PERFORMINGMATTERSChristopherPageGoing beyondthe limits: experimentswithvocalizationin theFrenchchanson,1340-1440Tostudytheperformanceofmedievalmusicistoapproachtheedge of a cliff.We cangoso farandthentheevidenceabruptlycomestoanend,leaving a sheerdrop into a sea of troubles where performersmust navi-gate as best they canTwo recentarticles, by Dennis Sla-vinandLawrenceEarp,1 providea caseinpoint.ThesetwoscholarsagreethatacappellaperformanceofthechansonrepertorywascommoninthelaterMiddleAges; they are alsounitedintheirbelief thatthepartialtextingsfoundinthesourcesofnumerouspieces(pre-dominantly of the 15th century) imply an a cappella scor-ing 2 Thisis thepaththatleads themtotheedge of theprecipice, forin their discussion of how the textless linesin chansons should be sung Earp and Slavin (certain dis-agreements aside) bothrecommendvocalization. Slavinadvocates'wordlessvocalizationforuntextedpassages'in certaincontexts, while Earp declares that'performersmustexperimentwith vocalizationof textless passages'.3Both scholars halt at this point, but performerswill wishtogobeyondthelimitsoftheevidence(asconven-tionallyunderstood)by askingquestionsthatmusicol-ogistsareusuallyconstrainedtoleaveunansweredorevenunasked.Whatisvocalization?Howisittobedone? Canit be made to work today, andhow are we tojudgewhetheritis workingornot?Thevocalizationoftextlesspartsinmedievalpoly-phony has been advocated by various scholars for at least25 years4 so the time has come to explore this technique.In doing so here, I hope that this article may also explorethequestionofwhetherpracticalexperimentbyper-formerscanever be raised to the level of a researchtoolinthe study of medievalmusic. AnEnglishbroadcasterhas recently remarked that, when hearing familiar voiceson the radio, he does not formany coherentimpressionofwhatthespeakerslooklike,andyet,whenhedis-covers whatthey do look like, he is invariably bothsur-prisedand(inastrangeway)disappointed.ManymusicologistswhostudytheMiddleAgesmayhave acomparableconceptionofthemusictowhichtheydevotetheirlives;theyarebothsurprisedand(often)disappointedwhenthemusictheyknowfrommanu-scripts and editions shifts fromthat special state of poise,potentialandperfectioninwhichscholarsholdthematerialtheyloveandsuddenlybecomescontingentuponthe tastes, abilities and prejudicesof someone elseIf there are some scholars who will always wish toresistany suggestion that practical experimentmay have somelegitimateresearchstatusitmaypartlybebecauseofsuchaprocessasIhavejustdescribed.Moretothepoint, perhaps, is that a scholar's reluctance to accept theresultsofpracticalexperimentwilloftenrestupontheapparentimpossibilityof describingthoseresultsin anobjectivemanner.InwhatfollowsIhaveaccordinglytriedtodescribetheresultsof experimentswithvocal-izationconductedduringthelastfiveyears5usingtheexpertiseofsingersandacousticianstoendowthosedescriptionswithsomedegreeofprecisionandimpar-tiality.Unlessfreshevidencecomestolight(adescrip-tionofvocalizationinamedievaltext,forexample)itwillnever be possible to establishhow singers vocalizedinlate medievalFrance; I wish to suggest, however, thatit is possible to finda relatively objective way of describ-ing certainphenomenain vocalizationthatwere just asaccessible tothe ears of14th-centurysingers as they aretooursandthereforejustaslikelytohaveinfluencedwhatwasattempted.Letus beginwithevidenceof amorefamiliarorder,however, by succinctly placing the currentdebateaboutthe a cappella performanceof late medievalchansons incontext.Asummaryofthiskindisrequiredsinceresearchinthis areais nowmovingunexpectedlyfast.Thedebatehasbeeninspiredbyseveralchangesincurrentthinking.First,abodyofliteraryevidencedemonstratesthata cappellaperformanceofchansonsEARLYMUSI CAUGUST19 9 2447 at Bodleian Library on March 2, 2014http://em.oxfordjournals.org/Downloaded from wasmorecommoninthe14thand15thcenturiesthanwasimaginedasrecentlyas the1970s. Thisevidenceis'literary'ratherthan'documentary'(amuchabusedword),inthesensethatitisprincipallydrawnfromromancesandchronicles,textswhicharesometimeshardtodistinguishfromoneanotherintermsoftheirdictionandtone, eventhoughtheromancesarenomi-nallyfiction,whilethechroniclesaresupposedlycon-strainedbyfact.Thesematerialsaresubjecttocertainlimitations,notall of whichmay be completelyunder-stoodatpresent,buttakentogethertheypossessanauthoritythatseemsnottohavebeenrecognizedoracknowledgeduntilrecently.6Therecanbelittledoubtthatmoreevidenceofthiskindiswaitingtobedis-covered, andnew research with literary sources hithertounknowntothea cappelladebateis alreadyproducingvaluableresults.7Second, it is no longer possible to be confidentthat weunderstandthenatureofinstrumentaltraditionsandrepertoriesintheMiddleAges. Thisis a wider-rangingpoint whose significanceis not always graspedin music-ologicalresearchsince it has beendevelopedwithinthecontextoforganology.8Whendidinstrumentalists(otherthankeyboardplayers)begintoperformcom-posedpolyphony?Whowerethemusicianswhofirstpushedinstrumentaltechniquein thatdirection? ThesequestionssoeasytoposebutsohardtoanswercannotberesolvedatpresentInmorespecificterms,littleis knownforcertainabouttheplayingtechniquesand capacities of most Gothic instruments, and the diffi-cultyofdefiningtheperformingpitchofthechansonrepertory only weakens stillfurtherourability toassertwithconfidencethatanygiveninstrumentwas abletoperforma line in a chansonat the appropriatepitchforsingersandwiththe expectedmusica ficta adjustments.Considerthelate15th-centuryinstrumentsdepicted(byaniceirony)onthecoverofthenumberof EarlyMusic whichcontainsthearticlesbyEarpandSlavinmentionedabove(May 1991). Althoughseveralimpor-tant instruments of the late 15th century are missing (thelute forexample, andthe harpsichord)this depiction of'the men and women who compiled the Book of Psalms'showsreal15th-centuryinstrumentsintheircurrentstate of technology.Real theymay be, butit is none theless difficultto see how any of them could have been veryusefulin performingthe textless parts of chansonsThefiddle (a proto-viol)may be flat-bridged,in effect,sincethestringsappeartobesecuredonastrmgholderlikethat of the modernguitar. The straighttrumpet,restric-tedtotheharmonicseries, wouldhave beena ceremo-nialandsignallinginstrument,possiblyof someuse insimplekindsofdancemusic;somethingsimilarmayprobably be said of the framedrum. The portative organmighthave doubledthecantusoraninnerpartattheoctave, but contrary to what has oftenbeen suggested inthe past, such portatives would have been of very limiteduseintheunsupportedperformanceoftextlesspartsbecauseoftheirhightessitura.Thedulcimerhassur-prisingly few strings(incommonwithmany otherrep-resentations of this kind of instrument) and if a tolerablyaccurateassessmentofitssizemaybemadefromthepicture,itdoesnotappeartobelargeenoughforthestringstoreachsuitablylowpitches,evenif theyweremetallic,asseemslikely.10Therecorder,likethepor-tative,mighthave doubleda partattheoctave, buttheinherent octave ambiguity of its soundmight have madeperformersreluctanttoentrusta tenororcontratenorparttoitaloneincompanywithsingers.Ofalltheinstrumentsdepicted, only theharpseems a likely can-didate for the performanceof lines in chansons, but eventhere the problem of determining how 15th-century har-pistsproducedchromaticadjustmentscausesaveilofuncertaintytodescend."These are worrying doubts. Whatis certainis that theincursionofmusicalliteracyintotherealmofinstru-mentalplaying,formerlydominatedbyauraltraditionandby heterophony,12was slow anduneveninthe 14thcentury. Some time before1325 the theoristEngelbert ofAdmontdeclaredinstrumentaliststobemusiciansworking entirely ex usu, thatis to say by manualdexter-ityandauraltraditionalone,'3whileJacquesdeLiegeremarks,incharacteristicallyemphaticterms,thatvoices are simply more musical thanharps, lutes,fiddlesandtherest.'4Around1400ArnulfdeSaintGhislainspeaksofinstrumentalists(perhapswithsomeexag-geration)asbeing'entirelylackinginmusicalart'.15Inthelightoftestimonysuchasthis,whichhasnotreceivedits due measure of attention, the role of instru-mentsinperformingchansonsseemslessclearthanitdidbetween1965 and1975, theHeroic Age of the medi-eval revival.16Thirdandthisis a pointwhose importancecannotbe overemphasizedtheevidenceof sacredpolyphonysuggeststhatvocalizationwasastandardresourceoftrainedsingers in the late Middle Ages. If we accepttheprevailing view thatmusicalinstruments otherthantheorganwere normally excludedfrommedievalliturgicalcelebrations,17thensingersmusthavefoundacappellasolutionstotexturesofthekindshowninexx 1and2,the formerin motet style and the latterin the manner of448EARLYMUSI CAUGUST19 9 2 at Bodleian Library on March 2, 2014http://em.oxfordjournals.org/Downloaded from Ex.iJohannes Ciconia, Credo 4, opening (TheWorks of Johannes Ciconia, ed. M. Bent and A. Hallmark, Polyphonic Music oftheFourteenthCentury,xxiv(Monaco, 1985), p.18)vi-si - bi - li-umom-ni- ummEx.2O sacra virgo beata, opening (Fourteenth Century Mass Music in France, ed. H. Stablein-Harder, CMM, xix(AmericanInstituteofMusicology,1962), ii, p.17)^tj==m ^-ogobe-athecontemporarychanson.In theabsenceof instru-ments, and with evidence of partial texting (or the use ofsolmizationsyllables)surprisinglysparse,vocalizationseems a likelysolution.'8Slavin andEarp have now addeda fourthmajorcon-sideration to these, for their articles bring the state of thesources into sharper focus. It now appears to be an over-simplificationtodeclarethat'15th-centuryscribesalmostneveraddedtextsto thelowervoices' of poly-phonicchansons.'9Slavin'sstudyshowshowascribetextedallthreevoicesof aBinchoischansonthusdoingwhatsomemodernperformershave beendoingforyearswhilebothhe andEarpemphasize theimportanceof partialtexting atpoints of imitationanddeclamationas evidencefora cappella scorings.It is worth dwelling uponthe question of partialtext-ingwith14th-centuryevidencenot citeddirectly byeitherEarporSlavin.A searchthroughFrenchsecularsongs fromthe14th centuryreveals a numberofpieceswhere thepresenceof voices on a textlesslineis clearlyEARLYMUSICAUGUST1992449 at Bodleian Library on March 2, 2014http://em.oxfordjournals.org/Downloaded from Ex.3Jacob deSenleches, virelaiEn ce gracieux tamps, excerptshowing partialtextingin the triplum(FrenchSecularComp-ositions oftheFourteenthCentury,ed. \V. Apel, CMM,1 ii I/I(AmericanInstituteof Musicology,1970), i, p.175)sdensleVtllShois-SCO-CU-CUCOCO.- cu- cu0CO -CO -CUCO- cu- cuaCoCO- CU- cuSaHt *Ex.4Matheus de Sancto Johanne, ballade Sciencen' anul annemi, excerptshowing partial texting in the triplumandimitativepassages,presumablyfortextingintenorandcontratenor(FrenchSecular Compositions,ed. Apel, i, p.138)bQuiplushtuitcri Haya - vant.C't-sts:stropbiunlait,tto*'..-di-sonsam-sy.implied.The'presenceofvoices'is notthesameas anaitippclldscoring,ofcourse,butitis nonethelessimpor-tanttorecognizethatthevocalperformanceofentirelyorpredominantlytextlesslinesisenvisagedbythesources.AvirelaibyJacobdeSenleches,Enccgmciaixninipf,appearsintheReinacodex(I:-Pn,n.a.f.6771,f.581')witha textedcantus betweena textless triplumandtenor,butintheB sectionthe triplumsuddenlyacquirestextas itimitatesa repeatedmelodicphrasein thecantuscarryingthe word'cociffourtimes(ex.3) The triplumisnottextedinModA(I-MOea.M.5.24,f.2511), providing aclearindicationifonewereneededthatscribeswerenotalwaysinclinedtoindicateacomposer'sintentionswithregardstosuchinstancesof partialtexting, andnotalwaysadeptatdiscerningthem.It is surelyunlikelythatthetriplumofEncc gracieuxtampfwasdesignedforinstrumentalistspreparedtoburstintosongrinallprobabilitythepredominantlytextlesstriplumwasintendedforasinger.Amoreconcealedbutec|iiallvrevealingexample1*.providedbytheBsectionofafourvoiceballadebvMatheus de SanctoJohanne, a FrenchcomposerwhohasrecentlybeentracedinEnglandasaclerkinthehouse-holdchapelofQueenFhilippaintheyear1368. ' Sciencen' amilannem' upreservedonlyinthe("hantillycodex,hasacantuspartwhichincludestheinterjection'Hayavant!'settoa rising 3rd. Thismotifis imitatedinalltheotherpartsandisanticipatedinthetriplumandtenor(ex.4). Thescribehas textedthepointof imitationinthetriplumonly, butitis probablysafetoregardthetextlesstenorandcontratenorpartsasdesignedforvocalper-formancewiththe'Hayavant!'motiftexted.Thewords'LamortMachaut'inF.Andrieu'swell-knownlamentforGuillaumedeMachaut(d1377)wouldsurelyhavebeendeclaimedinallfourparts,eventhoughtheyareonlyunderlaidtothetwocantuspartsintheChantillycodex,theuniquesourceforofthepiece(ex.5). Wt-1 maysuspectsomethingsimilarintheanonymousballadeMtuticitifquif' u,a three-partworkwhosemusicalidiomowesmuchtothematurestyleofMachaut;herethetenorsuddenlyimitatesthe cantusinonepassage' ex.61,andthecomposermavhaveintendedthattheimitation4 5 0 E A R L YMrS I C.A I 'G I S T1 992 at Bodleian Library on March 2, 2014http://em.oxfordjournals.org/Downloaded from inthetenorshouldfollowthecantus andbearthe text'fudeRomeneis'.Inthiscasethepartmustbeper-formedby a singer who is presumably to vocalize his linethroughout,except at this point. The case is slightlydif-ferent,however, witha nearly identical passage in the Bsection of the same piece (ex.7); there the tenor can onlybetextedatthecostofbreakingthetext'Toudisenloialte' into '-dis en loialte'. Would this have been accept-able practice? It is impossible to answer that question atpresent.Takentogether,the articles by Slavin andEarp begintotracetheoutlineofthevocalizingtradition.Inthe14thcenturyitwouldappeartohavebeenacommontechnique,forEarpis surelyrighttomaintainthatthesources provide no warrantfor texting the wordless ten-orsandcontratenorsofchansonsbyMachautandhisimmediatesuccessors.Ifthesepartsweresungatall,thenthey were vocalized, except wheninstances of par-tial texting like those describedabove (admittedlyrare)indicated otherwise. With the songs of the early 15th cen-tury, however,the pictureis somewhatdifferent.A sig-nificantnumberofcompositions,bothsacredandEx.5Andrieu, doubleballadeArmes, amours/O flour des flours, excerpt(FrenchSecular Compositions,ed. Apel, i, p.3)LamortLamortEEMa-chaut,Ma-chaut,no - hiere - thou-ryno -blere-to-riIque]IquelEx.6Ballade, Marticius quifu,excerptshowing imitationbetweencantus andtenor(French Secular Compositions, ed. Apel,ii. P-77)quifudeRo-meneisI.x.7Ballade, Marticius quifu,a second excerptshowing imitationbetweencantus andtenor(French Secular Compositions,ed. Apel, ii, p.78)EARLYMUSI CAUGUST1 9 9 2451 at Bodleian Library on March 2, 2014http://em.oxfordjournals.org/Downloaded from 2Singingangels.Detailof the altar-pieceThe Mystic LambintheChurchofStBavo,Ghent,paintedbvJanvanFvck.(Anotherpanelofthealtar-pieceisreproducedonp.464.secular,appearwithatleastoneparteitherfullyorpar-tiallytextedinadditionto thesuperius.Boldlyinterpre-ted,thisevidenceseemstoindicatearecessionofthevocalizing traditioninfavourof a new, declamatoryone.Atthesametime,instancesofbriefpartialtexting(generallyatmomentsofimitationordeclamation)increasedramaticallyinsourcescoveringtheearly15thcentury.Whatevertheforceotthisevidence,itmayseemimplausibletomanyperformersandtosomeschol-arsthatvocalizationwasastandardresourceotlatemedievalsingers.Nocontemporarytheoristdescribesthetechnique,astarasI amaware,andnocontempo-rarynameforitisknown;norubricorcanoninanymedievalmusicalsourcecanbeconfidentlyinterpretedasacallforit,"andmodernsingersmaybeinclinedtodoubtthatatechniquewhichmaywellhavelockedthevocalorgansintoasingleposturecaneverhavebeensystematicallyusedbytheircounterpartsintheMiddleAges.Theseobjectionsarenotasweighty,norperhapsasreasonable,astheymayseem.Althoughnotheoristdescribesvocalization,andnocertainallusiontothetechniquehassofarbeenrecognized,itisequallytruethatnotheoristdescribesormentionsinstrumentalpar-ticipationinthepolyphonicchanson,suchpracticalmatters are hardly ever broachedby the theoristswritinginpedagogicalLatin.Vernacularauthorsaresometimesmoreflexible,andithasbeenobservedthatF.ustacheDeschampsmaybereferringtovocalizationwhenhementionssinginginanartisticwaywithouttext.J1Intheabsenceofanyknowncontemporarytermtorthetechniqueofvocalizationacasemightbemadeforthreeverbs.DavidFallowshasalreadysuggestedthatseveral15th-centurysourcesmayimplyadistinctionbetweendiccrc/dircandcanlarc/chantcr,theformerpairpossiblymeaning'tosingwithtext'andthesecondmeaning' tovocalize'.InthefullcontextotFallows'sargumentthisseemsconvincing.' A casemightalsobemadetorMiddleFrenchbourdoiwer,animitativeverbwhoserootmeaningis'tobuzz'.Thereisawidelyattestedmedievaltraditionwhichemploysthenounbourdon(invariousspellings)todenotesomethingrela-tivelylowinamusicaltexturethedronesofa harporfiddle,torexampleandtheuse ofbourdontonamethelowestpartinapolyphoniccomplexisattestedintheMiddleEnglishpartnames,'treble',' mene'and'bour-don'.A comparableusageofbourdon,withreferencetowhatmaxheimprovisedpolyphonicpractice,canbetracedinFrance,hearlva-,thenthcentunvAmore452EARLYMUSI CAUGUST19 9 2 at Bodleian Library on March 2, 2014http://em.oxfordjournals.org/Downloaded from Ex.8Guillaume le Grant, Credo, contratenorof the Amen(afterOxford,BodleianMS Canonicimisc. 213, f.iojr).The com-pletecompositionis editedinPolyphonia sacra,ed. C. Van denBorren(London,1931, rev. edn1962), pp.127-33ijitellingpieceofevidenceisthatinthe1420s theidiomtenendobordone is usedby GiovanniGherardidaPratoto denote the performanceprobablyvocalizedof thetenorpartinaLandiniballataforthreevoices.2I>Thisconfirmsthe evidence of theEnglishsources that bour-don couldreadily wanderaway fromthesemantic field'low drone' and come to rest denoting the lowest part (orinthiscase,withanidiomaticconstruction,theper-formanceofthelowest,textlesspart)ofapolyphoniccomposition.A similardevelopmentcouldhavetakenplace in France, for one sense of the Middle French verbbourdonner inGuillaumedeMachaut'slifetimewas 'tosing a drone without words'. The evidence for thatusageis provided by Evrard de Conty, whose translationof theProblems of Aristotle, togetherwiththe commentaryofPetrus de Abano, tells how thehumanvoice can'bour-donner... tousdisd'unemaniere.. . sans parler'(buzz. . .allinthesamemanner. ..withoutwords'thecontextshows the droningis implied)/"The early15th-centuryItalianidiomtenendobordoneleadsus toanotherMiddleFrenchtermthatmay havebeenassociatedwiththepractice ofvocalizationtenir(literally 'to hold'). It is well known that a description ofPhiliptheGood'svisittoCambraiin1449tellshow,whenhisdeparturewasdelayed,twoofthechoirboys(probablyfromthe cathedral)sang a chansonwithoneof the duke's gentlemen who 'held' the tenor ('tint le ten-ure).AsFallowsremarks,itisjustpossiblethatthisimplies instrumentalperformance,but no instrumentismentionedand the context suggests otherwise.2* Wefindthe same idiom, 'tenir le teneur', in the mid-i5th-centuryprose romanceCleriadus el Meliadice, each time in con-textswherethereisnoreferencetoinstrumentsandwhere the balance of probabilities favours a cappella per-formance.29 Examples of this idiom might be multiplied.Althoughit is impossible to establish, in any of the casesinpoint,whetherthetenorbeing'held'is textlessandthereforevocalized,itremainsa possibilitythatMiddleFrenchtenir possessed this technical sense, at least in the15thcentury.Wemayrejectthisevidenceforbeingsofragmentary,of course, but it should be emphasized thatvery little of the performanceterminology whichmedi-evalsingersemployedhasbeenpreservedandinthisrespect ourignorance on the matter of vocalizationter-minologyisnomorethanwe wouldexpect.(Itisnotknown, for example, how Guillaume de Machaut wouldhave referredto bad ensemble or to ungainly phrasing, agapinourknowledgeso largethat,untilitis filled, wecannot be sure those concepts existed for Machaut in thefree-standingway thatthey do now.)Amorewide-rangingobjectiontothevocalizationhypothesis would be to maintain, as many scholars havedone,thatthetenorandcontratenorpartsofmanychansonsareinherently'unvocal'andarethereforeunlikely tohave beensung. Thebeliefthatsomemedi-evalmusic contains'unvocal'materialis soprofoundlyembeddedin modernscholarship thatI may perhaps beforgivenforreturning to it. The weakness of the 'unvo-cal'argumentis thatlatemedievalpolyphonycontainsmanylineswhichamodernsingermayinstinctivelydeem'unvocal'butwhichwerealmostcertainlysungwhentheywerefirstperformed.Ex.8showsthecon-tratenorpartfromtheAmenthatclosesathree-partCredo by Guillaume le Grantin the Oxfordmanuscript(GB-Ob213). All the voices are textedatthis pointandwe may thereforeassumethatthescribe believedthemtobesingablethecontratenorincluded.Ifsuchanangularpartcouldbesung,thenwhynottheequallychallengingcontratenorpassagesinsecularcomposi-tions?Ex.9 shows a few bars fromone of the finest bal-ladesoftheArsSubtilior,Amourmale cuermisbyAnthonellodeCaserta.Thecontratenorisangular,tosay theleast, anddoubtsmustbe entertainedaboutthelegitimacy of themusica ficta in the source at thispoint.However, modernexperimentsuggests that the leap of a7th and the fall of an augmented5th presentno insuper-able difficultyto a trained singer experiencedin the per-formanceof such a repertory. Such parts may have beensungwithmorepridethanpleasure,andheardwithmoreadmirationthanenjoyment,butweshouldbeEARLYMUSI CAUGUST19 9 245 3 at Bodleian Library on March 2, 2014http://em.oxfordjournals.org/Downloaded from Ex.9Anthonello de Caserta, ballade Amourmale cuer mis, opening of second section{French Secular Compositions, ed. Apel,i, p-4)s ss\SsEnte!t-s -t