Vasilissa ergo gaude

Last updated

Vasilissa ergo gaude ("Therefore rejoice, princess ") is an isorhythmic motet by the Renaissance composer Guillaume Dufay. In terms of its subject matter, it is sometimes grouped together with Lamentatio sanctae matris ecclesiae Constantinopolitanae , Apostolus gloriosus and Balsamus et munda cera which are generically called Dufay's Byzantine motets. [1] Its composition was occasioned by the marriage on 21 January 1421 of Cleofa Malatesta, daughter of Malatesta di Pandolfo, to Theodore II Palaiologos, son of the Byzantine emperor Manuel II and Despot of the Morea. [2] It has been surmised that the actual motet was composed in 1420 and is perhaps the earliest example of this choral form if not the earliest work attributed to Dufay. [3] In earlier scholarship it was assumed that the motet's first performance had taken place on May 19, 1419, during the festivities prior to the marriage [4]

Vasilissa, ergo gaude,
Quia es digna omni laude,
Cleophe, clara gestis
A tuis de Malatestis,
In Italia principibus
Magnis et nobilibus,

Therefore rejoice, princess,
for you are worthy of all praise,
Cleofe, glorious from the deeds
of your Malatesta kin,
leading men in Italy,
great and noble,

Ex tuo viro clarior,
Quia cunctis est nobilior:
Romeorum est despotus,
Quem colit mundus totus;
In porphyro est genitus,
A deo missus celitus

More glorious from your husband,
for he is nobler than all;
he is Despot of the Rhomaioi,
he whom all the world reveres;
he was born in the purple,
sent by god from heaven

Iuvenili etate
polles et formositate
<Ingenio> multum fecunda
Et utraque lingua facunda
Ac clarior es virtutibus
Pre alliis hominibus.

In youthfull bloom
you abound and in beauty,
very fertile <in your wits>
and eloquent in both tongues,
and you are more glorious for your virtues
above other human beings.

Tenor
Concupivit rex decorem tuum
Quoniam ipse est dominus tuus

Tenor
The king hath conceived desire for thy beauty,
for he is thy Lord. [5]

The tenor line is taken from Psalm 45:11 (44:11 in the traditional Catholic numbering), whose theme is royal marriage. The verse chosen for the motet occurs in Catholic liturgy in the Gradual of various feasts of the Virgin Mary. [6] The motet is preserved in the contemporary music manuscript Codex Bologna, International museum and library of music, MS Q15.

In terms of structure the composition has been compared with the mature work of Johannes Ciconia, a Franco-Flemish composer also active in Italy. Of the four voices used, the two upper voices bearing the melody often imitate each other and move faster than the two lower voices. The talea is repeated only once. An additional device independent from the motet's purely isorhythmic design is the canonic introit (a short canon used as a prelude) appearing at the beginning of the composition. [7]

Even though numerological mysticism which is often encountered in the Ars Antiqua seems to have been of minor importance in musical composition from the 14th century onwards, [8] there have been attempts to interpret the motet's texture and design from a symbolic-mystical viewpoint. Dufay is known to have utilised similar devices such as gematria (a system of number symbolism drawn from the Pythagorean corpus) in other nuptial compositions. [9] The tenor line singing the Cantus firmus in Vasilissa ergo gaude consists of a total of 2x49 notes plus the two closing notes, which add to a total of 100 notes. It has been suggested that this number implies the medieval symbolism for repentance which leads to absolute unity. It has further been proposed that the number 100 should be related to the total of 700 or else 7x100 notes of the remaining three voices, alluding to the sacred number 7. The sum total of notes in the motet is 800 and this has been interpreted as an allusion to the number 8. In medieval numerology, 8 signified eternity, understood in the context of Dufay's motet as eternal stability.

All these numerical symbolisms must have had a particular significance in view of the politically motivated marriage between Cleofa Malatesta and Theodore Palaiologos. The marriage was arranged as part of a series of diplomatic gestures between Cleofa's uncle Pope Martin V and the Byzantine emperor. It was hoped that it would facilitate reunification between the Roman Catholic and the Eastern Orthodox Church (cf. Council of Florence). [10]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Motet</span> Vocal musical composition in Western classical music

In Western classical music, a motet is mainly a vocal musical composition, of highly diverse form and style, from high medieval music to the present. The motet was one of the pre-eminent polyphonic forms of Renaissance music. According to Margaret Bent, "a piece of music in several parts with words" is as precise a definition of the motet as will serve from the 13th to the late 16th century and beyond. The late 13th-century theorist Johannes de Grocheo believed that the motet was "not to be celebrated in the presence of common people, because they do not notice its subtlety, nor are they delighted in hearing it, but in the presence of the educated and of those who are seeking out subtleties in the arts".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Renaissance music</span> Western musical period between the 15th and 17th centuries

Renaissance music is traditionally understood to cover European music of the 15th and 16th centuries, later than the Renaissance era as it is understood in other disciplines. Rather than starting from the early 14th-century ars nova, the Trecento music was treated by musicology as a coda to Medieval music and the new era dated from the rise of triadic harmony and the spread of the contenance angloise style from Britain to the Burgundian School. A convenient watershed for its end is the adoption of basso continuo at the beginning of the Baroque period.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Guillaume Du Fay</span> Composer of the Renaissance (1397–1474)

Guillaume Du Fay was a composer and music theorist of early Renaissance music, who is variously described as French or Franco-Flemish. Considered the leading European composer of his time, his music was widely performed and reproduced. Du Fay was well-associated with composers of the Burgundian School, particularly his colleague Gilles Binchois, but was never a regular member of the Burgundian chapel himself.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Isorhythm</span>

Isorhythm is a musical technique using a repeating rhythmic pattern, called a talea, in at least one voice part throughout a composition. Taleae are typically applied to one or more melodic patterns of pitches or colores, which may be of the same or a different length from the talea.

In music, a cantus firmus is a pre-existing melody forming the basis of a polyphonic composition.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Burgundian School</span> 15th century European composers

The Burgundian School was a group of composers active in the 15th century in what is now northern and eastern France, Belgium, and the Netherlands, centered on the court of the Dukes of Burgundy. The school inaugurated the music of Burgundy.

Arnold de Lantins was a Netherlandish composer of the late medieval and early Renaissance eras. He is one of a few composers who shows aspects of both medieval and Renaissance style, and was a contemporary of Dufay during Dufay's sojourn in Italy.

Hugo de Lantins was a Franco-Flemish composer of the late Medieval era and early Renaissance. He was active in Italy, especially Venice, and wrote both sacred and secular music; he may have been a relative of Arnold de Lantins, another composer active at the same time in the same area.

Nicolas Grenon was a French composer of the early Renaissance. He wrote in all the prevailing musical forms of the time, and was a rare case of a long-lived composer who learned his craft in the late 14th century but primarily practiced during the era during which the Renaissance styles were forming.

Johannes Brassart was a composer of the early-Renaissance Burgundian school. Of his output, only sacred vocal music has survived, and it typifies early-15th-century practice.

Johannes Regis was a Netherlandish composer of the Renaissance. He was a well-known composer at the close of the 15th century, was a principal contributor to the Chigi Codex, and was secretary to Guillaume Dufay.

Johannes Cesaris was a French composer of the late Medieval era and early Renaissance. He was one of the composers of the transitional style between the two epochs, and was active at the Burgundian court in the early 15th century.

France has a rich music history that was already prominent in Europe as far back as the 10th century. French music originated as a unified style in medieval times, focusing around the Notre-Dame school of composers. This group developed the motet, a specific musical composition. Notable in the high Middle Ages were the troubadours and trouvères soon began touring France, composing and performing many original songs. The styles of ars nova and ars subtilior sprung up in the 14th century, both of which focused on secular songs. As Europe moved into the Renaissance age, the music of France evolved in sophistication. The popularity of French music in the rest of Europe declined slightly, yet the popular chanson and the old motet were further developed during this time. The epicenter of French music moved from Paris to Burgundy, as it followed the Burgundian School of composers. During the Baroque period, music was simplified and restricted due to Calvinist influence. The air de cour then became the primary style of French music, as it was secular and preferred by the royal court.

Antonio da Cividale was an Italian composer of the early Quattrocento, at the end of the musical medieval era and beginning of the Renaissance. He is one of a few Italian composers of the early 15th century whose works have survived; they are transitional between the Trecento and the early Renaissance styles.

Antonius Romanus was an Italian composer of the early 15th century, the early quattrocento, in which musical styles was in transition between the late medieval era and early Renaissance.

Nuper rosarum flores, is a motet composed by Guillaume Dufay for the 25 March 1436 consecration of the Florence Cathedral, on the occasion of the completion of the dome built under the instructions of Filippo Brunelleschi. Technically, the dome itself was not finished until five months later, at which time a separate consecration was celebrated by Benozzo Federighi, the bishop of Fiesole, substituting for the newly appointed archbishop of Florence, Cardinal Vitelleschi.

Richard Loqueville was a French composer active during the transition between Medieval and Renaissance music. A musician at Cambrai Cathedral, Loqueville was a harpist and teacher, whose students included Edward III, Duke of Bar and the influential composer Guillaume Du Fay.

Lamentatio sanctae matris ecclesiae Constantinopolitanae is a motet by the Renaissance composer Guillaume Dufay. Its topic is a lament of the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks in 1453. Because of its Byzantine subject matter, it is sometimes grouped together with Vasilissa ergo gaude, Apostolus gloriosus and Balsamus et munda cera as one of Dufay's "Byzantine motets".

Cleofa Malatesta da Pesaro was an Italian noblewoman and the wife of Theodore II Palaiologos, Despot of the Morea, brother of Constantine XI, the last Byzantine emperor. She was a daughter of Malatesta dei Sonetti, Count of Pesaro, and Elisabetta da Varano. She married Theodore Palaiologos in Mystras on January 21, 1421, or sometime in 1422 in an arranged marriage that was part of an initiative of her uncle, Pope Martin V, to join Western with Orthodox nobility, who in this way hoped to gain political alliances against the Ottoman Turks.

Tra quante regione is a ballata by the late medieval and early renaissance composer Hugo de Lantins. As with another vocal composition by Guillaume Dufay entitled Vasilissa ergo gaude, Lantins' ballata celebrated the marriage of the Italian princess Cleofa Malatesta with the Byzantine Despot of the Morea Theodore II Palaiologos. The marriage took place on 21 January 1421 or sometime in 1422 in Mystra. The actual date and place of the first performance remain disputed

References

  1. ↑ Margaret Vardell Sandresky, "The Golden Section in Three Byzantine Motets of Dufay", Journal of Music Theory, Vol. 25, No. 2 (Autumn, 1981), pp. 291–306
  2. ↑ J. Michael Allsen, "Intertextuality and Compositional Process in Two Cantilena Motets by Hugo de Lantins", The Journal of Musicology, Vol. 11, No. 2 (Spring, 1993), p. 176, footnote 6
  3. ↑ Howard Mayer Brown, "Guillaume Dufay and the Early Renaissance", Early Music, Vol. 2, No. 4 (Oct., 1974), p. 221
  4. ↑ Johannes Wolf, "Der niederlandische Einfluss in der mehrstimmigen gemessenen Musik bis zum Jahre 1480. Eine bibliographische Skizze", Tijdschrift der Vereeniging voor Noord-Nederlands Muziekgeschiedenis, D. 6de, 4de Stuk (1900), p.223
  5. ↑ The translated text is based almost entirely on Leofranc Holford-Strevens, "Du Fay the Poet? Problems in the Texts of His Motets", Early Music History, Vol. 16, (1997), pp. 102–103
  6. ↑ Académie de Chant grégorien
  7. ↑ Howard Mayer Brown, "Guillaume Dufay and the Early Renaissance", Early Music, Vol. 2, No. 4 (Oct., 1974), p. 222–3
  8. ↑ Umeå Akademiska Kör Early Vocal Music Map
  9. ↑ Allan W. Atlas, "Gematria, Marriage Numbers, and Golden Sections in Dufay's 'Resvellies vous'", Acta Musicologica, Vol. 59, Fasc. 2 (May – August, 1987), pp. 111
  10. ↑ Review by Jaap van Benthem, Reviewed work: Dufay by David Fallows, in Tijdschrift van de Vereniging voor Nederlandse Muziekgeschiedenis, D. 33ste, Afl. 1ste/2de (1983), p. 111
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.