Table Of ContentV 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
