The songs of Johannes Decanus

Abstract

ABSTRACTIncluded in the collection of cantiones and Benedicamus tropes copied at the end of the Moosburger Graduale (München, Universitätsbibliothek, CIM 100 [olim 2o Cod. ms. 156], ff. 30v–250v) are five songs attributed to ‘Johannes Decanus’ (Johannes de Perchausen, †15.VIII.1362). In his preface to the song collection, Johannes describes three distinct repertoires (those ‘sung from antiquity’, ‘a few modern songs’ and ‘some of my own [songs]’) and through the examination of concordances it is possible to sort the songs into each of Johannes's categories. Against this background, three of Johannes's songs (Mos florentis venustatis, Flos campi profert lilium and Ad cultum tue laudis) demonstrate the consistent use of melodic rhyme, internal repetition of phrase units in both the verses and the refrains, and clear modal centring, found in most of the other Latin songs in the Moosburg collection. Two songs (Castis psallamus mentibus, and his Benedicamus trope, Florizet vox dulcisonans), however, represent a radical departure from these ‘norms’, through the unusual structuring of their melodies. These anomalous songs may reflect Johannes's desire to stretch the training and musicality of the young students of the Moosburg church with more modern melodic concepts.