Gaudete! And what happened to it in the 20th century

FOOTNOTES

1. [01:04] Hadidian, Eileen. “A Study and Critical Commentary of Piae Cantiones, a Sixteenth-Century Song Collection.” DMA term project, Stanford University, 1978 [link]. 

2. [02:25] For more information about the hymn “Danket dem Herren”, see The Free Lutheran Chorale-Book website [link].

3. [04:36] Some of these rules for creating polyphony over a tenor melody are described in our episode cantare super librum [YouTube]. See also Markus Jans, “Alle gegen eine : Satzmodelle in Note-gegen Note-Sätzen des 16. und 17. Jahrhunderts”, in Basler Jahrbuch für historische Musikpraxis (band 10, 1986) [link]. 

4. [04:47] Guilielmus Monachus, De preceptis artis musice (c.1470) [link]. See Eulmee Part, "De preceptis artis musicae of Guilielmus Monachus: A new edition, translation, and commentary", PhD diss. (The Ohio State University), pp. 188-9. We described this technique in our episode, albeit with three voices only, in our episode Cantare super librum [YouTube], 10:43. 

5. [05:56] Notice: intervals are qualified as consonances or dissonances by their relation to the lowest note rather than their relation to the tenor or any other part. Fourths found between inner parts, as in our example, between the alto and tenor, pose no contrapuntal issue. A fourth between any part and the bass is considered dissonant. Get the A FOURTH IS NOT A CONSONANCE T-Shirt here:  [link]. 

6. [07:50] See our episode Musica ficta [YouTube]. 

7. [10:19] Hadidian, Eileen. “A Study and Critical Commentary of Piae Cantiones, a Sixteenth-Century Song Collection.” DMA term project, Stanford University, 1978. See chapter 3 [link]. 

8. [10:44] George Ratcliffe Woodward, Piae cantiones (London: Chiswick Press, 1910), pp. Ix-xii [imslp].

9. [12:02] Ibid. p. x. 

10. [13:57] “Was it an oversight on the editro's part, a printer's error? Or was the quire expected, without rubric, to sing this Cantio to the tune of Tempus adest floridum?” Ibid. pp. 229-30. On another note, this melody of “Tempus adest floridum” from Piae Cantiones was translated to English in 1853 as the Christmas carol “Good King Wenceslas” [wikipedia]. 

11. [14:40] David Wulstan, The Clerkes Of Oxenford: Christmas Music (The Abbey Recording Company, 1966), track 13: Gaudete [YouTube]. 

12. [12:06] David Wulstan, An Anthology of Carols (Chester Music, 1968), p. 14.  Regarding the verse music he writes in the critical commentary that “the tune for the verse is not printed there [in Piae Cantiones], but here is printed from MS XII F 14 in the National Museum of Prague.”

13. [15:38] Interestingly, instead of adopting the bass with a flat on the penultimate bar (or f natural in his transposition), as implied by the original alto line as well as other historical settings, he instead “corrects” the alto part and leaves the bass with an F-sharp. 

14. [15:58] Steeleye Span, Below the salt (Sound Techniques, 1972). In the video: Steeleye Span performing Gaudete live on WDR, 1975 [YouTube]. 

15. [16:40] The arrangement of Gaudete for the King’s Singers was made by Brian Kay, and was first introduced on their CD “A Little Christmas Music” (EMI CD7499092, 1989). The clip presented on the video is from a live concert from 2013 [YouTube]. In a music copy that I have seen of Kay’s arrangement the verse melody is a bit different, but in their performances they copy the Steeleye Span version. 

16. [16:57] Ed., Hugh Keyte and Andrew Parrott, The new Oxford book of carols (Oxford University Press, 1992) [archive.org], pp. 158-9. 

17. [17:20] In Wulstan’s 1968 version (printed edition) the melody starts on the 7th degree of the mode and in The New Oxford Book of Carols the same melody starts on the 3rd degree. 

18. [17:41] The song “Ezechielis porta” (which has a first verse similar to the third verse of Gaudete) is found in a 15th-century Czech manuscript: Praha, Knihovna Národního muzea, XII F 14, f. 212v [link]. The same song appears in a second manuscript without music: Praha, Knihovna Národního muzea, II C 7 [link], 122r, but it says that it should be sung to the melody of the song “Za ciesaře Augusta” which appears on the same manuscript [on f. 43v] and shares the same melody with the aforementioned manuscript. 

ADDED FOOTNOTE [18:10] Apparently in the corrected edition of The New Oxford Book of Carols (1994?) there is a reference to musica ficta. When making the video I consulted the first edition from 1992.

19. The album covers that appear on the video are the following: Joel Cohen, A Renaissance Christmas (1986, Elektra Entertainment [YouTube]), Markus Tapio, Piae Cantiones: Latin Song in Medieval Finland (1998, Naxos [YouTube]), Andrew Lawrence King, Piae Cantiones (2018, Alia Vox [YouTube]).

APPENDIX I - Sources of the melody of Gaudete and different settings of it

Melody alone:

• Michael Weisse, Ein Gesangbuch der Brüder inn Behemen (Nürnberg: Johann Günther, 1544) [link]. No. CXCVI [p. 196r/403]: “Danket dem Herren”.

• Petrus Tritonius, Geminae undeviginti Odarum Horatii melodiae (Frankfurt: Christian Egenolff, 1552) [link]. No. 34: “Vitam que faciunt” 

Polpyonic settings:

• Senfl, Ludwig: Varia Carminvm Genera (Nürnberg: Hieronymus Formschneider, 1534) [link]. No. 23: “Vitam quae faciunt”

• Senfl, Ludwig: Varia Carminvm Genera (Nürnberg: Hieronymus Formschneider, 1534) [link]. No. 24: “Vivamus mea Lesbia”

• Johann Spangenberg, Grammaticae latinae partes (Wittenberg: Rhau, 1538) [link]. [pp. 319-20] “Vitam quae faciunt”

• Didrik Petri, Piae cantiones (Greifswald: Augustin Ferber, 1582) [imslp]. [No. 24:] “Gaudate”. 2nd edition as: Cantiones Piae et antiquae (Rostock, 1625)

• Sethus Calvisius, Harmonia cantionum ecclesiasticarum (Leipzig: Jacob Apel, 1598) [link]. No. XCV: “Danket dem Herren”.

• Bartholomäus Gesius, Geistliche Deutsche Lieder (Franckfurt an der Oder: Johann Hartmann, 1601) [link] p. CXCII: “Danket dem Herren”.

• Michael Praetorius, Musae Sioniae, Theil 8 (Wolffenbüttel: Fürstliche Druckerey, 1609) [imslp]. No. CCLXXIV and CCLXXV: “Danket dem Herren”.

• Johann Crüger, Praxis pietatis melica (Berlin: Christoph Runge, 1653) [appears also in 1647] [imslp] [link] [p. 498:] “Danket dem Herren”. 

Instrumental settings:

• Elias Nikolaus Ammerbach, Orgel oder Instrument Tabulatur (Leipzig: Jacob Berwalds Erben, 1571) [imslp]. No. 7: “Danket dem Herren” (No. 2 in the 1587 ed.) 

CREDITS

Created by Elam Rotem, December 2023.

Singing: Ivo haun, Doron Schleifer and Elam Rotem.

Special thanks to Tim Braithwaite, Lisandro Abadie, Jacob Sagrans, Mats Lillhannus, Alon Schab, Andrew Parrott, Hugh Keyte, Anne Smith and Agnieszka Budzinska-Bennett.