Naxos 8.572576
2012
Naxos 8.572576
2012
The Glogau Song Book
Songs, Comic Tales and Tails
The musical history of central Europe contains an abundance of
forgotten treasures, among them the music of the Glogauer Liederbuch.
This manuscript contains 292 songs, devotional chants, and instrumental
pieces, which served a small monastic community in Lower Silesia as
daily entertainment around the year 1480. It was also used for Sunday
worship — apparently it did not make much difference. The
collection itself tells of a joy in private music-making which has
become rare today.
The pervading tone is quite intimate. Almost all the pieces are in
three parts, to be performed on three string instruments or sung in the
registers SAT or ATB, also transposed or mixed for voices and
instruments, if necessary. Many of the numbers, especially the songs
with texts, are very short, as if they should only be taken as an
inducement for longer improvisation. Additional verses, often missing
in the manuscript, might be sung from memory. The collection contains
many settings of songs which were popular at the time, the well-known
main melody of which was to be performed in the upper register
(discantus) or by the main voice in the middle register (tenor), while
the other voices contribute counterpoint, ornament, and harmonic
accompaniment. Some of the melodies occur several times in different
contrapuntal arrangements. The pieces are not ordered by genre or
function, much less by sacred or secular content; rather, they are set
down as a colourful mixture. The performers sang or played all over the
place, as it were, enjoying the change and recurrence of musical forms.
It is important to recognize that the Liederbuch does not
consist of a single volume, but of three separate part-books (descant,
tenor, contratenor). The Glogauer Liederbuch is the oldest
known set of part-books from central Europe. This form of music book
was meant for a small group of equal musicians, not for a cathedral
chapel or an instrumental ensemble at court; the music was not played
from memory, but read from the part-book. The users were musical
amateurs: not professional musicians, who usually played from memory,
but educated enthusiasts or students, who could read mensural notation.
Iconographical evidence for this practice is still quite rare in the
fifteenth century; illustrations after 1500 mostly show well dressed
ladies and gentlemen, who have gathered to play and sing at a
‘private’ concert. Shortly after 1500 the first printed
part-books appeared in Italy and southern Germany.
Our three part-books were essentially written by a single hand.
Expertise and care are evidenced in the unvaryingly clear writing, the
inclusion of a precise alphabetical index and the distinct marking of
separate numbers, often by coloured initials. The music notation is
remarkably competent. Who was this scribe and producer of the
manuscript, and who were its first users?
The Glogauer Liederbuch was found and first described in 1874
in the Berlin Royal Library. The name Glogauer Liederbuch was
given to it later, because it contains a note, written in the sixteenth
century, which describes the cathedral of Glogau (Głogów) as its
owner. It has long been thought that the manuscript originated in
Glogau and might have belonged to the town’s grammar school. The
manuscript disappeared after 1945, but reemerged in 1977 in the
Biblioteka Jagiellońska of Kraków, where it is kept today. A
complete edition in four volumes and a facsimile edition have been
published.
As early as the 1930s there had been speculation that the manuscript
might have a connection to a certain clerical user, Andreas Ritter (ca.
1445-1480) from Grünberg (Zielona Góra). This is because a
humorous and satirical motet in the volume (Probitate eminentem),
composed by the Bohemian musician Petrus Wilhelmi de Grudencz (b.
1392), refers to him. It can, of course, not be discounted that
Wilhelmi wrote the motet on somebody else and that the name of Andreas
Ritter was only substituted in the text of our manuscript, but the
ironical statements in the motet, concerning this ‘outstanding
gentleman’, tally strikingly with Ritter’s known biography.
He was said to have been just as fond of alcohol and women as he was of
the monastic life. Ritter was engaged at Glogau’s cathedral
school until ca. 1465, and then became canon at the Augustinian
collegiate foundation in Sagan (Żagań). Grünberg, Glogau, and
Sagan are situated near to each other in what were then the Lower
Silesian duchies of the Piast dynasty, today provinces in Western
Poland. Another motet in the manuscript (Sempiterna ydeitas) was
composed in 1477 to celebrate the birth of a Piast duke (Jan, the son
of Frederick and Ludmila); since the manuscript can therefore not have
been begun long before that year, it could well have originated in the
Sagan monastery — if it had something to do with Andreas Ritter.
Another significant figure seems to have been Martin Rinkenberg, at
that time abbot of the Augustinian foundation. He was born in Breslau
(Wrocław) and graduated at the University of Leipzig with a
Master’s degree in 1441. From 1468 he was abbot of Sagan, where
his scholarship and love of music, especially in the private and
secular realm, would have brought him into regular contact with Ritter.
On 4th March, 1480, the two had a violent altercation, after Ritter had
returned from a pub crawl in the town and Rinkenberg confronted him.
Thinking he had killed the abbot, Ritter jumped out of a window and
died. Rinkenberg himself had a stroke in 1482 and remained paralysed
down one side of his body until the end of his life (1489). The
chronicle of the abbots of Sagan, where the section on Rinkenberg must
have been written by a more pious successor, criticizes him for his
secular cast of mind: multi-part music was, he writes, traditionally
forbidden in the abbey, and women should not be allowed into the
monastery at all. In the early sixteenth century the Sagan abbot Paul
Lemberg introduced the Reformation to Grünberg. It is easily
forgotten today that the Reformation was preceded by a period of
relaxed monastic life, during which an educated elite indulged in their
pleasurable interests.
There is, however, no conclusive proof that Ritter or Rinkenberg ever
owned or commissioned the part-books, nor of the original author. But
one of Rinkenberg’s musical foundations, known to his
contemporaries, found expression in the manuscript, since the
three-part Ave regina celorum, mater regis angelorum, which was
to be sung regularly in the monastery by the pupils of the city school,
according to the foundation script, turns out to be the famous antiphon
of the same title by the Englishman Walter Frye.
As it happens, the pieces in the Glogauer collection originated
in many different countries and demonstrate a high standard of European
polyphony. Not all of them were written in Lower Silesia, to be sure.
Where do the imported compositions come from? One or more of the
preceding collections from which pieces were drawn might have been kept
at the universities of Leipzig and Kraków, where Rinkenberg,
Ritter and possibly other Silesian music-lovers had studied. About 66
concordances with pieces from other collections point to Saxony,
Southern Germany, France, England, Italy and the Netherlands; a few
untexted songs, as well as ones with Latin texts, could have originated
in Bohemia or Poland. Many untexted pieces, and also ones with such
lovely fantasy names as Pfauenschwanz [Peacock’s Tail]
and Seidenschwanz [Silk Tail, also the German name of the
waxwing] have been indentified as originally vocal compositions from
France. The German texts of some seventy songs have traditionally been
found in Silesia, Saxony, Bohemia/Moravia, North and South Germany. But
apart from many imported pieces, there are also ‘successor
compositions’, similar to the ones mentioned above and only
recorded here, so they might be of local origin. People raided the
international fund, as well as composing new pieces in similar styles.
That led to musical ‘clusters’ of related works or ones
based on the same melody. The organisation of this recording into
‘suites’ of related content reflects these connections.
I. The oldest sacred song of the collection is Christ ist erstanden
[Christ is risen]. The melody in the Dorian mode, is originally derived
from the Latin Easter sequence Victimae paschali laudes. Here
it is presented in two different settings. The third setting of the
same text, played as the second of these pieces (GLOG 127), uses
an unconnected basic melody, similar to the Protestant hymn In dich
hab ich gehoffet, Herr.
II. The collection contains several pieces known as ‘Schwanz’,
i.e. tail, which probably designates them as dances (‘schwanzen’
was a word derivation of ‘tanzen’, i.e. dancing). Der
Rattenschwanz [The Rat’s Tail] seems to be meant for
instruments: it does not have the form of a song, but rather consists
of three differing sections, to be played in succession. Such
consecutive dance sections were known as puncta
(‘periods’). In the second section, set in two parts,
different kinds of canonic imitation are tried out. In the third
section a simple rhythmic motif gains ground.
III. The three-part setting of GLOG 237 probably originated in
France. The middle voice was given the text of the German love song O
wie gern und doch entbern [How I long, but must abstain], so that
it became a ‘tenor song’. To ‘disguise’ it in a
spiritual fashion (perhaps to cause less offence in the monastery?), a
hymn to Saint Barbara was also written under it. An untexted version in
our manuscript (“Beth”) is contained in a group
ordered after the Hebrew alphabet. Here, the Aeolian scale, named much
later but typical of many pieces in the manuscript, is emphasized by
imitating motifs.
IV. A well-known German comic song with the admonition Rumpel an
der Türe nicht [Don’t bang on the door) was given the
shortened title Rompeltier in the Netherlands and Italy. The
woman lets her lover know that her husband has not gone to the mill, as
anticipated, so he should not come to the door and bang on it!
Consequently, the lover is practically forced to drink himself into a
stupor (‘All voll’).
V. The Morgenstern [Morning Star] songs in the Dorian mode are
held in a more delicate tone. In the Tagelied (daylight) genre,
the lovers lament the coming of morning, when they will have to
separate. In many songs, the morning star was used as a symbol of
lovers’ general yearning (as in Ich sach einsmals den lichten
Morgensterne — I once saw the bright morning star), or of
religious hope.
VI. This group is set in the Lydian mode. The German strophic song Zu
aller Zeit [Always] — a so-called ‘courtly song’
– is given with its full text, which is added to from another
source. The wonderful rondeau Helas, que pourra devenir by
Firminus Caron from northern France is given the nice fantasy title Seidenschwanz
in the manuscript, as one of the dance pieces given the collective name
of Schwanz (i.e. ‘tail’). It also gained the text
of a Marian hymn. If you listen closely, the piece reveals itself as an
incredible puzzle of very closely scored imitations.
VII. Elende du hast umfangen mich [Miserable one, you have
embraced me] — the text is also that of a courtly song, but the
melody was also known with a French text (Vive, madame, par amours);
moreover, there were several different pieces under the generic heading
of ‘Misery’, pertaining to the lover being far away
(‘abroad’).
VIII. The most famous song from the middle of the fifteenth century was
certainly Leonardo Giustiniani’s Italian ballata, O rosa bella,
set to music by the Englishman John Bedyngham (ca. 1440). For decades
the piece had been tinkered with in different vocal and instrumental
arrangements. In our manuscript, there are actually four quodlibets
(i.e. medleys) on the main melody, which has gathered forty more
well-known melodies around it, akin to a flower-garden.
X. The text of the courtly song Ich bins erfreut [I am pleased]
is dated ‘Anno 67’ in another source. Judging by
its form, the lovely four-part piece in the Lydian mode again seems to
be a chanson of French origin. The tenor song Die libe ist
schön [Love is beautiful — the rest of the text is lost]
is set in the Bar form A-A-B.
X. At the time there were several pieces named Pfauenschwanz
[Peacock’s Tail]. In our manuscript there are two: one of them is
the presumed ancestor of the whole ‘Tail’ family, a
four-part composition by the Frenchman Barbingant (first name unknown,
ca. 1460). The same tenor melody was treated very differently by the
Netherlander Paulus de Broda (actually de Rhoda). Both pieces, however,
are fully written out instrumental improvisations on a dance melody.
XI. In this Lydian group we hear a hit of the time, the tenor song In
Feuers Hitz so brennet mein Herz [In fiery heat my heart is
burning]. The words are recorded in a Middle German source as an
alternative text to a sacred composition by Heinrich Isaac; in the
margin next to it there is a drawing of a monk with a woman on his arm.
The four-part setting in our manuscript has also been given a Marian
prayer in Latin as devotional disguise (‘contrafactum’).
The piece with the song text Ach reine zart [O tender pure]
seems like a — very competent — improvisation on In
Feuers Hitz.
XII. The French rondeau Entrepris suis by the Italian
Bartholomeus Bruolo is probably the oldest multi-part composition in
the manuscript (ca. 1430). Nobody knows for certain why the
(substantial) piece was so popular everywhere — it was probably
because the imitative setting and the finely worked ornamentation have
something quite brilliant about them. Nothing more is known about the
composer.
XIII. These two Dorian songs are woven around women’s names. Lætare
Germania is a verse antiphon on St Elizabeth, the patron saint of
Germany, in a chorale melody set for voices. Elslein, liebstes
Elselein is set as a dialogue between two lovers ‘separated
by deep waters’, in a folk style.
XIV. Here, two comic songs on familiar themes in the Mixolydian mode
have been put together. Auf rief ein hübsches Fräuelein
[Up, called a lovely maiden] is a true round dance song in striking
triple time and with the typical call ‘Hoiho’,
which was originally a signal used in directing dances. Zenner,
greiner [Scolding, whining, man] is one of the widespread mocking
songs directed at the cuckolded husband who ‘whines’ about
his unfaithful wife.
XV. At the time, Groß Sehnen [Great longing] was a
standard title for dozens of pieces on several different melodies. The
composition chosen here is based on the famous anonymous rondeau J’ay
pris amours a ma devise: the two upper parts of the originals are
used as lower voices (tenor and bass), and a new high part has been
added to replace the original’s lowest voice. Die Welt
[The world] is a popular ballad, of which, unfortunately, only the
first verse seems to be known.
XVI. The collection contains works in the Ionian mode as well, even
though this term was also coined later. Die Katzenpfote [The
cat’s paw] – a name which would already suggest the
‘Tail’ genre – is an ingeniously composed
instrumental piece with countless short imitations and sequences. The
untitled piece GLOG 100 is a composition separated into several
puncta with a songlike upper part, but not set in song form: it
is comparable to the instrumental fantasia as it was already practised
in Italy at the time.
XVII. Die congregational hymn (Leise) Nu bitten wir den
heiligen Geist [We now beseech thee, Holy Spirit] originated in the
thirteenth century. The setting places the melody almost without
ornamentation in the upper voice, as with other sacred works in our
collection, and accompanies it with more animated lower parts. The
concluding ‘Kyrieleis’ is richly elaborated in
triple time. Even Martin Luther had nothing to add to the intimacy of
this pilgrim’s song, except for writing three beautiful extra
verses.
XVIII. Der Vöglein Art [The way of little birds] is a
courtly song in three long verses (here amended from other sources), in
the Mixolydian mode. Because of the close rhythmic relationship between
music and text, it is conceivable that it was composed as a part-song,
i.e. not derived from an already known base melody.
XIX. When there were no more ‘Tails’ available in Sagan as
names for popular music, new fantasy names had to be invented, among
them the ‘Cat’s paw’ and the ‘Asses’
crown’ (Eselskrone), potentially reaching into the realm
of mockery or ridicule. Both pieces are set in the same imitative
style, which requires cleanly precise ensemble playing.
XX. These songs in the Dorian mode conclude our selection. Tärste
ich [Would I be permitted] and Ach Gott, wie sehr [Oh god,
how much] deal with a lover’s yearning; the first is in Bar form
A-A-B and could be derived from a pre-existing basic melody –
which is quite reminiscent of the lower part of J’ay pris
amours. Ach Gott could be an original composition on the same text.
Der Wächter an der Zinnen [The guard on the battlements
– no further text is known] is definitely a daylight song (Tagelied),
perhaps on a folk melody. The diminutive form of the last two songs
invites further invention, ornamentation and improvisation.
Reinhard Strohm
Translation: Bernd Müller
Our special thanks to Jane Achtman, who generously provided her
Renaissance bass gamba
(made by Robert Foster, 2001) for this recording.
This recording is dedicated to the memory of Dietrich Schmidtke
(†),
a connoisseur of medieval German poetry and an enthusiast of the
Glogauer Liederbuch.