Non-mensural polyphony by the Monk
Of the eight polyphonic songs in the surviving œuvre attributed to the Monk of Salzburg, the following list excludes only W 31 (Jv, ich iag nacht vnd tag), a contrafact canon on a French chace (Umblemens vos pri merchi) which is reminiscent of Oswald’s contrafact process, and the canon W 55* (Ain radel: Martein, lieber here). The following categorisation (see Table II) includes valuable observations shared by Christoph März in his edition and commentary of the Monk’s secular songs.[22] Nearly all the songs (W 1-W 5) stand together as a block in the main manuscript and in the order of their editorial numbers. While most of the sacred songs in that manuscript have titles, these five and the immediately following three monophonic songs G 42[23], W 7[24] and W 8[25] are (almost) the only secular songs with titles and substantial rubrics. The latter include the rubric ‘tenor’, which despite their monophonic notation associates them with polyphony.[26] One could argue that they belong to the set of polyphonic pieces but that their second voices did not need to be notated, whereas most of those pieces with two notated voices require polyphony to some degree: either for textual reasons in the motet-like songs or for the sound effect in the horn-like songs.[27] (See Table II.)
W 1 Das nachthorn: Zart libste frau in liber acht
- D, fols 185v–186r,[28] 2vv: mensural with mensural sign (imperfectum minor) and implied structural use; D-mode (C2 clef)
- D, fols 245v–246r, 1v: semi-mensural with stroke notation and reference rhythm; G-mode (with one b-flat)
- K, fol. 658r–v, 1v: chant notation; F-mode
W 2 Das taghorn: Gar leis in senfter weis wach, libste fra
- D, fols. 186v–187r),[29][RS6] [ML7] 2vv: mensural with mensural sign (imperfectum major); C-mode (C1-clef)
- He, fol. 316r (text); fols. 315r–316r (melody), 1v: stroke notation; C-mode
- K, fols 657v–658r, 1v: chant notation; F-mode
- St, fol. 7v (text); fol. 43v (beginning of the melody to the text of W 5), 1v: stroke notation; D-mode
- Wn, fols 64v–65r, 2vv: mensural; melody serves as tenor line of a new motet, Veni rerum conditor; C-mode (notated a third too high)[30]
W 3 Das kchühorn: Untarnslaf tut den sumer wol, ‘organal’ (unisono)
- D, fol. 187r–v,[31] 2vv?: mensural with triple-metre reference rhythm; C-mode
- D, fols 198v–199v, 1v?: mensural with duple-metre reference rhythm; C-mode
W 4 Ain enpfahen: Wolkum, mein libstes ain
- D, fols 187v–188r, 2vv: mensural notation, occasional reference rhythm; D-mode
- Sb, fols 49v–50r, 2vv: notation lost except for incipit with mensural notation and reference rhythm; D-mode
W 5 Dy trumpet: Hör, libste frau, mich deinen knecht
- D, fols. 188v–189r,[32] 2vv: mensural with occasional reference rhythm; D-mode
- Sb, fol. 26v, fols 34v–35v), 1v?: notation lost except for discantus incipit with mensural notation and occasional reference rhythm; D-mode
- St, fols. 43v–44r (beginning of the melody of W 2), 1v: chant notation with indication of stroke notation; D-mode
W 54* Von sand Marteins frewden: Wolauf, lieben gesellen vnuerczeit
- E, fols 168r–170v, 2vv: semi-mensural and stroke notation; E-mode
- Wi, fols 1v–2v, 2vv: mensural with occasional reference rhythm; E-mode
- A, fols 180r–182r, 2vv: semi-mensural; E-mode
- A, fol. 183r, 2vv: semi-mensural; E-mode
- Sb, fols 112v–113r, 2vv: notation lost except for tenor incipit with mensural notation; E-mode
- Se, fol. 2r, 2vv (only tenor incipit notated): semi-mensural; mode unclear (no clef).
Table II: Polyphonic songs by the Monk of Salzburg: an annotated list.
Key to manuscript sources
This shortlist of non-mensural polyphony by the Monk of Salzburg can be further organised according to different characteristics, allowing some of the songs to tick several boxes. A first subdivision includes those which in their titles as well as their melodic construction evoke melodies or signals of wind instruments: W 1, W 2, W 3 and W 5. The melodies are made up of intervals that can be associated with the scale of natural overtones. As März has pointed out, the melodies are meant to be a vocal imitation of the sound of a horn or a trumpet and were not written for such an instrument, as they include notes that cannot be played by using harmonic partials only. That three of the rubrics actually suggest a performance on wind instruments (‘gut zu blasen’) could be an extended reference or a misunderstanding by a later scribe, who based the assessment on the titles of the melodies.[33]
[22] März 1999. See also » B. The secular songs of the Monk of Salzburg (David Murray). The secular songs (‘W’ for weltlich), are edited in März 1999, the sacred songs (‘G‘ for geistlich), in Waechter-Spechtler 2004.
[23] Rubric: “Der tenor ist der tischsegen” (This tenor is [called] the benediction).
[24] Rubric: “Der tenor haizt der freüdensal nach ainem Lusthaws pey Salzburg […]” (This tenor is called the house of pleasure after a hunting lodge near Salzburg […]).
[25] Rubric: see n. 13 above.
[26] For a more formal definition of monophonic ‘tenores’, see März 1999, pp. 11–2, 14–19, 31–3 and 36–40. An extended interpretation of the use and function of such ‘tenores’ by Reinhard Strohm and myself is given in Lewon 2018, pp. 225–226.
[27] In fact, Lorenz Welker argued that the motet-like song W54* is an example of extemporised counterpoint, which needed to be written because it carries a text. In other circumstances the discantus would not have been notated, but extemporised: see Welker 1984/1985, p. 55.
[28] Melody rubric: “Das nachthorn, vnd ist gut zu blasen” (The night horn, and it is suitable for wind instruments); second voice rubric: “Das ist der pumhart dar zu” (This is the accompanying bombarde).
[29] Melody rubric: “Das taghorn, auch gut zu blasen, vnd ist sein pumhart dy erst note vnd yr ünder octaua slecht hin.” (The day horn, also suitable for wind instruments, and its bombarde is simply the first note down an octave).
[30] See Welker 1984/1985.
[31] Rubric: “Das kchühorn […]” (The cow horn […]).
[32] Melody rubric: “Das haizt dy trumpet vnd ist auch gut zu blasen. Das swarcz is er, das rot ist sy” (This is called the trumpet and it is also suitable for wind instruments. The black [notation and text] is him, the red [notation and text] is her). Second voice rubric: ‘Das ist der wachter dar zu’ (This is the watchman for this).
[33] See März 1999, p. 368.
[1] On these sacred repertories, see » A. Klösterliche Mehrstimmigkeit: Grundlagen (Alexander Rausch), and » A. Klösterliche Mehrstimmigkeit: Arten und Kontexte (Reinhard Strohm).
[2] Pelnar 1978, and substantiated in Pelnar 1982, Textband.
[4] „WolkA“: A-Wn Cod. 2777 (?Vienna, c. 1425): „WolkB“: A-Iu o. Sign.
[5] See Lewon 2017, pp. 134–137.
[6] This assessment supports Pelnar’s statement (Pelnar 1982, Textband, p. 21) against a development from a more ‘primitive’ to a more ‘sophisticated’ counterpoint within Oswald’s œuvre: ‘Auf keinen Fall dürfen die Gruppen [‘bodenständig’ und ‘westlich’] chronologisch als Entwicklungsphasen aufgefaßt werden, wie es etwa Salmen bei seiner Datierung der Lieder macht’ (Under no circumstances should the categories [‘native’ and ‘Western’] be understood as chronological phases of a development, as Salmen did in his dating of the songs).
[7] Pelnar 1978, p. 275f.
[8] For a more comprehensive summary of the concept of ‘reference rhythm’, see Lewon 2012, 169–173.
[9] ‘Strichnotation’: see » K. A-Wn Cod. 5094: Souvenirs and Glossary.
[10] The main manuscript for the songs of the Monk of Salzburg, the Mondsee-Wiener Liederhandschrift (A-Wn Cod. 2856), is one of the first musical manuscripts that makes a clear division between secular and sacred songs with the rubrics “werltlich” and “geistlich”; see März 1999, pp. 367–368.
[11] ‘Kl’ numbers refer to the numeration in the standard text edition, Klein 2015 (and earlier).
[12] ‘W’ (‘weltlich’) numbers refer to the numeration in März 1999.
[13] The rubric to W 8 (Ich klag dir, traut gesell) by the Monk confirms this practice ex negativo: “Ain tenor von hübscher melodey als sy ez gern gemacht haben darauf nicht yeglicher kund übersingen” (A tenor with a pretty melody, the way they liked to make them. Not everyone was capable of singing an upper voice to this). See also » B. Kap. Ich klag dir traut gesell (David Murray).
[14] Lewon 2011; see the table on pp. 189-191. Not all of the remaining songs listed there are proven contrafacta, but their notation and counterpoint strongly suggest a model from contemporary polyphonic exemplars. There is one more piece that could be added to the list of twelve below: Kl 21 (Ir alten weib), a monophonic song that appears to be a cognate to the Neidhart song Der sawer kübell - Niemand sol sein trauren tragen lange (see Mark Lewon, ‘Oswald quoting Neidhart: Ir alten weib (Kl 21) & Der sawer kübell (wl)’ (2014), accessible online at: https://mlewon.wordpress.com/2014/06/30/oswald-quoting-neidhart/). Michael Shields (2011) has suggested that the third section of this Oswald song could contain a piece of hidden polyphony in the form of a fuga. Should this prove true, then Kl 21 could be another case of non-mensural polyphony, employing reference rhythm. Since the claim is hard to substantiate and canons are excluded from the list – most of them being contrafacta – I will, for the time being, leave this song aside.
[15] In WolkA, only Kl 79 was notated separately a few pages later, probably because it was added with a second layer of repertory. For the scribal layers of the manuscript, see Delbono 1977. In WolkB, song Kl 37/38 was separated from the block and notated in a monophonic version in the first half of the manuscript, while the other four were grouped together.
[16] A-Iu o. Sign. (?Basel, c. 1432).
[17] See chapter 5.3 ‘Oswald quoting Oswald: Crossing the Border to Polyphony’, in Lewon 2018, pp. 260–268.
[18] For an in-depth analysis of the modal shifts of Kl 101 in the different sources, see chapter 5.1 ‘“Wach auff, mein hort”: A Melody of Modal Ambiguity’, in Lewon 2018, pp. 241–53.
[19] A recording of this edition, though experimentally transposed to a D-mode, can be found on the album The Cosmopolitan – Songs by Oswald von Wolkenstein. Ensemble Leones (Christophorus, 2014), track 9. Other examples for a new edition of Oswald’s non-mensural polyphony can be found in Lewon 2016a, ‘Ach senliches leiden (Kl 51)’, pp. 35–37, and ‘Des himels trone (Kl 37)’, pp. 38–43.
[20] For a first proposal of this interpretation, see Lewon 2011, pp. 168–191 at pp. 182–184.
[21] In » Notenbsp. Wol auff, wol an, most melismas are in parallel fifths; the cadential melisma over the word ‘springen’ and a section of the final melisma of the clos, however, run in parallel sixths.
[22] März 1999. See also » B. The secular songs of the Monk of Salzburg (David Murray). The secular songs (‘W’ for weltlich), are edited in März 1999, the sacred songs (‘G‘ for geistlich), in Waechter-Spechtler 2004.
[23] Rubric: “Der tenor ist der tischsegen” (This tenor is [called] the benediction).
[24] Rubric: “Der tenor haizt der freüdensal nach ainem Lusthaws pey Salzburg […]” (This tenor is called the house of pleasure after a hunting lodge near Salzburg […]).
[25] Rubric: see n. 13 above.
[26] For a more formal definition of monophonic ‘tenores’, see März 1999, pp. 11–2, 14–19, 31–3 and 36–40. An extended interpretation of the use and function of such ‘tenores’ by Reinhard Strohm and myself is given in Lewon 2018, pp. 225–226.
[27] In fact, Lorenz Welker argued that the motet-like song W54* is an example of extemporised counterpoint, which needed to be written because it carries a text. In other circumstances the discantus would not have been notated, but extemporised: see Welker 1984/1985, p. 55.
[28] Melody rubric: “Das nachthorn, vnd ist gut zu blasen” (The night horn, and it is suitable for wind instruments); second voice rubric: “Das ist der pumhart dar zu” (This is the accompanying bombarde).
[29] Melody rubric: “Das taghorn, auch gut zu blasen, vnd ist sein pumhart dy erst note vnd yr ünder octaua slecht hin.” (The day horn, also suitable for wind instruments, and its bombarde is simply the first note down an octave).
[30] See Welker 1984/1985.
[31] Rubric: “Das kchühorn […]” (The cow horn […]).
[32] Melody rubric: “Das haizt dy trumpet vnd ist auch gut zu blasen. Das swarcz is er, das rot ist sy” (This is called the trumpet and it is also suitable for wind instruments. The black [notation and text] is him, the red [notation and text] is her). Second voice rubric: ‘Das ist der wachter dar zu’ (This is the watchman for this).
[33] See März 1999, p. 368.
[34] On the musical types trumpetum and tuba (‘trompetta music’), see Strohm 1993, pp. 108-111 and passim.
[35] See » E. Kap. Hornwerke, where it is now suggested that a Hornwerk may have existed in the 15th century on the tower of the Salzburg parish church or of the town hall.
[36] März 1999, pp. 12 and 368.
[37] Both of them feature a dialogue of two lovers in their main melody, accompanied by a running commentary in the second voice.
[38] März 1999, p. 375.
[39] A recording is » Hörbsp. Untarnslaf - Das kchúhorn (Ensemble Leones), https://musical-life.net/audio/untarnslaf-das-kchuhorn (2015), where I refer to this song as a ‘pseudo-’ or ‘peasant-motet’.
[40] A stylised semiminima is used as the custos throughout the section with polyphonic songs and monophonic ‘tenores’.
[41] See Welker 1984/1985.