Restoring Obrecht’s Missa Scaramella

Abstract

Abstract This article reports on the restoration of the four-voice Missa Scaramella by Jacob Obrecht. Preserved uniquely in Berlin, Former Preußische Staatsbibliothek, Ms. Mus. 40634 (now in Kraków, Biblioteka Jagiellońska), only two of the original partbooks remain, leaving the discantus and tenor parts to be supplied in their entirety. The work, begun with the late Philip Weller, has been completed with the assistance of Paul Kolb. I consider the specific challenges it has entailed and its implications for the practice of restoring fragmentary polyphonies, with reference to two sections, which pose very different challenges. In particular, the statements of the Italian monophonic tune that serves as the work’s model have had to be identified. Often this has been straightforward, but in a few cases it has been less so. I also attempt to draw a few general conclusions about the process of restoration. The restorer’s principal focus is attentiveness to the implications of the extant material. Obrecht’s compositional practice might be described as a ‘game of consequences’, which means that the clues in the extant voices are perhaps especially plentiful and suggestive.