The Practice of Alternatim: Organ-playing and Polyphony in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, with special reference to the choir of Notre-Dame de Paris

Mother Thomas More

doi:10.1017/S0022046900070275

The Practice of Alternatim: Organ-playing and Polyphony in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, with special reference to the choir of Notre-Dame de Paris

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 March 2011

Mother Thomas More

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Mother Thomas More: Affiliation:
Canoness Regular of St. Augustine, Lady Margaret House, Cambridge

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Every student of plainsong in the later Middle Ages and the sixteenth century is bound sooner or later to come up against problems of terminology. Some of the more puzzling ones are those connected with the practice of alternatim. It is not easy in every case to determine whether a writer is speaking of the organ or of a group of polyphonic singers when he mentions sections alternating with the plainsong.

Type: Articles
Information: The Journal of Ecclesiastical History , Volume 18 , Issue 1 , April 1967 , pp. 15 - 32

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022046900070275 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1967

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^{page 15 note 1} Paris, Bibl. Nat., Fonds Lat, MS. 978.

^{page 16 note 1} The prose is Te mundi climata. The rubric appears in several other places in the Processional, but nowhere else do the words ‘vel organa’ appear.

^{page 16 note 2} c. 1408.

^{page 17 note 1} He defines Organare as synonymous with Organizare.

^{page 17 note 2} Quoted from the edition of 1535, lib. xix, cap. 134, p. 386.

^{page 17 note 3} c. 1400. The Ordinal and Customary of the Abbey of St. Mary, York (St. John's College, Cambridge, MS. D. 27), ed. the Abbess of Stanbrook and J. B. C. Tolhurst (Henry Bradshaw Society lxxv), London 1937, ii. 187.

^{page 18 note 1} Cited by Rokseth, Yvonne, La Musique d'Orgue au Quinzième Siècle et au début du Seizième, Paris 1930, 59Google Scholar.

^{page 18 note 2} Paris, Archives Nationales, LL. 253, 13^v.

^{page 18 note 3} Ibid., 76^v.

^{page 18 note 4} Ibid., 77^v.

^{page 18 note 5} Ibid., 75^v–76.

^{page 18 note 6} Ibid., 91^v.

^{page 19 note 1} Archives Nationales, LL. 253, 114.

^{page 19 note 2} Ibid., 120^v.

^{page 19 note 3} Ibid., 43.

^{page 19 note 4} Ibid., 47–47^v.

^{page 19 note 5} Ibid., 85.

^{page 19 note 6} Ibid., 91^v.

^{page 20 note 1} Archives Nationales, LL. 253, 143.

^{page 20 note 2} Ibid., 85.

^{page 20 note 3} Ibid., 91^v.

^{page 20 note 4} Ibid., 143.

^{page 20 note 5} Ibid., 176.

^{page 20 note 6} P. Guilhiermoz (ed.), Processions faites à Paris et à St-Denis en 1509; et visite de Louis XII au Parlement: Récits extraits du Mémorial de Germain Chastelm, Gonseiller au Parlement, Paris 1888, 9.

^{page 20 note 7} Ibid., 19.

^{page 21 note 1} Collectarium ad usum canonicorum reg. S. Genouefe Parisiensis, Paris, Bibl. Ste-Geneviève MS. 120, fob. 195–195^v. The MS. dates from 1617–18. The scribe is recording the traditional points of the ceremony for future reference.

^{page 21 note 2} Credo en musique: in 1465, the Credo was among the pieces singled out, according to ancient statute, to be sung in polyphony or improvised descant on special occasions. See Archives Nationales, LL. 253, 71^v. In vernacular texts of the sixteenth-century, polyphony is referred to as ‘choses faictes’ or ‘musique faite’ or simply as ‘musique’.

^{page 21 note 3} ‘Le Patrem’, from the first word sung at the entry of the choir, is a usual term for the Creed. The Celebrant sang the words of the intonation ‘Credo in unum Deum’, to the plainsong note in his Missal. The choir replied in polyphony with the phrase ‘Patrem omnipotentem factorem caeli et terrae’.

^{page 22 note 1} Paris, Archives Nationales, LL. 253, 171^v.

^{page 22 note 2} Ibid., 66.

^{page 22 note 3} Ibid., 87.

^{page 22 note 4} Ibid., 172.

^{page 23 note 1} Paris, Archives Nationales, LL. 297, 59.

^{page 23 note 2} Cap. Reg., ix. 229.

^{page 23 note 3} Archives Nationales, LL. 297, 97.

^{page 23 note 4} Ibid., 104.

^{page 23 note 5} Ibid., 104^v.

^{page 23 note 6} ‘London Churches, their Music and Musicians, 1485–1560’: unpublished thesis, 2 vols., Cambridge 1957, i. iii.

^{page 24 note 1} The Medieval Records of a London City Church (St. Mary At Hill) 1420–1359, ed. Henry Littlehales, EETS 1905, 226.

^{page 24 note 2} Op. cit., 157. The 1386 book said when the organist had to play, how he was to answer the choir, how long his preludes were to be, etc.

^{page 24 note 3} Archives Nationales, LL. 297, 61.

^{page 24 note 4} Ibid., LL. 301, 182^v.

^{page 24 note 5} This interpretation is supported by the quotation from Du Cange quoted above. See above, 17. Payment is to be made to four clerks for singing polyphony during an Alleluia.

^{page 24 note 6} St. John's Coll. Camb., MS. D.27, fol. 141.

^{page 25 note 1} St. John's Coll. Camb., MS. D.27, fol. 142.

^{page 25 note 2} See the abbess of Stanbrook's transcription, op. cit., 191.

^{page 25 note 3} Ibid., 179.

^{page 26 note 1} Archives Nationales LL. 253, 67^v.

^{page 26 note 2} Ibid., 70^v.

^{page 26 note 3} Ibid., 72.

^{page 26 note 4} Ibid., 73^v.

^{page 26 note 5} Ibid., 75.

^{page 26 note 6} Ibid., 68.

^{page 26 note 7} Ibid., 67^v.

^{page 27 note 1} Archives Nationales LL. 253, 68^v.

^{page 27 note 2} Ibid., LL. 301, 281^v–282.

^{page 27 note 3} ‘… facta querimonia … et inter alia quod Mr. Jo. Regnault alter subdiaconorum Beneficiatus chori et organista Ecclesiae propter occupationem quamhabet circa organa in festis solemnibus et similibus quibus maxime opus est ut Beneficiati Cantores intersint servitio in choro, non valet servitio hujusmodi interesse; et cum ipse Regnault sit musicus et de sufficientioribus Cantoribus chori pro serviendo tam in suo officio subdiaconi vicibus suis quam pro cantando de musica pro dictis diebus solemnibus; ordinatum est quod absolvatur ab officio organistae, et quod ideo fiat diligentia de reperiendo aliquem alium qui facit officium Organistae ut ipse Regnault liberius possit interesse servitio chori cum aliis cantare de musicalibus et facere officium sui Beneficiati Subdiaconis’: ibid., 155.

^{page 28 note 1} Stat. Eccl. Paris, ann. 1408, ad calcem Necrol. MS. ejusd. Eccl.: Nee debet in cantu notulato regulariter immisceri pueris exceptis, propter exercitationem suam.

^{page 28 note 2} Quoted by Du Cange under Discantus. ‘Annal. regni S. Ludov. edit. reg. pag. 223’.

^{page 28 note 3} See above, 18, 19 (twice), 20 (their absence noted).

^{page 28 note 4} ‘Ordinatum est quod statuta antiqua serventur quoadmodum cantandi in choro res factas seu discantes videlicet In terra, Patrem (scil. Gloria in excel, et Credo) Sanctus etc. et quod deinceps illi de choro non habeant ista hujusmodi cantare, nisi de licentia Dnorum de Capitulo seu Dnorum Cantoris vel Succentoris’: Archives Nationales, LL. 253, 71^v.

^{page 28 note 5} Archives Nationales, LL. 301, 144, 153, 217^v.

^{page 28 note 6} Rites of Durham—written 1593—‘being A Description or Brief Declaration of all the Ancient Monuments, Rites & Customs belonging or being within the Monastical Church of Durham before the Suppression’ (Surtees Society, cvii, 1903), xxii, 43–4. John Brimley was Master of the Choristers and Organist from 1557–76; so the author may be speaking of the Marian revival.

^{page 28 note 7} Heath's Injunctions for Rochester Cathedral (2nd Set), 1543; see Frere, W. H., Visitation Articles and Injunctions of the Period of the Reformation, London 1910, ii. 96Google Scholar.

^{page 29 note 1} Le Ceremonial françois… Recueilly par Theodore Godefroy… et mis en lumière Denys Godefroy … Paris 1649, i. 204.

^{page 29 note 2} See Rokseth, op. cit., 89.

^{page 29 note 3} The Squyr of Lowe Degre, 1450, ed. Mead, W. E., Boston 1904, 35–6Google Scholar, lines 781–2, 789–92.

^{page 29 note 4} Archives Nationales, Series LL., passim.

^{page 29 note 5} Paris, Bibl. Nat., Fonds Latin, MSS. 14455 and 14456, of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries respectively.

^{page 29 note 6} Paris, Bibl. de l'Arsenal MS. 158, fol. lxxvi^v.

^{page 29 note 7} Processionale insignis ac metropolitanae ecclesiae parisiensis W.DD. Decani et Capituli ejusdem Ecclesiae auctoritate editum … Parisiis Ex typographia Lvdovici Sevestre Viê Mori propè Ecclesiam Sancti Nicolai M.D.XL.VII. 2 vols. Professor Ratcliff kindly first drew my attention to this book.

^{page 30 note 1} Such references are also to be found in the Arsenal MS. 158. The fifteenthcentury Paris Ordinal itself contains references to the ‘book of processions“.

^{page 31 note 1} The phrase ‘musicè, id est in falso burdone’ occurs (Processionale, 154).

^{page 31 note 2} Phrases such as ‘Conclusum est quod pro nunc nihil immutabitur de Servitio’ (1492) or ‘Ordinatum est nihil innovari aut mutari de antiquis ceremoniis Ecclesiae’ (1563) are frequent.

^{page 31 note 3} In the series LL. 301 of the Archives Nationales.

^{page 31 note 4} The St. Victor Ordinals of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. See above, 29, n. 5.

^{page 31 note 5} Bibl. de l'Arsenal, MS. 158, fol. lxxvi^v.

^{page 31 note 6} Paris Processionale of 1647, 231 ff.

^{page 31 note 7} See the thesis of Madame Anne-Marie Yvon-Briand, ‘La Vie Musicale à Notre-Dame de Paris aux xviie et xviie Siècles’, Unpubl. thesis for the Diplôme d'Archiviste Paléographe, Paris, École des Chartes, 1949. It contains, besides a useful bibliography, a fascinating account of the life of the members of the choir of Notre-Dame in the period subsequent to that studied in this article.

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The Practice of Alternatim: Organ-playing and Polyphony in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, with special reference to the choir of Notre-Dame de Paris

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