Notre Dame Conductus.(Monophonic Tropes and Conductus of W1: The Tenth Fascicle)(Book review)

Monophonic Tropes and Conductus of W1: The Tenth Fascicle. Edited by Jann Cosart. Middleton, WI: A-R Editions, c2007. (Recent Researches in the Music of the Middle Ages and Early Renaissance, 38.) [Sigla, p. vii; acknowledgments, p. viii; introd., p. ix-xxiii; texts and trans., p. xxiv-xxxi; facsimile of W1, 10th fascicle, 16 p.; transcription, 29 p.; crit. report, p. 31-34; appendix, p. 35-38. ISBN 978-0-89579-622-6, 0-89579-622-8. Paper. $68.]

Scholarly editions of music from the principal manuscripts of the Notre Dame school have tended to favor polyphony. Notable exceptions include Gordon Athol Anderson's publications of the monophonic conductus in the tenth fascicle of the manuscript F (Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Plut. 29.1) and the Latin rondelli drawn mostly from the eleventh fascicle of this same source (available in volumes 6 and 8 of his Notre Dame and Related Conductus: Opera omnia, Gesamtausgaben, 10 [Henryville, PA: Institute of Mediaeval Music, 1979-]). Now, thanks to Jann Cosart and A-R Editions, we have another, very welcome collection of monophony taken this time from W1 (Herzog August Bibliothek, Cod. Guelf. Helmstedt 628), one of the two large codices of Notre Dame music presently housed in Wolfenbuttel, yet executed in Scotland and containing both Parisian and insular music. The single gathering of eight folios that forms the remnants of W1's tenth fascicle preserves three conductus (the first fragmentary but reconstructable) and a set of twelve extraordinarily florid Mass Ordinary tropes: six each to a single parent chant of the Sanctus and Agnus Dei. Of these fifteen pieces, only the first two conductus survive in other Notre Dame manuscripts and are thus available in Anderson's edition; the remaining melodies are unique to this source, while the Ordinary tropes--since they belong outside the genres of organum, conductus, and motet--have yet to appear in any of the major publications of Notre Dame music. The primary benefits of this new edition lie not only in providing "the first complete publication of the [entire] monophonic repertory of W1" (p. ix), and in making some unusual and rather unfamiliar pieces readily available, but also in offering up a collection that faithfully represents the way these fifteen works are preserved as a unit in the manuscript.

Besides the texts, commentary, and elegantly presented music, Cosart's edition contains an introduction that briefly introduces W1 as a whole, investigates the remains of its tenth fascicle (without speculating what pieces appeared in its missing portion), and offers some repertorial and analytical remarks on the two types of pieces--conductus and tropes--contained in the extant gathering. These comments delineate relationships among existing concordances (applicable only to the first two conductus and the texts of items 5, 6, 10, 13, and 15 among the tropes), probe the difficulties of how to complete the cues given for the tropes' parent chants, tabulate musical ranges and opening and cadential pitches, and comment briefly on the different ways that poetry and music interact within the pieces. With specific regard to the tropes, Cosart makes some intriguing yet unsupported claims that Celtic practices may inform the poetic designs of their texts (p. xxii n. 42). In my opinion these schemes exemplify troping techniques current throughout medieval Europe: lines of varying lengths which feature end rhymes. Additionally, the one trope that does not employ rhyme (no. 14, "Agnus Humano generi") appears to be in dactylic hexameter, and this may not be the only example of a metrum in the collection.

A series of related sections on rhythm and performance conclude the introduction. Besides suggesting tempos, remarking on the execution of certain notational figures such as plicae, currentes, and acknowledging written-out ornamental figures associated here with the longae floratae of the theorist Anonymous IV, the bulk of these two sections concerns the vexing question of how--and whether--to impose rhythmic values on the music. Although the tropes display occasional short melismatic passages that may indicate modal rhythms, most of the music, both here and in the conductus, is equivocal in terms of such signs, as Cosart pinpoints characteristics of plainchant, organum purum, and copula within and among various pieces. Since the issue of rhythm is one of the most hotly contested topics of the music in Notre Dame manuscripts, she wisely opts to present the pieces in neutral values with unstemmed note-heads, thus allowing performers to make their own decisions on applying durations. Serving as a demonstration of the difficulty this question raises, and also perhaps as a guide to performers who may wish to incorporate certain rhythmical nuances, these portions of the essay explain how the remarks of such theorists as Franco of Cologne, Johannes de Garlandia, Anonymous IV, and Johannes de Grocheio could inform the execution of this music. Such directives will certainly benefit performers in the absence of other information, but one should also be extremely cautious in foisting precepts derived from polyphony on these monophonic songs.

After the introduction and before the presentation of the music, this edition offers the verbal texts of the pieces, and--thanks to its brevity--a complete facsimile of the extant fascicle. The inclusion of photographs from W1 is an unanticipated bonus, and although the monochrome reproductions are rather "pixely" and therefore slightly fuzzy, they are still easily legible and provide a wonderful complement to the publication. As for the texts, these are set out with translations disposed in parallel columns and with brief explanatory notes, along with a list of readings culled from the concordant sources consulted by the editor. The incorporation of variants for the texts is somewhat surprising, since there is no corresponding attention given to ...