At 10:45 AM +0100 2/5/06, Eric Fiedler wrote:
On 05.02.2006, at 00:56, John Howell wrote:
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.
Thank you, Eric. I learned something new today,
something which I should have known but did not.
I guess my exposure to primary sources has been
to ms. facsimiles and not to prints (except for
Odhecaton A).
John
--
John & Susie Howell
Virginia Tech Department of Music
Blacksburg, Virginia, U.S.A 24061-0240
Vox (540) 231-8411 Fax (540) 231-5034
(mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED])
http://www.music.vt.edu/faculty/howell/howell.html
_______________________________________________
Finale mailing list
[email protected]
http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
