Motets and prosulas from the Notre Dame school

Abstract

As a Latin poet associated with the early stages of the ‘School of Notre Dame’, Philip the Chancellor was a critically important figure in relation to musical compositions of the ‘Ars Antiqua’. Chancellor at Notre Dame from 1217 until his death in 1236, Philip was in close contact with the vibrant musical culture around the cathedral. Although it is unknown to what extent (if at all) Philip was directly involved with musical composition, he is credited as the author of numerous Latin lyrics which are almost all provided with music in extant manuscripts, including a large number of conductus songs, 26 motets and a handful of prosulas. Thomas Payne’s edition presents the motets and prosulas associated with Philip the Chancellor. It opens with an introduction to Philip which discusses these works in depth, followed by a section laying out the sources used and the editorial choices made. The greater part of the edition consists of 26 motets; Payne gives the fullest possible picture of Philip’s oeuvre by presenting all the motets associated with him, including six which have tentative modern attributions and two with doubtful medieval attributions. Similarly, Payne presents two versions of certain pieces which have multiple transmissions, such as In veritate comperi / Veritatem, which appears both as a conductus (or monotextual) motet and a double motet. The edition also includes four ‘organum prosulas’ and five ‘conductus prosulas’. Payne defines an ‘organum prosula’ as a trope set to the ‘integral section of [an] organum’s duplum voice as it was set in polyphony’ (p.xv), whereas a ‘conductus prosula’ is a trope on the upper voice(s) using the ‘music only from the final cauda of the model [conductus]’ (p.xvii). An appendix of three of the organum prosulas concludes the volume; these have been edited and reconstructed with four voices, as is found in the fragmentary second fascicle of Ms.Ma (Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional, Ms.20486), giving a further performance option for these three pieces.