The ''Bamberg Codex'' (''

Bamberg State Library The Bamberg State Library (german: Staatsbibliothek Bamberg) is a combined universal, regional and research library with priority given to the humanities. Today it is housed in the New Residence, the former prince-bishop's new palace. The Fr ...

, Msc.Lit.115'') is a

manuscript A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand – or, once practical typewriters became available, typewritten – as opposed to mechanically printed or reproduced ...

containing two treatises on music theory and a large body of 13th-century

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

polyphony Polyphony ( ) is a type of musical texture (music), texture consisting of two or more simultaneous lines of independent melody, as opposed to a musical texture with just one voice, monophony, or a texture with one dominant melodic voice accompan ...

. The first part of the ''Bamberg Codex'' contains 100 double

motet In Western classical music, a motet is mainly a vocal musical composition, of highly diverse form and style, from high medieval music to the present. The motet was one of the pre-eminent polyphonic forms of Renaissance music. According to Marga ...

s, which are three-voice pieces with two

contrapuntal In music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more musical lines (or voices) which are harmonically interdependent yet independent in rhythm and melodic contour. It has been most commonly identified in the European classical tra ...

lines above a ''

cantus firmus In music, a ''cantus firmus'' ("fixed melody") is a pre-existing melody forming the basis of a polyphonic composition. The plural of this Latin term is , although the corrupt form ''canti firmi'' (resulting from the grammatically incorrect tr ...

''. Forty-four of the motets have Latin texts, 47 have French texts, and 9 are macaronic. This is followed by a '' conductus'' and 7 settings of

hocket In music, hocket is the rhythmic linear technique using the alternation of notes, pitches, or chords. In medieval practice of hocket, a single melody is shared between two (or occasionally more) voices such that alternately one voice sounds whil ...

s. The

musical notation Music notation or musical notation is any system used to visually represent aurally perceived music played with instruments or sung by the human voice through the use of written, printed, or otherwise-produced symbols, including notation fo ...

is similar to that used in the ''

Montpellier Codex The ''Montpellier Codex'' (''Montpellier, Bibliothèque Inter-Universitaire, Section Médecine, H196'') is an important source of 13th-century French polyphony. The ''Codex'' contains 336 polyphonic works probably composed c. 1250–1300, and w ...

'', although some advances in notational clarity are evident, for instance in multi-column layouts, each voice observes line breaks at the same place in the piece. These motets were likely composed between 1260 and 1290, and are generally in the style associated with

Franco of Cologne Franco of Cologne (; also Franco of Paris) was a German music theorist and possibly a composer. He was one of the most influential theorists of the Late Middle Ages, and was the first to propose an idea which was to transform musical notation pe ...

. The second part of the ''Codex'' contains two theoretical treatises, one by Amerus and one anonymous, as well as two motets added later. The ''Codex'' is likely

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. ...

ian in provenance.

Description/Contents

The Bamberg Codex is bound in ivory pigskin with embroidered gold lettering. It is written on parchment and consists of eighty pages classified into ten groups and

Arabic numerals Arabic numerals are the ten numerical digits: , , , , , , , , and . They are the most commonly used symbols to write decimal numbers. They are also used for writing numbers in other systems such as octal, and for writing identifiers such as ...

appear in pencil in the top right-hand corner of each page. The codex is mostly associated with

Franconia Franconia (german: Franken, ; Franconian dialect: ''Franggn'' ; bar, Frankn) is a region of Germany, characterised by its culture and Franconian dialect (German: ''Fränkisch''). The three administrative regions of Lower, Middle and Upper F ...

n notation, although it does include

s. This points to how popular

secular music Non-religious secular music and sacred music were the two main genres of Western music during the Middle Ages and Renaissance era. The oldest written examples of secular music are songs with Latin lyrics.Grout, 1996, p. 60 However, many secular s ...

was becoming towards the end of the 13th century and also how music was becoming more accessible to the common folk, many of whom never learned to speak

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power ...

other than reciting it in church services. This is consistent with the

containing many secular songs in its collection as well, showing the extent of this phenomenon, not constraining it to just one musical school in the period. Different aspects of the manuscript such as the trimming and coloring of the pages, the format of the text, and the amount of wear and tear points to the notion that the codex was compiled in a manner that allowed people to perform the songs without any prior rehearsal. Most of these motets are three-voice motets, meaning they have three different voices in the written music. There are more than 100 of these motets contained in the codex. Forty-four of these have Latin texts, forty-seven have French texts, and nine have

macaronic Macaronic language uses a mixture of languages, particularly bilingual puns or situations in which the languages are otherwise used in the same context (rather than simply discrete segments of a text being in different languages). Hybrid words ...

texts. Macaronic texts are written in a hybrid between two languages, in this case Latin and the

vernacular A vernacular or vernacular language is in contrast with a "standard language". It refers to the language or dialect that is spoken by people that are inhabiting a particular country or region. The vernacular is typically the native language, n ...

French. There is only one motet in the Codex with four voice parts, the rest have three parts. All of the motets in the Codex of Bamberg are

polyphonic Polyphony ( ) is a type of musical texture consisting of two or more simultaneous lines of independent melody, as opposed to a musical texture with just one voice, monophony, or a texture with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords, h ...

and polytextual. The codex also contains two

treatises A treatise is a formal and systematic written discourse on some subject, generally longer and treating it in greater depth than an essay, and more concerned with investigating or exposing the principles of the subject and its conclusions."Treat ...

, one by an anonymous writer, and the other by Amerus. This treatise, '' Practica artis musice'', was intended to explain notation systems while also discussing polyphony. Amerus’ work is believed to be among the first treatises from

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

using rhythmic notation. The techniques used for most of the composition of the motets and songs included basic practices used in the era of medieval motets during the 13th century. This included the use of rhythmic modes and an early developed form of the staff. This provided a basis for exact pitch along with a form of our modern staff. After the main section of the previously mentioned motets, a '' conductus'' and 7 ''

s'' follow. A conductus is a type of sacred, but non-liturgical vocal composition for one or more voices. A hocket is a rhythmic linear technique that utilizes the differentiation of certain rhythmic and scale elements. In the

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

practice of a hocket, a single melody is usually shared between two voices so one voice sounds while the other rests and this act alternates between the voices. List of pieces from the Codex # Je ne chant pas / Talens m'est pris de chanter / Aptatur / Omnes (''4 voices'') # Ave, Virgo regia / Ave, plena gracie / Fiat (''2 voices, fiddle, harp'') # In seculum breve (''2 fiddles, dulcimer, harp'') # Entre Adan et Henequel / Chief bien seans /Aptatur (''3 voices'') # Ave, plena gracie / Salve, Virgo regia / Aptatur (''2 voices, recorder, fiddle, harp, lute'') # Neuma (''recorder, horn, fiddle, harp'') # (''3 voices'') # El mois de mai / De se debent / Kyrie (''3 voices'') # (3 fiddles) # Mout me fu griès / In omni frate tuo / In seculum (''3 voices'') # (''3 voices'') # Virgo (''2 fiddles, dulcimer, harp'') # Pouvre secours / Gaude chorus / Angelus (''3 voices'') # Chorus Innocencium / In Bethleem / In Bethleem (''2 voices, fiddle, percussion'') # In seculum d'Amiens breve (''recorder, 2 fiddles, lute'') # (''2 voices, recorder, 2 fiddles'') # Miranda / Salve, mater / Kyrie (''7 voices'') # In seculum longum (''recorder, 2 fiddles'') # (''3 voices'') # (''4 voices'') # In seculum d'Amiens longum (''recorder, fiddle, harp'') # me tu griès II / Robins m'aime / Portare (''3 voices'') # Or voi je bien / Eximium / Virgo (''2 voices, fiddle, harp'') # Ave, Virgo regia / Ave, gloriosa / Domino (''3 voices'') # Mors que stimulo / Mors morsu / Mors (''6 voices'')

Significance

The Bamberg Codex is an important collection of thirteenth-century motets; it provides source material of significant historical and musicological significance. As such, it offers a compact and concise database for the music of the time. Not only does this show the advancement of music both in complexity and the notation but also the spread of secular music through the writings of Amerus. The Bamberg Codex and its perception about the origin and provenance of the manuscript continues to be contested, with some pointing to more French motets than Latin motets in the codex, as proof that the codex belongs to French repertory.

Citation

* Bamberg, Codex, 2003. * Norwood, Patricia P. “Evidence Concerning the Provenance of the Bamberg Codex.” The Journal of Musicology, vol. 8, no. 4, 1990, pp. 491–504. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/763532.

External links

''Msc.Lit.115''
Staatsbibliothek Bamberg Medieval music manuscript sources {{medieval-music-stub

Description/Contents

Significance

Citation

Further reading

External links