Hello, and apologies about the long pause in blog posts again. Post-graduation, there have been many things to consider, including 'where to next'. But I have some news about the untexted passages project: I've finished cataloguing untexted passages in the French-language repertory of Ox213!
For some context, 'untexted passages' refers to extended passages in music that has no text underneath it for whatever reason (as the name implies). Examples can be found practically almost anywhere in Oxford 213 and in other 1420s-30s manuscripts, though intentionally using untexted passages fell out of fashion later in the century. Not all untexted passages are treated the same, however- some are seperated off from the rest of the texted music by rests, some aren't. These will be referred to as 'seperated passages' and 'unseperated passages' respectively. So I have found that there are five categories that I can apply to each piece that I have catalogued so far:
For the French repertory at least, I have found that the category with the most number of songs is 5, followed by 1 and 2. This was surprising to me- going in, I had initially thought that seperated categories (aka 1 and 2) would get the lion's share of pieces. Now, moving forward, I will have to account for why there's so many in the mixed category, and whether concordant sources agree on the placement of untexted passages. (Spoiler alert: some don't.) For the first question, there could be any number of reasons why mixed passages occur. Not all of it can be chalked up to composer's intent: scribal practices and the confusion it creates in text-setting can make up the bulk of the 'mixed' examples. For example, where exactly do melismas end? If they end mid-passage, is that a result of the scribe writing the words first and notes later? If a reduced '-e' ending is put on the start of an untexted passage (see fol. 83v 'desire-e' in tenor), does that mean the '-e' ending carries through the passage, or is it still classified as 'unseperated'? (Also, there is room for a future project detailing all the instances where the scribe of Ox213 had actually bothered to put in lines to join a certain note to certain words (eg. in the triplum part on fol. 83v), since that can narrow down what the scribe thinks of as unambiguous enough to not need those lines.)
Anyway, all that aside, there is a lot I will have to consider when asking 'does this count as an untexted passage or not?'. Plus, I'm thinking about narrowing down the scope to focus on French repertory, especially since I'm not good with Italian or Latin. (Not that I'm exactly fluent with French either, but a semester of reading about text-setting for chansons gives me a better idea of this language as compared to the other two, relatively speaking.) But the end goal that this project is a stepping stone towards is to look at how composers might have used untexted passages compositionally: in terms of form, expressing the text, etc. And to do that, I will need to figure out what is more likely the result of scribal practices and what is closer to compositional intent.
Ever heard a black metal version of Dufay's Adieu ces bons vins de Lannoys? Yeah, me neither until a week ago. I think it's really funny how the original lyrics are scream-sung- I mean, the song is essentially "goodbye Laon, you guys rock, and though I want better job opportunities, I'll still miss you all very much". At least change the lyrics for the screaming bits to something more dramatic (like, "my home is gone forever") so that it matches the intensity! And the shots in the MV being primarily of churches and religious imagery, when the song itself is completely secular... Someday, I'll have to make a post ranting about the blanket association of earlier music with mystic/spiritual stuff regardless of the actual genre of the piece used. But other than that, the music and production is solid. I also like that they use snippets of Orlando Consort's version for some contrast with the typical metal stuff going on. 7/10.