AMS Philadelphia 2009 Abstracts - American Musicological Society

58 Friday morning AMS Philadelphia 2009
first and fifth degrees (1̂ 5̂ 1̂ 5̂ , a standard opening gambit from Mouton to Brahms) is not common
in the second half of the fifteenth century, I have found many other patterns of imitation
at the fourth and fifth in the period. I will discuss them with reference to techniques of improvisation,
Peter Schubert’s imitative presentation types, voice ranges, and formal functions.
John Milsom has shown that what he calls “stretto fuga”—two-voice imitation at the
fourth, fifth, and octave after one small mensural unit—is easy to improvise with simple
rules of interval choice (Peter Schubert has located the earliest account yet known of these
rules in 1592, in Montanos). It is probable that most fifteenth-century musicians were taught
these rules, and there are many examples of stretto fuga at the fourth and fifth from the midfifteenth
century.
I have collected information on time and pitch interval of imitation for the beginning of
the 366 partes in Petrucci’s first five motet prints (printed 1502–1508, but including pieces
going back to the 1470s). Duos with imitation at the fourth and fifth are a common occurrence
in these collections. Three- and four-voice “periodic entries” (in which voices enter
individually after the same time interval) involving fifths and octaves, and their inversions and
compounds, can be generated with principles similar to those of stretto fuga. Examples in the
Petrucci prints tend to use degree patterns such as 1̂ 1̂ 5̂ 5̂ , 5̂ 5̂ 1̂ 1̂ , or 1̂ 1̂ 1̂ 5̂ . These pitch choices
have to do with techniques of improvisation and the normal ranges in four-voice music of the
period. Another type of periodic entry, the “stacked canon” (producing degree patterns such
as 1̂ 5̂ 2̂ ), is found in the middles of pieces, because of the destablizing effect of the third pitch
class in the point of imitation.
Rifkin comments that “the study of the interval of imitation and chronology remains essentially
unexplored.” I document the expanding use of imitation at the fourth and fifth between
1450 and 1508: from duos in mid-century to three- and four-voice periodic entries toward the
end of the period. Imitation falls into a limited number of patterns that correspond to standard
voice ranges and serve specific formal functions.
Mi Mi, DE ORTO, AND OCKEGHEM’S SHADOW
Jesse Rodin
Stanford University
The last few decades have witnessed a lively debate surrounding Johannes Ockeghem’s famous
Missa Mi mi. There has been considerable discussion of the mass’s title, which could
refer to the bassus head motive (e-A-A-e-f-e), the opening melodic motion in the superius
(e’–e’ ), or the Hypophrygian mode. Also unresolved is whether the mass employs Ockeghem’s
virelai Presque transi as a hidden cantus firmus. And the precise nature of the relationship
between the Missa Mi mi and Ockeghem’s settings of S’elle m’amera/Petite camusette and intemerata
dei mater remains ambiguous.
Taking Martin Picker’s outstanding study of the mass as a point of departure, I will consider
these matters afresh from the perspective of later citations of this group of pieces, with
particular emphasis on one setting Picker overlooked: an Ave Maria mater gratie by Marbrianus
de Orto (d. 1529). This motet is modeled closely on intemerata but incorporates an
ostinato drawn from the opening motive of Ockeghem’s S’elle m’amera/Petite camusette. De
Orto also composed a mass alternately titled Mi mi and Petite camusette that is itself based on
this ostinato, thereby engaging with this same collection of works by Ockeghem. Considered
as a group, these pieces reinforce Heinrich Besseler’s early proposal that Ockeghem’s mass is in