MCE 07-01 Gaude flore virginali

Edition

Motet

The motet is transmitted with a few errors. A flat of unclear meaning is notated after the ligature at m. 12 in the Tenor. The accidental is not to be referred to the b in the T at m. 45, since a b-flat there would clash with the e of B and e' of A.

Text (ed. by Eva Ferro)

The texts of this cycle were edited according to the manuscript D-Mbs 3154, ff. 38v–43r, known as the ‘Nicolaus Leopold Codex’.[1] The scribe, who copied the texts only for the Cantus and the Tenor, was careful, but made some errors: the Latin verb transcendere (‘to transcend’, ‘to surpass’) in motet 1 was written ‘transiendis’ instead of transcendis, possibly a phonetic confusion. Occasionally, the scribe forgot some letters – ‘respledere’ instead of resplendere in motet 2 – or doubled the syllables – ‘celestitibus’ instead of celestibus in motet 5 (for the single motets see the individual edition and commentary).

The texts of the six motets that comprise this cycle were drawn from one and the same source, a poem in rhythmic verses[2] about the celestial joys of the Virgin Mary, to which in two places, namely in motets 5 and 6, short additions were inserted. These interpolations are prayers in which the verbs are conjugated in the second person singular (‘you’: ‘Exaltata es, sancta dei genitrix’ in motet 6) and the addressees (Jesus and Mary) are explicitly stated and asked for help or benevolence (‘Domine Iesu, propitius esto mihi’, ‘Lord Jesus, be benevolent to me’ in motet 5; ‘intercede pro nobis’, ‘be our intercessor’ in motet 6). The second interpolation found in motet 6, identified by Thomas Noblitt as an antiphon for the first Nocturn of the feast of the Assumption,[3] was already circulating together with Gaude flore.[4] The first one in motet 5, instead, is associated to Gaude flore only in this source. With the exception of the addressee (‘Domine Jesu’ instead of ‘Deus’) the text corresponds to the antiphon derived from Luke 18:13, mostly sung during the Pentecost period.[5] As a Christological prayer this antiphon perfectly fits with the liturgical moment in which motet 5 resounded (loco Sanctus): it was sung during the Canon – as Jesus materially manifests his presence on the altar in the transubstantiated Host – and was set in an evocative chordal style.[6]

For a better overview of the composition and an easier comparison with the ‘standard’ text in Analecta Hymnica, the complete texts of both are reproduced here:

 

Anonymous, Gaude flore virginali

AH 31, no. 189, p. 198

motet 1

Gaude, flore virginali
Honoreque speciali
Transcendis splendiferum
Angelorum principatum
Et sanctorum decoratum
Dignitate numerum.

1. Gaude, flore virginali
Quae honore speciali
Transscendis splendiferum
Angelorum principatum
Et sanctorum decoratum
Dignitate numerum.

motet 2

Gaude, sponsa cara dei,
Nam ut lux clara diei
Solis datur lumine,
Sic tu facis orbem vere
Tuae pacis resplendere
Lucis plenitudine.

2. Gaude, cara sponsa Dei,
Nam ut clara lux diei
Solis datur lumine,
Sic tu facis orbem vere
Tuae pacis resplendere
Lucis plenitudine.

motet 3

Gaude, splendens vas virtutum,
Cuius sedens est ad nutum
Tota caeli curia,
Te benignam, te felicem
Iesu dignam genitricem,
Veneratur in gloria.

3. Gaude, splendens vas virtutum,
Cuius pendens est ad nutum
Tota caeli curia,
Te benignam, te felicem
Iesu dignam genetricem
Venerans in gloria.

motet 4

Gaude nexu voluntatis
Et amplexu caritatis,
Iuncta sis altissimo,
Ut ad votum consequaris
Quidquid, virgo, postularis
A Iesu dulcissimo.

4. Gaude, nexu voluntatis
Et amplexu caritatis
Iuncta sic altissimo,
Ut ad votum consequaris,
Quidquid totum postularis
A Iesu dulcissimo.

motet 5

Gaude, mater miserorum,
Quia pater praemiorum
Dabit te colentibus
Congruentem hic mercedem
Et felicem poli sedem
Sursum in caelestibus.

Domine Iesu, propitius esto mihi peccatori.

Gaude, humilis beata,
Corpore glorificata,
Meruisti maxima
Fore, tantae dignitatis
Ut sis sanctae trinitatis
Sessione proxima.

5. Gaude, mater miserorum,
Quia pater saeculorum
Dedit te colentibus
Congruentem hic mercedem
Et fulgentem poli sedem
Sursum in caelestibus.

6. Gaude, pia mater Christi,
Sola quia meruisti,
O virgo piissima,
Esse tantae dignitatis,
Ut sis sanctae trinitatis
Sessione proxima.

motet 6

Gaude, virgo mater pura,
Certa manens et secura,
Quod haec tua gaudia
Non cessabunt nec decrescent,
Sed durabunt et florescent
Per aeterna saecula.

Exaltata es, sancta dei genitrix, super choros angelorum ad caelestia regna. Intercede pro nobis.

7. Gaude, parens virgo pura,
Certa manens et secura,
Quod haec tua gaudia
Non cessabunt nec decrescent,
Sed durabunt et florescent
Per aeterna saecula.

Some divergent readings between the text of the motet and the text edited in Analecta Hymnica point out the analogies between the motet text and the text transmitted in two manuscripts whose variants are listed in Analecta Hymnica. Two variants in particular connect our text with the text of the manuscripts called B and D, namely Rome, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Ross. 114 and Vienna, Schottenstift, Cod. 323 (Hübl 404) respectively:[7] motet 5, line 5, has ‘et felicem’ instead of et fulgentem, just as in these manuscripts; moreover, these manuscripts and our motet have a different transmission of the first verses of strophe 6. Here instead of ‘Gaude, pia mater Christi, / Sola quia meruisti, / O virgo piissima, / Esse tantae dignitatis’ one reads ‘Gaude, humilis beata, / Corpore glorificata, / Meruisti maxima / Fore, tantae dignitatis’. Since both sources seem to have a connection to the North, this possibly points at a non-Milanese origin of this motet.[8]

The topic of the poem, and thus of the motet cycle’s text, is the Virgin Mary. More precisely, the poem treats the joys experienced by Mary in heaven: the medieval sources call it ‘gaudia spiritualia’, ‘gaudia virginis Mariae caelestia’, or even more explicitly ‘gaudi[is] virginis gloriosae, quibus iam fruitur in caelestibus’ (see AH 31, no. 189, p. 199) and attribute the poem to Thomas Becket, the archbishop of Canterbury. A small anecdote connected to the origin of this poem and its author is sometimes transmitted in the sources. For instance, in the ‘orationale windeshemense’ listed in AH one reads that the saint, famous for his devotion to the terrestrial joys of Mary (‘septem gaudia corporalia’), on which he prayed every day with great devotion (‘cotidie cum magna devotione recolebat’), had a visit from Mary herself and was admonished by her to praise instead her celestial joys, which in contrast to the transitory joys experienced in life do not perish, but last forever. According to this tale, Mary’s visit moved the archbishop to compose this rhythmic poem (‘venerabilis pontifex haec eadem gaudia perpetua virginis beatae secundum modum, qui sequitur, rigmice composuit’).[9] Even if the Thomas’s authorship is rather implausible (Becket’s opus is limited to a series of epistles),[10] the topic of the joys (gaudia) of the Virgin Mary interested medieval authors, as the vast tradition of poems and songs in Latin and the vernacular languages on this topic demonstrates.


[1] For further literature see Felix Diergarten, ‘“Gaude flore virginali” – Message from the “Black Hole”?’, in Motet Cycles between Devotion and Liturgy, ed. Daniele V. Filippi and Agnese Pavanello, Scripta 7 (Basel: Schwabe, 2019), 429–55, at 430–31.

[2] The rhythmic structure is 8p/8p/7pp/8p/8p/7pp; the rhyme scheme is aabccb.

[3] Thomas Noblitt, Der Kodex des Magister Nicolaus Leopold: Staatsbibliothek München Mus Ms. 3154 (Kassel: Bärenreiter, 1987–1996), iv, 364.

[4] See Diergarten, ‘Gaude flore virginali’, 432–33.

[5] See Cantus Database, ID 002180 (https://cantus.uwaterloo.ca/id/002180 accessed 21.9.2020).

[6] Concerning the Elevation section see Felix Diergarten, ‘“Aut propter devotionem, aut propter sonorositatem”: Compositional Design of Late Fifteenth-Century Elevation Motets in Perspective’, Journal of the Alamire Foundation, 9, no. 1 (2017), 61–86; Agnese Pavanello, “The Elevation as Liturgical Climax in Gesture and Sound: Milanese Elevation Motets in Context”, Journal of the Alamire Foundation, 9, no. 1 (2017), 33–59.

[7] For the correspondences between the signatures provided in AH and the new ones, see Diergarten, ‘Gaude flore virginali’, 434, n. 19.

[8] See Diergarten, ‘Gaude flore virginali’, 434.

[9] This source is listed in AH as ‘orationale windeshemense’ or ‘prayer book of Windesheim’ (Orat. ms. Windeshemense anni 1508. Cod. 7955 der KK. Familien-Bibl. Wien, not clearly to be identified in the modern catalogues today). The same story with similar vocabulary, however, can be read, for instance, also in the manuscript Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, MS 1857, f. 15r–v.

[10] See Konrad Hofmann, ‘Becket, Thomas’, in Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, ed. Michael Buchberger, 10 vols. (Freiburg: Herder 21930–38), ii, col. 123.

Edition

Translation

Gaude, flore virginali
Honoreque speciali
Transcendis[i] splendiferum
Angelorum principatum
Et sanctorum decoratum
Dignitate numerum.

Rejoice, through your virginal flower
and special honour
you surpass the shining
company of the angels
and the multitude of saints
adorned with worthiness.


[i] transcendis] transiendis D-Mbs 3154, C T

The text was edited following D-Mbs 3154, ff. 38v–39r. For a commentary to this text see the General Commentary to the cycle.

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Measure Voice Source Category Comment Image
D-Mbs_3154 designation of voices -, Contra[ten]or, Tenor, Contra[ten]or
D-Mbs_3154 clefs c1, c3, c3, c4
17 4 D-Mbs_3154 pitch and rhythm Mi e instead of Mi g
21-29 3 D-Mbs_3154 text underlay Transcendis instead of Transcendis spendidiferum
27-28 2 D-Mbs_3154 pitch and rhythm Mi a' and Sb b' instead of Mi c'' and Sb d'' (emendation originally proposed by Noblitt and here accepted because of the clash c'/b)
30-38 3 D-Mbs_3154 text underlay splendidiferum Angelorum instead of Angelorum principatum
35 1 D-Mbs_3154 pitch and rhythm the tie is editorial
39-60 3 D-Mbs_3154 text underlay principatum Et sanctorum decoratum…numerum instead of Et sanctorum decoratum…numerum.
42 3 D-Mbs_3154 accidentals a flat of unclear meaning is notated after the lig. (not to be referred to the b in the T at m. 45, since a b-flat there would clash with the e of B and e' of A)
50 2 D-Mbs_3154 pitch and rhythm correction of an originally notated Sm a to Mi a
56 3 D-Mbs_3154 accidentals sharp sign before Sb b
60 2 D-Mbs_3154 other Lo e' notated as black note (probably to highlight its optional character or just to give it better visibility)
Text
EditionTranslation

Gaude, flore virginali
Honoreque speciali
Transcendis splendiferum
Angelorum principatum
Et sanctorum decoratum
Dignitate numerum.

Rejoice, through your virginal flower
and special honour
you surpass the shining
company of the angels
and the multitude of saints
adorned with worthiness.