A Song that Doesn’t Fit

February 1, 2022 Mary Caldwell

When approaching any given archive, sometimes you come across something that just doesn’t seem to fit—an orange in a basket of apples. Both are round fruit (more or less), but the orange is simply not an apple. While my forthcoming book attempts to understand medieval Latin song culture through the lens of the refrain, not all refrains (or refrain songs) do the same cultural work, and some are more different than others. This is the case for a song that did not make it into my book (except in the Appendix!), and is instead the focus of a forthcoming article in the Revue de Musicologie (vol. 108, no. 1, 2022): Vineam meam plantavi.

You can listen to this beautifully simple yet moving song here as arranged and performed by Ensemble Peregrina. Vineam meam plantavi survives in only two manuscript sources, and in only one with notation, the latter seen below from a well-known thirteenth-century manuscript from Paris (which musicologists know as “F”).

Detail of medieval music manuscript featuring the song "Vineam meam plantavi" — *Vineam meam plantavi* from Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Pluteus 29.1, fol. 466v (also transmitted unnotated in Tours, Bibliothèque municipale, MS 927, fol. 19v).

What makes this song so unusual is its representation of Christ’s singular voice as he treads the so-called “mystic winepress,” a visual and textual metaphor for his Crucifixion. Calling out in Christ’s voice “I have trodden the winepress alone” (a quotation of Isaiah 63:3), a refrain repeats within and between all strophes of the song, underscoring its relationship to the popular visual depiction and providing a musico-poetic representation of the repetitive treading of the winepress. In my forthcoming article, I employ musical and poetic analysis, exegesis, and medieval and modern theories of the body, temporality, consumption, and mystical performance to reveal how the song uniquely intervenes in the theological and iconographic tradition of the mystic winepress. The reason why this song demanded treatment separate from my book (which focuses more on the community-driven side of refrains) is precisely due to the way that Christ’s voice is featured in the first person, a prosopopeic and rhetorical gesture that is not found in any other refrain song (at least, not any that I know about, and certainly none that also quote biblical passages so literally!).

Text and translation of "Vineam meam plantavi"

One of the most enjoyable yet challenging aspects of this project was the art-historical side. Since I am not an art historian by training, I relied on the generosity of colleagues to ensure that my use of images to support my discussion was not completely wrongheaded. Working on this project was a wonderful reminder of how important interdisciplinary work is, and how much we can learn from each other in different fields and subfields. See below for one among MANY depictions of Christ and/in the mystical winepress!

Manuscript image of Christ bleeding in a winepress — London, British Library, Arundel 203, fol. 88r, Christ pressed in the mystic winepress (15th century).

Selected Bibliography

Alexandre-Bidon, Danièle, ed. Le pressoir mystique: actes du colloque de recloses 27 mai 1989. Paris: Cerf, 1990.

Canalda i Llobet, Sílvia, and Cristina Fontcuberta i Famadas. "The Mystic Winepress: Evolution, Use and Meaning of a Controversial Image at the Time of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation." In Arts, Portraits and Representation in the Reformation Era: Proceedings of the Fourth Reformation Research Consortium Conference, edited by Patrizio Foresta and Federica Meloni, 39-60. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2019.

Carlson, Rachel Golden. "Striking Ornaments: Complexities of Sense and Song in Aquitanian 'Versus'." Music & Letters 84, no. 4 (2003): 527-556.

———. "Two Paths to Daniel's Mountain: Poetic-Musical Unity in Aquitanian Versus." The Journal of Musicology 23, no. 4 (2006): 620-646.Deeming, Helen. "Music and Contemplation in the Twelfth-Century Dulcis Jesu memoria." Journal of the Royal Musical Association 139, no. 1 (2014): 1-39.

Connor, Steven. "Choralities." Twentieth-Century Music 13, no. 1 (2016): 3–23.

Engel III, Wilson F. "Christ in the Winepress: Backgrounds of a Sacred Image." George Herbert Journal 3, no. 1-2 (1979-1980): 45-63

Gertsman, Elina. "Multiple Impressions: Christ in the Wine Press and the Semiotics of the Printed Image." Art History 36, no. 2 (2013): 310-337.

Loda, Angelo. "Il torchio mistico: Cristo e la vite fra passione ed eucarestia." Il sangue della redenzione. Rivista semestrale dei Missionari del Prez.mo Sangue Anno III, no. 2 (2005): 27-62.

Marrow, James H. Passion Iconography in Northern European Art of the Late Middle Ages and Early Renaissance: A Study of the Transformation of Sacred Metaphor into Descriptive Narrative. Kortrijk: Van Ghemmert Pub. Co., 1979.

Rillon-Marne, Anne-Zoé. "Exultemus sobrie: Gestualité et rythmique des rondeaux latins du manuscrit de Florence (Pluteus 29.1)." Le Jardin de musique 9, no. 1 (2018): 25-48.

Thomas, Alois. “Christus in der Kelter,” in Reallexikon zur Deutschen Kunstgeschichte, vol. III, 1953, pp. 673–687.

Wenzel, Horst. "The Logos in the Press: Christ in the Wine-Press and the Discovery of Printing." In Visual Culture and the German Middle Ages, edited by Kathryn Starkey and Horst Wenzel, 223-249. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005.

Send me a song...Lyrics and letters in medieval Europe

January 25, 2022 Mary Caldwell

Medieval manuscript with the text of a letter and a Latin lyric — Bibliothèque nationale of Luxembourg, MS 27, fols. 23v-24r

Today’s tune, Laudes canamus virginis, is somewhat unusual since it has no surviving notation and, instead of being copied in a music book or collection of poetry, it was written by a 12th-century cleric as a gift, included in a letter he sent to his sister Aelis. A canon in Châlons-sur-Marne, Gui de Basoches (Guido de Basochis) is known for several pieces of writing, including his liber epistolarum, a book of letters reflecting correspondance between him and friends, colleagues, and family. Interestingly, almost all of his prose letters conclude with verses, including rhymed, rhythmical, strophic poetry (sometimes with refrains!) that bears a striking resemblance to the poetry of contemporary Latin song.

Laudes canamus virginis in particular is an interesting poem in the Liber epistolarum since Gui frames its performance in specifically musical ways. He writes in the closing of his letter, “of this glorious mother of God and virgin, since I know you pursue with celebrating praise and are a most devout worshipper, I send you her praises composed rhythmically to be said as a suppliant before her reverend image in prayer or sung with sweet melody.” The poem Laudes canamus virginis then follows directly, as you can see in the image to the left from the sole surviving source for Gui’s letters (Bibliothèque nationale of Luxembourg, MS 27, fols. 23v-24r). (You can see an edition and translation of the song here.)

What is so fascinating about this “song” is both that it belongs to an epistolary interaction and also that Gui assumes that Aelis could readily realize the poem musically (if she so chooses—the choice to speak or sing the poem is another interesting aspect). The survival of Laudes canamus virginis asks us to think about the different ways Latin song circulated in medieval Europe, the flexible nature of “song” as both spoken and sung, and the role of personal relationships in the creation of Latin song (not to mention the role of women in performing Latin song!).

I will be talking about this example and other links between Latin songs, letters, and refrains in a talk this week (Jan 27, 2022, 8:30am EST) as part of the conference “Circulations et échanges des technicités et des savoirs musicaux et littéraires au Moyen Age et à la Renaissance” (programme here), to be streamed live on YouTube at this link.

(Although my focus is on Latin examples, the vernacular realm has much to offer on the topic of letters and lyrics! Machaut’s Voir dit is just one wonderful example, one which garnishes several provides beautiful depictions of the sending and delivery of letters in Machaut MS A, F-Pn fr. 1584, seen below.)

Medieval manuscript with image of a woman receiving a letter from a man. — *Le Livre dou Voir Dit* in Machaut MS A (F-Pn fr. 1584), fol. CCXXIr

Medieval manuscript image of a man and woman exchanging a letter — *Le Livre dou Voir Dit* in Machaut MS A (F-Pn fr. 1584), fol. CCXXXIIIr

Selected Bibliography

Basochis, Guido de. Liber epistularum Guidonis de Basochis. Edited by Herbert Adolfsson. Acta Universitatis Stockholmiensis: Studia Latina Stockholmiensia Vol. 18, Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell, 1969.

Boulton, Maureen Barry McCann. The Song in the Story: Lyric Insertions in French Narrative Fiction, 1200-1400. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1993.

Camargo, Martin. "The Verse Love Epistle: An Unrecognized Genre." Genre 13 (1980): 397-405.

Constable, Giles. Letters and Letter-Collections. Turnhout: Brepols, 1976.

Everist, Mark. Discovering Medieval Song: Latin Poetry and Music in the Conductus. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018.

Leech-Wilkinson, Daniel, and R. Barton Palmer, eds. Guillaume de Machaut: Le livre dou voir dit (The Book of the True Poem). New York: Garland, 1998.

Melli, Elio. "I ‘salut’ e l'epistolografia medievale." Convivium 4 (1962): 385-398.

Meyer, Paul. “Le Salut d’amour dans les littératures provençale et française.” Bibliothèque de l’Ecole des Chartes 28 (1867): 124 – 170

Munk Olsen, Birger. "L’édition d’un manuscript d’auteur: les letters de Gui de Bazoches." Revue des études latines 49 (1971): 66–77.

Szövérffy, Joseph. Secular Latin Lyrics and Minor Poetic Forms of the Middle Ages: A Historical Survey and Literary Repertory from the Tenth to the Late Fifteenth Century. 4 vols. Concord, N.H.: Classical Folia Editions, 1992-1995.

Turcan-Verkerk, Anne-Marie. "Le Formulaire de Tréguier revisité: les Carmina Trecorensia et l'Ars dictaminis." ALMA, Bulletin du Cange 52 (1994): 205-252.

Wahlgren-Smith, Lena. "Letter Collections in the Latin West." In A Companion to Byzantine Epistolography, edited by Alexander Riehle, 92-122. Leiden: Brill, 2020.

Wattenbach, Wilhelm. "Die Briefe des Canonicus Guido von Bazoches, Cantors zu Chälons im zwölften Jahrhundert." Sitzungsberichte der Königlich Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin 9 (1890): 161-179.

———. "Aus den Briefen des Guido von Bazoches." Neues Archiv der Gesellschaft für Ältere Deutsche Geschichtskunde 16 (1891): 67 -114.

Let us rejoice: Musical Texture, the Latin Refrain Song, and Singing with One Voice

January 18, 2022 Mary Caldwell

Latin songs with refrains most often feature single melodic lines—Christopher Page once wrote that such songs have “bold and ingratiating musical settings,” and the popularity of these works with early music ensembles certainly underscores their approachability and singability. Among the few refrain songs with polyphonic settings, a handful set the stanzas polyphonically and the refrain monophonically, highlighting the formal structure by means of a change in musical texture. More than marking form, the setting of refrains in a single melodic line is suggestive of how refrains represent a moment of coming together, an opportunity to sing as if with one voice, quasi una voce.

Today’s Tuesday Tune is Exultantes in partu virginis, a refrain song surviving in several sources with and without notation between the 12th and 16th centuries. Its later copying in an elaborately troped Circumcision Office (January 1) from Le Puy-en-Velay includes in an appendix a polyphonic voice to be added to the otherwise monophonic song. But, this polyphonic addition only applies to the stanzas and not the refrain. The result—as you can hear in this recording by the Ensemble Gilles Binchois—is that rich yet simple polyphonic stanzas alternative regularly with a one-word monophonic refrain, gaudeamus (first couple of stanzas with translation below).

As I explore in Chapter 3 of my forthcoming book, the refrain in devotional Latin song brought individuals and communities together in the moment of performance through the acts of remembering together, responding collectively, and worshipping communally. Drawing on the rhetoric, grammar, form, and musical texture of Latin refrain songs, I illustrate how poets and composers embedded ideas about performance, community, and communal participation in their compositions. Exultantes in partu virginis is one example in Chapter 3 that focuses on both the grammar of the refrain itself—namely the first person plural of “gaudeamus,” “let us rejoice”—and on how musical form and texture work together to craft a layered experience of singing as if with one voice by literally bringing voices together in monophony for the repeated refrain.

More on the refrain and its multivalent meanings in performance, including its possible connection to dance, in Chapter 3, “Singing the Refrain: Shaping Performance and Community Through Form,” of Devotional Refrains in Medieval Latin Song.

Grenoble, Bibliothèque municipale, MS 4413, fol. 28r, musical notation — *Grenoble, Bibliothèque municipale, MS 4413, fol. 28r, middle stanzas and refrain of “Exultantes in partu virginis”*

1. Exultantes in partu virginis

Quo deletur peccatum hominis

Ad honorem superni numinis

Gaudeamus.

2. Facta parens, non viri coitu

Quem concepit de Sancto Spiritu

Virgo parit sed sine genitu.

Gaudeamus.

etc.

1. Exulting in the birthing of the Virgin

by which the sins of man are expunged,

to the honor of the supreme divinity,

let us rejoice.

2. Made a parent without congress with a man,

the Virgin gives birth to the one she conceived

through the Holy Spirit, but without generation;

let us rejoice.

etc.

Source: Grenoble, Bibliothèque municipale, MS 4413, fols. 27v-28v (monophonic) and 162r (polyphonic supplement)

Selected Bibliography

Arlt, Wulf. "Einstimmige Lieder des 12. Jahrhunderts und Mehrstimmiges in französischen Handschriften des 16. Jahrhunderts aus Le Puy." Schweizer Beiträge zur Musikwissenschaft 3 (1978): 7-47.

———. "The Office for the Feast of the Circumcision from Le Puy." Translated by Lori Kruckenberg, Kelly Landerkin and Margot E. Fassler. In The Divine Office in the Latin Middle Ages: Methodology and Source Studies, Regional Developments, Hagiography: Written in Honor of Professor Ruth Steiner, edited by Margot E. Fassler and Rebecca A. Baltzer, 324-343. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.

Chevalier, Ulysse. Prosolarium ecclesiae aniciensis: Office en vers de la Circoncision en usage dans l'église du Puy. Paris: A. Picard, 1894.

Connor, Steven. "Choralities." Twentieth-Century Music 13, no. 1 (2016): 3–23.

Crocker, Richard L. "Two Recent Editions of Aquitanian Polyphony." Plainsong and Medieval Music 3, no. 1 (1994): 57-101.

———. An Introduction to Gregorian Chant. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000.

Fuller, Sarah. "Aquitanian Polyphony of the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries." 3 vols. PhD diss., University of California, Berkeley, 1969.

Page, Christopher. Voices and Instruments of the Middle Ages: Instrumental Practice and Songs in France, 1100-1300. London: J.M. Dent and Sons, Ltd., 1987.

Peraino, Judith A. "Listening to the Sirens: Music as Queer Ethical Practice." GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies 9, no. 4 (2003): 433-470.

———. Listening to the Sirens: Musical Technologies of Queer Identity from Homer to Hedwig. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2006.

Quasten, Johannes. Music and Worship in Pagan and Christian Antiquity. Translated by Boniface Ramsey. Washington, D.C.: National Association of Pastoral Musicians, 1983 [1973].

Treitler, Leo. "The Aquitanian Repertories of Sacred Monody in the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries." PhD diss., Princeton University, 1967.

"Anni novi prima die" from the Hortus Deliciarum (late 12th century)

January 11, 2022 Mary Caldwell

To celebrate pressing send on the final (final!) set of proofs for my book, I’m starting a countdown to its publication in April 2022 with Tuesday Tunes—a Latin refrain song each week!

This week’s song is Anni novi prima die, possibly penned and definitely compiled by Abbess Herrad of Landsberg in her Hortus Deliciarum, a compendium of knowledge for the novices at Hohenburg Abbey (Mont St Odile) in Alsace in the late 12th century. Although the manuscript was destroyed in an 1870 bombing and fire in Strasbourg, the poetry of Anni novi prima die survived because parts of the manuscript had been copied prior to its destruction. Rosalie Green et al published a reconstruction in 1979 that has become the standard source for everything we know about its contents, including Latin poetry (some notated) composed and/or compiled by Herrad. The Latin songs in the Hortus Deliciarum are by and for women, in other words, and reflect the kind of devotional (and not always liturgical) music making that was taking place throughout Europe in the Middle Ages.

Anni novi prima die is one such song, a celebration of the Feast of the Circumcision on 1 January, which was also often celebrated (unofficially at that time) as the New Year. Each strophe cites the new year (“anni novi”) in the same way, always framed around the ritual act of Christ’s Circumcision and reflecting one of the earliest poetic links between the liturgical feast day and popular celebrations of 1 January. Most interesting is the developing refrain that emphasis first the “when” and then the “who” of the ritual act (text and translation below). While Anni novi prima die is unique to the Hortus Deliciarum, it is part of a larger group of songs that not only celebrates 1 January as an inherently pluralistic day ritually and popularly, but also that employs “anni novi” or “annus novus” as a refrain within and among songs. More on this and the other Latin “New Year’s songs” in Chapter 1 “Latin Song and Refrain in the Medieval Year” of Devotional Refrains in Medieval Latin Song.

(Although Anni novi prima die is unnotated, you can hear a reconstruction of a different-notated!-Latin poem from the Hortus Deliciarum by Discantus, Sol oritur occasus; image below.)

Hortus Deliciarum (destroyed), folio 323r. Herrad of Landsberg (right) and her community.

Hortus deliciarum (destroyed), fol. 30r. *Sol oritur occasus nescius* (polyphonic) and *Primus parens* (monophonic)

Text and Translation of Anni novi prima die* (Hortus deliciarum, fol. 30v)

1. Anni novi prima die

Filius virginis Marie

Morem gessit natilie.

Dum, dum, dum circumcidi sustinuit