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V C n C erbal anons and otational omplexity F -C m in iFteenth entury usiC e C Z mily arolyn aZulia A DISSERTATION in musiC Presented to the Faculties of the University of Pennsylvania in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2012 Emma Dillon, Professor of Music Supervisor of Dissertation Guthrie Ramsey, Edmund J. and Louise W. Kahn Professor of Music Graduate Group Chairperson dissertation Committee Emma Dillon, Professor of Music Lawrence Bernstein, Emeritus Rose Professor of Music Jesse Rodin, Assistant Professor of Music, Stanford University UMI Number: 3542898 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. UMI 3542898 Published by ProQuest LLC (2012). Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, MI 48106 - 1346 VERBAL CANONS AND NOTATIONAL COMPLEXITY IN FIFTEENTH-CENTURY MUSIC COPYRIGHT 2012 Emily Carolyn Zazulia iii To my mother and to the memory of my father iv A cknowledgements One of the greatest pleasures of completing a project such as this is the opportunity to thank all the individuals who have made it possible. The seeds of this project began before I ever planed to pursue a graduate degree in musicology. It was at Sean Gallagher’s suggestion that I embarked on a study Antoine Busnoys’s mensural usage. I did not know what I was getting into, but the glint in his eye suggested to me that Professor Gallagher did. Years later I continue to reap benefit from lessons he imparted. I had the great fortune of absorbing the knowledge of the Harvard early music community. In addition to Isham Library, which felt like a musicological candy store, courses with Thomas Forrest Kelly, Mauro Calcagno, Jeffrey Hamburger, and Hugo van der Velden indulged my growing interest in late medieval music and culture. A confluence of budding scholars taught by example. Evan MacCarthy has been a sounding board for all manner of topics. Michael Scott Cuthbert has provided feedback and advice on both sides of the Atlantic. Anna Zayaruznaya has been extremely generous, offering advice and feedback, as well as perfectly timed encouragement. From memorizing Bach chorales to completing dissertations, Emily Richmond Pollack has been all one could want in a friend and colleague. She always manages to see exactly how I need to streamline my argument, what book I should read, and how it will all get done, while remaining warm, thoughtful, and reliable. I thank also Michael Givey, David Kronig, Dan Chetel, and Cara Lewis for making my early music(ologic)al study so enjoyable. v The music department at Penn has been a wonderful home for the last six years. Seminars with Jeffrey Kallberg, Carol Muller, Tim Rommen, and Gary Tomlinson, as well as Ann Matter and Robert Maxwell helped turn me into the thinker I am today. Emily Dolan has shared her wisdom on teaching, scholarship, and professional development, and coached me through preparing my first conference paper. From my first year at Penn, Kevin Brownlee has gone out of his way to be welcoming and generous. Listening to him read from and then discuss Dante’s Commedia was one of the great pleasures of my graduate career. Roger Mathew Grant, Darien Lamen, Deirdre Loughridge, and Peter Mondelli read and helped advance parts of this study. They, along with Suzanne Bratt, Jessamyn Doan, Glenn Holtzman, Ian MacMillen, Ruthie Meadows, Elizabeth Mellon, John Meyers, Evelyn Owens, Tony Solitro, Gavin Steingo, and Lee Veeraraghavan have been the best of colleagues and friends throughout my time at Penn. I am especially grateful for the support and good humor of classmates Lauren Jennings, Matt Valnes, and Thomas Patteson. I also thank the 2010–11 Penn Humanities Forum and to the Medievalists at Penn, who provided lively conversation, shrewd feedback, and a welcome respite from the throes of dissertation writing. The research presented here was supported by a dissertation completion fellowship from the American Council of Learned Societies, an Alvin H. Johnson AMS 50 Fellowship from the American Musicological Society, and a Benjamin Franklin Fellowship from the University of Pennsylvania. My work would have been impossible without the assistance and expertise of many librarians. Richard Griscom of the Penn Music Library and Sarah Adams of Isham Library vi at Harvard University have been steady reliable resources for many years. Research abroad was made infinitely smoother by the help of the staffs of the Biblioteca Estense in Modena, the Vatican Library, the Biblioteca Capitolare in Verona, and the Museo Internazionale e Biblioteca della Musica in Bologna. In Bologna I particularly thank Alfredo Vitolo. In the age of the internet, DIAMM (the Digital Image Archive of Medieval Music) reduces the number of costly (though enjoyable) trips across the pond. I acknowledge and thank Julia Craig-McFeely and the staff of DIAMM for the service they provide. I express my special thanks to Villa I Tatti, Harvard Center for Italian Renaissance Studies, where I spent spring of 2010. My time at I Tatti was one of the most intellectually fertile periods I have had the fortune to experience. I extend my thanks to Joe and François Connors, Kathryn Bosi, and other members of the staff who were so welcoming. Amy Bloch, Claudia Chierichini, Una D’Elia, Jesse Howell, Ann Moyer, Marc Schachter, and Carlo Taviani shared of their deep wisdom, providing feedback, references, and encouragement for the present study. I thank Lorenzo Calvelli for his additional help with Latin and Greek (and Italian). Above all I thank Thomas Forrest Kelly, without whose support my time in Florence would never have been possible. Within the field of early music, numerous colleagues and friends have provided inestimable support. Margaret Bent kindly allowed me to sit in on her seminar on Bologna Q15, which provided impetus for several valuable conversations. Bonnie Blackburn generously shared materials from her own research on verbal canons. Rob Wegman allowed me to join his seminars on medieval counterpoint. Discussions both in and out of class have stuck vii with me through the writing of this dissertation. Jeffrey Dean shared materials in advance of publication. I offer my heartfelt thanks to Jane Alden, Benjamin Brand, Carolann Buff, Theodor Dumitrescu, Richard Freedman, James Haar, Leofranc Holford-Strevens, John Nádas, Joshua Rifkin, Alejandro Enrique Planchart, Anne Stone, and Ron Woodley. I owe the greatest debt to my dissertation committee. I could not have asked for a better set of minds with which to work through the wilds of late medieval notation. Jesse Rodin was largely responsible for introducing me to 15th-century music. With no hint of exaggeration, I would not be in the field were it not for his early and continued support. Our conversations have been the best motivation to mentally store as much information as possible, since I never know when (or how quickly) I will be moved to recall it. I am grateful to Professor Rodin for holding me to such a standard. Additionally, without his meticulous research, trips abroad would be infinitely less “triumphal.” Lawrence Bernstein has brought clarity and correctness to many passages of this dissertation and forced me to contend with difficult issues. I am especially grateful that he agreed to join my committee despite having just entered the realm of “emeritus.” Professor Bernstein embodies what it means to be an honorable, magnanimous scholar. To my advisor, Emma Dillon, I am indebted for giving me the tools to think broadly. She has been a true mentor throughout my graduate career, nurturing my development as a scholar and leading me to productive paths I would not have taken otherwise. The fruits of our discussions will serve me well beyond the pages of this dissertation. viii Many friends with no ties to musicology in have supported this work more than they know. I particularly thank Katrina Bartow Jacobs, Maggie Sieleman-Ross, Kerry Krauss, Amanda Freedman, Abby Baker, and Becca Evans for their continued support and friendship from the beginning to the end of this process. Other friends came along later in the dissertation process; Marc and Amy Hoffmann, in particular, opened their hearts (and their kitchen) over the last years. Emma Budwig has been my most trusted, consistent, mindful friend for many years. Her sensitivity to matters both academic and personal have given me perspective when I could not muster it myself. More than anyone, Max Merkow has seen me through the dissertation process. He has been a model of facing challenges and triumphs alike with grace and mindfulness. His words of wisdom, words of anti-wisdom, and the sense of balance he has brought to my life have meant the world to me. Without encouragement of my family, biological and otherwise, I would never have completed this study, nor so many other things. I particularly thank Courtney, Jake and Colette Zeiders, Bill Wahl, and my brother Nicholas for all they have given me. Finally, I wish to thank my parents, Judy and Irwin, without whose support, encouragement, and love, I would not be who I am today. ix abstraCt V c n c erbAl Anons And otAtionAl omplexity F -c m in iFteenth entury usic Emily Zazulia Emma Dillon The notation of 15th-century music often features curious inscriptions that prescribe transformations of written counterpoint—from simply slowing down a given line to singing it at a different pitch, or even turning it backwards or upside-down. Such intricate notation, which can appear by turns unnecessary and confounding, challenges traditional conceptions of notation itself. My dissertation describes the intellectual underpinnings of late medieval music writing through the lens of this curious notational device. I trace the use of verbal canons from their beginnings in the 14th century through the earliest prints in the 1510s. Over this span, canons go from serving as explanatory notes to being elaborate cryptic literary inscriptions—and an integral part of many compositions. Throughout this study I pay particular attention to the ways preexisting material is presented visually, as it often retains aspects of its original source. 15th-century composers so valued the visual appearance of their music that it informed the act of composition; for them, musical notation assumed a significance that would not be matched until the 20th century. For a long time, interest in musical notation has extended only as far as practical knowledge demanded. It is not enough to know the content of what is conveyed: understanding