Steps to Parnassus

In this final chapter, the progression from servitude to autonomy in the European musical imagination is traced through the agency of Fux’s Mass settings for the imperial court to the singular achievement of Bach’s Mass in B Minor (BWV 232). Between these extremes lie the Mass settings of Fux’s deputy, Antonio Caldara, three of which establish a mid-way point between Fux’s dutiful (and unsatisfactory) adherence to the dynastic style (an adherence nevertheless redeemed by the composure and thematic integrity of his far fewer stile antico settings) and the exceptional autonomy of BWV 232, in which the emancipation of the musical subject is fully realized. Two of the Caldara settings, the Missa Sanctorum Cosmae et Damiani and the Missa Matris Dolorosae, moreover, share compelling structural and expressive affinities with BWV 232 which (for the first time) contextualize the autonomy of Bach’s setting. The “either/or” understanding of compositional servitude in relation to imaginative autonomy is thus moderated in favor of both concepts. Likewise the relations between the authority concept and the work-concept in Fux and Bach are fortified.

The War of the Austrian Succession and the Masses by Henry Madin (1740–1748)

Henry Madin was the only sous-maître de la Musique of Louis XV’s Chapel to be a priest, and served in this capacity during the time of the War of the Austrian Succession (1740–8). Documents strongly imply that Madin was exceptionally receptive to the fate of the royal armies and also demonstrate his keen political acumen. Only motets à grand chœur were sung at the king’s Mass: composers connected with the Chapelle Royale had no necessity to set the Ordinarium missae to music. Therefore, one wonders why Madin had polyphonic masses printed by Ballard between 1741 and 1747. This essay indicates that Madin had a personal initiative in mind, and that his mass settings punctuated significant victories and temporary setbacks of Louis XV’s army. His missae may be regarded as the private voice of a faithful royal official begging God for assistance on behalf of a king who had brought him out of poverty.

Streaming Music into Renaissance Studies: The Case of L’homme armé

College-level courses devoted to Renaissance culture typically put a premium on incorporating primary sources and artifacts of a literary, art-historical, and historical nature. Yet the monuments of contemporaneous music continue to be marginalized as instructional resources, even though they are fully as worthy both from an aesthetic and from a historical standpoint. This study attempts to address that problem by invoking the tradition of early polyphonic masses on L’homme armé – a secular tune used as a unifying melody (cantus firmus) throughout settings of the five-movement liturgical cycle. Beginning by explaining the origins and significance of the putative monophonic tune, the paper then details how a series of composers utilized the song in interestingly varied ways in various mass settings. Subsequently it sketches out a context for mysticism in the liturgical-musical tradition of L’homme armé, and points to some compelling parallels with the contemporaneous art of panel painting, specifically as represented in the works of Rogier van der Weyden.

Glorious Sounds for a Holy Warrior: New Light on Codex Turin J.II.9

The origins of codex Turin, Biblioteca Nazionale Universitaria J.II.9 are contested territory. While there can be little dispute that the repertory, a monumental collection of plainchant, polyphonic Mass settings, motets, and songs, is linked to the (Bourbon-)Lusignan court of Cyprus, this articles argues the north Italian origins of the manuscript. The key to solving the puzzle is the coat of arms prominently displayed on fol. 1r of the codex. Once its Brescian provenance is recognized and the relevant family's cultural, political, and religious history and patronage elucidated, the “Avogadro codex” emerges as part of a complex of “ars subtilior” sources including Chantilly, ModA, and Oxford 213, all now believed to have originated in Lombardy, Veneto, Romagna, perhaps Tuscany, or Rome, and either copied or still in use in the 1420–30s. The symbolic make-up of the manuscript reveals connections not only to the Avogadro but also to the cult of the Holy Cross in Brescia. Historical and paleographic evidence points to the possible involvement of Jean Hanelle, chapel master to the King of Cyprus, in the genesis of the manuscript around 1435. Hanelle may also have been responsible for taking the codex from Brescia to Savoy as early as 1436.