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A fragment of medieval polyphony in the Archivo Histórico Provincial of Zamora

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 September 2008

Kathleen E. Nelson
Kathleen E. Nelson
Affiliation:
University of Queensland
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Extract

The source to be discussed here is one of a collection of about 288 fragments of liturgical manuscripts. These form the section entitled Pergaminos musicales in the Archivo Histórico Provincial of Zamora in western Spain. Most of the fragments contain notated chant while a few give texts without music. Whilst studying the collection I found that one, Pergamino musical 184, contains polyphony. The significance of this new source probably lies principally in its relationship to the great polyphonic manuscript of Las Huelgas (Burgos, Monasterio de Las Huelgas) from late thirteenth- or early fourteenth-century Spain. Pergamino musical 184 (hereafter referred to as Z 184) probably dates from between the middle of the thirteenth century and the beginning of the fourteenth century, and therefore may pre-date Las Huelgas. The collection of Pergaminos musicales including Z 184 was recently taken from the binding of books of legal documents (protocolos) dating from the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Many more fragments of liturgical manuscripts are to be found still in the binding of books in the archive but an extensive search of these has yielded no further examples of polyphony

Type
Articles
Information
Plainsong & Medieval Music , Volume 2 , Issue 2 , October 1993 , pp. 141 - 151
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1993

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References

1 More details of the collection will be found in my doctoral dissertation, “Medieval Liturgical Music of Zamora” (University of Adelaide, Australia).

2 I am grateful for the advice given to me by Florián Ferrero Ferrero, archivist of the A.H.P.Za., on the dating of the fragment and on other issues related to this study.

3 Lera Maillo, José Carlos de, “La documentatión medieval del Archivo Catedral de Zamora: fuentes para la historia de Zamora”, Actas Fuentes y Métodos de la Historia Local Zamora 25, 26 y 27 Octubre 1990 (1991), p. 199.Google Scholar

4 Information on these sources may be found in Cuesta, Ismael Fernandez de la, Manuscritos y fuentes musicales en Espana. Edad media (Madrid, 1980), pp. 77, 96 and 143.Google Scholar Barcelona Orfeó 1 is included in Reaney, Gilbert (ed.), Manuscripts of Polyphonic Music: 11th – Early 14th Century, RISM BIV (Mumch–Duisburg 1966), pp. 207–9.Google Scholar For Montserrat Ms 820 see Olivar, Alexandre, Els manuscrits litúrgics de la Biblioteca de Montserrat, Scripta et Documenta 18 (Montserrat, 1969), pp. 89–90.Google Scholar

5 The melody is given in Schlager, Karlheinz, Monumenta Monodica Medii Aevi Band VIII. Alleluia-Melodien II ab 1100 (Kassel, 1987), pp. 409, 755.Google Scholar

6 Anderson, Gordon A., The Las Huelgas Manuscript 2 Corpus Mensurabilis Musicae 79/1 (Neuhausen-Stuttgart, 1982), p. xxx;Google Scholar Anglès, Higini, El còdex musical de Las Huelgas 2 (Barcelona, 1931), p. xxiv.Google Scholar

7 Facsimile in Anglès, Huelgas, vol. 2, fols. 6v–7r.

8 The trope forms the subject of a monograph by Schmid, Bernhold, Der Gloria-Tropus Spiritus et alme bis zur Mitte des 15. Jahrhunderts, Münchener Veröffentlichungen zur Musikgeschichte 46 (Tutzing, 1988).Google Scholar

9 Ibid., pp. 13–14, 29.

10 Ibid., p. 15.

11 Transcription: Lütolf, Max, Die mehrstimmigen Ordinanum Missae-Sätze vom ausgehenden 11. bis zur Wende des 13. zum 14. Jahrhundert 2 (Berne, 1970), p. 77.Google Scholar

12 Facsimiles: Anglès, , Huelgas, vol. 1, p. 89;Google Scholar Lütolf, , Die mehrstimmigen, vol. 1, Tafel IV.Google Scholar Transcriptions: Lütolf, , Die mehrstimmigen, vol. 2, pp. 69–70;Google Scholar Martínez, Andrés Araiz, Historia de la müsica religiosa en España (Barcelona, 1942), pp. 46–8.Google Scholar

13 Facsimile: Anglès, , Huelgas, vol. 2, fols. 4r–5v,Google Scholar Transcriptions: Anglès, , Huelgas, vol. 3., pp. 11–12;Google Scholar Anderson, , Huelgas, vol. 1, pp. 10–11;Google Scholar Lütolf, , Die mehrstimmigen, vol. 2, pp. 85–6.Google Scholar

14 Schmid, , Der Glona-Tropus, p. 29Google Scholar

15 Facsimile: Anglès, , Huelgas, vol. 2, fols 5v–6r.Google Scholar Transcriptions: Anglès, , Huelgas, vol. 3, pp. 13–14;Google Scholar Anderson, , Huelgas, vol. 1, pp. 47–8.Google Scholar

16 Facsimile: Anglès, , Huelgas, vol. 2, fols. 109v–10r.Google Scholar Transcriptions: Anglès, , Huelgas, vol. 3, pp. 211–12;Google Scholar Anderson, , Huelgas, vol. 2, p. 59.Google Scholar

17 These settings are listed in Anderson, , Huelgas, vol. 1, p. xxx.Google Scholar

18 Anderson, , Huelgas, vol. 1, p. 48, and vol. 2, p. 59.Google Scholar Unlike Anderson, I have given the first cantus note of Virgo virginum in Example 1 as d' as in the facsimile. (Anderson noted the change in his commentary, Huelgas, vol. 2, p. xxxviii.)

19 The spelling “ya” of the final syllable is that of Hu.

20 Facsimile: Anglès, , Huelgas, vol. 2, f. 7r.Google Scholar Transcriptions: Anglès, , Huelgas, vol. 3, p. 16;Google Scholar Anderson, , Huelgas, vol. 1, p. 52.Google Scholar The unique monophonic and polyphonic concordances have been mentioned above.

21 Anderson, Gordon A. commented on the difficulty of resolving such ambiguous ligatures and gave the guidelines followed for handling them in his Las Huelgas edition in ‘The Notation of the Bamberg and Las Huelgas Manuscripts’, MÜSica Disciplina, 32 (1978), p. 61.Google Scholar

22 Details are given in: Nelson, Kathleen E., “Unknown Polyphony in a Fourteenth Century Spanish Misal votivo”, Miscellanea Musicologica. Adelaide Studies in Muswology, 17 (1990), pp. 1–12.Google Scholar

23 For a study of this documentation see Maillo, Lera, La documentation medieval (see n. 3), pp. 199–209.Google Scholar An inventory of the belongings of the chapter of Zamora from the end of the thirteenth century includes liturgical books for Office and Mass. It is impossible to identify the fragment with any of those. On the inventory see Guadalupe, Ma. Luisa, “El tesoro del Cabildo Zamorano: aproximación a una biblioteca del siglo XIII”, Studia Historica, 1/2 (1983), pp. 167–80.Google Scholar

24 Prieto, E. Fz., “Zamora”, Diccionario de Histona Eclesiastica de España, vol. 4 (Madrid, 1975), pp. 2795–6.Google Scholar