On 05.02.2006, at 00:56, John Howell wrote:
At 12:19 PM -0500 2/4/06, Andrew Stiller wrote:
On Feb 3, 2006, at 7:25 PM, Owain Sutton wrote:
Surely the fact that Petrucci part-books are completely different
to the layout of known contemporary performance sources is in
itself evidence that these may not have been used as such?
Only if his layout presents difficulties for performance. If it
doesn't, then the most sensible interpretation would be that he
simply found it easier/less expensive to print them in an
unorthodox format.
OK, time out, please! Never having seen one of Petrucci's motet
prints myself, that I can remember, I have always assumed that they
were issued in the typical choirbook format of the time, in folio
size, with the 4, 5 or 6 parts present together on facing pages.
Scribes were certainly producing such manuscripts, like the Medici
Codex (c. 1517), during the time when Petrucci was active. If those
motet (and Mass) books were issued in partbook format, that is news
to me, and indeed undermines my argument that the prints were
intended for church use, as I have assumed since grad school.
John
Petrucci's motet prints were all in the smallish 4o oblong format,
the same size as the Odhecaton. The first two volumes (Motetti A 1502
and Motetti de passione B 1503) were in the traditional (mini) choir
book format, although the publisher had already brought out the first
collection of Josquin's masses in partbooks in 1502. Subsequent motet
collections were all in partbook format, as were all the other
collections of masses. Only the italian secular works (Frottole,
Strambotti etc.) continued to appear in the mini-choirbook format. In
any case, even the mini-choirbook format allows for performance
directly from the books themselves (without having to write out
parts) if you don't mind getting rather chummy with your fellow
singers. The collections were probably intended not so much for
professional chapels as for wealthy amateur musicians, who would have
had no trouble using these collections at their musical soirèes — as
we occasionally still do today. For a performance in church with a
larger ensemble you would probably want to write out parts.
Eric
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Habsburger Verlag Frankfurt (Dr. Fiedler)
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