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Galeazzo Maria Sforza and musical patronage in Milan: Compère, Weerbeke and Josquin*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 December 2008

Patrick Macey
Patrick Macey
Affiliation:
Eastman School of Music University of Rochester
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Extract

Galeazzo Maria Sforza (1444–76), fifth Duke of Milan, set out when he acceded to power in 1466 to style himself as one of the most glorious of rulers and to make his court (in the words of the contemporary chronicler Bernardino Corio) one of ‘the most splendid in the universe’. Galeazzo, a contemporary of King Louis XI of France and Duke Charles the Bold of Burgundy, entertained grand designs of turning his ducal coronet into a king's crown and transforming Lombardy into a royal realm, just as Charles the Bold sought to elevate the duchy of Burgundy to a kingdom. The two dukes, as vassals of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick III, relied on that monarch's power to bestow the kingly crown; both failed tragically in the end. As part of his design to impress his contemporaries with the princely splendour of his court, in 1471 Galeazzo focused his energies particularly on the ambitious project of developing the best musical chapel in Italy. During the course of the next two years he sent emissaries to the rulers of England, Flanders, France, Naples and his neighbour Savoy, seeking to hire (or borrow, in the case of Savoy) the best singers available. His cappella grew to include more than thirty singers, making it larger than any other in Italy, even the papal chapel.

Type
Research Article
Information
Early Music History , Volume 15 , October 1996 , pp. 147 - 212
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1996

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References

1 In his epitaph for Galeazzo, after the duke's assassination on 26 December 1476, Bernardino Corio (1459–after 1503) gave the following summation: ‘Fu oltramodo liberalissimo, cupido di gloria e d'essere temuto. Havea caro se potesse dire con ilvero la sua corte fusse una de le più resplendente de l'universo’ (Corio, B., Storia di Milano, ed. Guerra, A. M. (Turin, 1978), ii, p. 1409)Google Scholar. For other studies on music in Milan, see Motta, E., ‘Musici alla corte degli Sforza’, Archivio Storico Lombardo, 2nd ser., 4 (1887), pp. 29–64, 278–340, 514–61Google Scholar; Cesari, G., ‘Musica e musicisti alia corte sforzesca’, Rivista Musicale Italiana, 29 (1922), pp. 1–53Google Scholar; Sartori, C., ‘La musica nel Duomo dalle origini a Franchino Gaffurio’, in Storia di Milano, ix (Milan, 1961), pp. 723–48Google Scholar; G. Barblan, ‘Vita musicale alla corte sforzesca’, in ibid., pp. 787–852. The most recent studies are: Prizer, W. F., ‘Music at the Court of the Sforza: The Birth and Death of a Musical Center’, Musica Disciplina, 43 (1989), pp. 141–93Google Scholar; Welch, E. S., ‘Sight, Sound and Ceremony in the Chapel of Galeazzo Maria Sforza’, Early Music History, 12 (1993), pp. 151–90CrossRefGoogle Scholar. On Galeazzo Maria Sforza's court, see Lubkin, G., A Renaissance Court: Milan under Galeazzo Maria Sforza (Berkeley, 1994)Google Scholar.

2 Both men even met death at nearly the same time: Galeazzo was assassinated on 26 December 1476, while Charles died just ten days later, on 5 January 1477, on a frozen battlefield near Nancy.

3 Motta, ‘Musici’, pp. 301–8, provides documentation for Galeazzo's recruitment of singers, including: (1) a letter of 15 October 1471 to Edward IV of England; (2) repeated requests to the Duchess Yolande of Savoy in December 1471 and again in January and October 1472 for the loan of singers; (3) the dispatch of Gaspar van Weerbeke to Flanders to recruit singers in April 1472; (4) a letter dated 3 November 1472, delivered by the singer Tomaso Leporis to Ockeghem in France; (5) a letter of 6 November 1472 to the Milanese ambassador in Naples, offering good benefices and salaries to singers there who wished to join his chapel.

4 Welch stresses the point that music was elevated during this period from a semi-private court entertainment to an important activity of state; Welch, ‘Sight, Sound and Ceremony’, pp. 164–5.

5 Lowinsky, E. E., ‘Ascanio Sforza's Life: A Key to Josquin's Biography and an Aid to the Chronology of His Works’, Josquin des Prez: Proceedings of the International Josquin Festival-Conference, ed. Lowinsky, E. E. in collaboration with B. J. Blackburn (Oxford, 1976), pp. 33–6Google Scholar. As Lowinsky states on p. 36, ‘A benefice amounting to 100 florins, 95 or 96 of which would go to Josquin if he appointed a caretaker for the canonry, is a splendid income.’ He notes that 100 florins equals 100 ducats, and that Josquin received another 60 ducats yearly (5 ducats per month) for his services in Galeazzo's chapel, yielding a yearly income of 160 ducats.

6 A second letter from March 1473 provides a tantalising early glimpse of Josquin's musical activity, as Galeazzo threatens to imprison him for shirking a ducal commission and copying music for other patrons; see Matthews, L. and Merkley, P. A., ‘Josquin Desprez and His Milanese Patrons’, Journal of Musicology, 12 (1994), pp. 434–63CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

7 Sartori, C., ‘Josquin des Prés cantore del Duomo di Milano (1459–1472)’, Annales Musicologiques, 4 (1956), pp. 55–83Google Scholar.

8 Several observations can be made about the unknown periods of Josquin's activity. Herbert Kellman uncovered a document that notes Josquin's visit to Condé-sur-l'Escaut in 1483, his ‘first return’ since the start of the wars that had begun in 1477, thus indicating earlier stays in Condé; see Reese, G. and Noble, J., ‘Josquin Desprez’, The New Grove High Renaissance Masters (London, 1984), p. 6Google Scholar. The possibility that Josquin sojourned at the French royal court of Louis XI in the early 1480s is explored in Macey, P., ‘Josquin's Misericordias Domini and Louis XI’, Early Music, 19 (1991), pp. 163–77CrossRefGoogle Scholar. The correct date of Josquin's entry into the papal chapel has recently been shown by Pamela Starr to be 1489, and not 1486 as previously believed. Thus the gap in Josquin's biography for the decade of the 1480s widens; see Starr, P., ‘Josquin, Rome, and a Case of Mistaken Identity’, Journal of Musicology (in press)Google Scholar. I would like to thank Professor Starr for sharing her findings with me in advance of publication. Edward Lowinsky presented circumstantial evidence that Josquin served Cardinal Ascanio Sforza in the 1480s; see Lowinsky, ‘Ascanio Sforza's Life’. William Prizer presents new letters, dated December 1498 and February 1499, that mention a servant of Ascanio Sforza named ‘Juschino’, who had travelled to Mantua to pick up a gift of hunting dogs for the Cardinal. There is no mention of music in these letters, and it is not certain that this ‘Juschino’ is the composer Josquin des Prez; see Prizer, ‘Music at the Court of the Sforza’, pp. 168–9, 192–3. Finally, another contemporary document claims that in the 1480s Josquin worked in Hungary at the court of Matthias Corvinus (‘Quod pictores et musicos excellentes habuerit, inter quos etiam Josquinum ipsum’); see Kiràly, P., ‘Un séjour de Josquin des Prés a lacour de Hongrie?’, Revue de Musicologie, 78 (1992), pp. 145–50CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

9 The latter hypothesis is explored further by David Fallows in an unpublished paper, ‘Josquin and Milan’. I thank Dr Fallows, who generously provided me with a copy of his paper. See also the re-evaluation of Josquin's position vis-à-vis Obrecht in Wegman, R. C., Born for the Muses: The Life and Masses of Jacob Obrecht (Oxford, 1994), pp. 1–2, 15–16, 220 n.lGoogle Scholar.

10 Noblitt, T., ‘Die Datierung der Handschrift Mus. ms. 3154 der Staatsbibliothek München’, Die Musikforschung, 27 (1974), pp. 36–56, esp. p. 49Google Scholar. The Milanese motet style takes its starting point from the syntax of the text; it emphasises syntactic imitation, so that almost every new phrase of text receives a new imitative subject. Also, these motets feature contrasting musical textures that highlight imitative duos against chordal passages, as well as passages in triple mensuration. For discussion of this new Milanese style of the 1470s see Finscher, L., ‘Zum Verhältnis von Imitationstechnik und Textbehandlung im Zeitalter Josquins’, Renaissance-Studien: Helmuth Osthoff zum 80 Geburtstag, ed. Finscher, L. (Tutzing, 1979), pp. 57–72Google Scholar. Joshua Rifkin has also explored the style of the Milanese motet in an unpublished paper, ‘Josquin in Context: Toward a Chronology of the Motets’, delivered at the national meeting of the American Musicological Society, Minneapolis, 1978; I extend to him my thanks for providing me with a copy.

11 Perz, M., ‘The Lvov Fragments: A Source for Works by Dufay, Josquin, Petrus de Domarto, and Petrus de Grudencz in 15th-Century Poland’, Tijdschrift van de Vereniging voor Nederlandse Muziekgeschiedenis, 36 (1986), pp. 26–51CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

12 Letter of 5 February 1473 from Zaccaria Saggio to Ludovico Gonzaga; original Italian, with English translation, in Prizer, ‘Music at the Court of the Sforza’, p. 157.

13 Lubkin, , A Renaissance Court, pp. 182–4Google Scholar. Welch also notes the connection between Galeazzo's expansion of his chapel and his royal aspirations; ‘Sight, Sound and Ceremony’, pp. 162–3.

14 Lockwood, L., ‘Strategies of Music Patronage in the Fifteenth Century: The Cappella of Ercole I d'Este’, Music in Medieval and Early Modern Europe: Patronage, Sources and Texts, ed. Fenlon, I. (Cambridge, 1981), pp. 227–48Google Scholar; and idem, Music in Renaissance Ferrara 1400–1505 (Cambridge, Mass., 1984), pp. 133–4.

15 On Galeazzo's successful attempts to lure singers away from Ferdinand of Aragon's chapel in Naples, see Atlas, A. W., Music at the Aragonese Court of Naples (Cambridge, 1985), pp. 40–1, 52Google Scholar. On the general rise in petitions for benefices from c. 1450 to 1470, see Starr, P. F., ‘Rome as the Centre of the Universe: Papal Grace and Music Patronage’, Early Music History, 11 (1992), pp. 223–62, esp. pp. 238fCrossRefGoogle Scholar.

16 Strunk, O., Source Readings in Music History (New York, 1950), pp. 194–5Google Scholar.

17 See Jacobsen, M. A., ‘A Sforza Miniature by Cristoforo da Preda’, The Burlington Magazine, 116 (1974), pp. 91–6Google Scholar. See also. Alexander, J. J. G., Wallace Collection, Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscript Cuttings (London, 1980), pp. 39–41, and colour plate p. 12Google Scholar.

18 The traditional figure of the kneeling King David does appear in the opening illumination of a Missal that belonged to King Matthias Corvinus of Hungary, who was a contemporary of Galeazzo. The elaborately illuminated opening leaf appears to have been modelled directly on the one from Galeazzo's Missal; see Jacobsen, ‘A Sforza Miniature’, p. 92. French monarchs as far back as Pepin and Charlemagne had traditionally styled themselves as the ‘novus David’, and in the sixteenth century this tradition continued with François I, who is depicted holding a harp in a royal book of hours, in the section of the book containing the seven penitential psalms. King Henry VIII of England appears to have emulated French kings when he had himself depicted as David in several illuminations in his own book of psalms. For further bibliography and discussion of the ‘imitatio David regis’, see Macey, ‘Josquin's Misericordias Domini’, pp. 175–7.

19 ‘Molto a caro havere la copia de quelli salmi che faceva cantare la bona memoria del Re Alfonso quando sua Maestà haveva qualche victoria.’ Motta, ‘Musici’, p. 307.

20 The document is transcribed in full in Motta, ‘Musici’, pp. 555–7.

21 The same psalm is also included in the prayer book of Emperor Maximilian, son of Frederick III, with a rubric indicating that it should be said after the Elevation in time of war. See Macey, P., ‘Josquin as Classic: Qui habitat, Memor esto and Two Imitations Unmasked’, Journal of the Royal Musical Association, 118 (1993), p. 10CrossRefGoogle Scholar. The Neapolitan letter indicates one other psalm performed at Mass, ‘Domine exaudi orationem meam’ (Psalm 101 or 142; both have the same incipit). When the king had been victorious in battle, two different psalms were sung: ‘Confitebor tibi Domine in toto corde meo’ (Psalm 9) and ‘Domine in virtute tua letabitur Rex’ (Psalm 20).

22 Galeazzo's other siblings not shown in Table 2 were: Ippolita Maria (1445–88), Filippo Maria (1448–92), Sforza Maria (1451–79), Elisabetta Maria (1456–72), and Ottaviano Maria (1458–77).

23 Cognasso, F., I Visconti (Milan, 1966), p. 273Google Scholar.

24 Kirsch, E., Five Illuminated Manuscripts of Giangaleazzo Visconti (University Park, PA, 1991), p. 31Google Scholar.

25 Corio, , Storia di Milano, p. 899Google Scholar. ‘Al septimo di septembre in Abiate Giovanne Galeazo hebbe da Catelina, sua mugliere, uno figliolo a baptesmo nominato Giovanni Maria, a la quale abundantissima fonte di gratia s'era invotato, potendo havere figlioli, insignirli dil suo celebratissimo nome e per questo a gli altri descendenti fu dato il secundo nome di Maria.’

26 The feast of the Madonna of Grace (Beatae Mariae Virginis de Gratia) is celebrated on 9 June; see Missale romanum ex decreto sacrosancti concilii tridentini restitutum S. Pii V. Pontificis Maximi jussu editum (Regensburg and Rome, 1900), p. [143]Google Scholar. The feast of the Madonna of Mercy (Beatae Mariae Virginis de Misericordia) occurs on the Monday after the first Sunday in May ibid., p. [131]).The Madonna of Mercy was of course widely venerated in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, as numerous works of art depicting the easily recognisable figure can attest; see Perdrizet, P., La vierge de miséricorde: Etude d'un thème iconographique (Paris, 1908)Google Scholar. The Madonna of Grace seems to have been particularly venerated by members of the Visconti-Sforza dynasty, as indicated in the 1380s by the founding and dedication to her of the Visconti mausoleum church, the Certosa of Pavia. While it is true that in 1399 the Marchese of Mantua founded a church dedicated to Santa Maria delle grazie outside the walls of Mantua, it could not compete with the Certosa, which became famous throughout the Christian world for the richness of its architecture and artistic treasures; see Sant'Ambrogio, D., ‘Sull'iconografia della vergine nella Certosa di Pavia’, Rivista di Scienza Storiche, 1 (1904), p. 290Google Scholar (I would like to thank Janice Shell for this reference). Ludovico il Moro later designated another church, Santa Maria delle grazie in Milan, as the burial church for him and for Beatrice d'Este; the attached monastery houses Leonardo da Vinci's renowned fresco of the Last Supper. The burial monument of Ludovico and Beatrice, consisting of carved marble effigies, was moved to the Certosa of Pavia in the sixteenth century. The Madonna of Grace was also venerated outside of Milan; for example, in 1452 a painting of the Madonna reputedly executed by Saint Luke was brought from Rome to Cambrai and installed in a place of honour, the apsidal chapel directly behind the main altar of the cathedral; see Wright, C., ‘Dufay at Cambrai: Discoveries and Revisions’, Journal of the American Musicological Society [hereafter ‘JAMS’], 28 (1975), p. 199 and Fig. 3 (p. 201)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

27 Lubkin, , A Renaissance Court, pp. 142, 232Google Scholar.

28 Ibid., p. 116.

29 Corio, , Storia di Milano, p. 1398Google Scholar. ‘Assai se delectava il duca di canto, il perché tenea circha a trenta cantatori oltramontani, honorevolmente stipendiati da lui, e tra questi havea uno per nome Cordiero al quale dava per suo stipendio cento ducati il mese. Tanti ornamenti di capella havea che ascendeano al pretio de cento milia ducati. Ne la festività de lo Apostolo ordinò che questi fussino vestiti de vestimente lugubre e puoi gli impuose che in ogni giorno per lo advenire ne la missa cantassino questo versiculo tolto ne l'officio dedicato a li defuncti: “Maria mater gratiae, mater misericordiae etc.”’

30 Commentators such as Motta (‘Musici’, p. 535, n. 1) have rejected the notion that Cordier could have received 100 ducats per month, since the stipend listed for the highest-paid singer in Galeazzo's chapel in 1474, Antonio Guinati, was only 14 ducats monthly (Motta, ‘Musici’, p. 323). More recently, Lubkin, (A Renaissance Court, p. 104)Google Scholar has also cast doubt on the accuracy of the amount quoted by Corio, but Prizer accepts Corio's figure (‘Music at the Court of the Sforza’, p. 147). Josquin, by contrast, was one of the lower-paid members of the chapel, with 5 ducats per month as chapel salary, and another 8.3 ducats monthly (100 annually) from his benefice at San Giuliano in Gozzano, for an apparent total of only 13.5 ducats monthly. The monthly salary of approximately 20 ducats for ducal concillors was very generous, and these officials must have received fringe benefits to supplement this income; Lubkin, , A Renaissance Court, p. xixGoogle Scholar.

31 Vatican, Archivio Segreto, Registra Lateranensia, vol. 749, fols, 230–231. The benefice was valued at not more than 400 florins (the florin was equal to the ducat, according to the sources cited in Lowinsky, ‘Ascanio Sforza's Life’, p. 36). San Giulio de Dolzago is located on an island in Lake Orta, and it is worth noting that Josquin's benefice at San Giuliano in Gozzano is located on the south shore of the same lake. Giulio the priest and Giuliano the deacon, Greek brothers from Thessaly, spread Christianity and founded many basilicas in Italy in the fourth century, and they eventually settled on Lake Orta (Giuliano died in Gozzano); in the eighth century the church of San Giuliano in Gozzano enjoyed a reputation as the most eminent in the entire diocese of Novara (see Matthews and Merkley, ‘Josquin Desprez’, p. 441). The feast of the brothers falls on 31 January; for further details on their lives, see Acta sanctorum, iii, ed. Bollandus, I. (Paris, 1863), pp. 715–19Google Scholar. There exists today a Romanesque basilica on the Isola di S. Giulio in Lake Orta. I would like to thank Jeremy Noble for this reference and for providing a transcription of the complete Vatican document pertaining to Cordier's benefice; essential passages are given in Appendix 1, Cordier is referred to as ‘rector parrochialis’ of the church of St Sauveur in Varennes (north of Bourg-en-Bresse) in the diocese of Lyons.

32 Leonardo Sforza later became an apostolic protonotary, and on 7 January 1477 he received a letter regarding the maintenance of the Sforza chapel from Bona of Savoy, Galeazzo's widow, in which she mentions that Cordier had been deprived of the benefices awarded to him by Galeazzo. Motta, ‘Musici’, p. 535.

33 Barblan, ‘Vita musicale’, p. 845. For Cordier's titles, see Lubkin, , A Renaissance Court, p. 104Google Scholar.

34 Prizer suggests the singer was Heinrich Knoep; see ‘Music at the Court of the Sforza’, p. 156. Prizer's transcription of Saggio's letter gives the tenor's remuneration as 4,000 ducats, but Lubkin reads it as the more likely figure of 400 ducats; Lubkin, , A Renaissance Court, p. 104Google Scholar.

35 Barblan, ‘Vita musicale’, p. 826.

36 Motta, ‘Musici’, pp. 322–3.

37 ‘Havemo conducto per cantore de la capella nostra lo venerabile messer Zohanne Cordier, prete tornacense, el quale havemo carissimo per essere singolare musico.’ Ibid., pp. 533–4.

38 For an overview of Cordier's career, see Strohm, R., Music in Late Medieval Bruges (Oxford, 1985), pp. 37–8Google Scholar; see also D'Accone, F. A., ‘The Singers of San Giovanni in Florence during the 15th Century’, JAMS, 14 (1961), pp. 323–4Google Scholar.

39 Haberl, F. X., ‘Die römische “Schola cantorum” und die päpstlichen Kapellsänger bis zur Mitte des 16. Jahrhunderts’, Vierteljahrsschrift für Musikwissenschaft, 3 (1887), p. 230Google Scholar. For accounts of the fracas between Naples and Milan over Cordier, see Barblan, ‘Vita musicale’, pp. 843–6; Atlas, Music at the Aragonese Court of Naples, p. 41; and Walsh, R., ‘Music and Quattrocento Diplomacy: The Singer Jean Cordier between Milan, Naples, and Burgundy in 1475’, Archiv für Kulturgeschichte, 60 (1978), pp.439–42CrossRefGoogle Scholar. The strained relations between Naples and Milan probably explain the absence in Tinctoris's theoretical writings of the names of composers in Galeazzo's chapel, including Weerbeke, Compère, Josquin, Agricola and Martini. No doubt it would have been impolitic for Tinctoris to list musicians in the service of the rival Milanese duke, who avidly pirated singers from the Neapolitan chapel.

40 Corio, , Storia, p. 1398Google Scholar. The point is underscored by Welch, ‘Sight, Sound and Ceremony’, p. 152.

41 Corio, , Storia, p. 1398Google Scholar. ‘Approximandose il Natale christiano, deliberò venire a Milano, onde giunse ad Abiato Grasso. Fu viduto una picola Stella crinita; a Milano ne la camera dove era solito habitare se gli accese il fuocho e brusò parte de quella, per il che impaurindose il duca stette in pensiere di non passare più avante et anche uno certo instincto havea de non venire a Milano. Finalmente, venendo il suo fatale destino, si levò d'Abiate et essendose alontanato alquanto ne l'arie sopra il capo se vide tri corvi quali cridando lentamente passavano. Di questo cativo augurio non puocho dispiacere pigliandone, il duca tantosto se fece dare una stambichina et a queli tirò due volte. D'inde, mettendo le mane sopra l'arzono de la sella, suspeso se affirmò per ritornare adietro. Nientedimeno finalmente, quantunque invito, giunse a Milano la vigilia dil giorno quale é dedicato a Sancto Thomaso. Assai se delectava il duca di canto…’

42 Warner, M., Alone of All Her Sex: The Myth and the Cult of the Virgin Mary (New York, 1983), pp. 326–8Google Scholar.

43 For information on settings of this strophe, see Ward, T. R., The Polyphonic Office Hymn 1400–1520: A Descriptive Catalogue (American Institute of Musicology [hereafter ‘A.I.M.’], 1980), pp. 29, 151 and 230Google Scholar.

44 For a facsimile, see Das schwarze Gebetbuch: Gebetbuch des Galeazzo Maria Sforza, Codex 1856 der Österreichischen Nationalbibliothek in Wien (Frankfurt am Main, 1982)Google Scholar. See also the little hours of the Blessed Virgin in the book of hours of Bona of Savoy, Galeazzo's consort (Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, MS Clm 23215), which includes the same hymn stanzas. The Hours for the Dead in this book of hours contain no trace of the Marian verset ‘Maria mater gratiae’.

45 Miller, C. A., ‘Early Gaffuriana: New Answers to Old Questions’, Musical Quarterly, 56 (1970), p. 380Google Scholar.

46 More than eight complete cycles of motetti missales survive by Weerbeke, Compère, Josquin and Gaffurius, as well as several other anonymous cycles and partial cycles. These are listed and discussed in Ward, L. H., ‘The Motetti Missales Repertory Reconsidered’, JAMS, 39 (1986), pp. 491–523Google Scholar. See also Noblitt, T., ‘The Ambrosian Motetti Missales Repertory’, Musica Disciplina, 22 (1968), pp. 77–104Google Scholar.

47 We know that the daily Mass attended by Galeazzo was celebrated in the Roman rite, and not the Ambrosian rite associated with the diocese of Milan, for the duke's will states specifically that Gregorian Masses should be celebrated for his soul. Lubkin, , A Renaissance Court, p. 219Google Scholar.

48 The choirbooks are in the Archivio della Veneranda Fabbrica del Duomo, MilD 1, MilD 3 and MilD 4.

49 See Noblitt, T. L., ‘The Motetti Missales of the Late Fifteenth Century’ (Ph.D. diss., University of Texas, Austin, 1963), pp. 36–7Google Scholar. For a facsimile of the manuscript MilD 3, containing the Missa Galeazescha, see Milan, Archivio della Veneranda Fabbrica del Duomo, Sezione Musicale, Librone 3 (olim 2267), intro. H. M. Brown, Renaissance Music in Facsimile, 12c (New York, 1987). Three motets from the Missa Galeazescha, numbers 1, 2 and 4, are found in the first Milan choirbook, MilD 1, on which copying was completed by 1490. Two modern editions of the cycle have been published: Loysret Compère, Opera omnia, 2, ed. Finscher, L., Corpus Mensurabilis Musicae, 15 (A.I.M., 1959), pp. 1–25Google Scholar; and Compère, Loyset, Messe, Magnificat e motetti, ed. Faggion, D., Archivium Musices Metropolitanum Mediolanense [hereafter ‘AMMM’], 13 (Milan, 1968), pp. 75–112Google Scholar.

50 Finscher, L., Loyset Compère (c. 1450–1518): Life and Works (A.I.M., 1964), p. 101Google Scholar.

51 Finscher, , Compère, p. 102Google Scholar, drew attention to the use of versicle 4 of the sequence Veni sancte spiritus in the Loco Agnus.

52 Faggion has also suggested that in the opening of the Loco Introitus the two Tenor parts alternately sing a motive from the Kyrie of the ‘Missa cum jubilo’; AMMM, 13, p. vii.

53 Bloxam, M. J., ‘“La contenance italienne”: The Motets on Beata es Maria by Compère, Obrecht and Brumel’, Early Music History, 11 (1992), pp. 39–89CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

54 Finscher noted the appearance of the sequence tune for versicle 4 in the Agnus substitute (Compère, p. 102), and Faggion has drawn attention to Compère's use of the melodies for versicles 2, 3 and 5 (AMMM, 13, pp. ii–viii).

55 Faggion has drawn attention to the latter quotation in his edition of the Mass in AMMM, 13, p. viii.

56 See De Goede, N., ed., The Utrecht Prosarium, Monumenta Musica Neerlandica, 6 (Amsterdam, 1965), p. xlviGoogle Scholar. For a complete transcription of the Victorine sequence O Maria stella maris, whose melody is based on the hymn Ave maris stella, see Fassler, M., Gothic Song: Victorine Sequences and Augustinian Reform in Twelfth-Century Paris (Cambridge, 1993), pp. 436–7Google Scholar.

57 For the sequence Mane prima sabbati, see De Goede, , Utrecht Prosarium, p. 34Google Scholar; on p. 88 the same melody occurs for the sequence Gaude prole Graecia.

58 Crawford, D., Review of Noblitt, ‘The Motetti Missales of the Late Fifteenth Century’ (Ph.D. diss.), Current Musicology, 10 (1970), pp. 105–6Google Scholar.

59 Finscher, , Compère, pp. 95–6Google Scholar.

60 Motets 1, 3 and 4 are edited in Compère, Opera omnia, 4, ed. Finscher, L. (A.I.M., 1961), pp. 25–6, 29–31Google Scholar. For the Sanctus, see Anonimi: Messe, ed. Fano, F., AMMM, 6 (Milan, 1966), pp. 12–16Google Scholar. Ave regina caelorum is edited in Anonimi: Motetti, ed. Migliavacca, L., AMMM, 9 (Milan, 1961), pp. 21–5Google Scholar.

61 Ward, , ‘Motetti Missales Repertory’, pp. 508–15Google Scholar.

62 Finscher, , Compère, pp. 184–5Google Scholar. Wolfgang Stephan discussed this work as a good example of the new style of motet that appeared in Italy in the late fifteenth century; see Die burgundisch-niederländische Motette zur Zeit Ockeghems (Kassel, 1937Google Scholar; repr. 1973), p. 68.

63 Compère's Ave virgo gloriosa survives in six sources: MilD 1, MilD 2, FlorR 2794, LonRC 1070, VatS 46, and 15021. The earliest datable source is FlorR 2794, which was copied in the 1480s, probably before 1488; Census-Catalogue, II, p. 246. Curiously, was copied in the 1480s, probably before 1488; Census-Catalogue, II, p. 246. Curiously, the four non-Milanese sources give the full text of the versicle at the end of the motet, while the two Milanese sources provide only the first phrase, ‘O Maria mater gratiae’. The correct text seems to have been corrupted by the scribe who copied it into the two Milanese choirbooks around 1490 and later.

64 The cycle is preserved in MilD 1. For a modern edition, see van Weerbeke, Gaspar, Messe e motetti, transcr. G.Tintori, AMMM, 11 (Milan, 1963), pp. 13ffGoogle Scholar.

65 Croll, G., Das Motettenwerk Gaspars van Weerbeke (Ph.D. diss., University of Göttingen, 1954), pp. 189–93Google Scholar.

66 Ibid., pp. 189–93, 222–3.

67 Ibid., p. 193. For Fit porta Christi pervia, see Analecta hymnica, 11, p. 42Google Scholar. See also Analecta hymnica, 54, p. 59Google Scholar, where the hymn O gloriosa domina includes ‘Maria mater gratiae’ as its fourth stanza. In the Breviarium Monasticum, and in Galeazzo's own ‘black’ book of hours, the strophe ‘Maria mater gratie’ occurs as the second verse of the hymn Memento salutis auctor for the little offices of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Maria mater gratie occurs as a free-standing hymn for three voices, and as a verse in two other hymn settings in the Glogauer Liederbuch. For a complete listing of textual sources for the strophe ‘Maria mater gratiae’, see Das Glogauer Liederbuch, ed. Väterlein, C., Das Erbe Deutscher Musik, 86 (Kassel, 1981), pp. 355–6, 366 and 370Google Scholar. In the Liber Usualis (p. 1863) the strophe occurs as the first stanza of a hymn, but with a different second line.

68 The cycle is edited in this form in the Werken van Josquin Depres, ed. A. Smijers, Aflevering 7, no. 24.

69 Macey, P., ‘Josquin's “Little” Ave Maria: A Misplaced Motet from the Vultum tuum Cycle?’, Tijdschrift van de Vereniging voor Nederlandse Muziekgeschiedenis, 39 (1989), pp. 38–53CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

70 The text for this motet is Intemerata virgo in the fourth Milan choirbook (MilD 4) and three other sources, whereas three other manuscripts have O intemerata virgo, which fits the shape of the melody better. The sources are: Intemerata virgo, MilD 4, PadBC A17, UlmS 237, 15052; O intemerata virgo, BarcBC 454, CambraiBM 125–3, SegC s.s. I would like to thank Bonnie J. Blackburn for drawing this textual variant to my attention.

71 The cycles are Weerbeke's Missa Ave mundi domina, discussed above, and Compère's, Missa Ave Domine Jesu Christe, in Opera omnia, 2, ed. Finscher, L. (A.I.M., 1959), pp. 26ffGoogle Scholar.

72 The Vultum tuum cycle has been recorded in this reconstructed version by the Choir of Westminster Cathedral, James O'Donnell, director, on Hyperion CDA 66614 (1992).

73 Lynn Halpern Ward suggests that MilD 4 was copied in the first decade of the sixteenth century; see Ward, , ‘Motetti Missales Repertory’, p. 494, n. 10Google Scholar. The manuscript preserves only four of the motets from the Vultum tuum cycle on fols. 103v–107r, in the following order: Ora pro nobis, O intemerata virgo, O Maria nullam, Mente tota. The Milan source provides many melodic details that are distinct from Petrucci's versions, and the Milan manuscript in general presents superior readings over Petrucci's. A facsimile of the damaged manuscript has been published as Liber capelle ecdesie maioris. Quarto codice di Gafurio, ed. Migliavacca, L., AMMM, 16 (Milan, 1968)Google Scholar.

74 See Macey, P., ‘Some Thoughts on Josquin's Illibata dei virgo nutrix and Galeazzo Maria Sforza’, From Ciconia to Sweelinck: Donum natalicium Willem Elders, ed. Clement, A. and Jas, E. (Amsterdam, 1994), pp. 111–24Google Scholar.

75 Noblitt, ‘Die Datierung’ (see note 10 above).

76 Finscher, ‘Zum Verhältnis von Imitationstechnik’, (see note 10 above), pp. 66, 69–72.

77 The term itself was coined somewhat later by Zarlino, Gioseffo in his Institutioni harmoniche (Venice, 1558)Google Scholar.

78 For an argument in support of the Milanese origin of Illibata, see Brothers, T., ‘Vestiges of the Isorhythmic Tradition in Mass and Motet, ca. 1450–1475’, JAMS, 44 (1991), pp. 1–56Google Scholar. A different view regarding the motet's provenance is Sherr, R., ‘Illibata dei virgo nutrix and Josquin's Roman Style’, JAMS, 41 (1988), pp. 434–64Google Scholar.

79 Discussed by Bloxam, ‘ “La contenance italienne”’, pp. 39–89.

80 The cycle is transmitted in several sources, including MilD 3, VatS 15, and Motetti C. Petrucci's, edition is available in Motetti C, ed. Sherr, R., The Sixteenth Century Motet, 2 (New York, 1991), pp. 118–31Google Scholar. All of the motets in the cycle except the fourth were later copied into's HerAB 73; see Illustre lieve vrouwe broederschap 's-Hertogenbosch Codex 73, ed. Maas, C., Monumenta Musica Neerlandica, 8:1 (Amsterdam, 1970), pp. 101–11Google Scholar.

81 Italian Laude and Latin Unica in MS Capetown, Grey 3.b.12, ed. Cattin, G. (Stuttgart, 1977), p. xxixGoogle Scholar.

82 See Gaffurio, Franchino, Motetti, ed. Migliavacca, L., AMMM, 5 (Milan, 1959), pp. 59–63Google Scholar; for the sequence text, see Analecta hymnica, 54, no. 225, pp. 358–9Google Scholar.

83 Three further motets feature Galeazzo's verset, or at least a portion of it (all settings, of course, of the Salve regina mater miserkordiae feature a portion of the verset). The first is an anonymous Ave Maria in a Veronese manuscript, VerBC 760, noted by Ludwig Finscher, who remarked on the similarity of its style to Compère's own Ave Maria (Finscher, , Compère, pp. 164–5)Google Scholar. The motet, divided into two parts, features the text ‘mater misericordiae’ in the prima pars, while the secunda pars presents a full litany, as in Compère's setting. The second is Antoine Brumel's Beata es Maria, published by Petrucci in Motetti libra quarto, the same volume that contains Josquin's Vultum tuum cycle; the work is edited in Brumel, Antoine, Opera omnia, 5, ed. Hudson, B., Corpus Mensurabilis Musicae, 5 (A.I.M., 1972), pp. 18–21Google Scholar. In fact, after the opening verse of Beata es Maria, Brumel states the entire two stanzas of the Marian hymn (‘Maria mater gratiae’ and ‘Gloria tibi domine’) that Weerbeke had used in his cycle Ave mundi domina, discussed above. Jennifer Bloxam has drawn attention to the Italian lauda melody, Beata es Maria, which was originally quoted as a cantus firmus by Compère in his setting of Ave Maria, and which was later taken up by Obrecht and Brumel in their settings of Beata es Maria. Neither Compère nor Obrecht quotes Galeazzo's verset (‘Maria mater gratiae’) in these particular motets, however, and there is no reason to associate Brumel's setting of Beata es Maria with Milan or Galeazzo Maria Sforza. In fact, Brumel spent most of his career in France, and did not move to Italy until 1505, when he was hired by Alfonso d'Este to replace Obrecht as maestro di cappella in Ferrara; see Wright, C., ‘Antoine Brumel and Patronage at Paris’, Music in Medieval and Early Modern Europe, ed. Fenlon, , pp. 37–60Google Scholar. The musical style of Brumel's setting is quite unlike that of motets composed in Milan in the 1470s (Bloxam, ‘“La contenance italienne”’, pp. 75 and 78), and Brumel's quotation of the text and tune of Beata es Maria was probably intended for the court of Ferrara. The third work that features the text ‘Maria mater gratiae’ is an anonymous five-voice motet with that incipit in the manuscript Brussels, Bibliothéque Royale 228. The motet includes the two complete stanzas of the Marian hymn (‘Maria mater gratiae’ and ‘Gloria tibi Domine’) that appear in the settings by Weerbeke and Brumel mentioned above. For an edition and commentary, see Picker, M., The Chanson Albums of Marguerite of Austria (Berkeley, 1965), pp. 128–9, 257–64Google Scholar.

84 Lubkin, , A Renaissance Court, pp. 245–6Google Scholar, makes the following point about the motetti missales: ‘The youth and audacity of great figures [Josquin and Compère, for example] in his ducal choir, with their innovative musical forms and bright polyphony, made a good match for the prince who was their first patron. There is little doubt that these innovations took place under Galeazzo's watchful eye. Given his active interference in all areas of life and his daily attendance at Mass where these pieces were sung, it is inconceivable that he did not approve them, at the very least.’

85 David Crawford has suggested this possibility for Compère's Missa Galeazescha, because of the oblique reference in one of the final motets to Bona of Savoy, Galeazzo's widow; see Crawford's review of Noblitt, ‘The Motetti Missales’ (cited note 58 above), pp. 105–6.

86 Compère is listed in a document dated 6 February 1477 among twelve singers who were given safe passage from Milan; see Lowinsky, ‘Ascanio Sforza's Life’, p.40. Josquin became a singer in the chapel of René d'Anjou in Aix-en-Provence, where he is cited as witness to the testament of the deceased singer Jean Giraud in April 1477; see Esquieu, Y., ‘La musique à la cour provençale du roi René’, Provence Historigue, 31 (1981), p. 301Google Scholar.