A music collection spanning half a century
The ‘Leopold’ codex (Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Mus. ms. 3154) offers a fascinating insight into some of the polyphonic music that was performed for civic and princely patrons in Austria, Germany and northern Italy in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. As is typical for this time and region, much of the repertory was not of local origin, but had been composed by musicians from the Low Countries.
Although the codex is modest in format (it is a small folio manuscript measuring about 315 x 220 mm), its volume is considerable: on 472 paper folios it contains 174 musical compositions, counting cyclic Masses as single items and including both versions of four works that were each copied twice. It is clear that a substantial amount of further material has been lost.[1] All this music was written out by more than 40 different scribes between about 1466 and 1511,[2] and it is probable that most of it was copied in Innsbruck itself, with possible insertions coming from other centres in the Holy Roman Empire.
The manuscript consists of two independent sections, whose folios were originally numbered separately as fols [1]-200 and 1-297 respectively; this numbering system is datable to the period around 1500.[3] The first 19 folios were lost before a single continuous foliation of 1-178 and 179-471 was entered in the nineteenth century. The first section (fols 1–178, using this more recent continuous foliation) is mostly the work of a single scribe, with a few additions by others. Frequently, compositions are copied across the divide between gatherings. The second section (fols 179–471), however, is made up of individual gatherings, or units of 2-3 gatherings, that were evidently brought together from a variety of sources before being combined with the first section as a single book. These units in the second section each contain either a single large-scale work or a series of related works copied usually by a single scribe, often followed by one or more shorter pieces not always copied by the same scribe. Many of the individual gatherings or units seem to have been used separately before being bound together.
The codex was acquired in 1874 by the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Munich, through its librarian, Julius Joseph Maier, who created the first continuous foliation and numeration of the contents. Scholarly studies of the manuscript, beginning in the 1920s with explorations and editions of individual works, culminate in the complete four-volume edition of the music (with certain works presented only in facsimile) by Thomas L. Noblitt,[4] who also contributed several research essays on the repertory.[5] The codex has been used for the modern critical editions of its major composers - Obrecht, Isaac, Josquin, Compère and others - and its music has been widely recorded.[6] Recordings made for Musikleben are: »Hörbsp. ♫ Anima mea, ♫ Argentum et aurum, ♫ Ave mundi spes Maria, ♫ Es sassen höld, ♫ Gespile, liebe Gespile gút, ♫ Ich sach einsmals, ♫ Kyrie Pascale Les haulz et es bas, ♫ Kyrie Pascale Stimmwerck, ♫ O propugnator, ♫ Salve regina Ar. fer. 1, ♫ Salve regina Ar. fer 2, ♫ Salve regina Ar. fer 3, ♫ Salve regina Ar. fer 4, ♫ Salve regina Ar. fer 5, ♫ Salve regina Ar. fer. 6, ♫ So steh ich hie, ♫ Tannhauser.
[1] Colour images of the manuscript are available at https://daten.digitale-sammlungen.de/~db/0005/bsb00059604/images/.
[2] Some 34 hands can be distinguished in the second section of the manuscript alone; one of these (hand ‘Y’, fols 370r– 379v) also occurs in the manuscript D-B Mus. Ms. 40021 (fols 253r–254v).
[3] Noblitt 1987-96, I, viii; synopsis of foliations in IV, 313-14.
[5] Noblitt 1968, 1974, 1987, 1997 (etc.). For other recent research, see Strohm 1993, 516-23; Rifkin 2003, Rumbold 2018.
[6] See, for example, Josquin Desprez, Missa Fortuna desperata (fols 172r-178r), recorded in 2001 by the Clerks’ Group, dir. Edward Wickham (ASV label, catalogue no. GAU 220); in 2009 by the Tallis Scholars, dir. Peter Phillips (Gimell label, catalogue no. 42); and in 2018 by Biscantor! Métamorphoses (Ar-Re-Se label, catalogue no. AR 20181). The second Agnus Dei of Isaac’s Missa Wol auff gesell/Comment peult avoir joye (fols 179r-196r and 456v-463v) was recorded by Capella Alamire and the Alamire Consort, dir. Peter Urqhuart, CD Music of Pierrequin de Thérache (Centaur label, catalogue no. CRC3282), track 10. Kyrie of the anonymous Missa O Österreich (fols 205v-213r): Ensemble Rosarum Flores, CD Global Player Maximilian: Musikalisches Networking um 1500 (Musikmuseum label, catalogue no. 13042), track 1. Obrecht’s Missa Si dedero (fols 449v-456r): ANS Chorus, dir. János Bali (Hungaroton label, catalogue no. HCD 31946). The anonymous motets Ave mundi spes/Gottes namen (fols 29v-30r) and O propugnator miserorum (fols 148v-150r): Stimmwerck, SACD Flos virginum: Motets of the 15th Century (CPO label, catalogue no. 7779372), tracks 8 and 6, respectively. Isaac’s motet Argentum et aurum (fols 72v-73r) and the German songs So stee ich hie auff diser erd, Ich sachs ains mals, Gespile, liebe gespile gut, Es sassen höld in ainer stuben (fols 51v-53r): Ensemble Leones, CD Argentum et aurum: Musical Treasures from the Early Habsburg Renaissance (Naxos label, catalogue no. 8.573346), tracks 1, 16, 22, 20 and 21, respectively.
[1] Colour images of the manuscript are available at https://daten.digitale-sammlungen.de/~db/0005/bsb00059604/images/.
[2] Some 34 hands can be distinguished in the second section of the manuscript alone; one of these (hand ‘Y’, fols 370r– 379v) also occurs in the manuscript D-B Mus. Ms. 40021 (fols 253r–254v).
[3] Noblitt 1987-96, I, viii; synopsis of foliations in IV, 313-14.
[5] Noblitt 1968, 1974, 1987, 1997 (etc.). For other recent research, see Strohm 1993, 516-23; Rifkin 2003, Rumbold 2018.
[6] See, for example, Josquin Desprez, Missa Fortuna desperata (fols 172r-178r), recorded in 2001 by the Clerks’ Group, dir. Edward Wickham (ASV label, catalogue no. GAU 220); in 2009 by the Tallis Scholars, dir. Peter Phillips (Gimell label, catalogue no. 42); and in 2018 by Biscantor! Métamorphoses (Ar-Re-Se label, catalogue no. AR 20181). The second Agnus Dei of Isaac’s Missa Wol auff gesell/Comment peult avoir joye (fols 179r-196r and 456v-463v) was recorded by Capella Alamire and the Alamire Consort, dir. Peter Urqhuart, CD Music of Pierrequin de Thérache (Centaur label, catalogue no. CRC3282), track 10. Kyrie of the anonymous Missa O Österreich (fols 205v-213r): Ensemble Rosarum Flores, CD Global Player Maximilian: Musikalisches Networking um 1500 (Musikmuseum label, catalogue no. 13042), track 1. Obrecht’s Missa Si dedero (fols 449v-456r): ANS Chorus, dir. János Bali (Hungaroton label, catalogue no. HCD 31946). The anonymous motets Ave mundi spes/Gottes namen (fols 29v-30r) and O propugnator miserorum (fols 148v-150r): Stimmwerck, SACD Flos virginum: Motets of the 15th Century (CPO label, catalogue no. 7779372), tracks 8 and 6, respectively. Isaac’s motet Argentum et aurum (fols 72v-73r) and the German songs So stee ich hie auff diser erd, Ich sachs ains mals, Gespile, liebe gespile gut, Es sassen höld in ainer stuben (fols 51v-53r): Ensemble Leones, CD Argentum et aurum: Musical Treasures from the Early Habsburg Renaissance (Naxos label, catalogue no. 8.573346), tracks 1, 16, 22, 20 and 21, respectively.
[7] It is not to be confused with the Hofkirche, adjacent to the Hofburg, which was completed in 1553 and contains Maximilian’s cenotaph.
[8] » I. Music and ceremony in Maximilian’s Innsbruck (Helen Coffey).
[9] Fässler 1975.
[10] Fässler 1975, 32, from Tiroler Landesarchiv (TLA) Innsbruck, Raitbücher der tirolischen Kammer, 1511, vol 56, fol 77v, vol 56, fol 290v.
[12] The city archives of Innsbruck (Stadtarchiv, Register, p. 43), mention a ‘Veit schulmaister’ in 1498.
[16] Dèzes 1927; see also Noblitt 1987-96, IV, 369.
[17] The work is later anonymously transmitted in Librone 1 of the Gaffurius-Codices of Milan (I-MD 2269). Rifkin 2003, 255, thinks that it might be by Antoine Busnoys.
[18] Rumbold 2018, 319-22 describes the copy of the Sanctus and Agnus Dei in detail, with facsimile.
[19] For the distribution of the music in the manuscript see Rumbold 2018, with a full inventory.
[20] For details, see Rumbold 2018.
[21] No. 55, for example, is a textless piece written on the two inner sides of a bifolio (fol. 75/84), which was then wrapped round an existing gathering (8), so that the two sides could no longer be read simultaneously. See Noblitt 1987-96, IV, 344, where the last sentence must read ‘so daß eine Aufführung aus dem Ms. unwahrscheinlich ist’.
[23] Noblitt 1968, Rifkin 2003. The actual ‘motetti missales’ of Milan (1470s and later) are not copied here.
[24] » Hörbsp. ♫ for all five songs.
[25] ‘Tannhauser, ihr seid mir lieb’ (Venus addressing Tannhäuser) is a stanza of the ‘Tannhäuserlied’ (Nun will ich aber heben an), printed in Nuremberg, 1515; the Leopold codex is its earliest known source.
[26] See » A. Kap. Der Prozessionshymnus (Stefan Engels): » J. Kap. Passions- und Osterfeierlichkeiten (Andrea Horz); » Notenbsp. O du armer Judas.
[27] On this work, see Staehelin 1977, 148-50, 205.
[28] Noblitt 1992 calls this a Missa in tempore belli; see also » D. SL O Österreich. Page layout of the Agnus Dei described in Rumbold 2018, 322-23.
[29] Steinegger 1954. Further on traditions of the church, see » D. Hofmusik. Innsbruck.
[30] Page layout described in Rumbold 2018, 329-34.
[32] » D. Hofmusik. Innsbruck; » I. Instrumentalkünstler (Martin Kirnbauer).
[34] See Noblitt 1974 (with table of watermarks, p. 39); Noblitt 1987-96, IV, 315-40.
[35] On the methodology, see also Strohm 1983, Rifkin 2003. Watermark dating along these lines has also been applied to the Trent codices (» K. Kap. Die Datierung) and the St Emmeram codex (Strohm 1983, Rumbold-Wright 2006, 14-19).
[36] WM 4, 9 and 10 deviate from the chronology, but these papers are only individual bifolios (26-27, 75/84, 85/98), added to already existing gatherings. Gathering 8 randomly assembles papers datable between 1477 and 1482, but it was not originally meant to be arranged in this order nor perhaps to be placed here: see Noblitt 1974, 42-43.
[37] On gatherings 14-17 (WM 6 with embedded papers WM 16/17, 1476-78), see Noblitt 1974, 41.
[38] Rifkin 2003, 285-6 and 300-1. Ave Maria…virgo serena is placed near the end of gathering 15 (WM 17: 1476-78); it is followed there only by an even later addition (in a different hand), the anonymous motet O propugnator miserorum, addressing Margrave Leopold III of Austria (canonised 1485), on which see » F. SL Die Motette O propugnator miserorum. The position of the motet in Josquin’s oeuvre and the possibility of its having been written outside Milan is discussed in Fallows 2009, 60-61 and 118-19.
[39] Thus Noblitt 1974, 45.
[40] Staehelin 1977, II, 19.
[41] See » I. Kap. Three early motets (David Burn), and Strohm 1997.
[42] For Rifkin 2003, 300 and 301 n. 124, these copies belong to a later stage of the main scribal hand, but the paleographical evidence seems overstated.
[43] Strohm 1997 suggests that Isaac did have contact with ‘Germanic’ idioms as they appear in these works before 1484, but that he also disseminated these idioms to other central European musicians.
[44] See the concordance table in Noblitt 1987-96, IV, 308-11.
[45] » F. Kap. The Strahov codex (Lenka Hlávková).
[46] See the description in Gancarczyk 2011.
[47] The concordances with Strahov and Trent 90 include, predictably, some of the oldest music in Leopold, for example the English motet Anima mea liquefacta est (no. 2), doubtfully ascribed in modern research to John Forest, and the Agnus dei secundum of the Mass cycle by Jean Pullois (no. 7), both composed before 1450.
[48] » J. SL In gottes namen faren wir; » Hörbsp. ♫ Ave mundi spes/Gottes namen. On both works, see also Strohm 1993, 532-3.
[49] » F. Kap. The Speciálník codex (Lenka Hlávková).
[50] There was no Holy Roman Emperor in 1493-1508.
[51] See » D. Hofmusik. Albrecht II und Friedrich III. The composer abbreviation ‘Ar. fer.’ on no. 64 (gathering 11: 1483-84) could refer to Emperor Friedrich’s chaplain Arnold Fleron: it so happens that an ‘Arnold’, probably Fleron, is recorded at Innsbruck as ‘componist’ in both 1483 and 1484: see Strohm 1993, 518 and 531 n. 478
[52] Further on the organisation of the courtly music, see » D. Hofmusik. Innsbruck; Senn 1954.
[53] Rifkin 2003, 285 n. 103, rejects the identification of scribe ‘A’ with Krombsdorfer because of the ‘Italianate’ features of a letter he sent in 1472 to Duke Ercole d’Este (» G. Kap. Ferrara): but this calligraphy was surely chosen for the benefit of the addressee.
[54] Wolfgang Unterstetter, suffering from podagra, received from the court a weekly measure of salt: HHSt Wien (A-Whh), Kopialbuch H. Nr. 7, 1485, fol. 170v-171r.
[55] See » Abb. Synopsis, and Noblitt 1987-96, IV, 341-57; Rumbold 2018, 287-89.
[56] » I. Music and Ceremony in Maximilian’s Innsbruck (Helen Coffey)
Empfohlene Zitierweise:
Ian Rumbold and Reinhard Strohm: „The Codex of Magister Nicolaus Leopold“, in: Musikleben des Spätmittelalters in der Region Österreich <https://musical-life.net/essays/codex-magister-nicolaus-leopold-0> (2021).