon, Honoring God, 108.
HonoringGod, 85.
103
Honoring God, 86.
104
Honoring God, 94.
105
Honoring God, 94-5.
106
Glixon, Honoring God, 105.
107
Glixon, Honoring God, 112-13.
102
35
This group grew out of the cantadori de laude but were often required to audition and
probably "performed the same sort of music they sang in their regular cappella jobsmotets and similar works." Although the scuole piccole had Jess money to spend on
music they still funded music on special occasions, including polyphony. 108 .These
ensembles supported by the scuole needed a diverse repertoire, appropriate to various
performance contexts from outdoor processions to more intimate celebrations in the
meetinghouses and home churches of the scuole. 1 believe that the repertoire ofthe
Petrucci motet anthologies represents a body of music appropriate for use in rows 3-5 of
table 1.1.
Music from ail three of these categories, laude, instrumental music and motets,
would be appropriate for performance in processions. Processions provided an
opportunity for the scuole to display their piety and their wealth and participate in
ceremonial affirmations of the magnificence of Venice. As Glixon bas noted, "while
processions played only a minor role in the ceremonials of secular and monastic churches,
they formed the center of many of the rituals of the scuole grandi." 109 On major feast
days and civic holidays the brotherhood of each scuola grande processed througli the city
wearing the robes of the confratemity and carrying candies and relies in omate boxes.
Gentile Bellini's painting Processione in San Marco (figure 1.1) features the Scuola di
San Giovanni processing in St. Mark's square with its famous relie of the holy cross. 110
Painted in 1496, this painting corroborates Glixon's assessment of the musical ensembles
employed by the scuole in processions. At the head of the scuo1a walks a group of
instrumentalists, including barp, lute and vielle, and another group offive singers holding
108
Glixon, Honoring God, 198-21 O.
"Music at the Venetian Scuole Grandi: 1440-1540," 198.
110
Brown, "On Gentile Bellini's Processione," 649-58.
109
36
sheets of polyphonie music. Brown observes that "the front book contains the music for
Contratenor and perhaps also for Tenor-the voice designations are barely visible-and
so the rear book probably contained music for one or more higher parts."lll
Figure 1.1: Gentile Bellini, Processione in Piazza San Marco,
Galleria dell'
·
· 1496
Glixon mentions that based on extant documentation the Scuole di San Giovanni seems to
have been the scuola least interested in elaborate polyphony. 112 The central position of
the musicians in this painting commissioned by the Scuola di San Giovanni demonstrates
how essential music was to Venetian rituals.
Music served more than a devotional purpose. Beyond processions, the scuole
also expended money for polyphonie vespers and Mass once a month and on feast days.
In the quote from Father Felix Fabri from 1483, mentioned in the introduction, his anger
is that the "young people and ladies flock there [to SS. Giovanni e Paolo] not so much
because of divine service but in order to hear melodies and discantors." 113 It is clearly
"On Gentile Bellini's Processione," 652-3.
"Music at the Venetian Scuole Grandi," 198.
113
Quoted in Blackburn, "Petrucci's Venetian Editor," 39-40.
HI
112
37
Fabri's view that the audience is more excited about the musical splendor than they are
about the sacred rituai. Although he was experiencing music on one of the major
Dominican feast days, St. Peter Martyr on 29 April or St. Catherine of Siena on the frrst
Sunday of May, performed by the ensemble of Santi Giovanni e Paolo, this sort of service
might have been emulated by the scuole. The scuole certainly began to hire musicians
from Santi Gioyanni e Paolo and other major cappellas. By the mid-sixteenth century it is
clear that music was employed to attract an audience. In 1553 the skilled singers of the
ducal chapel formed a company to protect their interests and to eliminate competition
within their cappella for temporary scuole jobs. They required that if a scuola wanted to
hire one of the ducal singers they had to hire only members of their company and they
then split their earnings equally. When they asked for a raise the scuole and the Council
of Ten objected. 114 The result was a ban on music at the scuole, a situation that was
protested by both the musicians and the scuole. The scuole pied with the Council saying
that by means of the music "people are ~oved to come to the holy chu.fches and other
sacred places, where they are prompted to devotion and not given occasion for idleness,
which tends to be the root of ali evil."ll 5 In addition they explained that having music
was necessary "both for the honor of this most happy city, where ali of the world gathers,
and for the good of the scuole, whose means are increased by the number of people that
come to them because of the music and other ceremonies." 116 Although it is unclear if the
scuole actually benefited financially from having the singers, it is obvious that elaborate
polyphonie music was an important element of the ceremonies and essential for bringing
in the quantity of people to which the scuole were accustomed.
114
Glixon, Honoring God, 151-52.
Quoted in Glixon, Honoring God, 153.
116
Quoted in Glixon, HonoringGod, 153.
115
38
Petrucci, Castellanus and the Venetian scuole.
Both Petrucci and Petrus Castellanus would have had first hand interactions with
the musical activities of the Venetian scuole. Stanley Boorman hypothesizes that Petrucci
became a member of one of the scuole during his time in Venice. He states that "these
scuole served vital functions for many men in craftsman or merchant positions in the city,
giving them insurance, medical attention, a social milieu, and contact with members of
the V enetian nobility. As a member of such a group, Petrucci would come into contact
with music of a very specifie type, laude for regular use, and occasionally more ambitious
music." 117 It seems likely tome that Petrucci, as an enterprising businessman, would
have become a member of one of the scuole grandi soon a:fter his arrivai from
Fossombrone. This would give him important connections within the community of
upper class cittadini and merchantpopolani, vital to his financial success in the Venetian
Republic. As a confratemity brother Petrucci would have been aware of the practices and
musical needs of these groups. His membership would have required that he walk in the
feast day processions and attend services, both important venues for display of the
scuola's musical splendor.
Petrus Castellanus had a more practical connection with the musical needs of the
scuole. He was a Dominican, a mendicant order that had been long been an important
supporter of lay devotionallife and confraternities in Italy. 118 Castellanus was also the
maestro di cappella at Santi Giovanni e Paolo, the home church of the important Scuola
di San Marco. During 1487, a time when Castellanus was definitely active in the musical
117
Catalogue, 39. Boorman has found evidence that Petrucci was a member of the Guild ofCestieri, a
boxmakers guild, from 1505 until early 1509, Catalogue, 41.
118
Black, Jtalian Confraternities, 26.
39
life of the church and probably already the maestro di cappella, Felix Fabri again visited
Veni ce and attended the general meeting of the Dominican order held at Santi Giovanni e
Paolo. This time he was more positive about the pomp and splendor, describing "Mass
and Compline, which ended with polyphony, organs, and straight and S-shaped trumpets;
Compline alone lasted three hours, but without boring those present because of the
diversity of the music." 119 Music at Sariti Giovanni e Paolo, the large Dominican church,
rivaled that of the ducal church of San Marco. 120 Petrus Castellanus, as maestro di
cappella, would have been responsible for supplying the polyphonie repertoire necessary
for these big occasions.
The Scuola di San Marco had arrangements with their home church, Santi
Giovanni e Paolo, to provide clerical singers for services. Glixon states that according to
an agreement dating back to 1437 the Scuola di San Marco paid Santi Giovanni e Paolo
"an annual payment of 50 ducats for rights to the high altar" in additions to "70 ducats
annually for the friars of the convent to say the necessary masses (and also 2 ducats for
the organist and 3 for an annual "piatanza" or meal)." 121 This arrangement would include
sung high Masses. ln addition to supporting priests singing chant, "beginning as early as
1492, the Scuola di San Marco had decided to supplement its cantadori de laude, ail of
whom were brothers of the scuole, with high-quality extemal singers. " 122 Although
Glixon finds that documentation is sporadic in the early years of this practice he remarks
upon the desire for musical excellence from the scuole and the resulting practice of
119
Quoted in Blackburn, "Petrucci's Venetian Editor," 40-1.
Blackburn, "Petrucci's Venetian Editor," 40.
121
Honoring God, 146.
122
Glixon, Honoring God, 121.
120
40
choosing its singers from the cappella of San Marco or from Santi Giovanni e Paolo. 123
As a member of the choir at least by 1486 and later the maestro di cappella (we know he
was hired for this position for the second time in 1505) Castellanus would have had
interactions with the musical needs of the Scuola di San Marco. Overseeing singing
clerics for services may have been part of his duties as maestro di cappella and he was
probably hired to sing for the important occasional celebrations of the scuola as a
cantadori solenni. Glixon has noted that cantadori solenni probably performed the music
they regularly sang in church, possibly bringing it with them. 124 If this is true, Petrus
Castellanus may have performed for the scuola sorne of the repertoire he and the
members of his cappella sang for their Order, music that he would later publish with
Petrucci.
Boorman postulates that the diverse material ofPetrucci's publications after 1505
may reflect contact with confraternities and confratemal musicians. 125 He assumes that
Petrucci was looking to new suppliers because Castellanus had been transferred to the
Dominican house at Recanati.
126
Boorman uses the first volume of laude composed by
Innocentius Dammonis as an example, and postulates that ''perhaps Petrucci had direct
contact with Dammonis through a confraternity associated with San Salvatore, or (and I
think more probably) the music for the second volume of laude came from one or more
different groups, with the idea being provoked by the first edition of the Dammonis
volume. The publications in the book of Lamentations of a two-voiced settings by de
123
Glixon, Honoring God, 120-23.
Glixon, Honoring God, 108.
125
Catalogue, 40.
126
Catalogue, 39.
124
41
Quadris may also be relevant here." 127 It is interesting that during the same period of
time that he was publishing simpler settings suitable for poorer institutions, possibly the
less affluent scuole piccole, Petrucci was also working on the other end of the spectrum
with Motetti a cinque. Petrucci seems to have had an awareness of the divergent needs of
the different musical ensembles employed by the scuole, and been motivated to publish
appropriate music for the whole market. It is possible that with the previous motet
volumes Petrucci had fulfilled the current needs of the confraternal market for moderately
complex polyphony and was now exploring the potential of the extremes.
Subject matter of the motets.
The subject matter of the motets also points to a confraternal repertoire. Howard
Mayer Brown has pointed out that the topical designations given on the title page of the
second anthology, Motetti de passione, de cruce, de sacramento, de beata virgine et
huiusmodi B, translated by Julie Cumming as "Motets of the passion, the cross, the
sacrament, the blessed Virgin, and so forth, B," 128 can be applied to ali four volumes. 129
He also notes that these are common topics celebrated in votive masses during the
Renaissance throughout the year, regardless of liturgical season. Beyond these broader
contexts these subjects would be relevant to the feasts and ceremonies of the Venetian
scuole, as will be demonstrated below. Brown has also noted that "hardly any of them
[the motets] were appropriate for the major feasts of the liturgical year." 130 He points out
that only fifteen ofthe 175 motets in the first four anthologies "set texts appropriate for
127
Catalogue, 40.
"From Chape! Choirbook to Print Partbook," 12.
129
"Mirror of Man's Salvation," 756.
130
"Mirror of Man's Salvation," 755.
128
42
the Christmas and Easter seasons... Another eleven set secular or political texts. · As
many as eighty motets, on the other hand, celebrate the Virgin Mary." 131 Significantly,
the feasts of Christmas and Easter are also absent from the calendars of the scuole.
Glixon explains that "the mariegole [statues ofthe scuole] obligated the brothers to take
communion twice annually, on Christmas and Easter, but the scuole deferred [this
responsibility] to the parishes on the important celebrations, and did not try to interfere
with events traditionally celebrated with family and fellow parishioners." 132 Not only do
the motets included in the Petrucci anthologies represent the interests of the scuole, but
the absences also reflect the feasts excluded from communal celebration. 133
The frrst subject listed in the title to Motetti B, "de passione," reflects the fact that
ali of the scuole grande were originally flagellant confraternities. These groups, with
their fundamental commitment to performing acts of penance, had an important
connection to motets de passione. lt was during the Lenten processions that flagellation
still persisted into the sixteenth century, although in a much reduced form, with only a
small portion ofthe brotherhood actually carrying flails. 134 The 1570 Libro Vardian da
mattin of the Scuola di San Giovanni Evangelista instructs the members to articulate each
of the stops at churches and monasteries along the way with the singing of a lauda. 135 San
Rocco's procession on Maundy Thursday also included the singing oflaude.U 6 Music
played an important role in the celebration of the passion and the penitential season.
Motets on penitential subjects could have been sung in addition to or possibly replaced
the laude for sorne of these occasions.
131
"Mirror of Man's Salvation," 755. 1 have found that there are actually ninety-four Marian motets.
Glixon, Honoring God, 45.
133
Cumming, "From Chapet Choirbook to Print Partbook," 13.
134
Glixon, Honaring Gad, and Pu lian, Rich and Poar, 51-2.
135
Glixon, Honoring God, 58-9.
136
Glixon, Hanaring Gad, 61-2.
132
43
Appropriate music would also be called for to commemorate the feast day, or festa
of the patron saint of each scuola. These celebrations were probably the most important
point in the year for the celebrating scuola. Table 1.2 shows the annualfeste for the
scuole grandi active during the first decade of the sixteenth century. 137
Table 1.2: Scuole Grandi in the early 1500s
Feast Day
Annunciation of the Virgin
(March 25)
Santi Giovanni e Paolo
San Marco (April 25)
San Marco
San Giovanni Evangelista San Giovanni Evangelista
San Giovanni Evangelista
(December 27) and
Holy Cross (May 3)
Santa Maria della
Santa Maria della Misericordia Conception of the Virgin
(December 8)
Misericordia
San Rocco
San Giuliano
San Rocco(August 16)
Scuola
Santa Maria della Carità
Home Church
San Leonardo
Glixon notes that "the most elaborate of ali celebrations at the scuole were, ironically,
those for which the least amount of information has survived, the feast days of their
patron saints." 138 A feast day began with Vespers the evening before and continued with
Mass in the morning. Then ali of the scuole grandi would make an elaborate procession
through the city, with music and ceremony, arriving at the home church of the scuola
being celebrated in time to participate in a second Vespers. 139 The 1521 Ceremoniale of
San Rocco includes musicians in the list of embellishments necessary to honor the Scuola
di Santa Maria della Carità. "The scuola should carry the crucifix, four golden large
candies, and twelve golden double candies, ali festooned, and the singers of song and
°
instrumentalists, and it should go in the morning at the usual hour." 14 Christopher Black
137
Thefeste of the scuole piccole would cover a additional feasts and saint's days.
Honoring God, 4 7.
139
Honoring God, 47-8.
140
Quoted in Glixon, Honoring God, 49.
138
44
points out that in Venice, "despite government attempts to curb sumptuary extravagance,
these processions became more lavish and costlier for the confratemities and individual
members." 141 In the case of the scuole piccole such expenditures could be justified if they
brought attention to the goods sold by membersofthe associated trade.
142
The
acquisition and performance of more elaborate music could also play into this competitive
\
atmosphere, and motets celebrating appropriate subjects might be added to supplement
the musical offerings.
In addition to feste the scuole celebrated a number of other days and symbols.
Each scuola acquired relies that became important in the ceremonies and mythology of
the group. Perhaps the most celebrated relies owned by any scuola were the fragments of
the true cross owned by the Scuola di San Giovanni Evangelista. They were carried in an
omate box, and figure as the centerpiece of the Bellini painting of the Scuola di San
Giovanni Evangelista (see Figure 1.1, p. 36), one of a series ofpaintings commissioned to
decorate the special room built specially for them in the fifteenth century. 143 The painting
serves the dual purpose of pictorially representing the glory of the scuola in procession,
and of depicting one of the miracles brought about by the relies. The man kneeling to the
right of the relies is Jacopo de' Salis, a merchant from Brescia, who prays for ''the
recovery of his seriously wounded son. Legend bas it that as the relie passed him, his son
was miraculously cured." 144 Glixon claims that "in celebration oftheir most prized relie,
the Scuola di San Giovanni Evangelista sponsored on this day sorne of the most elaborate
music of the year ... The Libro Vardian da mattin refers to the cantadori solenni and
141
Italian Confraternities, II O.
MacKenny, "Devotional Confraternities," 94.
143
Glixon, Honoring God, 64.
144
Brown, "On Gentile Bellini's Processione," 649.
142
45
sonadori as usual, but indicates that they performed alongside the cappella de San
Marco." 145 The motets "de cruce," especially Compère's nine-part Ojjicium de Cruce
from Motetti B, could be appropriate for performance in processions with the relie. Each
section could be performed at a different stop along the way, a point I will make later.
Compère's Crux triumphans from Motetti A might also be appropriate for performance on
this occasion and it appears with the Officium in the printed motet collection, Selectae
harmoniae (RISM 1538 1)published by Rhau.
There were many occasions, both ci vic and religious, other than the feast days of
the scuole grandi, that required the participation of the scuole. A number ofthese were
celebrations of the Virgin Mary. In addition to the two Marian feast days, the scuole
grandi celebrated Purification on February 2 and the feast of the Nativity on September 8,
to varying degrees.
146
Ali the scuole participated in a civic procession on the feast of the
Madonna della Salute on November 21.
147
There were other civic processions on days
important to the myth of V enice, such as Corpus Christi, and important events for the
Venetian Republic, for example funerals and visits from important political figures.
Glixon states that Corpus Christi "though apparently purely religious in its origins, was
used as yet another occasion to glorify the Most Serene Republic. It was the occasion for
great display, including numerous floats and tableaux vivants mounted by the scuole." 148
The scuole, including the·scuole piccole, also had various celebrations particular to their
own history and mythology. As penitential groups the scuole held important processions
145
Glixon, Honoring God, 64.
Glixon, Honoring God, 66.
147
Glixon, Honoring God, 56.
148
Glixon, Honoring God, 54.
146
46
.
during the season of Lent.
149
The Day ofthe Dead was important tothe scuole because of
their role in commemorating and praying for the souls of dead brothers, an important
aspect of the scuole discussed by Brian Pullan. 150 Music formed an important element in
these celebrations and, as discussed before, increasingly musicians of higher quality were
hired to perform more complex music. Could motets on relevant subjects have formed a
significant portion of the music performed for these diverse events?
Musical style and similarity to the lauda.
The musical genre mentioned most frequent! y in the documents of the scuole and
for confratemities in general is the lauda, not the motet. As the scuole wound their way
through the city in processions they would stop at important points to sing and the pieces
that they sang were called laude. 151 The lauda began as a piece of devotional poetry
performed as a monophonie sacred song and associated with confratemal performance. 152
In Florence lauda texts began to be grafted onto other secular polyphony in the cantasi
come tradition and performed by increasingly professional ensembles. 153 The skilled
singers of the scuole were cantadori de laude, performers who magnified the prayers and
praises of the brothers in song. As noted before, Glixon implied that the formation of
groups of semi-professional singers in the mid-fifteenth century may indicate that the
scuole were interested in performing more complicated music, probably polyphonie
laude. 154 Unfortunately, scuole documents do not speci:fy the specifie repertoire ofthese
149
Glixon, Honoring God, 58-62 and 68-69.
Rich and Poor in Renaissance Venice.
151
Glixon, Honoring God, 58-9.
152
Wilson,"Lauda," Grove Music Online, edited by Laura Macy, http://www.grovemusic.com (accessed 5
June 2007).
153
Macey, Bonfire Songs.
154
Honoring God, 85.
150
47
groups but, during the mid-fifteenth century, the polyphonie lauda was beirig developed
and copied into manuscripts in the monastic environments ofthe Veneto. 155 These
sources contain two- and three-voice laude. Considering the connection between many
monastic orders and the scuole, cantadori de laude were probably performing works
similar to those in the monastic sources. The music sheets depicted in the Bellini painting
strongly suggest that they were singing polyphony by the end of the century.
Blake Wilson describes. the Florentine lauda as a piece in which "the text-setting
is syllabic and homorhythmic, and there is a close rhetoricàl correspondence between
poetic and musical phrases, with clearly articulated, simultaneous cadences in ali
parts." 156 Glixon argues that "the lauda is primarily a derivative genre. The lauda
appears in many forms only one ofwhich, 1 believe, is proper toit ... simple, nearly noteagainst-note two- or three-part counterpoint." 157 Although this form of simple polyphony
was probably the predominant genre performed by the scuole through most of the
fifteenth century, there are few sources from the beginning of the sixteenth century to
indicate if this style remained the norm. Writing about the early decades of the sixteenth
century, Jonathan Glixon reports that, despite much musical activity, there are no
surviving early sixteenth-century music manuscripts from San Marco or the scuole. 158 By
the end of the century it is clear from the fact that they are hiring musicians from the most
prestigious chapels, that they were looking for more complex polyphony. Were the elite
musicians hired by the scuole still singing simple two- and three-part laude?
155
Wilson, "Lauda," Grave Music On/ine, edited by Laura Macy, http://www.grovemusic.com (accessed 5
June2007).
.
156
"Lauda," Grove Music Online, edited by Laura Macy, http://www.grovemusic.com (accessed 5 June
2007).
151
"Polyphonie Laude," 40.
158
"Polyphonie Laude," 19~20.
48
The one collection from the first decade ofthe sixteenth century that is
specifically Venetian and might provide an answer to this question is Petrucci' s Laude
Libro Primo (1506), a print of four-voice works by lnnocentius Dammonis. Glixon states
that this print is important in "dispelling the comfuonly held view that early sixteenthcentury polyphonie laude are ali simple, homophonie, and unsophisticated." 159 In
addition to more traditional settings, Glixon identifies a variety of styles within the print:
those similar to the frottola, pieces using non-imitative polyphony and a cantus firmus,
and pieces that are imitative throughout, in a Netherlandish style. 160 Glixon states that
"Dammonis's laude are mostly in the styles of the frottola or motet, though ali appear to
be original compositions." 161 The fact that Petrucci engaged in both a second print run of
this volume and printed a second volume of laude, Laude II, in 1508 indicates that this
. music was popular with a significant market. 162 Boorman believes that this second
volume of laude was also drawn from V enetian sources because the spelling of the texts
conforms to tl1e Venetian dialect. 163 The Venetian scuole were the closest market
available to huy the volumes and ltalian confraternities were certainly the largest public
receptive to polyphonie laude. It is likely that in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth
centuries fairly sophisticated polyphonie laude in four parts, similar to those in the two
lauda volumes, were often heard in the streets ofVenice, performed by the increasingly
more skilled singers of the scuole.
There are many connections between the contents of these lauda volumes and the
repertoire of the motet anthologies, especially with Motetti B. The first kind of
159
"Polyphonie Laude," 20.
"Polyphonie Laude," 30.
161
"Polyphonie Laude," 40.
162
Boorman, Catalogue, 302.
163
Catalogue, 677.
160
49
connection between the lauda and motet volumes is on the generallevels of format ànd
style. Laude Il, like Motetti B, uses topical designations including, Ad crucificum, De
nativitate, Ad beata virginem, De contemptu mundi, De irifervorato Christi, De superbia
luciferi, De pace, and De passione, to indicate the subject matter of the piece. 164 Glixon
determines that ''the subject or function of the texts appears to provide the principal
organization, albeit rather loose, of the print." 165 Designations, similar to these, on the
title page of Motetti B, also determine the structure ofthat print. Although this pervasive
use oftopical classification is absent from the other motet anthologies, Gaspar's Spiritus
domini replevit orbem in Motetti libro quarto, is headed with the words In honorem
sancte spiritus. This suggests that perhaps motets, like laude, may have been classified
by subject matter, and performed in similar contexts
Although the earlier Venetian monastic sources contain mostly two- and three-part
laude, the two volumes printed by Petrucci are four-part compositions, as are most of the
motets. Stylistically, many of the motets in Motetti B are homorhythmic settings,
following the phrases and emphases of the religious texts, as in Wilson's definition of the
lauda. Warren Drake uses the term "'lauda style" to describe sorne ofthese motets. For
Crispinus van Stappen' sAve Maria from Motetti B he states, "this motet represents a
striking confluence ofmodish style and old-fashioned technique. On the one hand
Crispinus presents us with a lightly decorated chordal texture, incisive text setting, and
clear-cut, discrete phrases marked off by fermatas--all distinctly characteristic of the
lauda style. On the other hand, the tenor ... resembles the kind of structural scaffolding to
164
165
Glixon, "Polyphonie Laude," 28.
"Polyphonie Laude," 28.
50
be found in cantus-firmus motets of a generation or two earlier." 166 Seeing this
combination of cantus-frrmus and homorhythm, it is tempting to draw connections
between the two repertoires. There are striking similarities between Stappen's Ave Maria
and sorne of the laude discussed by Glixon. Glixon observes that Verbum caro factum est
of Laude Il bas "the traditional tune ... used as a cantus fimus in the tenor ... surrounded
by three very active parts. 167 These two pieces both have Latin texts, and although the
Ave Mariais included in a volume devoted to motets and Verbum caro factum est in a
volume of laude, they are similarly constructed, with four voices and a cantus firmus.
As Glixon has noted, "the lauda bas entered musicological discussions most
frequently in its putative role as source for the so-called Italian style of motet." 168 In
Josquin Desprez Helmuth Osthoff sets up a diametrical opposition between the Italian
lauda style and the imitative texture of the Franco-Netherlandish composers. 169 Basing
his argument on chronology, Edward Lowinsky disagrees with the idea of the lauda as a
primary source for the homophonie style of motet because four-part laude were not
composed until after the 1490's, when the homorhythmic motet style was already
established. 170 The lauda, Glixon asserts, could not have been a source of influence for
motets in "a style incorporating more homophony and a greater sensitivity to text
presentation and declamation." 171 Glixon presents a convincing argument that a more
likely source for homorhythmic motets can be found in the homophonie sections of
166
Commentary for Motetti B, 35-67.
"Polyphonie Laude," 30.
168
"Polyphonie Laude," 39.
169 18.
170
"Scholarship in the Renaissance," 255-63.
171
"Polyphonie Laude," 39.
167
51
motets and masses by northem composers. Bonnie Blackburn dubs this new homophonie
texture, "the devotional style," linking it with prayer. 172
Glixon also claims that the lauda could not have been a source of influence for
motets in the "devotional style" because the musicians writing them would have little
contact with the groups performing laude, the confratemities. 173 He argues that northern
composers working in courtly environments and cathedrals would not have heard
polyphonie laude performed by confraternities, but 1 wonder how they could have
avoided it if the scuole were performing in the streets and were important patrons of
polyphonie music, as he claims in his book. 174 1 agree that the term "lauda-style motet" is
a misnomer if it implies a direction of influence from the lauda to the motet. From the
evidence presented by Glixon on the various kinds of motets included in the Petrucci
lauda prints, it is clear that the direction of influence was often in the other direction. 175 1
argue, however, that regardless ofwhere the style came from motets using these
elements-homophony, rhetorical connection between text and music and phrases
marked off by fermatas-would appeal to the normal audience for polyphonie laude, the
confratemities. Perhaps a collection of motets, as a more elite genre, would appeal
especially to members of the scuole who were driven by competition to fund more
elaborate artistic displays.
The second kind of connection between thé laude and motet repertoires of the
Petrucci prints takes the form of actual concordances. Drake determines that six of the
172
"The Dispute about Harmony c. 1500 and the Creation of a New Style," 1-37.
"Polyphonie Laude," 39.
174
"Polyphonie Laude," 41.
175
"Polyphonie Laude," 40.
173
52
laude in Laude II are derived from motets printed in Motetti B.
176
Pive of these only use
part of the motet and sorne of them alter the motets significantly, adding a new text. One
example of this is the transformation of Gaspar' s motet Verbum caro factum est (207)
into two separate laude. In another example, the prima pars of Josquin' s Tu solus qui
facis mirabilia is turned from a motet to Jesus into a Marian lauda, both in Latin. In her
commentary to the New Josquin Edition Bonnie Blackburn asserts that "Tu solus qui facis
mirabilia is clearly the original text; 0 mater dei et hominis does not fit the music as weil,
and the conversion into a lauda addressed to Mary is not carried through. " 177 In his
discussion of these concordances, Drake states that "although these adaptations could
have been made for inclusion in Petrucci's lauda book, it seems more likely that Petrucci
drew on pieces that were already in circulation. "
178
Perhaps these were pieces that
confraternities bad adapted for their own use from his previous motet publications.
Based partly on the number of contrafacta and partly on the many confusions of
attribution, Boorman proposes that Laude II represents the working repertoire of a
confraternity, printed in response to the popularity of the Dammonis volume. He states
that the "logical place to look for such a group of collections [adequate to provide the
repertoire of Laude Il] would be one of the friaries to which severa! scuole were attached,
not least because compositions are ascribed to Frater Petrus and Frater Benedictus Bella
Busca." 119 The recently published Motetti Bandits companion anthologies were certainly
in circulation and if they were bought and performed by the ensembles employed by the
scuole, the motets could easily have been adapted to other texts, ensembles and specifie
176
"Motetti Bandits Relation," 444.
Commentary to Motets on Non-Biblical Texts: De domino Jesu Christo, New Josquin Edition 22, 40.
178
Commentary for Motetti B, 42.
179
Catalogue, 302.
177
53
performance contexts. The friaries proposed by Boorman were also the institutions, for
example Santi Giovanni e Paolo, that were providing musicians for important scuole
events. The stylistic similarities between the motets and laude, with homophony in sorne
motets and imitative textures in sorne laude, indicate that regardless of the direction of
influence, the ensembles performing these compositions blurred the genre distinctions
and utilized motets and laude in similar performance contexts.
The inclusion of many motets with multiple partes, more than the normal one or
two, also points to confratemal performance contexts. Processions through Venice often
had many different stops. The Libro Vardian da mattin for San Giovanni Evangelista,
mentioned before, indicates that the route for procession on the Sundays of Lent included
fourteen different stops. Laude were to be sung at each one. 180 The short sections of
many of the multi-sectional motets would be ideal for these occasions. Boorman points
out evidence in the Tavo/a, or table of contents of Motetti libro quarto that these short
sections were indeed considered as related but somewhat autonomous works. He states,
"the Tavola claims that there are fifty-five pieces, implying that those partes of Vultum
tuum and Spiritus Domini listed in the index are counted as pieces. This tends to confrrm
the pattern of dissemination of these movements, whereby different partes do surface as
independent compositions." 181 Although the multi-sectional Vu/tum tuum has been
connected to the motetti missales repertoire, this does not mean that its individual units
could not have been used as short processional pieces in Venice in the early sixteenth
century. 182
180
Glixon, Honoring God, 58.
Catalogue, 590-1.
182
Macey, "Josquin's 'Little' Ave Maria," 38-53.
181
54
I see two possible ways that motets and individual partes, classified by subject
matter, could be assigned to processional performance for the scuole. They could be
chosen according to their appropriateness for the specifie feast or celebration, in which
case all the motets of a Marian cycle could be sung in one procession at a Marian
celebration, or according to their relationship to the specifie stopping point in the
procession where they would be performed. As an example of this second usage, I will
consider the Lenten processions of San Giovanni Evangelista laid out in the Libro
Vardian da mattin. The recurrence of this route on all the Sundays of Lent, including
Palm Sunday, indicates that apart from the penitential mood of the season, there was no
specifie, overarching subject for the musical components, and musical variety would add
interest to what could potentially become mundane 'and routine. Partes from different
motet cycles and short motets could be mixed and matched for the different stopping
points requiring performance of music, trurnping the laude called for in the Libro
Vardian. A Marian motet from the Vultum tuum cycle could be performed at the votive
Marian church of the Madonna of the Arsenal, and a motet de sacramento, possibly
Gaspar's Verbum caro factum est, could be performed at the final stop at the altar ofthe
Most Holy Sacrament in San Marco.
Pieces could also be chosen in relation to the specifie celebration. The Libro
Vardian da mattin also includes the route for the Good Friday procession, an event with a
more specifie topic. Although this route involves eight stops, all of the five sections of
the Officium de passione by Josquin could be supplemented with traditionallaude or
other Josquin motets to fulfill the musical needs of this celebration. To celebrate !he
Purification of the Virgin, the anonymous twelve-section motet, setting verses of the
sequence Involata integra et casta es from Motetti C, could easily have been performed in
55
altematim with chant as part of a candle-giving ceremony of the Scuola Santa Maria della
Carità. 183 The short sections with a variety of textures and voices could have been sung
while candies were presented to different government officiais and officers of the scuole.
The Marian motets or motet cycles, Virgo precellens, Gaudeamus omnes, and Vultum
tuum together provide twenty-two short sections ofMarian material. Each ofthese cycles
would be suitable music for use during processions on the various Marian feasts
celebrated by the scuole.
Conclusion.
ln Bellini's painting of the Piazza San Marco, the heart ofVenice, cornes to life as
it would have been experienced by a pilgrim standing on the edge, seeking the miracles of
the true cross. The smelis of people and incense till the air and robed figures process to
the sound of music, singers and instrumentalists. Motets, Tinctoris' s middle genre, are
appropriate adomments to such middle-class, devotional activities. The merchants and
tradespeople who were members of the Venetian scuole represent important patrons of
professional musicians performing increasingly complex polyphony. Petrucci and
Castellanus must have had direct interaction with the scuole and knowledge of their
changing musical needs. The subject matter of the motet anthologies lines up weil not
only with the occasions celebrated by the scuole but also omits those holidays, Christmas
and Easter, they did not celebrate. Similarities between the style of the four-voice laude
volumes publi shed by Petrucci and sorne of his motets suggest that motets could replace
the laude indicated for performance in scuole documents.
183
Glixon, Honoring God, 66.
56
Chapter 2
Marian Motets in the Context of the Venetian Scuole
The Marian context in Venice.
Venetians had a special relationship with the Virgin Mary, as can be seen in visual
representations of the city mythology. David Rosand discusses the ways that the four
elements of Venetiafigurata, the image ofVenice personified, contributed to the famous
"myth ofVenice" in his article from 1984, "Venetiafigurata: The Iconography of a
Myth." He states that the "four constituents of the image are: the personification of
Justice, the figure of Dea Roma, the Virgin Mary, and Venus."
184
The images ofthese
four women intermingle in visual representations of the republic in carefully constructed
ambivalence so that each can simultaneously bring its blessing to the city. Rosand
demonstrates that the Virgin Mary enters Venetian civic iconography in two ways:
through the appropriation of the Annunciation, and the image of unconquered Venice as
the "Maiden City." Venice claims the special protection of the Virgin because "according
to standard legend, Venice was founded in the year 421 on the date of the Annunciation
on March 25th."185 In adopting the Annunciation, Rosand states that "Venice participates
directly in the theological mechanics of salvation, simultaneously hosting and sharing in
the moment of the Incarnation, and thereby receiving its own peculiar divine sanction." 186
The scuole participated in reinforcing this myth when they ali celebrated thefesta of the
Scuola di Santa Maria della Carità on the feast of the Annunciation. The image of
Venetia Vergine makes the connection between Venice and the Virgin Mary even
stronger. Rosand quotes Francesco Sansovino as saying that "with her uncorrupted purity
177.
Rosand, "Venetiafigurata," 182.
186
"Venetiafigurata," 182.
184
185
57
she defends herself against the insolence of others." 187 This shows that the inviolate and
hence pure nature of the city, similar to that of the Virgin, protects it against foreign
invasion.
Although my study primarily addresses the role of the scuole as supporters of the
performance of polyphonie music, specifically motets, it is necessary to mention that the
scuole were important patrons of the vi suai arts as weil. The scuole grandi had their own
meetinghouses, which they decorated with narrative cycles, such as Bellini's Processione
in Piazza San Marco. 188 Peter Hum:frey identifies anddiscusses the forty-eight
altarpieces commissioned by scuole piccole from the mid-fûteenth century up to 1600.
He reveals that the scuole piccole "held their functions in one ofVenice's many
conventual or parish churches. In exchange for the concession by the local clergy of
patronage rites to a side-chapel or side-altar, a scuola would pay an annual rent... By the
middle of the fifteenth century, it had also become normal for a scuola to commission an
altarpiece as a fitting decoration for its altar in the host church." 189 Humfrey speculates
that these altarpieces reflect the spiritual tenets of the scuola and functioned as "essential
complements to corporate devotions." 190 He points out that this often expensive
undertaking could "be regarded as a sound financial investment if the result served as a
good advertisement for the Scuola, and compared weil with the public front put up by
rival claimants for membership dues." 191 He shows that competition between rival scuole
was a driving force in the expenditures and subject matter of the scuola altarpieces
commissioned between the 1470s and 1530. Glixon has observed a competitive drive for
187
"Venetiafigurata," 185.
Brown," Gentile Bellini," 649.
189
"Competitive Devotions," 402.
190
"Competitive Devotions," 404.
191
"Competitive Devotions," 404~5.
188
58
more elaborate music within the scuole during the same time period, in the middle of
which Petrucci' s motets were publi shed.
The V irgin is the central figure in thirteen of the forty-eight works considered by
Humfrey. Music is also honored by central placement in three of these Marian images:
Giovanni Bellini's S. Catherine ofSiena Altarpiece from c. 1470 and S. Giobbe
Altarpiece from c. 1480, and Albrecht Dürer'sDas Rosenkranz/este from 1506. 192 These
three works share a similar format, with the Virgin and Child enthroned in the center. In
the altarpiece of Saint Catherine three youthful singers, standing beneath the enthroned
pair, sing from a book. The more mature work of Bellini, commissioned for the Scuola di
San Giobbe, features a trio ofinstrumentalists, two lute players and a bowed string player.
ln the Dürer altarpiece the three earthly instrumentalists are replaced by a single angel
playing the lute. Panofsky has indicated that Dürer' s use of the angelic lutenist may be an
homage to Giovanni Bellini, a painter held in much respect in Venice at the time and by
Dürer himself. 193 Certain!y these works show the intertextuality of Venetian religious
painting and reveal the rivalry of the scuole in their competitive expressions of devotion.
If these works are important reflections of confratemal devotions, as Humfrey claims, the
inclusion of musicians paying tri bute to Mary may indicate the importance of music in
confratemal activities and the way that scuole musicians might have performed before an
image of the Virgin.
As Humfrey points out, the scuole "were placed under the jurisdiction of the
Venetian govemment, with the result that their religious devotion was marked by a
192
193
Giovanni Bellini was Gentile Bellini's brother. Their father was also an important Venetian painter.
A/brecht Dürer, 112.
59
peculiarly civic and patriotic character." 194 Through the propagation of the myth of
Venice, the city was steeped in Marian iconography. In "The Virgin on the Street
Corner," Edward Muir indicates that the theater state of Venice extended the
extraordinary use of the Virgin in Venetian state religion into the everyday rituals of
people at every level of society. He notes the ubiquity of images of the Virgin on every
street and in every public space in Venice: "the perpetuation of the processions'
salubrious effects was one of the objectives in erecting images of the Virgin in public
spaces. Virgins in many locations [in Venice] created a different kind of procession, one
actively experienced by citizens as they walked about following their daily affairs." 195
The pervasive use of the Virgin and her simultaneous appropriation by the state makes
Venice an interesting place to study the intersection between sacred and secular ritual in
Mariology around 1500.
Marian devotion in Europe and Venice.
Marian devotion crossed the boundaries of sacred and secular in tate-medieval and
early-modem life. Muir describes the many functions Marian figures in secular spaces
played in Italian towns, from "extending the sacrality of the church outward through a
neighborhood cult," to curing the sick, to reducing crime in the streets. 196 Mary was the
accessible and sympathetic face of God. Medieval polytextual motets juxtaposed Marian
prayers with secular love poetry, blending the amorous words of earthly lovers with the
. desire for the divine. 197 The erotic images of the Song of Songs that came to fill the hours
194
"Competitive Devotions," 402.
"Virgin on the Street Corner," 28.
196
"Virgin on the Street Corner," 25.
197
Rothenberg, "Marian Feasts, Seasons, and Songs," 3-4.
195
60
of her feast-day liturgies were not seen as irreverent. 198 As a mortal her heart could be
touched by the lowliest sinner filled with true repentance; her physical connections with
Christ, as the vessel of his embodiment, made her the perfect conduit for lay interests.
Donna Ellington explains this corporeal emphasis, stating that "for many persans in the
late Middle Ages, Mary's close physical connection to Jesus also meant that she was able
to suffer with him at Calvary, thereby participating even more intimately in the act of
redemption and earning the right to intercede with her son for sinners after her reception
into heaven." 199 Mary takes on the dual role ofmother of Christ and lover ofthe Song of
Sangs in arder to be the conduit between the sacred and the profane.
In the thirteenth century, as mendicant friars moved out :from the clerical space of
closed monasteries and into the fields and homes of ordinary people, they promoted piety
and persona! investment in the symbols and icons of the Church, with a special emphasis
on Mary. 200 Elizabeth Johnson points out that "the active or prime movers of... [Marian]
devotion changed as the torch was passed :from the monasteries to the mendicant orders to
the simple clergy and to the people themselves."201 In the late Middle Ages, with the
enthusiastic help of the mendicant :friars, lay community members began to turn to Mary
with a new, more intimate spirituality. This was the movement that led to the creation of
confraternities and reinforced the concept of purgatory and the indulgence. Johnson notes
that ''the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries saw the need for protection intensify as natural
disasters such as the Black Death and civil and church disorders such as the Hundred
198
Discussing Marian devotion and the Song of Songs Donna Ellington shows th at "in the case of Mary ...
the seeming incongruity of erotic imagery tied to the realm of the holy only served to underscore the sense
that something completely new was taking place." From Sac red Body to Ange lie Sou/, 64.
199
From Sacred Body to Ange lie Sou/, 2.
200
Graef, Mary, vol. 1, 265.
201
"Marian Devotion," 393.
61
Years' War and the Great Schism created vast insecurities in a harsh world."202 Mary
offered protection from all of this, accessible to even the most imperfect mortal.
Mary was the Mediatrix, and her devotion was marked by a "shift from an
objective, liturgical perspective to a subjective and personal one, expressed in the
proliferation of newly created forms of devotion. "203 The Rosary and litanies, prayers
punctuated by personal requests spoken directly to Mary, "ora pro no bis" or "ora pro
peccato meo," proliferated. The sudden and rapid rise of the Confratemity of the Rosary
in the late fifteenth century attests to her international appeal. Printed handbooks for the
Confraternity ofthe Rosary circulated stories ofprostitutes and life-long sinners rescued
from the flames by turning to Mary at the hour of death with a contrite heart. 204 New
prayers were written and endowed with lavish indulgences, sometimes increased by
rituals and special prayer contexts. As Bonnie Blackburn has pointed out, the Breviarium
Romanum completissimum published in 1522 claims that the speaker of the Ave
sanctissima Maria would receive 11,000 years offtheir time in purgatory when the prayer
was spoken before an image of the Virgin "in sole."205 Through private, everyday
devotions and more complicated undertakings, like the pilgrimage and acquisition of
relies or images of devotion, the secular world was infused with the sacred through the
person of Mary. The Rosary was an extremely widespread devotion for women, partly
because the devotees could complete it while going about other activities, thus not
202
"Marian Devotion," 393.
Johnson, "Marian Devotion," 394.
204
Wilson, Stories ofthe Rose, 122-7.
205
"Virgin in the Sun," 158.
203
62
disturbing the normal functioning of the household. 206 These sorts oflay devotional
activities were encouraged by the presence 'of sacred images in secular contexts.
Lay Marian devotion allowed mucli more personal expression than did prescribed
ecclesiastical ritual. Donna Ellington asserts that "Marian devotion ... was fully
integrated into ali aspects of fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Catholic religious life, and ...
the scarcity of Biblical evidence regarding the Virgin caused her cult to be malleable,
easily shaped to fit the social and spiritual needs of the Church at any given time."207 In
an environment where the distinction between sacred and secular intermingled as much as
they did in Venice, the lay rituals served not only the Church but the state as weiL
Edward Muir implies that although images of the Virgin lined the streets ofVenice and
other Italian and European cities, the meaning ofthese icons and their functions within
society differed greatly from place to place.208 He states that "intercessors with the divine
permeated the urban spaces in many Italian cities to such a degree that rigid distinctions
between sacred and profane, so typical of the Reformation, must have seemed alien, even
irreligious, to many who lived in towns magically tied together by little shrines."209 Each
city cultivated its own language of devotion, a language intimately tied to its civic profile
and structure, and Mary figured prominently in the Venetian lay religious dialect.
Mary and the Venetian scuole.
Many of the occasions for which the scuole required music were celebrations in
honor ofthe Virgin Mary. The scuole grandi participated in the civic processions that
206
Winston-Allen, Stories ofthe Rose, 117-8.
From Sacred Body to Angelic Sou/, 25.
208
"Virgin on the Street Corner," 40.
209
"Virgin on the Street Corner," 25-6.
207
63
took place on the feast day of the Madonna della Salute, one of the holidays that the
Council ofTen ordered them to celebrate. 210 Glixon points out that the scuole grandi did
not "go toSt. Mark's for the official celebrations of the Marian feasts, though on sorne of
these they held their own ceremonies."211 As shown in Table 2.1, two of the six annual
feste celebrated by the scuole were Marian: Annunciation on March 25 and Conception
on December 8.
Table 2.1: The Marian fe ste of the Scuole Grandi
Scuola
Santa Maria della
Carità
Santa Maria della
Misericordia
HomeChurch
San Leonardo
Santa Maria della
Misericordia
Feast Day
Annunciation of the
Virgin
Conception of the Virgin
Date
March 25
December 8
For these celebrations each scuola would need appropriate music to sing in procession to
the home church of the celebrating scuole, as well as music for vespers and Mass. In
addition to the two annual Marianfeste celebrated by ali of the scuole, sorne of the scuole
grandi also celebrated Purification on February 2 and Nativity of the Virgin on September
8.
These two Marian commemorations were not feast days associated with one of the
scuole so they didnot require a procession by all of the scuole grandi to one ofthe other
scuole. They were observed in different ways. Glixon states that Purification "was an
occasion for elaborate ceremony, in which each of the scuole donated candies, not only to
their own members (including singers and instrumentalists), but also to important
members of the government."212 For the Nativity the Scuola di San Giovanni Evangelista
210
Glixon, Honoring God, 55-6.
Glixon, Honoring God, 56.
212
Glixon, Honoring God, 66.
211
64
held a procession with an image of the Virgin in cooperation with a scuola piccola. 213
Glixon states that "for reasons the writer of the Libro Vardian da mattin adroits he could
not discover, on the feast of the Nativity ... the Scuola di San Giovanni Evangelista, after
a sung high mass in their church, went in procession to the Church of San Giobbe. They
were met at the Fondamenta San Giobbe by the brothers of the Scuola di San Giobbe ...
who carried large candies and accompanied them into the church where certain laude
were sung."214 This is the same scuola piccola that commissioned a Marian altarpiece
from Gentile Bellini, the S. Giobbe Altarpiece, discussed by Humfrey in his article? 15
The scuole grandi alone participated in four major Marian feasts during the year,
shown in table 2.2.
Table 2.2: Marian Occasions Celebrated by the Scuole Grandi
Marian Feast
Purification of the Virgin
Annunciation of the Virgin
Date
February 2
March 25
Celebrants
Ali
Ail
Nativity of the Virgin
September 8
Conception of the Virgin
December 8
San Giovanni
Evangelista
Ali
Activities
Candie giving
Feste procession,
Vespers and Mass
Procession with
image
Feste procession,
Vespers and Mass
In addition to the scuole grandi, the scuole piccole, many of which were dedicated to the
Virgin, would have had their own important feasts and. celebrations. Considering the
popularity of Mary it seems likely that many of their festivals would be Marian in nature.
The celebrations of the Scuole di San Giovanni and San Giobbe for the Nativity involved
processing with and singing to an image of the Virgin, reminiscent of the devotional
213
Glixon, Honoring God, 66.
Glixon, Honoring God, 66.
215
"Competitive Devotions," 411-2.
214
65
practices discussed by Blackburn in her articles. 216 In processions through the streets of
Venice c. 1500 the confratemal groups would have passed before numerous images of
Mary, the virgins on the street corners described by Edward Muir. Marian devotion, a
popular trend across Europe, was an important aspect of Venetian confratemallife.
Marian motets in Petrucci' s Venetian prints.
Of the 174 motets published in Petrucci's first five motet anthologies, ninety-two,
more than half of them, have texts relating to the Virgin Mary. These motets range from
simple settings ofwell-known liturgical items to elaborate cantus firmus motets with
obscure composite texts. The high percentage of Marian motets in Petrucci's anthologies
is not surprising in collections of early sixteenth-century repertoire. Table 2.3 shows the
percentage of Marian motets within the Venetian motet anthologies and their distribution.
Table 2.3: Marian motets in the Venetian motet anthologies
RISM
No.
1502 1
1503 1
1504 1
1505 2
1508 1
Title
Motetti A numero trentatre
Motetti B
Motetti C
Motetti libro quarto
Motetti a cinque
Total
No. of Motets
35
34
42
45
18
174
No. Marian
25
10
19
28
12
94
Percentage
71%
29%
45%
62o/o
67%,
54%
Overall, Marian motets represent over half, 54%, of the contents of these anthologies, but
the variation between prints is quite high, from 71% in Motetti A, dropping 42% to 29%
for Motetti B, coming out just a year later. It is interesting that this print, the only one
intentionally organized by subject matter, should have a smaller proportion of Marian
material. · This shows that Mary was so pervasive a subject for sacred music that it was
216
"For Whom do the Singers Sing?" 593-609, and "The Virgin in the Sun: Music and Image for a Prayer
Attributed to Sixtus IV," 157-95.
66
only when the compilers consciously emphasized other material that she did not
dominate.
Although Mary was an inescapable element in a sixteenth-century collection of
motets, Petrucci seems to have recognized and exploited the popularity of Marian
devotion to promote the sale of his printed motet anthologies. From the evidence Thomas
presents on the core repertoire ofthe sixteenth cen~ 17 we know Josquin'sAve Maria ...
virgo serena was the most famous motet by the leading composer of the time. Can it be a
coïncidence that Petrucci placed it at the beginning of Motetti A, the first motet after the
initial canon? It seems to have been a common practice to open a musical collection with
a piece based on Marian material, regardless of the content of the volume. For example a
canonic Marian motet, Ave sanctissima Maria, opens Brussels 228, Margaret of Austria's
collection of secular chansons, and the de Orto Ave maria gratia plena opens Odhecaton
A, another chanson collection. Whether or not this practice is important beyond
Petrucci's prints, his tendency to open volumes with pieces based ~n Marian material
demonstrates that he was aware of the influence that Mary had in Venice and Europe
during the early sixteenth century. 218
Petrucci's use of Josquin's motet shows that he was aware not only of the
popularity of Mary and the possible convention of opening a work with a Marian piece,
but also that he was in ttme with public taste. He confirms the importance of this
placement by continuing to use Marian motets by Josquin in two of the next three motet
prints, another motet beginning Ave Maria for Motetti C, and the bitextual Alma
redemptoris mater/ Ave regina caelorum for Motetti libro quarto. Although the thematic
217
Sixteenth-Century Motet, 422-3.
This may also be another fmgerprintofhis editor, Petrus Castellanus who was a Dominican monk, an
order particularly devoted to the Virgin.
218
67
organization of Motetti B precludes a Marian beginning, the first piece in the print, Non
lotus manibus manducare, is a Magnificat antiphon for Lent. The Magnificat is the
prayer sung by Mary when she is greeted by her cousin Elizabeth. The first motet in the
anthology is yet another piece by Josquin, the five section Officium de Passione,
demonstrating once again Petrucci' s awareness of Josquin' s popularity and desire to
exploit that popularity to sell his prints.
The final motet anthology, Motetti a cinque, although it contains a significantly
different repertoire, also opens with a Marian motet, C/angat p/ebs, but this time by
Regis. Clangat plebs is a unique text of supplication to the Virgin in rhymed verse.
Leofranc Holford-Strevens has described it as less than elegant, but regardless of style it
does evoke sorne interesting images of Marian devotion. 219 Written partly in the first
person singular, the "l" is clearly the composer and possibly the poet too, writing songs
proffered to Mary. 220 The choice of this motet as the first piece in an anthology of
complex, five-voice motets is perhaps deliberate. Clangat p/ebs refers to "flowery"
songs, possibly meaning difficult songs, difficult enough that the singers might not be
able to perform them up to Mary' s high standard. This fear is mentioned in the prima
pars with the worry that "we may not proffer our songs worthily." The editor seems to be
self-consciously commenting on the abstruseness of the motets. Although this anthology
is filled with music more difficult than the other motet anthologies, probably too difficult
for most scuole performance, Petrucci still offered it to Mary as the divine intercessor by
opening it with a Marian motet.
219
Unpublished paper presented by Leofranc Holford-Strevens at the international conference "On the
relationship of imitation and text treatment: the Motet c. 1500" in Bangor, Wales, April2007.
220
The prima pars presents a sweeping appeal to the Virgin for all"fallen servants." The secunda parsis
much more intimate, written in the first person singular, and tells of the striving of a composer for the
blessings of the Virgin; "Look on me forging flowery songs for thee, Virgin, as 1 too weep greatly for my
sin." Translation by Leofranc Holford-Strevens.
68
Petrucci was functioning within the European language of devotion and using
Mary as an important element ofthat language. Much of the religious musical material
available for him to publish was Marian because of the popularity of her cult across
Europe in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth century. Petrucci, as a businessman,
exploited this by beginning four of his five motet anthologies with Marian motets. He
seemed to be aware of the appeal these motets would have to the different markets for his
prints. How can we further refme our understanding of Marian motets and how they
functioned in the lay religious dialect ofVenice and the scuole?
The Marian text types.
I have compiled a database of the Marian motets included in the first five Petrucci
motet anthologies. The complete version of this database is included in Appendix 1.
Because I am dealing with five different printed volumes, often containing pieces with
similar titles, in the first column I have identified the motets with the three digit
numbering system of Julie Cumming. The frrst number indicates the print (1 for Motetti
A, 2 for .Motetti B, etc.) and the second is the number of the piece in the print. So 102 is
Josquin' sAve Maria ... virgo serena, the second piece but first motet in Motetti A. After
the "title" and "composer" fields, I have also included the number of partes, voices and
information, when I have it, on the presence of a cantus firmus. The final column gives
comments relevant to the source of the text. 221
221
This information cornes from various sources. Bryden and Hughes, An Index to Gregorian Chant;
Cantus: A Database for Latin Ecclesiastical Chant, http://publish.uwo.ca/~cantus/ [Cited August 20, 2007];
Complete works editions: Lehrer, ed., Agricola, Hudson, ed., Brume/, Pinscher, ed., Compère, Gottwald,
ed., Ghiselin-Verbonnet, Davidson et al, eds., La Rue, Lindenburg, ed., Regis, Maas, ed. New Obrecht
Edition, and Cross, ed., Pipe/are; Cumming, Petrucci Motet Database; Drake, ed., Motetti B; La Trobe:
Medieval Music Database, http://www.lib.latrobe.edu.au/MMDB/index.htm [Cited August 20, 2007]; and
Eiders, ed. New Josquin Edition.
69
The primary importance ofthis database lies in columns 2 and 3, the columns
containing information on text type. Following the model proposed by Howard Mayer
Brown in his article "The Mirror of Man's Salvation," 1 have sorted the data by textual
categories (see table 2.4). For this information 1 have looked both at sources containing
the texts and at the form of the texts themselves, for example prose, poetry, rhymed or
stanzaic. In looking at the ''text type" it is possible to suggest appropriate contexts for
performance. It is clear from the title of Motetti B (Motetti De passione De cruce De
sacramento De beata virgine et huiusmodi B) that Petrucci or his editor considered this a
suitable way to organize and market the motets. My table retines Petrucci and Brown's
category De beata virgine into more specifie Marian types. 1 have ideiltified eight textbased categories, used in Column 2 of Appendix 1. These categories, with their
abbreviations and descriptions, are shown in Table 2.4 below.
Table 2.4: Column 2, text type
Abbreviation
AM
Title
Ave Maria
Description
~pray er
~antiphon
~sequence
MFE
Liturgical item from a Marian
Feast and Sat. Office of BVM
~Antiphon
~Responsory
~Pro
DEY
Devotional Prayer
sa
~Common
pray ers from Books of Hours
~meditations
~unidentified
prayers
~litanies
MANT
Marian Antiphon
~Salve
regina
regina caelorum
~Regina caeli
~Alma redemptoris mater
~Rhymed metric texts
~Stabat mater dolorosa
~other sequences
-Song ofsongs without other uses (i.e. not antiphons
for the Virgin)
~humanistic texts
~centonate texts
~occasional texts
~Ave
HYM
SEQ
Hymns
Sequences
Sots
Song of Songs
OTH
Other
70
As Howard Mayer Brown has noted, many of these texts can be foWld in multiple
types of sources. For example a Song of Songs text, "Tota pulchra es," also has a
separate life as a vespers antiphon for various Marian feasts. 222 Other motets use text
fragments of a different type within a longer text. The most common occurrence of this is
with the Ave Maria, a text that is often foWld embedded in a longer motet text. For this
reason 1 have sorted the motets by two columns, frrst ''text type" and then "secondary
affiliation" in Column 3. "Secondary affiliation" may indicate that the text is foWld in
multiple kinds of sources or that another kind oftext, possibly a quotation, is included
within the primary text. U sing two columns to identify text type makes visible the
multivalence of Marian devotion in these collections of motets.
In the remainder of this chapter 1 will further refine the text types used in my
database and discuss two important categories: texts associated with the Marianfeste, and
texts from devotionalliterature. I have chosen to discuss motets using these text types for
two separate reasons. The motets associated with the Marian fe ste could have functioned
and been Wlderstood in the context of confratemal devotions. Looking at the texture and
length of these pieces, 1 argue that many of them would be appropriate to performance by
the musicians hired by the scuole during their processions and ceremonies. Devotional
texts and Ave Maria settings represent a new subgenre of motet in the early sixteenth
century, one intrinsically linked to lay religion. The subject matter of such motets would
have resonance in lay religious societies like confratemities.
Appendix 2, "Marian motet types excluded from study," includes tables for each
of the categories that will not be discussed further. These categories include the four
Marian antiphons, hymns, sequences, Song of Songs motets without specifie association
222
Chiu, "Motet Settings of the Song ofSongs," 72.
71
with the Marianjèste, and the "other" category for newly composed, humanistic or
centonate texts. Of these, the eight settings of the four large-scale Marian antiphons,
contained in Table 1 of Appendix 2, are the easiest to isolate, because oftheir popularity
and continued use. One ofthese Marian antiphons was and is sung everyday at the close
ofCompline during the different seasons of the year. Polyphonie settings ofthe Marian
antiphons were common throughout the fifteenth century. These antiphons are the Alma
redemptoris mater, Ave regina coelorum, Regina celi /etare, and Salve regina. Marian
antiphon settings have been previously discussed by other scholars.223 They had a clear
function outside the confratemal setting and were not a markedly new motet type c. 1500.
Similar to the Marian antiphons, the sixteen Marian hymns and sequences included in
Table 2 of Appendix 2 are Iiturgical adomments with clear applicationbeyond the
confratemal context. Song of Songs settings that are not otherwise associated with a fosta
are included in Table 3 of Appendix 2 and the many motets that do not fit into the
previous categories, the "other" motets, are presented in Table 4 of Appendix 2. As
biblical quotations the two Song of Songs settings are valid anywhere in Europe in both
Marian and non-Marian contexts. Motets in the "other" category are not unified and
should be considered individually instead of as a group. 1 will not do this because 1 am
looking for text types with multiple examples. Although 1 do not examine the role of
these categories in the confratemal context 1 think such connections could be found, and 1
have included the tables in Appendix 2 for reference purposes.
223
Ingram, "The Polyphonie Salve regina." Cumming, Motet in the Age ofDu Fay.
72
Motets using texts from Marianfeste.
Many of the motets using liturgical texts can be linked to liturgical items from the
Marianfeste celebrated by the Venetian scuole. This represents twenty motets, shown in
Table 2.5. The final column lists thefesta or other season during which these texts are
used.Z 24 The Marianieste represented by these motets include Annunciation (Ann),
Visitation (Vis), Assumption (Ass), and Nativity (Nat).
Table 2.5: Motets with texts from the Marian/este
No in
Print
Text
Type
2nd.
Aff.
Title
Composer
308
MFE
AM
Missus est Gabriel angelus
Josquin
1
317
MFE
AM
Missus est angelus Gabriel
An on.
2
121
MFE
DEV
Brume)
2
337
MFE
DEV
Ave stella matutina
Gaudeamus omnes/ Gaude virgo mater
Christi
An on.
5
227
MFE
DEV
Sancta Maria quesumus
An on.
1
133
MFE
SofS
Anima mea liquefacta est
Ghiselin
2
SofS
Descendi in ortum meum
An on.
1
Partes
Use
Ann,
Advent
Ann,
Ad vent
Rhymed
Office
ALL
Rogation
Days
Ass,Nat
Ass
108
MFE
122
MFE
SofS
Ibo mihi ad montem
Gaspar
1
305
MFE
SofS
Tota pulchra es
Craen
2
126
MFE
SofS
Vidi speciosam
Gaspar
1
132
MFE
Ave stella matutina
Gaspar
1
307
MFE
Beata Dei genitrix
An on.
2
329
MFE
Filie regum
An on.
2
403
MFE
Maria virgo semper 1aetare
1
443
MFE
Nativitas tua Dei _genitrix
201
MFE
Non lotis manibus manducare
Ghiselin
Erasmus
Lapicide
Crispinus van
Stappen
Ass,Nat,
Pur
ALL
Ass
Saturday
Pur
Nat
224
Ass, Nat,
Pur
Nat
1
Lent
1
Liber Usualis; Cantus Database, http://publish.uwo.ca/~cantus/ [Cited August 20, 2007]; La Trobe:
Medieval Music Database, http://www.lib.latrobe.edu.au/MMDB/index.htm [Cited August 20, 2007].
73
Nat
405
MFE
0 Maria virgo pia
Mouton
2
114
MFE
Virgo Maria non est tibi similis
l
444
MFE
Virgo prudentissima
Gaspar
Erasmus
Lapicide
105
MFE
Virgo prudentissima
Josquin
l
Ass, Nat
Ass
l
Ass
A few texts are not associated with feast days but are Marian texts used during Lent,
Advent, the Saturday office of the Virgin, or on Rogation days. Ali ofthese motets are
derived from liturgical items and could be used to elaborate scuole devotions on Marian
celebrations.
Although there is much variety, a number ofthese pieces are fairly short, simple
compositions, similar to the Venetian lauda. Each motet has the standard four voices, the
same texture used in ofPetrucci's volumes of laude. The counterpoint is straightforward
and accessible in most motets of this category, with sections ofhomorhythm to bring out
important texts. The anonymous Sancta Maria quesumus (227), is also included in the
Laude II volume (1508), almost unchanged, showing that sorne of the motets could
function as laude.225 The majority ofthese motets are in one or two partes. Simple
motets setting texts related to the Marianfeste celebrated by the scuole, and using textures
similar to that of the laude volumes, could be performed by scuole musicians during feast
day processions through the streets ofVenice.
The anonymous Gaudeamus omnes (337) is unusual because it has five partes.
This motet also stands out because it mixes liturgical and devotional texts. For the prima
pars it uses the generic introït for ali Marian feast days but switches in the next four partes
to stanzas from the Corona Beatae Mariae Virginis of St. Bonaventure. The Corona
Beatae Mariae Virginis of St. Bonaventure is a rhymed prayer included in many Books of
225
Drake, "Motetti B and its Relation," 444.
74
Hours and is used in a total of five of Petrucci' s motets. 226 The introït text, appropriate
for any Marian feast, brings the prayer of St. Bonaventure into the feast day context,
blurring the distinction between ecclesiastical and popular devotions.
Motets with texts from devotionalliterature.
Motets with devotional text types are included in Table 2.6. These motets have
been chosen either because they are known to come from devotional sources, most
commonly Books of Hours, or because they seem to be of a similar character.
Table 2.6: Motets with Texts from Devotional Literature
No in
Print
Text
Type
2nd.
Aff.
Title
Composer
118
DEY
AM
Ave Maria
Compère
2
102
DEY
AM
Ave Maria ... virgo serena
Josquin
1
433
DEY
AM
Beata es Maria
Ob recht
2
131
DEY
AM
Gas}>ar
1
231
DEY
AM
Christi mater ave
Gaude virgo mater Christi/ Ave
Maria
An on.
2
316
DEY
AM
Josquin
1
320
DEY
MFE
0 bone et dulcis domine Jesu
Ave regina celorum/ 0 decus
innocentie
Anon.
2
229
DEY
SEQ
Haec est ilia dulcis rosa
An on.
1
302
DEY
Ave celorum Dom ina
Brume)
1
123
DEY
Ave domina sancta Maria
Gaspar
2
214
DEY
Ave domina sancta Maria
An on.
1
440
DEY
Ave mater omnium
Gaspar
1
226
DEY
Ave pulcherrima regina
Agricola
1
226
Partes
Source
Type
Lauda, Litany
Books of
Hours
Lauda, Litany,
Sequence
Book of
Hours
Book of
Hours
Book of
Hours
Book of
Hours
Book of
Hours
Religious
song
Josquin, Ave Maria ... virgo serena (1 02); Anon., Gaude virgo mater Christi (231 ); Brume), Ave ce forum
Domina (302); Anon., Gaudeamus omnes (337); and Josquin, Gaude virgo mater Christi(415).
75
Book of
Hours
517
DEV
Ave sanctissima
Diniset
1
306
DEV
Davidica stirpe Maria
An on.
2
414
DEV
Decantemus in hac
Anon.
2
415
DEV
Gaude virgo mater Christi
Josquin
1
134
DEV
Mater digna Dei
Gaspar
1
339
DEV
0 dulcissima
An on.
2
115
DEV
0 florens rosa
Ghiselin
1
435
DEV
Obsecro te virgo dulcissima
An on.
2
125
DEV
Stella celi extirpavit
An on.
1
Book of
Hours
130
DEV
Virgo dei trono digna (no text]
Tinctoris
1
Litany
Book of
Hours
0-Antiphon
ln the far right column the types of sources most commonly associated with each text is
listed. As Howard Mayer Brown has pointed out, Books of Hours are the primary type of
source for many ofthese motets. 227 The lauda, in addition to a musical form was a
devotional genre ofltalian poetry. Sorne texts, like the litany, 0 antiphons and
sequences, were devotional activities that could be included in Books of Hours but were
also performed as part of communal Marian services. The devotional motets without a
known source listed in the far right column are included because they exhibit devotional
characteristics. For example, the source for Christi mater, ave (131) is unknown but the
text refers to both the Ave Maria prayer and the Ave Sanctissima prayer, both clearly
devotional prayer, and asks Mary for aid and protection.
Devotionalliterature, including extra-liturgical and devotional texts, flourished in
the age of print. ln his article "Piety in Germany Around 1500," Bemd Müller observes
that "an abundance of religious writings of ali kinds became generally accessible, from
227
Mirror ofMan's Salvation, 753.
76
prayer books and books of comfort to sermon manuals and missals, from scholastic
summas to dances of death."228 The proliferation and diversity of devotionalliterature
makes it more difficult to identify sources for the se motet texts. In the case of the Book
of Hours Paul Grendler points out that it "lacked a fixed content. It included a variety of
psalms, prayers, hymns, canticles, and litanies, many in praise of Mary. The book might
also include prayers from the Mass, prayers for the dying, chapters from the gospels,
prayers to various saints and elementary catechetical material."229 Devotional prayers of
the popular tradition are more subject to variation than prescribed liturgy, which was
regulated by the Church. For example, although the anonymous motet Ave domina
sancta Maria (214) has the same frrst line as Gaspar's motet from Motetti A, Ave domina
sancta Maria (123), it is actually a setting of the Ave sanctissima prayer with an alternate
- first line. Similarly, although the anonymous motet Obsecro te virgo du/cissima (435),
seems at first to resemble the famous Obsecro te virgo prayer, a standard part of the Book
of Hours, it is not actually the same prayer.
Mary, as an important tigure of redemption and protection, was weil represented
in devotionalliterature during the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. Paul
Grendler states that one of the most popular printed volumes in Italy was the Officium
Beatqe Mariae Virginis, or Book ofHours.230 Many of the texts included in Books of
Hours can also be found in other sources, since devotional texts often borrowed from the
liturgy. 231 Whether they were drawn from ecclesiastical or popular sources, these were
the I,atin texts that were part of the popular dialect. The use of these prayers as motet
57.
"Form and Function," 467.
230
"Form and Function," 467.
231
Grendler, "Form and Function," 467.
228
229
77
texts broadens the potential audience for the motet anthologies. As active members of lay
devotional societies, the scuole members were consurners of devotional works, and
motets setting these texts would have appealed to them.
Conclusion.
Venice was a city filled with images of the Virgin, not only in paintings and
sculpture, but also in the songs and stories that filled the ears and minds of her population.
The scuole, as important conduits of middle-class piety, re present an environrnent ripe for
expressions of praise to the Virgin. Competition, as shown by both Glixon and Hurnfrey,
marked the devotional expressions of the scuole in the frrst decade of the sixteenth
century. Petrucci, as a publisher of motets, could have secured a market for his prints by
making them accessible to the scuole, and Mary was a key figure in that process. As
burgeoning consurners of sacred polyphony more complex than their traditionallaude, the
scuole might have brought honor to the Virgin, the city, and themselves by funding
performance of the Marian repertoire contained in the Petrucci motet anthologies.
78
Chapter 3
Ave Maria Motets
Hearing the Ave Maria text.
Within the repertoire ofPetrucci's Venetian motet anthologies 1 have identified
seventeen motets using the Ave Maria text. It is not'surprising that Petrucci or his editor
included motet settings of the Ave Maria prayer. Polyphonie settings of this prayer had
been common since the thirteenth century and continue to be popular today. 232 This
pray er is particularly interesting because of the multiple forms and functions of the text
and the numerous ways it was used in motet settings. Donna Ellington observes that the
Ave Maria prayer "had been in use, in one form or another, for hundreds ofyears, but it
was only in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries that, in the form of the Rosary,
it became a widely popular devotion."233 1 believe that the Ave Maria's new popularity
and variety of uses in lay devotion are reflected in the ways that the prayer was used in
the motets included in Petrucci's anthologies. Such a connection indicates that lay
·spirituality had an impact on motet composition, possibly through performance context.
Daily votive function, stimulated by the Rosary, brings the Ave Maria out of the
confined liturgical space of the cathedral and chapel ~d into the streets, fields and homes
of wealthy and poor alike. Daniel Freeman indicates a new convention of pairing the
Pater noster and Ave Maria in a single motet, both essential prayers ofthe Rosary and
other private devotions. This practice seems to begin with Josquin, who asked to have his
polyphonie version of these pray ers performed in processions stopping at a statue of the
Virgin outside his home in Condé-sur-Escaut after his death. 234 Freeman points out that
232
Freeman, "On the Origins," 185-86.
Ellington, From Sacred Body to Angelic Sou/, 214.
234
Kellman, "Josquin and the Court," 208.
233
79
the pairing ofthese two prayers had multiple uses in the sixteenth century, including
recitation following an epitaph. 235 Josquin's request certainly had a memorial function
but the multiple uses of the pair would make them appropriate within the various different
processions of which they became a part.
In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries the Ave Maria was the prayer of ali seasons
and because of its popularity the prayer itself became a cultural symbol. The ubiquity of
the prayer makes a motet using the Ave Maria an interesting and complex object of study.
Slight variations in the text and the way that it is presented might indicate different
functions and performance contexts. How would listeners have heard these words in a
polyphonie setting, and how would the singers of the repertoire have uttered them?
Would they be the words of the angel Gabriel to Mary at the moment of Christ' s
conception, or the cry of a sinner at the gates of purgatory, pleading for Mary to intercede
for them with Christ?
The Ave Maria in popular devotions.
· The centrality of the Ave .Nfaria to lay spirituality can be seen in the Al brecht
Dürer painting (Figure 3.1). It was commissioned in 1506 by the Scuola del Rosario as
the altarpiece of their side altar in the church of San Bartolomeo. The Scuola del Rosario
or Tedeschi was a scuola piccola when the painting was completed, but by the end of the
century it had officially gained the rank of a scuola grande.Z 36 This scuola was associated
with the German speaking population that attended San Bartolomeo. Frances Oudendijk-
235
236
Freeman, "On the Origins," 169.
Glixon, Honoring God, 57-8.
80
Pieterse has suggested that Dürer' s painting was actually modeled on a woodcut from a
print of the statutes of the Confratemity of the Rosary. 237
Figure 3.1: Albrecht Dürer, Der Rosenkranz/este,
National
1506
As Erwin Panofsky points out, "it should be called The Brotherhood of the Rosary, rather
than the "Feast of the Rose Garlands" because an actual "feast" of the rosary was not
238
instituted until 1573 ."
In the painting, as in the Rosary woodcut, the Virgin and Child are enthroned in
the center, surrounded on both sides by earthly supplicants?39 Dürer positions the infant
237
238
Cited in Winston-Allen, Stories of the Rose, 70.
A/brecht Dürer, 111.
81
Christ facing the left side, distributing garlands of roses, symbolic of the rosary, to the
assembled clerics, headed by Pope Julius Il. Mary is turned toward the right where the
lay people are gathered, led by the current Holy Roman Emperor, Maximilian !.240 Dürer
painted portraits of German merchants from the community of Germans living and
working in Venice into the throng huddled around Mary, even including a small image of
himself? 41 Although Dürer's painting has strong ties to the rosary, at the timea typically
German confraternal activity, the basic image of a Christ available to clerics and Mary
offering aid directly to lay people represents a vision common across Europe.
The Confratemity of the Rosary, introduced in Venice in 1481, was a completely
different kind of confraternity from the Venetian scuole. In 1470 Alanus de Rupe
founded the first Confraternity of the Rosary in Douai, upon which Jakob Sprenger
modeled his similar organization in Cologne five years later. These confraternities were
open to ali: they included female niembers. Membership was based solely on one's
willingness to perform certain prayers, namely the rosary, and hence did not charge any
membership fees. 242 It was Sprenger's organization that was the first to be acknowledged
by the Pope?43 Sprenger's group boasted 100,000 members within the frrst seven
years. 244 Maximilian I's father, Fredrick III, was one of the earliest supporters of the
Confratemity of the Rosary and his endorsement probably advanced Papal recognition. 245
Confraternities of the Rosary springing up across Europe provided loci for the already
239
This holy pair mirrors the pair of prayers set by Josquin and performed in memory of him, Pater noster
and Ave Maria.
240
Winston-Allen, Stories of the Rose, 25.
241
Panofsky, A/brecht Dürer, Ill.
242
Although, clearly the Scuola del Rosario must have charged fees.
243
Winston-Allen, Stories of the Rose, 24.
244
Winston-Allen, Stories of the Rose, 4.
245
Winston-Allen, Stories of the Rose, 24-5.
82
. present practice of the Rosary, promoting its usage even further across societal
boundaries of class and sex and codifying aspects of the devotion.
The rich structure of confratemities already existent in Italy welcomed this new
manifestation of Marian devotion.
246
Johannes ofErfurt, a German Dominican, founded
the first Confraternity of the Rosary in Italy among the community of German artisans
and merchants living and working in Venice (the Scuola del Rosario or Tedeschi).Z47
Twenty-five years later it was this confraternity that would commission Dürer's
masterpiece and, a little over one hundred years later, would become a scuola grande.
The German community was an important commercial population, seeking acceptance
into Venetian society, at least in part, through the creation oftheir own scuole.248
Although the communal nature and open membership of the Confratemity of the Rosary
was fundamentally different from the guild-like scuole grandi, the new popularity of the
rosary seems to have blurred easily into the ever-changing make-up ofthe Venetian
scuole. 249
The practice of the rosary was becoming common in Italy, not only with the
Germans living there. It involved the repetition of 150 Ave Marias punctuated after each
group often (called a decade) with a Pater noster. The rosary, also known as the Marian
psalter was supposed to function as a lay equivalent ofthe 150 psalms recited in
monasteries every week, bringing the illiterate into religious practice. Portraits of
wealthy patrons in Books of Hours often show them holding a string of beads to aid in the
rosary devotion and have a banderol inscribed with the beginning of the Ave Maria.
246
Black, ltalian Confraternities in the Sixteenth Century, 103.
Winston-Allen, Stories ofthe Rose, 70.
248
Pullan, "The Scuole Grandi ofVenice," 276.
249
Pullan, "The Scuole Grandi of Venice," 276-77.
247
83
Prayer beads were called rosaries or patemosters. In one painting from a Book of Hours
manuscript created in northem France or southem Belgum in the 1450's the owner of
becomes a part of the Annunciation scene, presented by Gabriel to Mary. Although there
are no beads the patroness's mouth is open in speech and the words of the Ave Maria
issue from them. Discussing this image Roger Wieck speculates that "perhaps visualizing
herse If at the most intimate physical and spiritual moment of the Virgin' s life helped the
devotee create the intimacy essential for true dialogue with Mary and God. "250 Reciting
the Ave Maria as a part of the rosary allowed the devotee to become closer to this sacred
moment.
In addition to the rosary, the Ave Maria was often indicated as a sort of Marian
punctuation at the end of religious services, and also in private devotions. In liturgical
books there is usually no indication of places where the Ave Maria was supposed to be
inserted; the scribes assume that everyone would already know. Likewise, in devotional
literature often the words Ave Maria are written or printed after a less traditional, possibly
regional, Marian prayer, as an official appeal to her grace. The scribe intends for the
reader to recite the who le Ave Maria prayer but assumes that to write more of the prayer
would be unnecessary as the reader would have committed this essential prayer to
memory long before learning to read. Renee, the Ave Maria becomes on the one hand an
embellishment for services and devotions, and an agent of authority, validating diverse
regional and persona! Marian devotions. By the early sixteenth century the Ave Maria
prayer was an integral part, if not the core, of the spirituallife ofthe laity in Europe and
also in Venice.
25
°For example see Figure 12a in Wieck, Time Sanctified, 43.
84
Ecclesiastical forms of the Ave Maria, text and plainchant.
The Ave Maria was probably the most common prayer in the Renaissance and
ironically the prayer least often written out in full. lt evolved from a quotation from the
gospel of Luke 1:28, into the core of lay spiritualicy and private devotion.
Table 3.1: The source oftheAve Maricl 51
Latin Vulgate
Luke
Douai-Rheims
Luke
l :28: et ingressus angelus ad eam dixit ave [Maria]
gratia plena Dominos tecum benedicta tu in
mulieribus
And the angel, being come in, said unto her: Hai/ [Mary],
full ofgrace, the Lord is with thee: b/essed art thou among
women.
1:42: et exclamavit voce magna et dixit ben edicta
tu inter molieres et benedictus fructus ventris toi
[Jesus]
And she [Elizabeth] cried out with a loud voice, and said:
Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit ofthy
womb [Jesus].
First verse of the Ave Maria
Ave Maria gratia plena, Dominos tecum:
Benedicta tu in mulieribus,
Et benedictus fructus vetnris toi, [Jesus.)
Hail Mary full ofgrace, the Lord is with thee:
b/essed art though among women
and b/essed is the fruit ofthy womb, [Jesus.]
The basic form of the Ave Maria, shown in full at the bottom of Table 3.1, is a conflation
of the two greetings of Mary from the Gospel of Luke, frrst at the Annunciation by the
angel Gabriel and later by ber cousin Elizabeth. The two greetings are joined together at
the pronouncement ofMary's sanctity, "benedicta tu," a common feature ofboth. This
prayer was used in both liturgical and votive contexts. The text from Luke was adapted
for use outside a biblical context by specifying the name of Mary. Jesus is also named at
the end in the votive prayer.
Coexistent with its popular and primarily oral tradition, the Ave Maria was used in
many ways within the ecclesiastical context. Proper liturgical items associated with the
251
Biblia Sacra: luxta Vulgatam Versionem and The Ho/y Bible: Douay Version.
85
basic fonn included an antiphon, offertory, and giadual verse. These were primarily
associated with the feast of the Annunciation and the Advent season (see Table 3.2). 252 '
Table 3.2: Ecclesiastical Ave Maria texts
Offertory
2 3
'
Ave Maria, gratia pl ena, Dominus tecum, benedicta tu in
mulieribus, et benedictus fructus ventris tui.
Ave Maria, gratia plena, Dominus tecum.
Graduai
Verse 254
Antiphon 2 :l:l Ave Maria, gratia plena, Dominus tecum, benedicta tu in
mulieribus, [alleluia].
4th Sunday of
Advent
F easts of the
Blessed Virgin
2nd Vespers on
Marian F easts
The textual differences between these versions are slight, usually just adjustments to the
length of the prayer for the liturgical context. For example the graduai verse utilizes the
first six words of the other liturgical items simply because that is the appropriate length
for a verse.
There was also a popular sequence elaborating upon the Ave Maria, the textual
and musical basis for the imitative openning of Josquin' s famous Ave Maria... virgo
serena. The text of the Ave Maria offertory is shown in bold in Table 3.3 within the first
part of the Ave Maria sequence.
Table 3.3: Ave Maria sequence256
Sequence Ave Maria, gratia plena,
Dominos tecum, virgo serena
Benedicta tu in mulieribus, quae peperisti pacem hominubus et angelis gloriam.
Et benedictus fructus ventris tui, qui, coheredes ut essemus sui nos, fecit per
gratiam ...
Each of the liturgical items mentioned above is connected to a chant melody and has clear
liturgical function, placing it within the cycle of the church year. The similarity ofthese
252
Bryden and Hughes, An Index ofGregorian Chant; Liber Usualis.
Liber Usualis, 355
254
Liber Usualis, 1266.
255
Liber Usualis, 1416-7.
256
Blume and Bannister, ed., Analecta Hymnica 54,337.
253
86
texts, which functioned as different proper liturgical items, makes it difficult to determine
if composers using the Ave Maria are considering any specifie liturgical context.
Perhaps more dramatic than changes in the text, the different melodies associated
with the Ave Maria vary greatly according to their liturgical context. The offertory
melody is melismatic as is the graduai verse, both parts of the Mass on Marian feast days,
important days in the church year requiring elaborate music. The oldest and most famous
melody is the simple, almost syllabic antiphon from the tenth century.Z
57
This is the
antiphon most often associated with the Ave Maria text. It has a memorable opening
motive, including a falling forth, a leap of a fifth and an upper half step motion from a to
Bb and back to a.
Figure 3.2: Liber Usualis, 1416
2. And-----~~
t
••
.---.
Cl'
. "'
~--t----···------l'
! _ . _1
1
•
.•
--+---::-+-··
--v-:!=-M-;:-;;_-a-,·-.-g~-â--ti- a~:~:-na_:_D_o_m_i_m~s té~-l~~n-
JI
_c- -
-• • ' • ••
+-----··---·c----------
.
_ _ _ _ _ _!.,__. .. ..._..._
,
benedlcta tu
t
tl
;;::-it
1
..
.~---~
-:---'--'
.--~~----·--
in mu-li- é-ribus. P. T. in mu-li- é-ribus, :1!·
This melody is used as a cantus firmus in two of the four pure Ave Maria settings in the
258
The syllabic
Petrucci motet anthologies, not including settings of the sequence.
sequence melody, the beginning of Josquin'sAve Maria ... virgo serena (102), is also
very popular in polyphonie settings. In addition to the use of it at the beginning for
Josquin's motet, two five-voice motets from Motetti a cinque, one by Regis (516) and the
other by Pipelare (512), use the sequence words and melody as scaffolding in their
elaborate motets.
257
Liber Usualis, 1416.
zsa 120 by Craen and 301 by Josquin both use Liber Usualis, 1416 but 230 by Crispinus van Stappenand
225 by Regis do not. 120 sets the text of the votive Ave Maria prayer.
87
The Votive Ave Maria Prayer.
It is unclear if these liturgical versions of the Ave Maria had as much cultural
currency as the votive Ave Maria prayer used in popular devotions, including but not
limited to the Rosary. The votive version has two distinct verses and adds the name of
Jesus. Table 3.4 shows the modern text for both verses of the votive Ave Maria prayer.
Table 3.4: Votive Ave Maria prayer, standardized in 1525 and 1568
Ave Maria gratia plena, Dominus tecum:
Benedicta tu in mulieribus,
Et benedictus fructus ventris tui, Jesus.
Hail Mary full of grace, the Lord is with thee:
Blessed art thou among women,
And blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus.
Sancta Maria, mater Dei,
Ora pro nobis peccatoribus.
Nunc et in hora mortis nostrae.
Holy Mary, mother ofGod,
Pray for us sinners,
Now and at the hour ofour death.
There was no standardized text for the second verse of the votive prayer until Clement
VII authorized the beginning, "Sancta Maria, mater Dei, Ora pro nobis peccatoribus," in
1525, shown in bold. Then in 1568 Pope Pius endorsed the addition of"nunc et in hora
mortis nostrae," shown in italics. 259 Until these standardizations, and probably for a while
afterward, the votive text varied by region and possibly persona! preference. Although
they are not standardized, variant extensions almost always include a plea for Mary to
"pray for us at the hour of death," enforcing the votive function of the text. Daniel
Freeman has identified sorne of the main variations used in polyphonie settings in the
sixteenth century. He makes the point that polyphonie settings are important sources for
studying the prayer because in musical settings the intended text is almost always written
out in full, while devotional texts just provide the incipit, "Ave Maria," if they include
259
Freeman, "On the Origins of the Pater noster-Ave Maria," 195.
88
any indication at ali. Musical settings are also important sources for the melodies
associated with the votive prayer. 260
David Rothenberg supposes that "in the case of devotions in the Book of Hours or
the Rosary-and probably also when used at the opening or close of liturgical servicesthe Ave Maria was spoken not sung."261 While this may be true for private devotions,
especially repetitive ones like the rosary, 1 don't think it is safe to assume this for
liturgical and especially confraternal services, where music was an integral part of the
ceremony. It seems likely that in Italy monophonie laude could easily replace the spoken
pray ers in votive services. Collections of polyphonie laude, like Florence 27 and
Petrucci's Laude II, include multiple settings of the Ave Maria. Since the lauda was a
genre that developed for confratemal performance it makes sense that musical
performance oftheAve Maria was a common feature oftheir services and ceremonies.
Although it is impossible to know, it seems likely that there were popular monophonie
melodies associated with the Ave Maria in the oral tradition.
There are four distinct versions ofthe votive Ave Maria text used in Petrucci's
Venetian motet anthologies. 1 have lined these different versions up vertically in Table
3.5. Bach begins with the basic votive prayer, shown in plain text. The change to bold
indicates the second verse authorized by Pope Clement VII or Pope Pius and italie text
indicates any other added text. Each of these motets uses a slightly different version of
the votive prayer text. Ave Maria by Nicolas Craen is a pure setting of the votive text as
it would later be authorized by Clement VII. This text lacks only the "mater Dei," of the
official version. The secunda pars of the anonymous Gaude virgo mater Christi is the
°Freeman, "On the Origins of the Pater noster-Ave Maria," 189.
26
261
Marian Feast, Seasons and Songs, 152.
89
only place in the motet anthologies where both verses of the votive text are used in the ir
modem form. 1 have included Josquin's "Little" Ave Maria motet, the first motet in
Motetti C, in the votive Ave Maria prayer category because, although it does not include
the "Sancta Maria" section, it does specify the name of Jesus, a feature of the votive
prayer. 262
Table 3.5: Votive Ave Maria prayer versions used in Petrucci
120, Craen, Ave
Maria
Ave Maria,
231.2, Anon. Gaude
virgo
Ave Maria,
301, Josquin, Ave
Maria
Ave Maria,
gratia plena,
Dominus tecum,
gratia plena,
Dominus tecum,
gratia plena,
Dominus tecum,
benedicta tu in
mulieribus,
et benedictus fructus
ventris tui, Jesus.
benedicta tu in
mulieribus,
et benedictus fructus
ventris tui, Jesus.
Sancta Maria,
ora pro nobis
peccatoribus.
Sancta Maria, mater
Dei, ora pro nobis
peccatoribus,
nunc et in bora mortis
nostrae. Amen.
benedicta tu in
mulieribus,
et benedictus fructus
ventris tui, Jesus
Christus,
Filius Dei vivi.
Et benedicta sint
beata ubera tua,
quae lactaverunt
regem regum
et Dominum Deum
nostrum.
433.2, Obrecht, Beata
es Maria
Ave Maria,
virgo clemens et pia,
gratia plena,
Dominus tecum,
virgo serena,
benedicta tu in
mulieribus
et benedictus fructus
ventris tui.
Sancta Maria, ora
pro nobis
peccatoribus.
0 Christe audi nos.
This text is extended with an elaboration upon the role of Mary as the mother and nurturer
of Christ, resembling the "mater dei" of the official text. The final votive Ave Maria
prayer is the secunda pars ofübrecht's Beata es Maria, a cèntonate text. It mixes the
votive text with melodie and textual references to the sequence, "Ave Maria ... virgo
serena," a lauda and the litany. The added words ."virgo clemens et pia" are borrowed
262
Daniel Freeman has identified this text used in one other setting by an anonymous composer in an early
seventeenth century manuscript, Tarazona. Archivo Capitularde la Cathedral, MS 1. From "On the
Origins," 204 and 210.
90
from the text of the lauda melody which is used as a cantus jirmus in the tenor. 263 The
text ends with the words "0 Christe audi nos," nesting this prayer within the litany
context. These four motets demonstrate the versatility of the votive Ave Maria prayer
within the very flexible framework of lay Marian devotion.
Usage of the Ave Maria in Petrucci's motets.
In table 3.6 I have compiled the motets using the Ave Maria and included the
relevant textual and musical features I have examined.
Table 3.6: Motets using the Ave Maria
Ave Maria
No in
Print
Setting
316
CF
131
ELAB
512
ELAB
516
ELAB
102
EMB
118
EMB
231
EMB
308
EMB
317
321
Title
Composer
Partes
CF
0 bone et dulcis
domine Jesu
Josquin
1
y
Gaspar
1
N
Pipe lare
2
y
Regis
2
y
Josquin
1
y
Compère
2
N
An on.
2
N
an~elus
Josquin
1
N
EMB
Missus est angelus
Gabriel
An on.
2
N
EMB
Virgo precellens
An on.
5
N
Liturgical
"Ave"
Christi mater ave
Ave Maria ... quae
peperisti pacem
Ave Maria ... quae
peperisti pacem
Ave Maria ... virgo
serena
Sequence
Sequence
Sequence
Sequence
Ave Maria
Gaude virgo mater
Christi/ AVE MARIA
Missus est Gabriel
Votive Prayer
Liturgical
Liturgical
"Ave Maria"
433
EMB
Beata es Maria
Obrecht
2
y
502
EMB
Factor orbis
Ob recht
2
y
EMB
Illibata dei virgo
nutrix
504
263
Bloxam, "La Contenance Italienne," 69.
Josquin
2
y
Votive Prayer/
Sequence
Liturgical
"Ave Maria, gratia
plena dominus
tecum"
91
Votive Prayer
120
PURE
Ave Maria
Craen
1
y
225
PURE
Ave Maria
1
y
230
PURE
Ave Maria
Regis
Crispinus van
Stappen
l
y
301
PURE
Ave Maria
Josquin
1
y
Liturgical
Liturgical
Votive Prayer
The versions of the Ave Maria text existing in these prints, indicated in the "AM type"
catègory of table 3.6, represent an array of Ave Maria text types, from sorne with clear
liturgical function, to pieces that simply alludeto the Ave Maria or use it as a cultural
symbol of piety. Because the Ave Maria text itself does not distinguish clearly between
ecclesiastical and lay contexts 1 have examined the many ways this text can be treated and
how these relate to musical elements such as texture, text setting and range, for possible
elues to intended audience and performance context. When 1 made this table 1 hoped to
discover a pattern of usage, sorne correlation between musical setting and Ave Maria
type. What 1 found instead was an impressive array of styles, texts and textures. There
does not seem to be any correlation between the style of the setting and the Ave Maria
type. 264 lnstead these motets freely mix elements of the ecclesiastical and liturgical with
the popular and votive.
1 have identified four different categories of Ave Maria settings. The primary
category consists of pure settings of the Ave Maria text, shown as PURE in the "setting"
column on table 3.6. There are four settings in this category. These motets employ the
basic form of the Ave Maria text in all voices, either the antiphon or votive prayer.
Although two motets in Motetti a cinque are "pure" settings of the Ave Maria sequence 1
have not labeled them as PURE. The sequence uses the basic Ave Maria as a starting
264
The only obvious pattern is that pure settings of the sequence, itself an elaboration on the basic Ave
Maria are always large scale complex motets, but this seems inevitable when you consider the length of the
full sequence text.
92
point but elaborates upon it and becomes a separate prayer, related to but independent of
the Ave Maria. For this reason, the motets using the Ave Maria sequence belong to the
next category, the elaboration settings. There are a total of three elaboration settings,
indicated with the abbreviation ELAB. Motets in this category use the basic form of the
Ave Maria but elaborate upon it, adding extra text and embellishing sorne aspect of the
prayer. In other motets the Ave Mariais a distinct unit embedded within a longer text,
sometimes a composite text. This is shown as EMB in the table. Often the prayer acts as
a quotation, changing the voice of the speaker. This is the largest category, with nine
motets. The final category has but a single motet. This motet, Josquin' s 0 bone et dulcis
Domine Jesu (316), is significantly different from the other Marian motets, because the
Ave Maria is present in the motet only as a cantus firmus, hence the abbreviation CF.
The Ave Maria text does not appear in any other voice.
The use of a specifie cantus firmus is one of the musical elements traditionally
examined to determine performance practice of motets, for example Jacqueline Mattfeld's
article "Sorne Relationships between Texts and Cantus Firmi in the Liturgical Motets of
Josquin des Pres." While her conclusion that the main use of motets using cantus firmi
was to replace items of chant in the liturgy has been challenged by the research of
Cummings, Cumming, Noble, and others, it is clear that cantus firmi can tell us
something about the meaning of motets. Chant melodies could function as cultural
symbols within a society steeped in religious images. Singers who spent their lives
singing the chant of the church year, and probably lay people who spent their lives
listening to it, developed connections between the melodies and the different feasts and
93
seasons of the year.Z 65 In addition, a composer could relate to the melodies he chose on
purely musical terms, choosing a cantus firmus from chant based on its polyphonie
potential.266 For these reasons I have approached liturgical significance for cantus firmi
with caution.
Although, when possible I have examined the relationship between the cantus
firmus and the motet text I have also looked at polyphonie texture as an important
musical element. This is perhaps the most audible of the compositional deviees employed
by Renaissance composers and probably the element most accessible to the contemporary
audience. Certain textures are more easily related to certain performance contexts. In a
few motets I have identified what I perceive to be a composed improvisational style.
These works, addressed in my discussion of Ave Maria (230) by Crispinus van Stappen,
imitate the whimsical style of impromptu omaments. In other works I have found
connections with the lauda texture. Based on the idea proposed in chapter 1, I be lieve
that motets performed in Italy using a homophonie style, would have appealed to
confratemities, whose main musical genre was the lauda. The homophonie tradition of
motet composition, called the "devotional style" by Bonnie Blackburn, had been used by
northem composers, especially DuFay, to emphasize important words in the text. 267 She
states that "this was music admirably suited to devotion, to uplifting the earthly mind."268
In my analysis I have looked not only at the relationship between homophony and the
lauda but also at the rhetorical potential of dramatic changes in texture. My analysis of
265
Rothenberg, Marian Feasts, Seasons, and Songs.
1 think that skill in improvisatory techniques, such as singing on the book (cantare super librum), would
make professional singers particularly aware of the polyphonie potential of certain melodies.
267
"The Dispute about Harmony ," 25-6.
268
"The Dispute about Harmony," 36.
266
94
the way that these various different textures interact with the liturgical and votive forms
of the Ave Maria text forms the remainder of the chapter.
Popular and ecclesiastical elements in pure settings.
Pure settings of the Ave Maria prayer could have been used at various points in
ecclesiastical services and confraternal devotions. These settings could have replaced the
spoken prayer when it was required or could have been performed to bring a blessing
from Mary to a secular event like a feast or confraternity meeting. The Ave Maria of
Nicolas Craen (120) sets the full text of the votive Ave Maria prayer in sophisticated,
imitative texture. The altus, shown in Figure 3.3, resembles a cantus firmus, with a
simple melody limited to the natural hexachord, beginning and ending on C and
embellished at cadences.
Figure 3.3: Altus from, Craen, Ave Maria (120)
The altus has the full text of the prayer except for the words "Jesus" and "ora pro nobis,"
which are supplied by the other voices. Its limited range and stepwise motion suggest to
me that this voice could have been a lauda melody or a formula used to recite the Ave
Maria in public ceremonies, similar to recitation formulas, like the Litany formula.
269
The other voices derive their soggetti from the tune in the altus at the beginning of the
269
Riley, Western P/ainchant, 53-4.
95
motet and in the middle on the words "fructus ventris tui." This motet is a mixture of
high and low, with a heavy, earthbound altus while the other florid voices interact around
it. Perhaps the altus melody was weil known and would have been recognizable to a
contemporary audience. The fact that the text is clearly the votive form of the pray er
suggests that the votive prayer was performed musically in devotional contexts with
something other than the chant melody.
A contrasting pure setting is by Crispinus van Stappen (230) from Motetti B. This
motet uses a texture that is a strange mix of simple homophony in the lower voices
supporting a melismatic line in the superius or altus. This can be seen represented by the
relationship between the superius and tenor in Figure 3.4.
Figure 3.4: Superius and Tenor from, Crispinus van Stappen, Ave Maria (230)
The tenor is clearly the famous Ave Maria antiphon melody, first assigned to the Advent
season but later used as an antiphon for second Vespers of a Marian feast, beginning with
Annunciation. 270 The fact that in this motet there are aiways three sustained voices
supporting a florid line suggests that it may imitate an improvisatory technique. If the
270
Liber Usualis, 1416.
96
singers were adding embellishments, the upper two voices might plan to alternate
improvisations over the simply homophonie texture, for example the superius takes the
first phrase while the altus takes the second. The fluid rhythm and capriciousness of these
lines support the idea that the composer was trying to make these voices seem
impromptu. The text is clearly and mostly syllabically declaimed by the slistained voices.
Within this motet there seem to be three separate musicallayers. The original chant
which was elaborated with three added voices creating simple polyphony. Finally
ornaments in an improvisatory style were added to the upper two voices, alternating
phrases. The use of a homophonie texture, associated with the lauda, and an
improvisatory sound brings this motet closer to confraternal and private devotions, but the
text is identical to the offertory for the feast of the Annunciation. Van Stappen's Ave
Maria motet ties the offertory text and chant melody to a popular, improvisatory texture,
while Craen's setting of the votive prayer uses a popular melody surrounded by a subtle,
imitative texture. These two motets, both pure settings, suggest the range of hybridization
between ecclesiastical and popular possible in the Ave Maria.
Embedded settings using dramatic changes in texture.
The most popular way to use the Ave Maria text was embedded within the text of
another prayer. This technique reflects the functional flexibility of the Ave Maria, for
'
example the way that the Ave Maria was used to punctuate and strengthen the less
standard Marian prayers in Books of Hours. Within this group of nine motets there is
little consisteney. The anonymous Gaude virgo mater Christi (231 ), Compère' s Ave
Maria (118) and Obrecht's Beata es Maria (433) ali use the Ave Maria prayer as the basis
of one half of a motet in two partes. Other settings, like Josquin' s lilibata dei virgo nutrix
97
(504) and the anonymous Virgo precellens (321) only use a very short segment ofthe
prayer, as a reference to Mary and perhaps Marian devotions in general. Two settings of
a similar text, Missus est Gabriel angelus (308) by Josquin and an anonymous motet
Missus est angelus Gabriel (317) from Motetti C, use the Ave Maria as a direct quotation
of the Angel Gabriel in the context ofthe annunciation gospel ofLuke. In these motets
the Ave Mariais presented in a variety of ways, sometimes audible to the listener and at
other times concealed within the texture. These musical elements can be elues to the
possible performance context and intended audience.
The anonymous Missus est angelus Gabriel (317), is one of two motets that use a
striking change from imitative texture to homophony to offset the Ave Maria embedded
within the motet text, indicating that these words were meant to standout from the rest of
the motet. The text is a Marian elaboration on the Gospel of Luke, emphasizing the
moment ofChrist's conception, the Annunciation. This passage from the Gospel ofLuke
was often included in Books of Hours. 271 Rothenberg states that ''the fifteenth century
saw the emergence of the Annunciation gospel as a daily devotional reading, independent
of the liturgical occasions from which it emerged and on which it continued to be
read." 272 The first three lines of this motet are based upon a responsory and verse for the
feast of the Annunciation adapted from the gospel text. 273 Figure 3.5 compares the motet
text with the responsory and verse. This motet text elaborates the two segments of the
liturgical item and, using the words "dominus tecum" as a refrain, goes on to build a text
in praise of the Virgin.
271
Wieck, Roger S. Time Sanctified, 158-9.
Rothenberg, Marian Feast, Seasons and Songs, 137.
273
Hesbert, Corpus Antiphonalium Ojjicii vol4, 292.
272
98
Figure 3.5 Missus est (317) text compared to responsory text
CA0"'"7170
Motet text
Missus est angelus Gabriel ad Mariain virginem
desponsata Joseph nuntians ei verbum
Ave gratia p/ena Dominus tecum Dom in us tecum
Responsory
Missus est Gabriel angelus ad Mariam virginem
desponsatam Joseph, nuntians ei verbum; ...
Verse
Ave Maria gratia plena dominus tecum
The first 41 measures of the motet set the text derived from the responsory and act as an
introduction. The text recounts the descent of the angel Gabriel to Mary. After 28
measures of imitative texture, ail the voices come together suddenly on the angelic
salutation, "Ave gratia pl ena Dominus tecum."
Figure 3.6: Text for mm. 1-41, Missus est angelus Gabriel (317)
Missus est angelus Gabriel
Ad Mariam virginem desponsata Joseph nuntians ei
verbum
Ave gratia plena Dominus tecum Do minus tecum
The angel Gabriel was sent
to Mary, the virgin betrothed to Joseph, announcing
to her [this] word:
Hail, full of Grace, the Lord is with y ou, the Lord is
with you.
Translation by Lars T. Lih
These words are clearly the biblical quotation, not the common prayer, because the word
Maria is not included. The repetition of the Iast two words sets up the "dominus tecum"
as a refrain which returns through the rest of the motet, linking the wholè text to the
moment ofthe Annunciation, and praising Mary as the mother of Christ. The strict
homophonie declamation and full four-voice harmony give this point rhetorical power.
They are the words of the angel Gabriel spoken to Mary with a celestial voice.
Virgo precellens (3 21) is another motet that uses a change to homophony for the
Ave Maria. This unidentified text (Figure 3.7) resemb1es a hymn invoking the virgin in
five partes, with each pars setting a different verse. The motet opens with praises to the
virgin and then describes how her conception brought peace into the world. The text is in
274
Refers to the number in Hesbert, Corpus Antiphonalium Officii, 6 vols.
99
sapphic metre but is not rhymed. 275 The stanzas are composed ofthree eleven-syllable
lines, divided into five and six. The musical structure is defined by the text, with new
soggetti beginning each eleven-syllable line. Each verse is followed by a short greeting
to Mary. Every greeting is five syllables long, echoing the frrst salutation, Ave Maria.
The motet is imitative until the homorythmic Marian greeting at the end of the prima pars.
The homorhythmic sections are further set off from the preceding sections by a cadence
and a rest.
Figure 3.7: Text for Virgo precellens (321)
i.
Virgo precellens deitatis mater
nobis in terris hodie concedas
ut tibi puris resonemus omnes
Ave Maria, Ave Maria.
ii.
Anna te mundo genuit beata
tu bonam nobis peperisti pacem
nos tibi fusi veniam rogamus
Virgo Maria.
iii.
Pacis in terris chorus angelorum
nuntiat tempus cui bona voluntas
laudibus qui te veneramur unam
Sancta Maria, Sancta Maria.
iv.
Ergo te nostre quoniam salutatis
causa produxit Miserere plebes
quam tuus fecit puer et creavit
digna Maria, digna Maria.
v.
i.
Sublime Virgin, MotherofGod,
Grant us today, here on earth,
To sing for you with a pure heart:
Hail Mary, Hail Mary.
ii.
Saint Anne brought you into the world;
You brought us good peace.
Humbly we beg you pardon,
Virgin Mary.
iii.
A chorus of angels announce a time of peace on earth to those of
good will,
So that we venerate you alone with songs ofpraise,
Holy Mary, Holy Mary.
iv.
And so, since the cause of our salvation
raised you up, have mercy on the people
that your son made and created,
worthy Mary, worthy Mary.
v.
lam mine fere sileant et nostri
sit tibi regis populi quam cura
ut viam semper teneant electam
digna Maria, digna Maria.
Amen
·
Now let threats fall completely silent, and let your care be to the
people of our king,
. so that they ever keep to the chosen path.
worthy Mary, worthy Mary.
Amen.
Translation by Lars T. Lih
This change from imitative texture to homophony is dramatic. The homophonie
passages fit Bonnie Blackburn's description of the "devotional style," with awkward
275
Hiley, Western Plainchant, 142.
100
Ieaps in the bass and parallel sixths between the superius and tenor.Z 76 Bonnie Blackburn
argues that an important indicator ofthe "devotional style" was that the composer was
more interested in the sonorous qualities of voices declaiming the text than in the
contrapuntal framework. These sections reflect the usage of the Ave Maria as
punctuation for prayers in contemporary Books of Hours, with only the first words
written out.277 The short partes, punctuated with Marian greetings, make this motet ideal
for performance during confratemal processions. Each pars, only about 45 breves long,
could be performed at separate stops along the path, perhaps before important votive
images of the Virgin or her mother, Anna. The words at the end of each pars, sung in
homophony by the singers, magnify the voices of the people on earth. If this work were
performed by the singers of a V enetian scuola these would be the voices of its faithful
members.
The Ave Maria and devotional prayer.
The Ave Maria began as the words of an Angel speaking to the Virgin at the
moment that the Holy Spirit placed Christ in her womb, but in the late fifteenth and early
sixteenth centuries it was transferred to the lips of ail people asking for aid at the moment
of death. Despite its life as a devotional prayer it did not lose its connection with the
Annunciation and often this connection was emphasized. The most striking moment in
Craen's Ave Maria (120), setting of the votive prayer, cornes on the words, "dominus
tecum," see Figure 3.8. At this point the altus and tenor altemate long note values singing
276
277
Blackburn, "The Dispute about Harmony." 2.
Freeman, "On the Origins of the Pater noster-Ave Maria," 188.
101
an ascending scale from middle C to G. The superius and bassus also ascend with a
sequence in tenths drawn out over a full eight breves.
Figure 3.8: Craen, Ave Maria (120), mm. 19-29
1
1
mi nus
Do
.(JJ
.(JJ
-&
Do
mi
nus
-
l
1
1
1
Do
1
1
mi nus
te
te
Do
na
mi nus
Do
1
cum
-
Do
mi nus
le
cum
te
'1
cum
te
-
........,. . .
------...
•
cum
di
mi nus
Do
,
ne
be
cum
te
~
le
Transcription by Loren R. Carle
This direct line from 1ow to high represents the connection betweenheaven and earth at
the Annunciation. It seems to be a musical depiction of the moment ofGabriel's
announcement to Mary. There is a whole tradition ofltalian Annunciation paintings that
emphasize this moment, including the one in Figure 3.9 by the Venetian painter Carlo
Crivelli. Crivelli' s use of a bearn of light extending from heaven to the head of Mary
102
illustrates the Christological signifie ance of the moment, as Mary conceives by the Holy
Spirit.
Figure 3.9: Carlo Crivelli, Annunciation, National Gallery, London, 1486
1 have identified five exarnples of paintings using this bearn from late-fifteenth-century
Italy in London's National Gallery?78 Although Craen's line and sequence are ascending
278
Fra Filippo Lippi, The Annunciation, 1450-3; Giannicola di Paolo, The Annunciation, late 15th century;
Zanobi Strozzi, The Annunciation, 1440-50; Carlo Crivelli, The Annunciation with Saint Emidius, 1486;
Cosimo Tura, The Virgin: Fragment of an Annunciation, 1475-80. Interestingly the only German
Annunciation painting in the National Gallery, London, from the late fifteenth century, by the Master of
Liesbom (1470-80), does not have this bearn.
103
and the bearn between Mary and the Holy Spirit is probably descending, they seem to be
similar1y trying to emphasize the importance of this moment and the palpable connection
between Mary and the Ho1y Spirit through her physical connectic:m with Christ. 279
Another Ave Maria motet that brings together Christ and Mary is Josquin' s 0
bane et dulcis Domine Jesu (316). This motet has a double cantus firmus, with the Ave
Maria in the bassus and the Pater noster in the tenor, both prayers essential to the Rosary
and other private devotions. The text is an as yet unidentified prayer text. David
Rothenberg discusses this motet in his dissertation. He states that "there are numerous
Christological prayer types that appear in the fifteenth- and early sixteenth-century Books
of Hours that are to be recited followed by both the Pater noster and the Ave Maria, and
it is in this context that 0 bane et dulcis Domine Jesu must be understood.'' He points out
that "the motet emphasizes the theological harmony between these three prayers, which in
private devotion could be said only in succession."280 Rothenberg shows that the Ave
Maria melody in Josquin's motet is actually composed oftwo different antiphon
melodies, Ave Marid 81 and Benedicta tu, 282 "the two texts that constitute the first stanza
ofthe usual votive Ave Maria." 283 Thus Josquin uses only canonicalliturgy in a votive
context and strengthens a devotional prayer with the official words and images of Mary
and God the Father.
Conclusion.
The diversity of settings of the Ave Maria in Petrucci's Venetian motet
279
Missus est angelus Gabriel (317) uses the words "dominus tecum" as a refrain. The first statement of
this textual refrain juxtaposes Bfa and Bmi in a way that also seems significant.
280
Rothenberg, Marian Feasts, Songs and Seasons, 162.
281
Hesbert, Corpus Antiphonalium Officii, no. 1539, vol 3, 64.
282
Hesbert, Corpus Antiphona/ium Officii, no. 1709, vol. 3, 86.
283
Rothenberg, Marian Feasts, Songs and Seasons, 162.
104
anthologies is evidence for the influence that various expressions of Marian devotion in
ecclesiastical and lay contexts had on motets. Marian devotions were not standardized or
prescribed and many forms of pious expression, including the Rosary and the Ave Maria
itself, were evolving and changing. The scuole were influenced by innovative lay
devotions and societies, including Jacob Sprenger's Confratemity ofthe Rosary, entering
the city through international populations. The Ave Maria was a central element oflay
piety and probably had an important place in the ceremonies of the Venetian scuole.
Laude settings of the Ave Maria text were clearly important in the ceremonies of the
scuole, since polyphonie settings of the pray er are common in collections of laude. As
the. artistic aspirations of the scuole became more ambitions the more sophisticated genre
of the motet and its subtle uses of the Ave Maria became more desirable. The Ave Maria
could function as a sanctifying cantus firmus or as the magnified cry of the brothers,
asking for Mary's aid, embedded within another text. The pieces considered in this
chapter would have fit weil into the combination of lay and ecclesiastical devotions
typical of the confraternities. These Ave Maria motets indicate that private devotions,
including the rosary, affected the form and content of motets.
105
Conclusion
The organic fusion of ecclesiastical and lay elements is an important feature of
early sixteenth-century Marian devotions. The Marian motets considered here exhibit
similar trends in both their textual and musical features. Figure 4.1 provides a way to
look at the space between ecclesiastical and domestic with regard to the elements
discussed in this thesis.
Figure 4.1: Defining the Middle Space
Space
Ecclesiastical
Church or chapel
Genre
Motet
Lay piety
Scuola, church,
procession
Lauda
Text
Liturgical text
Either
Ave Maria
Type
Performance
context
Performer
Liturgical item
Either
Office or Mass in
Cathedral or Chapel
Clerical musicians
Texture
Imitative
Confraternity service or
procession
Semi-professional
singers or clerical
musicians hired for
special occasions
Homorhythmic
Domestic
Home
Motet, chanson,
frottola, lauda
Prayer text from
Book of Hours
Votive prayer
Domestic chamber
mustc
Amateurs and
possibly paid
mustctans
Various
Both lay piety and Marian devotions dwell in the middle space. As institutions of the
middle space, the scuole can draw upon elements from both public, ecclesiastical
traditions and intimate, domestic ones. In a confratemal environment both the votive Ave
Maria and the liturgical antiphon would have been appropriate. Similarly votive prayers
like Josquin's 0 bone et dulcis domine Jesu (316) can be presented along side
ecclesiastical cantus firmi (Ave Maria and Pater noster) in a musical representation of a
lay devotion. Likewise texts from Marian/este and devotional prayers can be mixed in
one motet, as in the anonymous motet Gaudeamus omnes (337). Although the lauda is
106
the traditional genre of confratemal devotions, Petrucci 's inclusion of contrafact laude in
Motetti B and motet-style laude in his lauda volumes shows that the line between these
genres was blurred.
In the preface to Printing, Writers and Readers, Brian Richardson states that
"historians of the book are· alert to the danger of divorcing books from their intellectual
contexts, of allowing ... their subject to become a history with neither readers nor
authors. " 284 With motets, because of a lack of documentation of contemporary
performance, we are too often left without valid "readers." With printed music there are
two possible kinds of readers, the people who look at the ink lines and lozenges and
interpret them into audible music, and the audience. The Venetian scuole represent both
of these types of readers, and as Jonathan Glixon and Peter Humfrey have pointed out, the
early sixteenth century was an active time for artistic production in these groups.
Competition drove the scuole to commission more beautiful altarpieces and to fund more
elaborate music for services and celebrations.
With both his motet anthologies and lauda volumes Petrucci was able to tap into
this fertile market. The stylistic similarities between the music in these volumes,
especially the use of homorhythm in both, suggests that there was an aesthetic common to
the scuole. They were interested in music in which the text was intelligible, like the laude
and motets that used homorhythmic texture; but they were also interested in music that
showed off the skill of their singers, such as pieces in more complex, imitative
counterpoint. The texts or at least topics were familiar, and the dramatic flare with which
many of these motets were written would not be lost on the niembers of the scuole. For
example, Missus est angelus Gabriel (317) uses a textual refrain, "dominus tecum,"
284
x.
107
throughout a rather long motet in two partes. The anonymous composer carefully sets
these words apart from the rest of the text, either in homorhythm or reduced texture, each
time they return. Although a person who is not fluent in Latin might miss the details of
this unique text, a con:fratemity brother and anyone else who took part in private
devotions, would recognize the significance of this quote from the Ave Maria, connecting
Mary to Christ. With the Marian motets of Petrucci' s Venetian motet anthologies I have
identified an environment, the confratemity, that fostered the sounds of Marian
polyphony. The Venetian scuole provided a context in which Marian motets could have
been "read" in both senses. Musicians hired by the scuola read the music and performed
them, while members of the confratemities and the larger Venetian public who
participated in and watched processions heard them resounding through the buildings,
streets, and piazzas ofVenice, ali beneath the protective gaze of the Virgin.
108
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Appendix 1
Marian Motets in Petrucci' s V enetian Prints
This appendix includes all the Marian motets included in the Petrucci motet
anthologies printed in Veni ce between 1502 and 1508; Motetti A ( 1502), Motetti B
(1503), Motetti C (1504), Motetti libro quarto (1505) and Motetti a cinque (1508). The
first column follows the numbering system used in Julie Cumming's Petrucci Motet
Database. The first number indicates the print (1 for Motetti A, 2 for Motetti B ... etc.)
and the second is the number of the motet within the print. For example Motet no. 102 is
Josquin' sAve Maria ... virgo serena. It is the second piece inMotetti A. The second and
third columns list abbreviations for the text type associated with each motet. 285 Below are
the definitions for each abbreviation. Columns seven and eight contain the number of
partes and the number ofvoices respectively. The final column indicates the presence of a
cantus firmus.
Interpertation of text type abbreviations
Abbreviation
AM
Title
Ave Maria
MFE
DEV
Liturgical item from a Marian
Feast and Sat. Office ofBVM
Devotional Prayer
MANT
Marian Antiphon
HYM
SEQ
Hymns
Sequences
SofS
Song of Songs
OTH
Other
285
Description
-prayer
-antiphon
-sequence
-Antiphon
-Responsory
....Common prayers from Books of Hours
-meditations
-unidentified prayers
-litanies
-Salve regina
-Ave regina caelorum
-Regina caeli
-Alma redem~toris mater
-Rhymed metric texts
-Stabat mater dolorosa ·
-other sequences
-Song of songs without other uses (i.e. not
antiphons for the Virgin)
-humanistic texts
-centonate texts
-occasional texts
This information cornes from various sources. Bryden and Hughes, An Index to Gregorian Chant;
Hesbert, Corpus Antiphonalium Officii, 6 vols. Cantus: A Database for Latin Ecclesiastica/ Chant,
http://publish.uwo.ca/·ocantus/ (Cited August 20, 2007]. Complete works editions: Lehrer, ed., Agricola,
Hudson, ed., Brume/, Finscher, ed., Compère, Gottwald, ed., Ghise/in-Verbonnet, Davidson et al., eds., La
Rue, Lindenburg, ed., Regis, Maas, ed., New Obrecht Edition, and Cross, ed., Pipe/are; Cumming, Petrucci
Motet Database; Drake, ed., Motetti B; Eiders and Blackburn, eds., New Josquin Edition, vols 23 and 22; La
Trobe: Medieval Music Database, http://www .1 ib.latrobe.edu.au/M MD B/index.htrn [Cited Aug. 20, 2007].
119
No.
in
Print
Text
Type
Secondary
Affiliation
Title
Composer
Ave Maria
Craen
Partes
Vv.
CF
1
4
y
4
y
3
y
120
AM
301
AM
Ave Maria
Josquin
1
225
AM
Ave Maria
1
Ave Maria
Regis
Crispinus van
Stappen
1
4
y
DEV
~
230
AM
118
DEV
AM
Ave Maria
Compère
2
4
N
102
DEV
AM
Ave Maria ... virgo serena
Josquin
1
4
y
433
DEV
AM
Beata es Maria
Obrecht
2
4
y
131
DEV
AM
Gaspar
1
4
N
231
DEV
AM
Christi mater ave
Gaude virgo mater Christi/
Ave Maria
An on.
2
4
N
316
DEV
AM
0 bone et dulcis domine Jesu
Josquin
1
4
y
229
DEV
SEQ
Haec est ilia dulcis rosa
An on.
1
4
N?
302
DEV
Ave celorum Domina
Brumel
1
4
N
123
DEV
Ave domina sancta Maria
Gaspar
2
4
N
214
DEV
Ave domina sancta Maria
Anon.
1
4
N
440
DEV
Ave mater omnium
Gaspar
1
4
N
226
DEV
Agricola
1
3
y
130
DEV
Ave_pulcherrima regina
Virgo dei trono digna [no
text]
Tinctoris
1
3
N
306
DEV
Davidica stirpe Maria
Anon.
2
4
?
414
DEV
Decantemus in hac
An on.
2
4
N
415
DEV
Gaude virgo mater Christi
Josquin
1
4
N
134
DEV
Mater digna Dei
Gaspar
1
4
N
339
DEV
0 dulcissima
An on.
2
4
N
ll5
DEV
0 florens rosa
Ghiselin
1
3
y
435
DEV
Obsecro te virgo dulcissima
An on.
2
4
N
120
125
DEV
Stella celi extirpavit
An on.
1
4
y
340
SEQ
Mittit ad virginem
Josquin
2
4
?
321
HYM
Virgo precellens
An on.
5
4
N
405
MFE
0 Maria virgo pia
Mouton
2
4
?
109
HYM
0 quam glorifica
Agricola
1
3
y
412
HYM
Ghiselin
2
4
N
401
MANT
0 gloriosa domina
Alma redemptoris mater/
Ave regina coelorum
Josquin
1
4
y
422
MANT
Alma redemptoris mater
A non.
1
4
N
318
MANT
Alma redemptoris mater
nsaacl
2
4
y
113
MANT
Regina ce li letare
Brume!
2
4
y
425
MANT
Regina ce li letare
Ghiselin
1
4
y
442
MANT
Re_gina ce li letare
1
4
y
404
MANT
Salve regina
An on.
La Rue, Petrus
de
3
4
y
232
MANT
Salve regina
Anon.
2
4
N
308
MFE
AM
Missus est Gabriel angelus
Josquin
1
4
y
317
MFE
AM
Anon.
2
4
N
320
DEV
MFE
Missus est angelus Gabriel
Ave regina celorum/0 decus
innocentie
An on.
2
4
y
121
MFE
DEV
Brume!
2
4
N
337
MFE
DEV
Ave stella matutina
Gaudeamus omnes/ Gaude
virgo mater Christi
Anon.
5
4
N
227
MFE
DEV
Sancta Maria quesumus
Anon.
1
4
y
133
MFE
SofS
Anima mea liquefacta est
Ghiselin
2
4
y
108
MFE
SofS
Descendi in ortum meum
A non.
1
4
y
122
MFE
SofS
Ibo mihi ad montem
Gas_par
1
4
N
104
SofS
MFE
Surge propera
Jo. De Pinarol
1
4
N
305
MFE
SofS
Tota pulchra es
Craen
2
4
y
126
MFE
SofS
Vidi speciosam
Gaspar
1
4
N
AM
MFE
121
132
MFE
Ave stella matutina
Gaspar
1
4
N
307
MFE
Beata Dei genitrix
Anon.
2
4
N
329
MFE
Fille regum
A non.
2
4
y
403
MFE
Maria virgo semper laetare
Ghiselin
1
4
y
408
OTH
4
?
MFE
Mouton
Crispinus van ·
Stappen
1
201
0 quam fulges in etheris
Non lotis manibus
manducare
1
4
y
506
MFE
0 decus ecclesie
2
5
y
'429
SEQ
1
4
?
114
MFE
Invio1ata, integra et casta
Yirgo Maria non est tibi
similis
Isaac
Basyron,
Philippus
1
4
N
444
MFE
Yirgo prudentissima
Gaspar
Erasmus
Lapicide
1
4
CF?
105
MFE
Yirgo prudentissima
Josquin
1
4
y
502
OTH
AM
Factor orbis
Obrecht
2
5
y
504
OTH
AM
Illibata dei virgo nutrix
Josquin
2
5
y
503
OTH
DEY
Dulcis arnica Dei
Gaspar
2
5
y
107
OTH
DEY
Propter gravamen
Compère
2
4
N
417
OTH
DEY
Yirgo salutiferi
An on.
2
4
N
510
OTH
MANT
Salve sponsa
Regis
2
5
Y?
411
OTH
MFE
Beata es Maria virgo dulcis
Brumel
1
4
N
436
OTH
MFE
Brume!
2
4
N
423
OTH
MFE
Conceptus hodiernus Maria
Nativitas unde gaudia/
Nativitas tua, dei genitrix
Brume)
2
4
y
334
OTH
MFE
Rogamus te piisima virgo
nsaacl
2
4
y
439
OTH
MFE
Yultum tuum
Josquin
7
4
y
501
OTH
Clangat plebs
1
5
y
515
OTH
Exaudi nos filia
Regis
Crispinus van
Stappen
2
5
y
103
OTH
0 genetrix gloriosa mater
Compère
2
4
N
430
OTH
0 potens magni
Anon.
2
4
?
122
Salve virgo virginum
Joannes Aulen
2
4
?
OTH
0 stelliferi conditor orbis
Anon.
2
4
?
117
OTH
Compère
2
4
512
SEQ
AM
Pipe lare
6
5
y
516
SEQ
AM
Sile fragor
Ave Maria ... quae peperisti
pacem
Ave Maria ... quae peperisti
pacem
2
5
y
228
SEQ
DEY
Ave decus virginale
Regis
Jo[hannes]
Marti[ni]
1
4
y
514
SEQ
DEY
Obrecht
3
5
y
419
SEQ
MFE
Mater patris, nati nata
Stabat mater/ Nativitas unde
gaudia
Turplin
2
4
y
402
SEQ
Ave virgo gloriosa
Brume]
2
4
N
335
SEQ
Inviolata, integra et casta
Anon.
12
4
N
418
SEQ
Inviolata, integra et casta
Ghiselin
1
4
y
507
SEQ
Inviolata, integra et casta
1
5
y
443
MFE
Nativitas tua Dei genitrix
Isaac
Erasmus
LaJ!Ïcide
1
4
?
517
DEY
Ave sanctissima
Diniset
1
5
?
341
SEQ
Anon.
3
4
N
Ill
SEQ
Salvatoris mater pia
Yictimae paschali
Laudes/D'Ung aultre amer
and Die nobis Maria/ De tous
biens
Josquin
2
4
y
342
SofS
In lectulo meo
Anon.
1
3
N
124·
SofS
0 pulcherima mulierum
Gaspar
1
4
N
432
HYM
434
DEY
'
N
123
Appendix 2
Marian motets types excluded from study
Table 1: Marian antiphon settings
No in
Print
Text
Type
2nd.
Aff.
401
MANT
Title
Alma redemptoris mater/ Ave regina
coelorum
Composer
Partes
422
MANT
Alma redemptoris mater
An on.
1
318
MANT
Alma redemptoris mater
nsaacl
2
113
MANT
Regina celi letare
Brume!
2
425
MANT
Regina celi letare
Ghiselin
1
442
MANT
Regina celi letare
An on.
1
404
MANT
Salve regina
La Rue, Petrus de
3
232
MANT
Salve regina
An on.
2
Josquin
1
Table 2: Hymns and Sequences
No in
Print
Text
Type
2nd.
Aff.
Title
Composer
321
HYM
AM
Virgo precellens
An on.
5
432
HYM
DEY
Salve virgo virginum
Joannes Aulen
2
109
HYM
MFE
0 quam glorifica
Agricola
1
412
HYM
0 gloriosa domina
Ghiselin
2
512
SEO
AM
Ave Maria ... quae peperisti pacem
Pipe lare
6
516
SEQ
AM
Ave Maria ... quae peperisti pacem
2
228
SEQ
DEY
Ave decus virginale
Regis
Jo[hannes]
Marti[ni]
514
SEQ
DEY
Mater patris, nati nata
Obrecht
3
419
SEQ
MFE
Stabat mater/ Nativitas unde gaudia
Turplin
2
402
SEQ
Ave virgo gloriosa
Bru mel
2
335
SEQ
Inviolata, integra et casta
Anon.
12
418
SEQ
Inviolata, integra et casta
Ghiselin
1
Partes
1
124
507
SEQ
Inviolata, integra et casta
1
Inviolata, integra et casta
Isaac
Basyron,
Philippus
429
SEQ
.340
SEQ
Mittit ad virginem
Josquin
2
341
SEQ
An on.
3
Ill
SEQ
Salvatoris mater pia
Yictimae paschali Laudes/D'Ung aultre amer
and Die nobis Marial De tous biens
Josquin
2
1
Table 3: Song ofSongs without Liturgical Association
No in
Print
Text
Type
2nd.
Aff.
Title
Composer
104
SofS
MFE
Surge propera
Jo. de Pinarol
1
342
SofS
In lectu1o meo
An on.
1
124
SofS
0 pulcherima mulierum
Gaspar
1
Partes
Table 4: Other Category
No in
Print
Text
Type
2nd.
Aff.
Title
Composer
502
OTH
AM
Factor orbis
Obrecht
2
504
OTH
AM
Illibata dei virgo nutrix
.Josquin
2
503
OTH
DEY
Dulcis arnica Dei
Gaspar
2
107
OTH
DEY
Propter gravamen
Compère
2
417
OTH
DEY
Yirgo salutiferi
Anon.
2
510
OTH
MANT
Salve sponsa
Regis
2
411
OTH
MFE
Beata es Maria virgo dulcis
Brume!
1
436
OTH
MFE
Brume)
2
423
OTH
MFE
Conceptus hodiemus Maria
Nativitas unde gaudia! Nativitas tua, dei
genitrix
Brume!
2
506
OTH
MFE
0 decus ecclesie
Isaac
2
334
OTH
MFE
Rogamus te piisima virgo
[Isaac]
2
439
OTH
MFE
Yultum tuum
Josquin
7
501
OTH
Clan gat plebs
Regis
1
Partes
125
515
OTH
Exaudi nos filia
Crispinus van
Stappen
2
103
OTH
0 genetrix gloriosa mater
Compère
2
430
OTH
0 potens magni
Anon.
2
408
OTH
0 quam fulges in etheris
Mouton
1
434
OTH
0 stelliferi conditor orbis
Anon.
2
117
OTH
Sile fragor
Compère
2