Rodericus (or S Uciredor) was a French composer of the 14th century. Rodericus is known through a single ballade attributed to him in the Chantilly Codex as S Uciredor, which is "Rodericus" spelled backwards. The piece, ''Angelorum Psalat'', is in two voices and is an exemplary work of the Ars subtilior style, with many similarities to works of Jacob Senleches. ''Angelorum Psalat'' exhibits considerable rhythmic complexity and its text employs contrasting imagery of

original sin Original sin is the Christian doctrine that holds that humans, through the fact of birth, inherit a tainted nature in need of regeneration and a proclivity to sinful conduct. The biblical basis for the belief is generally found in Genesis 3 ( ...

and the harmony of the spheres, a common poetic device of the age. Nothing is known of Rodericus's life, although

Gilbert Reaney Gilbert Reaney (11 January 1924 – 22 March 2008) was an English musicologist who specialized in medieval and Renaissance music, theory and literature. Described as "one of the most prolific and influential musicologists of the past century", ...

suggested that he is

Rodrigo de la Guitarra Rodrigo de la Guitarra ("Rodrigo of the gittern") was a Spanish lutenist and gittern player, active primarily in the first half of the fifteenth century. Rodrigo was in the service of the House of Trastámara, and was a court composer for Ferdinan ...

, since Rodrigo is the only known contemporaneous musician with the same name. However, this Rodrigo appears in Toledo as late as 1458, which would have made him extraordinarily long-lived, even assuming he composed maturely from a young age. No other supporting evidence had arisen since Reaney's conjecture.

Crawford Young Crawford Young is an American lutenist and musicologist residing in Basel, Switzerland. He is the director of the Ferrara Ensemble, Ensemble Project Ars Nova, Shield of Harmony, and is a long time accompanist of Andreas Scholl. Life and career R ...

suggested in 2008 that Rodericus is the musician and clergyman Johannes Rogerii. Young argues that the author of ''Angelorum Psalat'' must have been an extremely well developed composer and musician. Rogerii is a plausible candidate, since his terms of service in various courts closely tracked with those of composers whose style resembles that developed in ''Angelorum Psalat''. He preceded Jacob Senleches at the cardinal's court in

Aragon Aragon ( , ; Spanish and an, Aragón ; ca, Aragó ) is an autonomous community in Spain, coextensive with the medieval Kingdom of Aragon. In northeastern Spain, the Aragonese autonomous community comprises three provinces (from north to so ...

and was contemporaneous or nearly so with composers such as Hasprois and

Guido de Lange Guido is a given name Latinised from the Old High German name Wido. It originated in Medieval Italy. Guido later became a male first name in Austria, Germany, the Low Countries, Scandinavia, Spain, Portugal, Latin America and Switzerland. The mea ...

at the court of

Pope Benedict XIII Pope Benedict XIII ( la, Benedictus XIII; it, Benedetto XIII; 2 February 1649 – 21 February 1730), born Pietro Francesco Orsini and later called Vincenzo Maria Orsini, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 29 May ...

. Guido makes use of the semiminima very similarly to Rodericus. Young's main argument is the veiled reference to

Pope Innocent VII Pope Innocent VII ( la, Innocentius VII; it, Innocenzo VII; 1339 – 6 November 1406), born Cosimo de' Migliorati, was head of the Catholic Church from 17 October 1404 to his death in November 1406. He was pope during the period of the Western ...

, who appears in the last word of the ballade as "Innocui" (innocent) with an otherwise unmotivated first initial letter. In other sections of the ballade there are other letters "i" as initials, or an "in" aside from the meter of the poem, indicating that this "in" is a wild beast corrupting the unity of the world, or the papal world, since pope Benedict, for whom Rogerii worked, felt himself to be the true pope: "in retro mordens ut fera pessima" (in ...: retreat! biting wild horrible beast). Rogerii also named himself "Vatignies", apparently after a little northern French community until today (Wattignies), in the close vicinity of either Senlecques or Salesches, where the composer Senleches may have come from. Senleches was the main reference point for the new signs for subtle note values used in "Angelorum psalat". In his later years, Rogerii was a distinguished member of the papal chapel, which he reentered in 1396 earning the commendation "omnes et singule exemptiones, immunitates, franchisie ac libertates capellanorum et familiarum"

Ursula Günther Ursula Günther (15 June 1927 – 20 or 21 November 2006) was a German musicologist specializing in the fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries and the music of Giuseppe Verdi. She coined the term , to categorize the rhythmically complex music th ...

, p. 188 footnote.

References

{{authority control 14th-century French composers