Polyphonic vespers
for St.
Michael’s and St. Martin’s days
In 1571, a widow called Anna Hannsen Schuman donated a highly valuable
manuscript to the collegiate chapter of Pozsony (at the time the most
important city in Hungary not under Turkish domination, now Bratislava
in Slovakia), named after Saint Martin.
The codex contains 239 polyphonic works, almost all for the enrichment
of evening office of vespers. The composers of some works can be
identified (Mouton, Isaac, Finck, Morales, Walther, etc.) but most of
the pieces are anonymous. The manuscript was actually in daily use: the
pieces, in the German-Flemish style of the time, and mostly short,
could be interpolated between the movements of the Gregorian vespers on
feastdays, clearly selecting them to match the abilities of the singing
group available at the time. In most of the works, one or more parts
quotes the Gregorian melody; the strict imitation techniques of the
late sixteenth century do not feature, but fragments of imitation, both
brief and lengthier, occur regularly in the pieces. Quite excellent
compositions are found side by side with simpler arrangements, and
sometimes there compositional (or perhaps just copyists’) errors. The
annotations made later into the music show that the manuscript was
actually used, and this is witness to the developed Renaissance musical
life of the church.
This disc highlights two vespers from the collection: that for the
feast of Saint Martin, patron saint of the church, and that for Saint
Michael, which falls close to it in the calendar. As in the practice of
the time, the prescribed Gregorian chant and their polyphonic
arrangements were mixed as necessary in the liturgy, so this disc mixes
the two, transcribing the Gregorian movements from the extant codexes
from the same church.
The structure of vespers was as follows:
The first five psalms were sung, before and after which a framing
verse, an antiphona was sounded. While the psalm was simply recited,
the antiphona was a brief, but melodic piece. A common custom was to
intone only the first motive of the antiphona before the psalm, and
afterwards to sing the entire piece. The space on this disc is
naturally insufficient for us to recite entire psalms of ten or fifteen
verses. In the St Michael vespers, we sing a few verses of one of the
five psalms, while the antiphon is first shown in a polyphonic setting
after the psalm with its Gregorian melody (1). The St Martin’s vespers:
the five psalms (each of which one pair of verses is recited) are sung
with five antiphons; before the psalm each antiphon is intoned, and
afterwards it is sung in its entirety (12).
After the five psalms follows the recitation of a short piece of holy
scripture (capitulum – 2, 13) which is answered by an ornamented
melismatic movement, the responsorium (3, 14). The responsorium
comprises a bipartite main section, followed by a verse sung by a small
group; this in turn is answered by the second part of the main section
(the repentenda) sung by the choir. The two responsories sung here are
not part of the classic body of Gregorian chant, but come from the
’Frankish era’ repertory (of the 9th and 10th centuries), designed to
supplement it. This later material is characterised by broad melodies
spanning a large range, an emotional style, and independent melismas
located in the repetenda.
Then follows the only strophic item of the office, the hymn. If
polyphonic music was used during vespers, the hymn was performed in the
’alternatim’ custom: the odd verses were sung to the Gregorian melody,
and the even ones in a polyphonic setting. The two pairs of verses on
this disc (4, 15) should conceived with the two settings being repeated
two or three times, each time with a different text. The hymn is linked
to the following, longer movement by a short, recited pair of verses
taken from the psalm, the versicle (5, 16), ornamented with a melisma
on the last syllable.
The climax of the vespers is the ’Magnificat’, the canticle of Mary,
again with an antiphon. If this was polyphonic, the twelve verses again
followed the alternatim custom, alternating Gregorian chant with the
polyphonic setting. Many ’Magnificats’ can be found in the Pozsony
Codex, and also the polyphonic form of the antiphon for both vespers.
In the St Michael vespers we sing four verses from the Magnificat to
its Gregorian melody; in the St Martin vespers we sing a polyphonic
setting of the entire Magnificat. The related antiphons are sung before
the canticle, first in the Gregorian form, then in the polyphonic
setting (6, 17).
The vespers concludes with the recitation of the prayer for the
feast-day (7, 18). At the end of the disc we have added another
antiphon, which links well into the programme both in topic and in
respect of the calendar. Between the feasts of Michael and Martin (29th
September and 10th November) falls All Saints’ Day, and the antiphon
sung on that day includes Martin as one of those who ”clothed with
white robes […] follow the Lamb…” (19).
Polyphonic settings were naturally an exceptional ornamentation in the
Church of St Martin in Pozsony. In the regular course of the liturgy,
predominantly Gregorian chant was heard in the church. In order to give
a sense of the proportions on this disc, between the two vespers we
have placed four movements from the mass of St Martin, with the
melodies as they were sung in Pozsony. The Graduale and Offertorium (8,
11) are part of the ancient repertory of the Gregorian chant, whereas
the Alleluia and Sequentia (9, 10) are typical products of the Middle
Ages.
Dobszay László
Sources:
All tracks taken from the following 15th and 16th century manuscripts
from Bratislava:
SQ-BRm EC. Lad. 3 and SQ-BRsa Knauz 11
Polyphonic settings:
from the Pozsony Vesperal
(Anna
Hannsen Schuman Codex,
Bratislava/Pozsony, chapter library, Knauz 11).
Vespers, Gregorian settings:
Pozsony Antiphonary
(Bratislava/Pozsony, chapter library, Knauz 3).
Gregorian mass movements:
Missale Notatum Strigoniense, in use in
Bratislava
(Bratislava/Pozsony,
chapter library, Knauz 18).
For the sequence cf. Rajeczky B.: Melodiarium
Hungariae Medii Aevi,
(Budapest, 1982, No. I. 31.)