The machinations of modern musicologists regarding the fifteenth-century
motet Illibata Dei virgo nutrix have nearly eclipsed the piece itself.
Through, and in spite of, all the analyses of motivic interpolation from
or to other pieces both by the composer himself and by other composers and
the twistings and interpretations to which the text and even its letters
have been subjected, we must first acknowledge that Josquin des Prez wrote
a miniature stylistic masterpiece.
Most of this analysis, however, has been concerned with the text and the
music of only the first part of the motet. Difficult to classify stylistically,
the secunda pars has been largely ignored. An attempt will be made
here to reunify, as it were, the entire piece, reconcile some of these analyses
and, perhaps, lend a new perspective to the analytical corpus. At the very
least, some new theories regarding the circumstances appurtenant to its
composition will be offered.
Early Analyses
Illibata Dei virgo nutrix is part of the complete works of Josquin
des Prez which collection was begun by Father Albert Smijers in the early
part of this century.1 Beginning with Smijers, most published
analyses have placed Illibata among Josquin's earliest works, a group
largely comprised of motets composed before 1500.2 It is a five-voice
Tenor Marian motet built on two rhymed verses, which Josquin also authored.3
Brown admits that the group of compositions into which it is classified
is the "least well defined" group which "includes prayers,
poems of devotion, songs of praise, and the like, many of them addressed
to or in honor of Christ or the Virgin Mary."4 The non-liturgical,
non-Biblical verse may define the motet's usage as "intended for performance
in ritual or votive services in royal chapels or collegiate churches."5
Smijers' two original sources for the motet do not differ dramatically in
the music from one another.6
Prima Pars
The first section of the motet is comprised of two sentences each divided
into six lines of two AAB rhyme patterns. The first six lines are "governed
by the 'ix' rhyme," the "A" rhyme at which all cadences are
on g.7 Although the phrasing remains clear, Josquin "elides
the ends and beginning of [these] lines" after the initial thematic
statement.8 "Extensive sequence" may be found in this section,
especially in the superius and contratenor primus of measures
31 through 37.9
In the second six lines of the prima pars, the "ix" rhyme
is no longer used and the "lines employ enjambment."10
Gone also are the extensive vocal duets and "musical phrases corresponding
to entire poetic lines."11 "Short imitative groupings"
are found at the beginnings and ends of these musical phrases whose sectionality
grows "increasingly confused" as the prima pars concludes.12
The three-note cantus firmus, which will be examined in more detail
later, is expressed in perfect longs, stated three times in the tenor--the
first and third beginning on d, the second on g--in the first section of
the motet which has a meter signature of tempus perfectum. Each entry
is preceded by rests of six perfect longs' duration so that the rests equal
three times the value of the cantus firmus.
One of the primary indicators of the correct chronological classification
of the piece has been its long, opening lines in imitation between vocal
pairs. Styled in the tradition of Dufay and Ockeghem, these initial, transparent
"duos formed of long melismatic lines" are extremely reminiscent
of the two earlier composers.13 Such "Netherlandish" style
has been suggested as having been coupled with a growing influence of the
Italian style to which Josquin would have been exposed during his Milanese
years of 1459-79.14 Sparks also points out that the "constant
hemiola" and "other rhythmic groupings which tend to cover the
basic meter" are indicative of Josquin's earliest work.15
Antonowycz has provided extensive documentation of prima pars references
to other des Prez' works.16 These related works have been dated as
follows:
TABLE 1
Dates of Josquin Works Quoted in Illibata
Work Quoted Approximate Composition Period
M. Di dadi 1459-1485
M. Faisant regretz 1485-1504
M. L'Homme armé s.v.m. 1485-1504
M. La sol fa re mi 1485-1504
M. Hercules Dux Ferrariae 1485-150417
Memor esto verbi tui 1498-150318
Secunda Pars
A relatively simple analysis is no longer possible when confronted
with the secunda pars of the motet. It should be noted that Antonowycz
found no examples of borrowed material in this section of the motet.
The formal poetic structure of the motet changes in the secunda pars.
While shorter phrases begin and end the pars with longer phrases
in the middle, the sentences do not divide this section symmetrically. Rather
than the two sentences found in the first part, this second part contains
four. The first is set in four-measure, antiphonal phrases while the second
is in irregular-length, polyphonic phrases. The third's more homophonic
phrases are less widely separated. The fourth section has the character
of a litany: There are four repetitions of the same musical material that
lead to the final Amen.
This stanza begins in tempus imperfectum diminutum with the breve
as the unit and the duration of the rests equal to each statement of the
cantus firmus that follows. The cantus firmus is first stated
four times in breves and six times in semibreves. At measure 125, the meter
changes to triple, sesquialtera to the original, for sixteen measures,
and the cantus firmus is stated eight times in semibreves. At measure
141, the meter returns to duple, proportio dupla to the original,
as transcribed by Smijers, and the cantus firmus is stated eight
additional times as breves, separated by rests of equal duration in this
slower, final subsection.19 These metrical and durational relationships
may play an important part in correctly dating the motet as will be seen
later.
The secunda pars is no longer in the Netherlandish style of the prima
pars. Long duets are replaced by short imitative passages (m. 83 ff),
with three- and four-part "answers," which presage the Venetian
cori spezzatti.20 Homophony is suggested at the change to
triple meter, and there are complete caesura, in the "Italian
style," at the ends of each sentence.21 Additionally, Sherr
contends that, while the first stanza's music does not reflect the text,
that of the second "served both the structure and the meaning of the
text."22
Later Analyses
Antonowycz, who continued Smijers' collection of Josquin's music, was, at
one time, the only voice questioning the "early" classification
of this motet.23 His contention, that Illibata was an autobiographical
work, was largely unexamined after his presentation at the Josquin Festival-Conference
in 1971. He averred that the motet "represented a conscious borrowing
of melodic fragments from works previously composed."24 In 1988,
Sherr published an article providing further support for a later dating
by relating Illibata to the Roman, five-voice Tenor motet form which
enjoyed a resurgence of interest among composers employed by the Papal Chapel
with Josquin.25 Among his arguments was a discussion of the wholly
"different structure" employed by Josquin in the second part.26
This disparity had been recognized by earlier musicologists who had
dismissed it as a lack of technical capabilities from an immature composer.27
Placed within the context of a work designed to display the composer's stylistic
life, this "sudden change of character" becomes understandable.28
Successive musicologists may have propagated and perpetuated an error when
they based the "early" label on "examination of the musical
style of the piece, coupled with the widely-held assumption that the existence
of certain style characteristics in a piece of Renaissance music allows
one to assume that its [sic] was written close to the time when those
characteristics were current."29 As Sherr observed, "being
archaic is not the same thing as being old."30 By extension,
following Sherr's own caveat, these "Roman" characteristics
merely preclude dating the motet earlier than Josquin's Roman period, but
not later. Even the dates of this Roman period have been disputed
as evidenced by Pamela F. Starr's address to the AMS Baltimore meeting last
fall.31 As will be demonstrated later via new autobiographical constructions
discovered in the motet, the caution should be issued back to those who
would advance Illibata only as far as this middle period.
Brown provides an invaluable means with which to analyze Illibata.
He classifies Josquin's motet Ave Maria. . .virgo serena as having
been written during Josquin's middle years in Rome and Ferrara (c. 1480-1504).32
Paraphrasing the points of his analysis of the later motet and applying
it to the "earlier" motet, one may select the following from numerous
examples:
TABLE 2
Illibata Analysis Using Ave Marie Parameters
Illibata Measure(s) in: Prima Pars Secunda Pars
each line has new music 1, 12, 18 83, 86, 89, 95
points of imitation 32-35 132-36
imitative paired duets 1-18 83-89
non-imitative paired duets 37-42 95-101, 150-58
homorhythmic style 57-67 125-28
overlapped entries of
interlocked imitative sections 18, 23, 37 86, 92
important cadences from V to I - 81-8233 124
sometimes after chordal sections 185-93
Thus, the very means by which Brown affirms the dating of Ave Maria.
. .virgo serena may be used to chronologically place Illibata
within the same period.
Soggetto Cavato
The soggetto cavato dalle vocali di queste parole; "these words"
being only one, Maria; unifies the motet Illibata Dei virgo nutrix.34
Carving the vowels from the Virgin's Name and assigning solmization
syllables to them using the same vowels results in the melodic figure 6-3-6,
transposed in the motet to d-a-d and g-d-g.35 This three-note motive
operates not only as a cantus firmus but also as an ostinato,36
especially in the secunda pars where its rhythmic diminution
makes it more independently audible. Sherr states that the construction
"recalls the old isorhythmic motet."37
The relationship between the cantus firmus and the other voices changes
between the two parts of the motet. In the prima pars, the "traditional
treatment"--notes of long duration in the tenor--differentiates the
motive from the other voices. This type of long-note presentation may be
found in countless compositions that both predate and antedate this one.
The first and second phrases of text are completed in imitative vocal pairings
before the tenor is presented in measure 19.
In the secunda pars, the "proportional diminution of the rhythmic
values" results in the tenor becoming "more equivalent to the
contrapuntal voices,"38 at the same time less distinguished
and more distinguishable from them. This treatment has been equated with
"newer techniques."39 When this second stanza is divided
into four parts according to the four sentences within it (mm. 83-106, 107-124,
125-140, 141-193), one may see that the cantus firmus supports this
division by being expressed in breves in sections 1 and 4 and in semibreves
in 2 and 3. This sectionality is also supported by complete cadences at
the end of each section, changes in the meter signatures at two of these
junctures, and textural changes.
Sparks states that the tenor's relationship to the text is "intellectual
and symbolic, not dramatic."40 He goes on to state that the
"mensural plan for the tenor would have come first and the text would
have been subordinated to it; it [the text] would have been made to fit
in as best it could."41 Both the appearance of the score and
its aural effect belie this statement. The delayed entrance of the cantus
firmus in the prima pars relegates it to a subservient role.
In the first section of the secunda pars, measures 83 through 106,
the tenor functions mostly as the third voice of the homophony with the
contratenor primus and bass in antiphony with the homophonic superius
and contratenor secundus; in the final phrase it joins the upper
parts.
In the polyphonic second section, measures 107 through 124, the tenor is
treated as an individual voice in the polyphony, its entrances appropriately
offset from all others. In the mixed homophonic and imitative third section,
the tenor is the precipitator of the la-mi-la imitation; the contratenor
secundus whose entrance is greatly delayed in this section takes over
the character of the original long-note treatment of the cantus firmus
by being expressed in breves and longas. The long fourth section,
measures 141 through 193, pairs homophonic voices in imitation with other
pairs under a more active superius. This texture and the complete
sectional cadences have been termed the "Italian style."42
In spite of the fact that the motet would have necessarily been constructed
around the cantus firmus, it is obvious in this section that, without
it, the relationship of the other voices would not only still be rational
but also aesthetically appropriate for the era.
It would be erroneous, however, to discount the importance of the soggetto
cavato. In the prima pars it functions as a "pedal point"43
in the quintet sections; it is not to be found in combination with less
than all four of the other voices. Throughout the entire motet can be found
numerous examples in the other voices mimicking the perfect fourth of the
ostinato. Some are leaps of a fourth (mm. 158-61, 172-73, 179-80, 184-85),
and some are "diatonically filled-in motives outlining a fourth"
(mm. 61-70, 78-81).44 The motive takes on additional importance when
it is used in all of the other voices in rapid, overlapping imitation--a
stretto--as part of Josquin's plea to the Virgin for the consolation
of those singing la-mi-la (mm. 130-36).45
As previously stated, the soggetto cavato has a dual character--being
built on solmization syllables and also used as an ostinato. Antonowycz
states that the former usage may be found in M. Dux Ferraraie and
M. La sol fa re mi while the latter usage is present in both of these
masses as well as M. Faisant regretz.46
Acrostic Theory
Very little historical or anecdotal material exists regarding Josquin des
Prez. The fact that he was well known during his lifetime does not mean
that more than snatches of information lending insight into his life still
endure. Currently unknown, for instance, is when he took religious vows
and even where he was for long periods of time. Most contemporaneous mention
of the man, other than for his musical genius, was in reference to financial
matters.47 It can be established from this that, although a priest,
he was not an ascetic. Given his obvious intellectual abilities and the
already much-used tradition of puzzles in artistic works48, it is
not difficult to imagine Josquin's delight at working his own biographical
information into his music.
In 1925, over four hundred years after the composition of the piece, Smijers
became the first to notice an acrostic in the prima pars of the motet.49
This may be classified as an acrostic proper, one consisting of the first
letters of successive lines read up or down, in this case, down. Other types
of acrostics include mesostics which are read across; this, too, may be
found, in the eighth line of the first stanza. Titcomb noted that the simultaneous
usage of both acrostic and mesostic is common.50 Thus, from the combination
of the acrostic proper and the mesostic, the correct spelling of Josquin's
name may be ascertained: JOSQUIN DES PREZ. It should be noted that
the Des is segregated by an unusual comma in the text. It is not
unreasonable to assert that it should be treated as a separate word and
not elided, as has been a recent custom, to the following Prez which
completes the acrostic proper.
Titcomb goes on to detail the history of the attempts to solve the acrostic
in the secunda pars and provides another possible solution.51
In short, he constructs additional details of a place name by restructuring
the first four lines of the secunda pars into six. While his theory
is interesting, it seems to ignore an obvious modified mesostic that exists
in the eighth line of the secunda pars as originally formatted; remembering
that a mesostic exists in the eighth line of the prima pars supports
retaining the original poetic structure.
The eighth line of the second stanza is Consola la-mi-la canentes
in tua laude, a 14-syllable line unequalled in length elsewhere in the
motet. If one takes the first and last syllables of this line, the result
is Condé, the site of his final position as provost. As Titcomb
and other scholars have noted, one may be assured that the portion of the
acrostic proper (vertical) which results in ESCAU refers to the Escaut
River. No comment has as yet been made on the fact that the placement of
the word Condé in relationship to ESCAU results in
the former being on the latter or Condé on ESCAU"
The correct name for this city is Condé-sur-l'Escaut. Spelling
deviations common in the fifteenth century would account for the missing
t. Should, however, the reader lend credence to Titcomb's reformatting,
it is also interesting to note that the letters E-S-C-AU are to be
found in his eighth line (Electa ut sol, clarissima
gaude.), in the correct order, and nowhere else, horizontally,
in the text of the motet. No completely satisfactory solution had been admitted
for an acrostic that might exist in the remainder of the second stanza.
Titcomb had speculated on the meaning of the four remaining initial letter,
GDAM, which result from his reformatting:
There remains unaccounted for only the last group of four letters, GDAM.
This is simply a rearrangement -- quite acceptable since Latin, an inflected
language, allows flexible word-order -- of the common abbreviation A.M.D.G.,
which designates the standard motto officially adopted by the Jesuit order
not long after Josquin's death. . . .In Josquin's sequence it would read
Gloriam Dei ad majorem.52
The Condé chapter house records, preserved in the Community Archives
of Condé since the sale during the French Revolution and subsequent
razing of the property in 1797, contain a hand-written document, dated 19
September 1521, a statement by two Condé officials of their visit
to Josquin's bedside four days before his death.53 The purpose of
their visit was to ensure that Josquin's estate could be bequeathed to the
chapter rather than escheating to the lordship of Condé as was customary
for foreigners' estates. The document cites Josquin's birthplace as possibly
having been in the Ardennes (and certainly not in Condé as had been
speculated for centuries), uses the formal Christian name of Josse
for which Josquin is a diminutive, and twice refers to him as priest.
Albert Dehaine, author and town historian of Condé, supplied this
writer with Josquin's given name: Josse Lebloitte.54
Dehaine cites a 1523 record of a land sale which also provides a donation
so that Josquin's Pater noster and Ave, Maria would be sung
in his memory during certain hours of the Offices and at specific processions.55
This Ave, Maria (gratia plena, not virgo serena) served
as the second part to the Our Father.56 As these are six-voice
compositions cited by Brown as being late motets,57 this real estate
record confirms the ability of the Condé choir to sing in six parts.
Numerical Theory
The alphabetical puzzles exist amidst equally intriguing numerical constructions.
Sherr provides an analysis of the Pythagorean proportions relating the meter
signatures of the motet. He notes that these proportions match those in
Busnois' M. L'Homme armé, not the Chigi edition but rather
the lesser known Roman edition which would have been available to the Papal
singers by Josquin's arrival in 1486.58 This mass is quoted extensively
in Illibata. He also presents an intriguing argument that classifies
Illibata as a five-voice Tenor motet in the mid-fifteenth-century
style of Regis, which style was then again in vogue with Josquin's colleagues;
singer-composers Weerbecke, de Orto, and Vaqueras; in the Papal Chapel.59
This "Netherlandish" style was au courant in Rome in the
1480s and 1490s but not then in Milan; when the Papal composers created
these compositions, they were all different from the composers' "'normal'
motet style."60
Antonowycz recounts Elder's device of replacing the motet's letters in the
Latin alphabet with numbers-gematria-to yield eighty-eight for des
Prez. This number matches the number of notes in the cantus firmus
of the motet.61 Josquin yields ninety-nine which may be translated
into nine multiplied by nine. The cantus firmus consists of nine
notes, three statements of the three-note motive, in the prima pars,
each note lasting for nine breves. These nine notes multiplied by their
duration equals eighty-one breves, nine multiplied by nine, again.62
Condé Dating
A compilation of all of the above arguments for dating Illibata in
a later period is supported by other events. The motet was published in
Petrucci's 1508 volume of motets; prior to this it was largely unknown:
". . .[E]ven Glarean, who delighted in telling tales of Josquin's ingenuity,
does not mention the acrostic motet. . ."63 The Gaffurius
Codices, volumes containing the repertory of Milan in the late fifteenth
and early sixteenth centuries, do not contain any other examples of the
five-voice Tenor motet genre.64 Other Josquin motets and masses in
the Milanese style do appear in the Codices, however: Qui velatus
facie fuisti, Vultum tuum deprecabuntur, and M. D'Ung aultre
amer.65 This lends credence to the argument that Josquin would
not have written a piece that had no current "commercial" value.
The puzzle lies in determining for what venue Illibata was composed.
Antonowycz asserts that a "lack of musical invention was not one of
Josquin's shortcomings."66 The musical quotations which occur
in Illibata are too numerous and literal to be ignored. It seems
unlikely that this one motet, and only its prima pars, was the source
of important material for so many of Josquin's subsequent works. During
an era when the use of a cantus prius factus was an honorable device,
Josquin's unconscious use of so much of this material is not plausible.
Antonowycz instead believes that Josquin intended Illibata as "a
survey of his melodic, cantus-firmus, and contrapuntal techniques"
and goes on to assert that "[t]his work may be taken as an exhibition,
a display of his style."67
Kellman notes that Josquin had arrived in Condé by 3 May 1504, remained
in the cathedral's employ there until his death in 152168, that the
choir at the church could sing in six-part polyphony and that, by the end
of Josquin's life in 1521, may have numbered as many as twenty-two singers
including boys.69 Göller states that this cathedral followed
the custom of "almost all the cathedrals in northern France and Belgium
[and was] dedicated to 'Our Lady'."70 However, an important
hierarchical distinction must be noted: the church in Condé was not
a cathedral but was rather a collegiate church.71 Thus, it falls
into the category of places where Illibata -- with its peculiar textual
reference to the pagan Muses -- could be performed. Parenthetically, it
should be noted that, in this locus, the puzzle of Illibata's inappropriateness
for cathedral worship is solved.
In analyzing whether Illibata could have been composed during this
later period, 1504 to 1521, value may be found in the juxtaposition of the
melodic quotations found in Josquin's own compositions at the end of the
prima pars of the motet. Beginning at measure 65, they are: M.
La sol fa re mi/M. L'Homme armé s.v.m., M. Hercules Dux Ferrariae,
and Memor esto verbi tui. Brown has noted a possible soggetto
cavato in the first example; la, sol, fa, re, mi may derive from
the consonants of lesse faire a mi, leave it to me.72 The
next quotation names the Duke of Ferrara in whose service Josquin can be
placed as late as 1504.73 The final example has been designated as
a reminder to King Louis XII of promises made to the composer.74 Godt
lists Memor esto as one of the motets having no identifiable cantus
prius factus in spite of its inclusion in Illibata.75 If
this piece were already in existence, its function in Illibata could
be as a reminder of a promise of release from Ferrara's service.
This speculation becomes useless if one is unable to date Illibata
in the last era of Josquin's life. To accomplish this, one needs to return
to a numerical analysis of the motet. While a reexamination of the original
sources, the Vatican and Petrucci editions, might result in a somewhat different,
"final" version of the work, Smijers' version has been utilized
here. All other aspects of this motet seem to have been quantified, so the
author performed a simple count of the audible notes of the motet, not including
those "tied" notes which in any case would have been expressed
as breves or longas, which yielded 1,505. If indeed the work
is autobiographical to a certain point in Josquin's life, A.D. 1505 could
be that point. Perhaps it is happenstance that the acrostic motet contains
such a propitious number, but the numerical organization evident throughout
Illibata makes relegating this number to mere coincidence nearly
inconceivable.
Titcomb's reformatting of the text of the secunda pars to discover
other alphabetical constructions results in the following possibility: AD
CA FLUV ESCAU GDAM (at the head of the river Escaut and the acrostic
phrase: Gloriam Dei ad majorem.76 If one takes the letters
above and assigns the value of the appropriate Roman numerals, the result
is as follows:
A D C A F L U V | ES C AU G D A M
100 + 50 + 5 | 100 + 500+1000
155 - 1600
A.D. 1445
This manipulation, no more contrived than Titcomb's (or his construction
resulting in AUSI SAIA TOTA "I have applied myself with all
the wisdom at my command"),77 may provide a clue to the
date of Josquin's birth. By dividing the stanza into Titcomb's sixteen lines,
one is left with first and second eight-line groupings subtotalling 155
and 1600, respectively. Since smaller Roman numerals subtract from those
to their right (a fact being ignored in the arrival at the second subtotal),
the construction becomes 155 less than 1600, or 1445. The first two letters
of the entire construction are AD; for our purposes they are devoted
to completing the line: A.D. 1445. If Illibata had indeed
been written in 1505 with Josquin already safely in Condé, perhaps
it was in honor of his own sixtieth anniversaire.
Conclusion
Satisfactory interpretations of some of the hidden messages of Illibata
Dei virgo nutrix make those whose definitive solution is still elusive
even more tantalizing. Much research could be devoted to answering even
the following:
1. Why, in the middle of the four hendecasyllabic lines (mm. 107-140) between
Vale and laude did Josquin switch from duple to triple meter?
2. Is Smijers' placement of two a syllables on the bass notes at
the beginning of measures 72 and 73 the best text for those notes which
are la and mi in one of the hexachords of the cantus firmus?
3. Likewise, could Smijers' use of the final syllable of humilium
for the lone contratenor secundus note in measures 104 through 106
be better replaced by mi, again, as used in the cantus firmus?
4. Why is the melody of the la-mi-la of the superius in measures
130 and 131 f-a g g-f#? Josquin has carefully placed all other occurrences
on the same notes as those utilized by the tenor cantus firmus, one
note for each syllable. Not only are these notes "wrong," both
of the las are on two notes; is this a comment on the capabilities
of his "soprano" singers? (Do we have an early case of "soprano-bashing"
here?) Two measures after this "misstatement," the superius
is to be found on an f# "pedal point" whose three-measure length
(mm. 133-35) is equalled elsewhere in the motet only in the tenor cantus
firmus and in the contratenor secundus of measures 104 through
106.
Illibata Dei virgo nutrix represents an extraordinarily complex level
of interdependent musical and extramusical organization. Although the motet
supplies missing biographical details, the biggest Josquin question remains
unanswered: if Condé was not his birthplace, why did the Prince of
Musicians spend his last years at this minor posting? Perhaps the knowledge
of Josquin's given name will enable us to locate his place of birth. The
answer to the last question remains elusive.
Whether one is convinced of the validity of a later dating of the motet
or remains unpersuaded, the text and music of Illibata Dei virgo nutrix,
whatever their extra-musical import, are wholly that of Josquin. In this
context, "it is a musical self-portrait by Josquin; in each stroke
of the melody and in the tonal colour of each chord we recognize the rich
creativity of this mind that belongs among the greatest of the great in
the cultural history of Europe."78
Works Cited
Antonowycz, Myroslaw. "Illibata Dei Virgo: A Melodic Self-Portrait
of Josquin des Prez." In Josquin des Prez: Proceedings of the International
Josquin Festival-Conference held at The Juilliard School at Lincoln Center
in New York City, 21-25 June 1971. Ed. Edward E. Lowinsky, 545-59. London:
Oxford University Press, 1976.
Brown, Howard M. Music in the Renaissance. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice,
1976.
Dehaine, Albert. "La trace de Josquin des Prés dans les archives
de Condé." Valentiana (juin 1988): 12-14.
Dehaine, Albert. Letter to author, 30 January 1996.
Godt, Irving. "Motivic Integration in Josquin's Motets." Journal
of Music Theory 21 (1977): 264-93.
Göller, Gottfried. "The Adoration of Mary in the late Middle Ages
and the texts of the Marian Motets." Jacket notes. Marien-Motetten.
Jürgen Jürgens, cond. Monteverdi Choir Hamburg. By Josquin Desprez.
Archiv, 2533 110, 1971.
Jürgens, Jürgen. "Marian Motets." Jacket notes. Marien-Motetten.
Jürgen Jürgens, cond. Monteverdi Choir Hamburg. By Josquin Desprez.
Archiv, 2533 110, 1971.
Kirsch, Winfried. "Josquin's Motets in the German Tradition."
In Josquin des Prez: Proceedings of the International Josquin Festival-Conference
held at The Juilliard School at Lincoln Center in New York City, 21-25 June
1971. Ed. Edward E. Lowinsky, 261-78. London: Oxford University Press,
1976.
Kellman, Herbert. "Josquin and the Courts of the Netherlands and France:
The Evidence of the Sources." In Josquin des Prez: Proceedings of
the International Josquin Festival-Conference held at The Juilliard School
at Lincoln Center in New York City, 21-25 June 1971. Ed. Edward E. Lowinsky,
181-216. London: Oxford University Press, 1976.
Reese, Gustave. Music in the Renaissance. New York: Norton, 1954.
Sherr, Richard. "Illibata Dei Virgo Nutrix and Josquin's Roman
Style." Journal of the American Musicological Society 41 (1988):
434-64.
Smijers, A., ed. Werken van Josquin des Prés. "Motetten
I." Series 2, Bundel V, #27. Amsterdam: Vereeniging Voor Nederlandsche
Muziekgeschiedenis, 1925.
Sparks, Edgar H. Cantus Firmus in Mass and Motet, 1420-1520. Berkeley:
University of California Press, 1963.
Starr, Pamela F. Josquin, Rome, and a Case of Mistaken Identity.
Typescript of oral presentation to American Musicological Society Annual
Meeting, November 9, 1996, Baltimore.
Titcomb, Caldwell. "The Josquin Acrostic Re-examined." Journal
of the American Musicological Society 16 (1963): 47-60.
Notes
1 Albert Smijers, ed., Werken van Josquin des Prés, "Motetten
I," Series 2, Bundel V, #27 (Amsterdam: Vereeniging Voor Nederlandsche
Muziekgeschiedenis, 1925), 140-46, and edition notes, pages x-xi.
2 Winfried Kirsch, "Josquin's Motets in the German Tradition,"
in Josquin des Prez: Proceedings of the International Josquin Festival-Conference,
ed. Edward E. Lowinsky (London: Oxford University Press, 1976), 265; Edgar
H. Sparks, Cantus Firmus in Mass and Motet, 1420-1520 (Berkeley:
University of California Press, 1963), 481; Howard M. Brown, Music in
the Renaissance (Englewood Cliffs: Prentice, 1976), 122.
3 Brown, 122.
4 Brown, 133.
5 Ibid.
6 Vatican City, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Fondo Cappella Sistina,
MS 15, ff. 243v-247v (C.S. 15) and Petrucci, Motetti a cinque libro primo,
(Venice, 1508), n.p., cited in Richard Sherr, "Illibata Dei Virgo
Nutrix and Josquin's Roman Style," Journal of the American Musicological
Society 41 (1988): 437.
7 Sherr, 437.
8 Sherr, 438.
9 Myroslaw Antonowycz, "Illibata Dei Virgo: A Melodic Self-Portrait
of Josquin des Prez," in Josquin des Prez: Proceedings of the International
Josquin Festival-Conference, ed. Edward E. Lowinsky (London: Oxford
University Press, 1976), 550.
10 Sherr, 438.
11 Sherr, 438.
12 Ibid.
13 Brown, 122.
14 Sherr, 436.
15 Sparks, 393.
16 Antonowycz, 546-57.
17 Sparks, 476-77, in Note 2, citing the dating of the masses in Helmuth
Osthoff, "Josquin Desprez," Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart,
vol. VII, ed. Fr. Blume (Kasle: Bärenreiter Verlag, 1949- ), cols.
190-214.
18 Kirsch, 268.
19 Sherr, 439.
20 Antonowycz, 556.
21 Sherr, 438.
22 Ibid.
23 Antonowycz, 558.
24 Sherr, 436.
25 See Sherr article.
26 Sherr, 437.
27 Sherr, 436.
28 Antonowycz, 555.
29 Sherr, 434.
30 Sherr, 436.
31 The author thanks Dr. Starr for providing a pre-publication copy of the
article "Josquin, Rome, and a Case of Mistaken Identity" which
appeared in the summer 1997 issue of The Journal of Musicology 15.
32 Brown, 123.
33 The cadence that Brown describes in measure 53 of the four-voice Ave
maria. . . is exactly the same as that of the five-voice Illibata
at measures 81-82 except with the fifth in the tenor cantus firmus.
34 Brown, 122.
35 Brown, 122.
36 Brown, 132.
37 Sherr, 438.
38 Antonowycz, 557.
39 Ibid.
40 Sparks, 393.
41 Ibid.
42 Sherr, 438.
43 Jürgen Jürgens, "Marian Motets," Jacket notes, Marien-Motetten,
by Josquin Desprez, cond. Jürgen Jürgens, Monteverdi Choir Hamburg,
Archiv, 2533 110, 1971.
44 Antonowycz, 557.
45 Sherr, 451.
46 Antonowycz, 557.
47 Gustave Reese, Music in the Renaissance (New York: Norton, 1954),
229.
48 Caldwell Titcomb, "The Josquin Acrostic Re-examined," Journal
of the American Musicological Society 16 (1963): 47-49.
49 Albert Smijers, "Een kleine bijdrage over Josquin en Isaac,"
Gedenkboek aangeboden aan Dr. D.F. Scheurleer (The Hague, 1925):313-19
cited in Titcomb, 49.
50 Titcomb, 47.
51 For a complete discussion, see the Titcomb article.
52 Titcomb, 59.
53 Dehaine, "La trace de Josquin des Prés dans les archives
de Condé," Valentiana, juin 1988: 12.
54 Dehaine, letter to author, 30 January 1996. This information is given
to the reader just as M. Dehaine first communicated it to the author-as
an aside not strictly relevant to the topic at hand. Devotees of the enigmatic
composer, however, will appreciate this contribution to the minute corpus
of confirmed biographical data.
55 Dehaine, "La trace," 13.
56 Brown, 130.
57 Ibid.
58 Sherr, 439-42.
59 Sherr, 434-35, 444.
60 Sherr, 444.
61 Willem Elders, "Josquin des Prez en zijn Motet Illibata Dei virgo,"
Mens en Melodie, XXV (1970): 141-44, cited in Antonowycz, 545.
62 Antonowycz, 545.
63 Sherr, 453.
64 Sherr, 442.
65 Sherr, 443.
66 Antonowycz, 558.
67 Antonowycz, 558.
68 Herbert Kellman, "Josquin and the Courts of the Netherlands and
France: The Evidence of the Sources," in Josquin des Prez: Proceedings
of the International Josquin Festival-Conference, ed. Edward E. Lowinsky
(London: Oxford University Press, 1976), 207.
69 Kellman, 208-209.
70 Gottfried Göller, "The Adoration of Mary in the late Middle
Ages and the texts of the Marian Motets," Jacket notes, Marien-Motetten,
by Josquin Desprez, cond. Jürgen Jürgens, Monteverdi Choir Hamburg,
Archiv, 2533 110, 1971.
71 Albert Dehaine, "La trace," 12.
72 Brown, 121.
73 Ibid.
74 Ibid.
75 Irving Godt, "Motivic Integration in Josquin's Motets," Journal
of Music Theory 21 (1977): 268.
76 Titcomb, 58-59.
77 Titcomb, 53.
78 Antonowycz, 558.
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