troja – Jahrbuch für Renaissancemusik

Cœurdevey, Annie

German

Josquin, Willaert, Lasso - ein Dreiecksverhältnis?

Glowotz, Daniel

Das Messenwerk Ludwig Dasers (1526-1589): Überlegungen zur Neubewertung der Ordinarienvertonungen eines vergessenen Münchner Hofkapellmeisters

Heidrich, Jürgen

Das protestantische Repertoire für Knaben im Umfeld der Wittenberger Rhaw-Drucke

Fenlon, Iain

The Claims of Choreography: Women Courtiers and Danced Spectacle in Late Sixteenth-Century Paris and Ferrara

Wistreich, Richard

"Real Basses, Real Men": Virtù and Virtuosity in the Construction of Noble Male Identity in Late Sixteenth-Century Italy

Rupp, Susanne

"Sinner\u27s Sighs": The Devotional Lute Songs of John Dowland and Thomas Campion

Brooks, Jeanice

From Minstrel to Courtier: The Royal Musique de Chambre and Courtly Ideals in Sixteenth-Century France

Lindmayr-Brandl, Andrea

Die Autorität der Namen: Fremd- und Eigensignaturen in musikalischen Werken der Renaissance

Traub, Andreas

Die Choralüberlieferung bei Glarean

Mráčková, Veronika M.

Veronika M. Mráčková
Polyphonic Hymn Settings in the Strahov Codex∗
Late-medieval central European music has become a focal point of musicological
interest in the past hundred years. Dobroslav Orel’s dissertationDerMensuralkodex
„Speciálník“, of 1914, was the pioneering study.1 Although the focus of his work
was the Speciálník Codex CZ-HKm II A 7, he also commented importantly on
other Bohemian sources, including the Strahov Codex CZ-Ps D.G. IV 47.2 Orel
was the first musicologist to draw attention to the polyphonic hymns to the local
saints Wenceslas and Procopius that occur in that manuscript. These compositions
will play an essential role in determining the provenance of the present source.
The Strahov Codex, which contains perhaps the largest number of polyphonic
hymn settings of all the surviving sources from Central Europe, had been ne-
glected until recently, but is currently the centre of interest of many European
musicologists. After Orel, the first musicologist to examine this codex in any detail
was Robert Snow, who compiled the first inventory of its contents in 1969.3 The
inauspicious political situation of the former Czechoslovak Republic did not allow
foreign researchers access to Bohemian sources. Similarly, Czech musicologists did
not have the opportunity to compare their domestic music repertoire with other
European sources or to gain new methodological expertise. The situation became
reversed in the late twentieth century, when Czech musicologists, benefiting from
the newly opened borders, began to observe a significant rise in international
interest in Czech medieval musical culture. Starting from the studies of Reinhard
Strohm and Tom R. Ward, the Czech lands have begun to be perceived as a distinct
cultural area with huge collections of musical manuscripts.4 Thanks to the Czech
musicologist Jaromír Černý, who identified the central European composer Petrus
∗ This study was carried out as part of the research project GA ČR 15-11036S Changing identities
in the musical culture of Central Europe in the late Middle-Ages.
1 Dobroslav Orel, Der Mensuralkodex „Speciálník“, ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Mensuralmusik
und Notenschrift in Böhmen bis 1540, Ph.D. diss., Universität Wien 1914.
2 Hereinafter referred to as the Strahov Codex – without signature.
3 Robert Snow, The Manuscript Strahov D. G. IV. 47., Ph.D. diss., University of Illinois 1969.
4 See Reinhard Strohm, The Rise of European Music 1380–1500, Cambridge 1993; Tom R. Ward, “Poly-
phonic Music in Central Europe, c. 1300 – c. 1520”, in: Reinhard Strohm and Bonnie J. Blackburn
(eds.), Music as Concept and Practice in the Late Middle Ages, Oxford 2001, pp. 191–243.
153
Veronika M. Mráčková
Wilhelmi de Grudencz,5 we have evidence that late-medieval Czech music was not
on the periphery in relation to the distinctive musical centres like France or Italy.
Furthermore, Tom R. Ward pointed out in his study that late-medieval Bohemian
music has some important local characteristics, such as the genre of the Bohemian
cantio and a distinctive compositional style.6 Apart from these studies we have no
further detailed knowledge concerning the origin of the Strahov Codex, because
we lack a detailed analysis of its repertoire. It is not yet clear where Strahov was
compiled, or by whom, or in which environment was used. A significant factor is
that the notation is dicult to read and contains many scribal errors. On the other
hand, it should be noted that we have a huge collection of comparative repertorial
material in other European sources, though the majority of the compositions in
Strahov are unique.
The Strahov Codex is a treasury of the type of late-medieval sacred music
that swept across Europe, as well as of unique pieces that exhibit local traits. It
was evidently for use in a Catholic area.7 As is generally known, Strahov contains
settings for the Mass ordinary and proper, contrafacts of secular repertory, motets,
hymns, andMagnificats. Although the majority of texts are in Latin, we can identify
three German songs in that source.8 Works by many of the leading composers, such
as Johannes Pullois, Johannes Tourout, Walter Frye, and Guillaume Du Fay, are
present. The manuscript is housed in the Strahov library in Prague, but it is unclear
how it was acquired for this amazing ancient archive. Paweł Gancarczyk’s analysis
of the paper types suggests that this manuscript might have been compiled around
1467.9 We do not know where or why the Strahov Codex was written, but several
hypotheses have been mooted. Robert Snow located the Strahov Codex in Silesia
(Eastern area, near the Bohemian border) because of the presence there of both
Czech and German populations.10 But in fact we can arguably exclude this area
since there is no hymn to St Hedwig, patroness of Silesia, in the Strahov Codex.
Reinhard Strohm agrees on Olomouc in Moravia as a possible origin.11 Certainly
the Cathedral of St Wenceslas in Olomouc was an important episcopal seat, but we
can’t yet either confirm or refute its connection with the Strahov Codex. Martin
Horyna recently pointed out that it seems to have a close connection with Southern
Bohemia, which was a strictly Catholic area in the mainly Utraquist Bohemian
5 Jaromír Černý, Petrus Wilhelmi de Grudencz – magister Cracoviensis, Kraków 1993.
6 Tom R. Ward, “Polyphonic Music” (see fn. 4), pp. 191–243.
7 Reinhard Strohm, The Rise (see fn. 4), p. 513.
8 Reinhard Strohm, The Rise (see fn. 4), p. 513.
9 Paweł Gancarczyk, Musica scripto – Kodeksy menzurálne II połowy XV wieku na wschodzie Europy
Łacińskiej, Warszawa 2001, pp. 52–58.
10 Snow, The Manuscript Strahov (see fn. 3), p. 2.
11 Strohm, The Rise (see fn. 4), p. 513.
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Polyphonic Hymn Settings in the Strahov Codex
Lands during this time.12 Unfortunately, we do not have any other convincing
evidence to support this enticing surmise.
The Strahov Codex contains sixty 3- and 4-voice polyphonic oce hymns,
arranged mostly according to the liturgical year. At first glance it is clear that
the even-numbered stanzas are normally underlaid to the polyphony, the odd-
numbered stanzas being intended to be sung as plainchant. The majority of the
hymns – 39 items – were entered by Scribe 1, who probably copied 62 % of the
whole manuscript.13 Apart from two hymns, which might have been composed
by Johannes Tourout (Pange lingua gloriosi)14 and Guillaume Du Fay (Exultet
celum laudibus),15 all of the settings are anonymous. Thirty eight items seem to
be unique and 22 hymns have concordances with other manuscripts, including
Trent codices I-TRbc 88, I-TRbc 90, I-TRbc 91, I-TRcap BL 93, the Saganer Partbooks
PL-Kj Mus. 40098, and the Speciálník Codex CZ-HKm II A 7. According to Tom
R. Ward, the strong similarity among the hymns preserved in the Strahov Codex
and in Trent manuscripts I-TRbc 88 and I-TRcap BL 93 suggests that these three
codices stem from a common source.16 This fact leads us to the conjecture that the
Strahov Codex might have had a certain link to the Imperial Chapel in Vienna. It is
worth saying that 45 % of the hymns entered by Scribe 1 can be identified in other
European sources, including I-TRbc 88 and I-TRcap BL 93. By contrast, Scribe 2
entered settings that belong to a later repertory and have fewer concordances,
among them one hymn from the Saganer Partbooks PL-Kj Mus. 40098. It should
be noted that the hymn texts and melodies present in Strahov relate to the German
tradition, though the hymn Christe redemptor omnium/Conserva for All Saints
was used exclusively in Italy.17 Among the twenty-four dierent hymn texts that
occur in the Strahov Codex, three – Confessor Dei lucidus for St Procopius, Dies
venit victorie for St Wenceslas, and O sancta mundi Domina for the Nativity of
the Blessed Virgin Mary – are not present in any other manuscript containing
polyphonic music from the Late Middle Ages. Furthermore, two hymns to Bo-
12 Martin Horyna, “Česká polyfonie 1470–1620, hudba v životě konfesijně rozdělené společnosti”,
in: Jan Baťa, Jiří K. Kroupa and Lenka Mráčková (eds.), Littera Nigro scripta manet, Praha 2009,
pp. 119–120.
13 Gancarczyk, Musica scripto (see fn. 9), p. 49.
14 For more information about this polyphonic hymn see: Jaap van Benthem, “Ein Pange, lingua
unter der Tarnkappe”, in: Jan Baťa, Lenka Hlávková and Jiří K. Kroupa (eds.), Musical Culture of
the Bohemian Lands and Central Europe before 1620, Prague 2011, pp. 127–140.
15 For more see: Dragan Plamenac, “Browsing through a Little-Known Manuscript (Prague, Strahov
Monastery, D.G.IV.47.)”, in: Journal of the American Musicological Society 13, 1960, pp. 102–111.
16 Tom R. Ward, The Polyphonic Oce Hymn From the Late Fourteenth Century Until the Early
Sixteenth Century, Ph.D. diss., University of Pittsburgh 1969, pp. 122–123.
17 The distinctive features of the Italian and German hymn traditions are listed in: Tom R. Ward,
“The Polyphonic Oce Hymn 1400–1520 – A Descriptive Catalogue”, in: Charles Hamm (ed.),
Renaissance Manuscript Studies, Neuhausen-Stuttgart 1980.
155
Veronika M. Mráčková
hemian Saints evince strong local traits, using the domestic chant melodies in the
upper voice.
Some hymns, among them Ut queant laxis for St John Baptist, have a dierent
cantus firmus from that used in other settings of the same texts in European
sources. These variants of melodies and even of the texts are symptomatic of other
local characteristics present in this codex. It is worth emphasizing, though, that
musicologists have not hitherto paid close attention to the monophonic sources of
these cantus firmi as they occur in Bohemian chant manuscripts. The identification
of the chant melodies and their comparison with monophonic hymns in other
domestic sources can, of course, help us not only to determine the origin of
the Strahov Codex, but also to identify distinctive features of Bohemian music
in general.
Let us turn to a problem concerning the common and local traits present in the
hymns of the Strahov Codex. The majority of the hymn settings preserved here
demonstrate traits that were characteristic of the German tradition.18 On the other
hand, some strong local traits can be identified in the hymns of the Strahov Codex.
As previously mentioned, the hymns Confessor Dei lucidus, Dies venit victorie and
O sancta mundi Domina do not occur in any other European sources containing
polyphonic music. They do, however, occur in monophonic hymn collections
from Bohemia.
The hymnConfessor Dei lucidus for the Bohemian patron St Procopius survived
as a monophonic hymn in other, exclusively Bohemian sources of the fourteenth
and fifteenth centuries, such as the Roudnice Psalter CZ-Pak Cim 7, as well as
the Speciálník Codex CZ-HKm II A 7. Apart from this, the polyphonic hymn
to St Procopius in Strahov (259r) uses as its cantus firmus the chant melody
Stäblein 752,19 which came originally from Italy, but gained a significant variant
that is present only in Bohemian sources, listed above. The first occurrence of
tune Stäblein 752 is in a Breviary D-Ma Cmm 1 from an unidentified Franciscan
priory in Rome from the first quarter of the thirteenth century. Incidentally, this
melody was transferred from Italy to Spain, Austria, Germany, Poland, as well
as to Bohemia, during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.20 A comparison of
dierent sources makes it clear that there are two main families of this tune, which
are set apart by significant variants (see figure 1). I shall label the first group as
“Franciscan”, because it occurs predominantly in Franciscan sources. Notably, these
manuscripts show the same melodic variants of that tune, such as the absence of
18 Compare to the catalogue: Ward, The Polyphonic Oce Hymn (see fn. 17).
19 Bruno Stäblein, “Hymnen. Die mittelalterlichen Hymnenmelodien des Abendlandes” in: Monu-
menta Monodica Medii Aevi, Regensburg 1956, p. 443.
20 For more see: Veronika M. Mráčková, “The Transmission of Hymn Tune Stäblein 752 in Europe
during the Late Middle Ages”, in: Hudební věda 49, no. 1–2, 2012, pp. 19–32.
156
Polyphonic Hymn Settings in the Strahov Codex
“Franciscan” type of melody:
Local characteristics:
Figure 1: Synoptic table – two main families and particular variants of the melody Stäblein 752
157
Veronika M. Mráčková
Figure 2: The hymn settings Dies venit victorie – Qui dum pro fide moritur Praha, Knihovna Královské
kanonie premonstrátů na Strahově, Ms. D.G. IV 47 (Strahov Codex), folio 262v
158
Polyphonic Hymn Settings in the Strahov Codex
Figure 3: Czech sta notation in the hymn O sancta mundi Domina Praha, Knihovna Královské
kanonie premonstrátů na Strahově, Ms. D.G. IV 47 (Strahov Codex), folio 260r
the first note in the descending melisma and the lower pitch of the third note
of the second verse, which is usually higher in the sources of Central European
origin. The second group shows the local characteristics of this tune. The main
feature that distinguishes this set of Franciscan sources is the first descending
melisma, which consists of three notes instead of two. It is a marvellous instance
of a common melody that adopts local traits that may be associated with the area
in which it was used.
To continue with our investigation of the hymns in the Strahov Codex, Dies
venit victorie for St Wenceslas was widespread not only in Bohemia and Moravia,
but also in Silesia. The hymn tune identified in the polyphonic hymn to St Wences-
las in the Strahov Codex (fol. 262v–263r) occurs with the same text in other
Bohemian or Silesian manuscripts, including the Speciálník Codex CZ-HKm II
A 7. Surprisingly, both the odd- and the even-numbered stanzas of the hymn Dies
venit victorie – Qui dum pro fide moritur for St Wenceslas are present in Strahov
(figure 2). Each stanza has dierent music. The reason for this arrangement could
be that the whole hymn was sung polyphonically by two choirs alternating.
We can identify three settings of O sancta mundi Domina in the Strahov Codex
(fol. 259v–260r). One of these polyphonic hymns uses the Czech sta notation in
Tenor planus (figure 3). The hymn text for the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary
is not present in any other polyphonic source, but strikingly it occurs in Bohemian
manuscripts. Furthermore the cantus firmus of this hymn in Strahov seems to
be identical to the tunes present in the monophonic sources. Interestingly, I was
unable to trace this hymn in any Silesian or Polish manuscripts. On the other hand,
the hymn text is present in some Austrian monophonic monastic sources of the
thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.21
Another local characteristic that can be observed in the Strahov hymn settings
is the occasional use of dierent tunes from those customarily used in Europe.
Furthermore, these distinct melodies appear in other Bohemian monophonic
21 See in the CANTUS database: http://cantusdatabase.org/node/402274.
159
Veronika M. Mráčková
manuscripts. This anomaly has also to be considered as we investigate the origin
of this codex.
To summarize: in addition to common hymns, such as Pange lingua gloriosi for
Corpus Christi and Veni creator Spiritus for Pentecost, that were sung using the
same tune throughout Europe, there are also some in the Strahov Codex that
relate to local practices, which may be identified through domestic texts devoted to
indigenous Saints, and through the melodies to which they were sung. Sometimes
generally known hymn tunes adopted specific characteristics that were local to
the particular country in which they were used. It is worth emphasizing that
strong local traits can be identified in the hymn settings of the Strahov Codex.
Through comparison with manuscripts containing monophonic hymns it can
be demonstrated that some of the polyphonic hymns in Strahov originated in
Bohemia. Among others, a strong similarity between the hymn tunes in Strahov
and those in the Speciálník Codex should be mentioned. The task of identifying
new methods of investigation that could further our understanding of the origin
of the Strahov Codex is crucial. It could be beneficial to turn our focus from
institutions to individuals who formed the backbone of this cultural heritage.
Central Europe is undoubtedly an important area that both assimilated the styles
of adjacent countries and also created its own. As Reinhard Strohm put it, perhaps
not all the roads of communication which fifteenth-century Europe possessed will
lead to Rome; however, many have not yet been tried.
160
Polyphonic Hymn Settings in the Strahov Codex
List of sources
A-Gu 387 Graz, Universitätbibliothek MS 387
CZ-HKm II A 7 Hradec Králové, Muzeum východních Čech MS II A 7
(“Speciálník Codex”)
CZ-Pak Cim 7 Praha, Archiv Pražského hradu, Knihovna Metropolitní
kapituly MS Cim 7 (“Roudnice Psalter”)
CZ-Pf Ni 7 Praha, Knihovna františkánského kláštera u P. Marie Sněžné
MS Ni 7
CZ-Ps DA III 17 Praha, Knihovna Královské kanonie premonstrátů na
Strahově MS DA III 17
CZ-Ps DG IV 47 Praha, Knihovna Královské kanonie premonstrátů na
Strahově MS DG IV 47 (“Strahov Codex”)
CZ-Pu I A 58 Praha, Národní knihovna České republiky MS I A 58
CZ-Pu VI G 3a Praha, Národní knihovna České republiky MS VI G 3a
D-KNd 1157 Köln, Erzbischöfliche Diözesen- und Dombibliothek MS 1157
D-Ma Cmm 1 München, Franziskanerkloster St. Anna – Bibliothek MS
Cmm 1
D-Mbs Clm. 8171 München, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek MS Clm. 8171
D-Mbs Clm. 23089 München, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek MS Clm. 23089
I-TRbc 88 Trento, Museo Provinciale d’Arte – Castello del
Buonconsiglio MS 1375 (88)
I-TRbc 90 Trento, Museo Provinciale d’Arte – Castello del
Buonconsiglio MS 1377 (90)
I-TRbc 91 Trento, Museo Provinciale d’Arte – Castello del
Buonconsiglio MS 1378 (91)
I-TRcap BL 93 Trento, Museo Diocesano – Biblioteca Capitolare MS BL 93
PL-KIk 1 Kielce, Biblioteka Kapituły Katedralnej MS 1
PL-Kj Mus. 40098 Kraków, Biblioteka Jagiellonska MS Mus. 40098 (“Saganer
Partbooks”)
PL-Kk 35 Kraków, Archivum Krakowskiej Kapituły Katedralnej MS 35
PL-WRu I. F. 437 Wrocław, Biblioteka Uniwersytecka MS I. F. 437
PL-WRu I. F. 438 Wrocław, Biblioteka Uniwersytecka MS I. F. 438
161


Polyphonic Hymn Settings in the Strahov Codex

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