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A bibliography of planctus

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 July 2009

Janthia Yearley
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Extract

The present bibliography was originally compiled to provide a basis for my research into the relationship between words and music and the social context of the medieval European planctus. The planctus, a lament normally written at the death of an important historical, biblical or classical personage, or at the destruction of a city, has featured prominently in discussions about the development of liturgical drama and the possible origins of the Passion play; in studies of funeral verse; and in histories of the interrelation of European verse and musical forms. The relationship between the Marienklage and German Passion plays, the sequence and lai characteristics of Abelard's six planctus and the melodic style of the sequence melody planctus cygni have to some extent been studied by both musical and literary scholars. It has not, however, been possible to estimate the significance of these three issues in the history of either the planctus or of medieval monophonic song, since the planctus has never before been considered as a whole, in a comparative study which investigates both words and music. In fact, it has never been established that the planctus constitutes a genre in the first place, in what way this might be, and whether the surprisingly numerous musical settings which survive are composed in a consistent style.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Plainsong & Mediaeval Music Society , Volume 4 , January 1981 , pp. 12 - 52
Copyright
© The Plainsong and Medieval Music Society 1981

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References

NOtes

1 Prov.: planh; Fr.: plainte; Ger.: Klagelied; Ital.: pianto; Eng.: plainte and lamentacioun; Port.: pranto; Cat.: plant.

2 See Lipphardt, W.: ‘Altdeutsche Marienklagen’, Singgemeinde, 9 (1933), pp.65–79 Google Scholar; ‘Marienklage und Liturgie’, Jahrbuch für Liturgiewissenschaft, 12 (1932), pp.198–206 Google Scholar; ‘Studien zu den Marienklagen. Marienklage und germanische Totenklage’, Beiträge zur Geschichte der deutschen Sprache und Literatur, 58 (1934), pp.390–444 Google Scholar; Die Weisen der lateinischen Osterspiele des 12. und 13. Jahrhunderts (Kassel, 1948 Google Scholar).

3 See especially Spanke, H.: ‘Sequenz und Lai’, Stud. Med., 2nd ser., 11 (1938), pp.12–67 Google Scholar; and ‘Über das Fortleben der Sequenzform in den romanischen Sprachen’, ZfrP, 51 (1931), pp.309–34Google Scholar.

4 See Stäblein, B.: ‘Die Schwanenklage. Zum Problem Lai-Planctus-Sequenz’, Festschrift K.G. Fellerer (Regensburg, 1962), pp.491–502 Google Scholar.

5 Existing bibliographical lists of planctus concentrate on particular types of lament: Jeanroy (J) and Heinemann (H) (see Abbreviations A) include secular laments in Provençal and German only; Lipphardt (‘Studien zu den Marienklagen’, see above, note 2) provides a list of manuscripts containing Marienklagen and Passion plays with Marienklagen; Seewald (see AbbreviationsC) covers the poetry and prose of the Passion, including planctus, in Greek, Syriac, Latin, German, Norse and English.

6 The name planctus was often applied to laments at events other than a death, for example, the complaint on the times, and the lover's lament. I have not however included these in my bibliography since although they are clearly related to planctus at a death, their purpose and range of reference often differ considerably.

7 Bede refers to this responsory in Quaestio VI of his Aliquot Quaestionum Liber (PL, 93, col.455). I am grateful to Dr. George Henderson, Faculty of Architecture and History of Art, Cambridge University, for drawing this to my attention.

8 I have excluded the six sequence melodies which contain the word planctus in their rubrics, since none of the texts with which they survive are planctus at a death. They are listed by Stäblein (see note 4). I have also excluded planctus found in medieval manuscripts which are extracts from classical works, since they were not newly composed in the Middle Ages.

9 For a study of the Greek lament, see Alexiou, M.: The ritual lament in Greek tradition (Cambridge, 1974)Google Scholar. I have excluded the Venetian planctus Mariae edited by Linder (see Abbreviations C), the cantari at the death of Cangrande della Scala (see Medin, A. in Archivio veneto, 31, 1886, pp.5–32 Google Scholar), and the Bergamo planctus Mariae (see Cremaschi, G. in Aevum, 29, 1955, pp.393–468 Google Scholar), since they are each considerably longer and grander in conception than the other items listed in the bibliography.

10 For a list of Spanish laments see: Lecoy, F.: Recherches sur le Libro de Buen Amor de Juan Ruiz (Paris, 1938), p.201 Google Scholar. For an edition of the Judao-Hispanic endechas see Alvar, M.: Endechas judeoespanolas (Granada, 1953)Google Scholar.

11 The discovery of this lament and its literary context were the subject of a paper delivered by DrTurville-Petre, T. at a conference on ‘fifteenth-century manuscripts and fifteenth-century literature’at the University of York,July, 1981 Google Scholar.

12 Although I have not included planctus composed after c.1405, with the exception of a small number of Latin examples, included for the sake of completeness, I list all the manuscript sources known to me of each item.