Montag, 24. März 2025 – 18:30–20:00 Uhr – Hörsaal 1
Herzliche Einladung zum Gastvortrag von Anne W. Robertson (University of Chicago).
Abstract
The cycle of six masses from Burgundy based on the L’Homme armé melody is preserved in an exceptional manuscript now found in Naples (Bibl. Naz. MS VI.E.40). These works unfold on a grand scale: six closely interrelated, interlocked masses that rest on an immense scaffold of text and melody and, as we will see, on a well-defined liturgical and typological framework. A fresh look at these masses, drawing on books of liturgy, spirituality, and art that were copied, translated, and illuminated for Dukes Philip the Good (1419–67) and Charles the Bold (1467–77) of Burgundy, offers a new understanding of these works and of the wider Armed Man tradition.
A heretofore unnoticed source for the texts of the Kyrie tropes for Masses I and VI is the ancient and high-ranking trope Cunctipotens genitor. The lofty status of Cunctipotens ensures that the Burgundian mass cycle was intended for high ceremonies, probably for celebrations of the Lord’s Day (Sundays) across the liturgical year. The tropes for Masses II–V likewise combine to form a layer of meaning in the cycle not previously sensed: something close to a didactic treatise in text and music drawn from the great typological treatises of the age, copies of at least two of which were made for the Burgundian Court.
The musical treatment of the L’Homme armé melody in small snippets in the tenors of the six masses stretches typical fifteenth-century compositional procedures to a striking degree. Compelling analogies for these procedures appear in theological sources that were produced for the Burgundian Court, including the deluxe treatises for the Ave Maria and Pater Noster.
Recognizing the ranks and typological-pedagogical program of the Kyrie tropes of the Burgundian cycle, their likely liturgical use, and the models for musical elaboration of their tenors deepens our understanding of these pieces and offers novel insight into the central and omnipresent theme of the Armed Man in late medieval music.
