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New light on Oswald von Wolkenstein: central European traditions and Burgundian polyphony*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 December 2008

Lorenz Welker
Lorenz Welker
Affiliation:
University of Basle
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Extract

As a person, Oswald von Wolkenstein (1375/8–1445) is a more tangible figure than almost any of his contemporaries. The numerous extant biographical documents enable us to trace his life in minute detail. His autobiographical songs reveal him as a widely travelled knight, a liegeman of his king, but also as a poet and singer performing his own works. His travels took him not only to distant countries but also to places of political importance within the empire – to the Council at Constance, the Reichstag at Nuremberg and Ulm, the royal court at Pressburg, the Council at Basle. Four portraits and a sculpture tell us what he looked like: robust in physique, and with his right eye missing. The numerous reports of quarrels with his neighbours, bishop and duke give the impression of an irascible, pugnacious character. Nonetheless he is one of the greatest Germanic poets of the late Middle Ages (possibly even the ‘most significant lyric poet writing in German between Walther von der Vogelweide and Goethe’, as Ulrich Miiller put it). He was, moreover, a poet with an exceptional flair for combining his words with music. And something else that makes him unique in the German-speaking world is the fact that his works have been handed down as a self-contained collection, in manuscripts devoted to him alone.

Type
Research Article
Information
Early Music History , Volume 7 , October 1987 , pp. 187 - 226
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1987

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References

1 A scholarly biography with a wealth of documentary material is: Schwob, A., Oswald von Wolkenstein (Bozen, 1977)Google Scholar, hereafter referred to as Schwob, Biography. A summary of the documentary material will be found in Schwob, A., ‘Oswald von Wolkenstein: sein Leben nach den historischen Quellen’, Oswald von Wolkenstein, ed. Müller, U., Wege der Forschung 526 (Darmstadt, 1980)Google Scholar. Kühn, D., Ich Wolkenstein: eine Biographie (Frankfurt am Main, 1977)Google Scholar is more in the nature of a biography for the general reader.

2 On the autobiographical songs see Müller, U., ‘Dichtung’ und ‘Wahrheit’ in den Liedern Oswalds von Wolkenstein, Göppinger Arbeiten zur Germanistik 1 (Göppingen, 1968)Google Scholar.

3 These consist of two tempera paintings in the two principal manuscripts; a drawing in the margin of a Petrarch letter in the Herzog-August-Bibliothek at Wolfenbüttel (Cod. Guelf. 11 Aug. 4°, fol. 202v); an illustration to the chronicle of the Council of Constance by Ulrich Richental in Constance, Rosgartenmuseum, fol. 76; and a memorial stone in the Old Cemetery at Brixen, erected in 1408. (All the portraits are reproduced in Schwob, Biography.)

4 Preface to the facsimile edition of manuscript B: Oswald von Wolkenstein: Abbildungen zur Überlieferung, I: Die Innsbrucker Wolkenstein-Handschrift B, ed. Moser, H. and Müller, U., Litterae 12 (Göppingen, 1972)Google Scholar.

5 A colour facsimile edition of manuscript A has been published: Oswald von Wolkenstein, Handschrift A: vollstandige Faksimile-Ausgabe im Originalformat des Codex Vindobonensis 2777 der Osterr. Nationalbibliothek, with commentary by F. Delbono, Codices Selecti 59 (Graz, 1977). See note 4 on the facsimile edition of manuscript B. A third manuscript, the paper manuscript at Innsbruck, Tiroler Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum, FB 1950 (Wolkenstein manuscript C), contains only texts and need not be considered within the present terms of reference.

6 A recent consideration of the origin of manuscript A will be found in Schwob, A., Historische Realitat und literarische Umsetzung: Beobachtungen zur Stilisierung der Gefangenschaft in den Liedern Oswalds von Wolkenstein, Innsbrucker Beiträge zur Kulturwissenschaft, Germanistische Reihe 9 (Innsbruck, 1979), pp. 235–50Google Scholar.

7 Schatz identifies the copyist of the song Freu dich, durchleuchtig junckfrau zart (Kl. 126) recorded in WoA, fol. 56v, as the scribe of a safe-conduct drawn up on 29 August 1441 and issued to Oswald von Wolkenstein by George, Bishop of Brixen. See the preface to: Oswald von Wolkenstein: geistliche und weltliche Lieder, ein- und mehrstimmig, compiled by Schatz, J. (texts) and Koller, O. (music), Denkmäler der Tonkunst in Österreich 18, Jg. IX/1 (Vienna, 1902)Google Scholar.

8 See Laussermayer, M. T., ‘Ist das Porträt Oswalds von Wolkenstein in Hs. B ein Werk Pisanellos?’, Oswald von Wolkenstein: Beiträge der philologisch-musikwissenschaftlichen Tagung in Neustift bei Brixen 1973, ed. Kühebacher, E., Innsbrucker Beiträge zur Kulturwissenschaft, Germanistische Reihe 4 (Innsbruck, 1974), pp. 63–7Google Scholar.

9 Ludwig, F., Guillaume de Machaut: musikalische Werke, ii (Leipzig, 1928), pp. 36*f, n. 3Google Scholar.

10 On this subject see Pelnar, I., Die mehrstimmigen Lieder Oswalds von Wolkenstein, Münchner Veröffentlichungen zur Musikgeschichte 32 (Tutzing, 1982)Google Scholar, and also the recent: Brunner, H., Ganser, H. and Hartmann, K. G., ‘Das Windsheimer Fragment einer Musikhandschrift des 15. Jahrhunderts’, Jahrbuch der Oswald von Wolkenstein-Gesellschaft, 1 (1980–1981), pp. 185–222Google Scholar (identification of the anonymous three-part virelai Tonat agmen as model for Oswald's Trostlicher Hort, Kl. 56).

11 The numbering of Oswald's songs is in accordance with what remains the authoritative edition of the texts: Klein, K. K., Die Lieder Oswalds von Wolkenstein, 2nd edn, revised and enlarged by Moser, H., Wolf, N. R. and Wolf, N., Altdeutsche Textbibliothek 55 (Tübingen, 1975)Google Scholar.

12 Timm, E., Die Überlieferung der Lieder Oswalds von Wolkenstein, Germanische Studien H. 242 (Lübeck, 1972)Google Scholar.

13 Timm, op. cit., pp. 144ff.

14 The Strasbourg manuscript is described in detail by van den Borren, C., Le manuscrit musical M.222 C.22 de la Bibliothèque de Strasbourg xve siècle) brûlé en 1870, et reconstitué d'après une copie partielle d'Edmond de Coussemaker (Antwerp, 1924)Google Scholar. A fundamental essay on the St Emmeram Codex, and one which includes a catalogue, is: Dèzes, K., ‘Der Mensuralcodex des Benediktinerklosters Sancti Emmerami zu Regensburg’, Zeitschrift für Musikwissenschaft, 10 (1927–1928), pp. 65–105Google Scholar.

15 Timm, op. cit., p. 146, Pelnar, , Die mehrstimmigen Lieder, p. 107Google Scholar.

16 See Wright, C., Music at the Court of Burgundy: A Documentary History, Musicological Studies 28 (Henryville, Ottawa and Binningen, 1979), pp. 172ffGoogle Scholar.

17 See Reaney, G., ‘The Manuscript Oxford, Bodleian Library, Canonici Misc. 213’, Musica Disciplina, 9 (1955), pp. 73–104Google Scholar; Schoop, H., Entstehung und Verwendung der Handschrift Oxford, Bodleian Library, Canonici misc. 213, Publikationen der Schweizerischen Musikforschenden Gesellschaft, series ii, 24 (Bern and Stuttgart, 1971), pp. 29f, 44Google Scholar.

18 There is a modern edition of Fontaine's chanson in Marix, J., Les musiciens de la cour de Bourgogne au xve siècle (1420–1467) (Paris, 1937)Google Scholar.

19 See the following edition of the Buxheim Organ Book: Wallner, B. A., Das Buxheimer Orgelbuch, ii, Das Erbe deutscher Musik 38 (Kassel, 1958), p. 153 (no. 117) and p. 260 (no. 199)Google Scholar.

20 See Wolf, J., Handbuch der Notationskunde, i (Leipzig, 1913), p. 388Google Scholar.

21 Rumbold, I., ‘The Compilation and Ownership of the “St Emmeram” Codex (Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Clm 14274)’, Early Music History, 2 (1982), pp. 161–237CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

22 See Dèzes, ‘Der Mensuralcodex’.

23 On the origin and dating of the St Emmeram Codex see Rumbold, op. cit.; Strohm, R., ‘Zur Datierung des Codex St. Emmeram (Clm 14274): ein Zwischenbericht’, Quellenstudien zur Musik der Renaissance, ed. Finscher, L, Wolfenbütteler Forschungen 26 (Wiesbaden, 1983), pp. 229–38Google Scholar; and Braunschweig-Pauli, D., ‘Studien zum sog. Codex St. Emmeram: Entstehung, Datierung und Besitzer …’, Kirchenmusikalisches Jahrbuck, 66 (1982), pp. 1–48Google Scholar.

24 Timm, , Überlieferung, pp. 139ffGoogle Scholar.

25 Editions of the chanson will be found in Dannemann, E., Die spatgolische Musiktradition in Frankreich und Burgund (Strasbourg, 1936)Google Scholar; J. Marix, op. cit.; Wilkins, N., A 15th-century Repertory from the Codex Reina, Corpus Mensurabilis Musicae [CMM] 37 (1966)Google Scholar; Reaney, G., Early Fifteenth Century Music, vii, CMM 11/7 (1983)Google Scholar. After the completion of this essay David Fallows kindly informed me that he was able to trace the rondeau in an English source as well: Cambridge, University Library, Ms. Ff.vi.16, fols. 1 and 245v (cf. RISM B/iv/2, p. 212, no. 2). This points to a very wide diffusion of the rondeau. My cordial thanks to Dr Fallows for the reference.

26 Wright, C., Burgundy, pp. 174ffGoogle Scholar.

27 See Funck, H., ‘Eine Chanson von Binchois im Buxheimer Orgel- und Lochamer Liederbuch’, Acta Musicologica, 5 (1933), pp. 3–13CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Salmen, W. and Petzsch, C., Das Lochamer-Liederbuch, Denkmäler der Tonkunst in Bayern, new series, special vol. 2 (Wiesbaden, 1972)Google Scholar.

28 Schatz, , Oswald von Wolkenstein, p. 12Google Scholar: ‘Was in Handschriften unter Oswalds Namen überliefert ist, aber in A B fehlt, hat schon im vornhinein wegen des Fehlens in den Wolkensteinischen Handschriften die Wahrscheinlichkeit der Echtheit gegen sich und auch inhaltlich findet sich nichts, was für die Verfasserschaft Oswalds sprechen würde’; but further on: ‘[Cgm. 379] hat manche Anklänge an Oswalds Art und Ausdrucksweise; doch finden sich keine Anhaltspunkte, nach denen man ihm dieses Product zusprechen müsste. Dasselbe gilt für ein in der Schlusslage des Cgm. 4871, S. 135, eingetragenes Gedicht “Den techst uber das geleyemors wolkenstain” …’.

29 H.-D. Mück and H. Ganser, ‘Den techst ubr das geleyemors wolkenstain: Oswalds von Wolkenstein Liedtext Kl. 131 im Cgm 4871 und Gilles Binchois' Ballade, Je loe amours’, Lyrik des ausgehenden 14. und 15. Jahrhunderts, ed. Spechtler, F. V., Chloe: Beihefte zum Dafnis 1 (Amsterdam, 1984)Google Scholar. This discusses in detail the history of the text and the dating of the entry in Cgm. 4871 – after 1461 – as well as the manuscript's structure. My cordial thanks to Prof Ulrich Müller, Salzburg, and Hans Ganser, Augsburg, for referring me to this essay.

30 In manuscript B the repeat sign occurs once in the form , but this is only in the appended upper voices of Ain güt geboren edelman (Kl. 43) In the original copy of the tenor, with text, the repeats are written out (fols. 17v–18r–v).

31 See, for instance, Du auserweltes schöns (Kl. 46), Sag an herzlieb (Kl. 49), Der mai mit lieber zal (Kl. 50).

32 Schoop, , Entstehung, p. 14Google Scholar.

33 Concerning the fascicle-manuscript theory and its significance with regard to the transmission of fifteenth-century music see Hamm, C., ‘Manuscript Structure in the Dufay Era’, Acta Musicologica, 34 (1962), pp. 166–84CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

34 On the history of the text see Spechtler, F. V., ‘Beiträge zum deutschen geistlichen Lied des Mittelalters iii: Liedtraditionen in den Marienliedern Oswalds von Wolkenstein’, Gesammelte Vortrage der 600-Jahrfeier Oswalds von Wolkenstein, Seis am Schlern 1977, ed Mück, H.-D. and Müller, U. (Göppingen, 1978), pp. 179–203Google Scholar. On the transmission of the music see von Fischer, K., ‘Die Lauda “Ave mater” und ihre verschiedenen Fassungen’, Colloquium Amicorum: Joseph Schmidt-Gorg zum 70. Geburtstag, ed. Kross, S. and Schmidt, H. (Bonn, 1967), pp. 93–9Google Scholar. Bärnthaler's hypothesis that Oswald was the author of this hymn can probably be rejected (Bärnthaler, G., Übersetzungen im deutschen Spatmittelalter: Der Mönch von Salzburg etc., Göppinger Arbeiten zur Germanistik 371 (Göppingen, 1983))Google Scholar.

35 Edition in. Wallner, B. A., Das Buxheimer Orgelbuch, i, Das Erbe deutscher Musik 37 (Kassel and elsewhere, 1958), p. 99Google Scholar. The heading Maria tusolacium is perhaps a misreading of the beginning of stanza iii, [O] Maria tu Solaris. In the Organ Book version the tenor starts with g instead of the expected c'.

36 See Southern, E., The Buxheim Organ Book, Musicological Studies 6 (Brooklyn, 1963), p. 90Google Scholar

37 See Cattin, G., ‘Il manoscritto Venet.Marc.Ital.ix, 145’, Quadrivium, 4 (1960), pp 1–60Google Scholar, and Gallo, A., Il codice musicale 2216 della biblioteca universitaria di Bologna (Bologna, 1970)Google Scholar. In the manuscript BU the four-part texture of the hymn and its entry in the main corpus suffice to distinguish it from the laude recorded in BU, which tend to be in three voices and to appear as addenda.

38 These composers' works, too, are found primarily in Italian manuscripts.

39 Mixter, K., ‘Johannes de Sarto’, The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Sadie, S., 20 vols. (London, 1980), xviGoogle Scholar. Craig Wright considers Johannes de Sarto to be the same as a Jean du Sart who can first be identified in 1455 as a petit vicaire in Cambrai; from 1461 to 1466 du Sart was master of the choirboys under Dufay at Cambrai Cathedral. See Wright, C., ‘Dufay at Cambrai’, Journal of the American Musicological Society, 28 (1975), pp. 175–229CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

40 Text according to Tr 92.

41 See K. von Fischer, ‘Die Lauda “Ave mater”’.

42 Ibid.

43 Pelnar, I, Die mehrstimmigen Lieder Oswalds von Wolkenstein: Edition, Münchner Editionen zur Musikgeschichte 2 (Tutzing, 1981), pp. 170ffGoogle Scholar.

44 Sterzing (Vipiteno), Town Hall, without call-number. See also: Die Sterzinger Miszellaneen-Handschrift, reproduction edited by E. Thurnher and M. Zimmermann, Litterae 61 (Göppingen, 1979). Since early 1984 the manuscript has again been in its original repository, after being presumed lost or inaccessible for a long while.

45 The ballade is preserved in Kras, Bux and Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Cod. 5094. Moreover, it probably appeared in Str as well, as is shown by incipit no. 186 (fol. 106v), although this bears the opening words Ma duci mor. On the theoretical treatises see Ward, T. R., ‘A Central European Repertory in Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Clm 14274’, Early Music History, 1 (1981), pp. 325–43CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

46 See the facsimile of the manuscript Kras in: Sources of Polyphony up to c. 1500, ed. Perz, M., Antiquitates Musicae in Polonia 13 (Graz and Warsaw, 1973), p. 59Google Scholar, and Das Buxheimer Orgelbuch, facsimile edition by Wallner, B. A., Documenta Musicologica, series ii, 1 (Kassel and Basle, 1955)Google Scholar.

47 An instance, then, of ‘psychological miscopying’. See Bent, M., ‘Some Criteria for Establishing Relationships …’, Music in Medieval and Early Modern Europe, ed. Fenlon, I. (Cambridge, 1981), pp. 295–317Google Scholar.

48 See Ward, op. cit. Moreover, the treatise makes mention of two pieces which, according to Ward, similarly belong to a central European repertory: ‘… ut patet in Jelangwis et in saytar tempore’ (i.e. ‘Je languis’ and ‘Soit tart tenpre’).

49 See Zimmermann, M., Die Sterzinger Miszellaneen-Handschrift, Innsbrucker Beiträge zur Kulturwissenschaft, Germanistische Reihe, 8 (Innsbruck, 1980), pp. 51ffGoogle Scholar.

50 ‘In der Jarczal Tausent vierhundert und darnach in dem zwai und dreissigosten iare an dem nachsten Samstag nach Sant Augustins tag ist diss buch geticht und volbracht worden durch mich Oswalten von wolkenstein Ritter des allerdurchleuchtigosten Römischen künigs Sigmund etc Rat iar 18.’

51 Schatz, , Oswald von Wolkenstein, p. 6Google Scholar, Timm, , Uberlieferung, p. 2Google Scholar.

52 Müller, U., ‘Dichtung’ und ‘Wahrheit’, p. 191Google Scholar.

53 Here I should like to extend cordial thanks to Hofrat Dr Walter Neuhauser, director of the manuscripts division of the University Library, Innsbruck, for permission to use and examine the manuscript, and to Prof. Martin Steinmann, Basle, for his help in assessing the findings.

54 Delbono, preface to the facsimile edition of manuscript A, p. 45.

55 After completing this essay I noticed that Reinhard Strohm had already referred (n 29) to the identity of the two pieces in his essay ‘The Ars Nova Fragments of Gent’, Tijdschrift van de Vereniging voor Nederlandse Muziekgeschiedenis, 34 (1984), pp. 109–31CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Prof. Strohm kindly placed at my disposal the manuscript of his article ‘Native and Foreign Polyphony in Late Medieval Austria’, Musica Disciplina, 38 (1984)Google Scholar, in which he examines the different versions of ‘Schack melodye’ in more detail and discusses a possible connection with the ‘Schachbrett’ (échiquier) Furthermore he suggests the Augustinian monastery of St Dorothea in Vienna as the possible provenance of WoA. My cordial thanks to Prof Strohm.

56 Ludwig, , Guillaume de Machaut, pp 36*f, n 3Google Scholar

57 See Rosenthal, K. A.. ‘Einige unbekannte Motetten älteren Stils aus Handschriften der Nationalbibliothek, Wien’, Acta Musicologica, 6 (1934), pp. 8ffCrossRefGoogle Scholar; Menhardt, H, Verzeichnis der altdeutschen literarischen Handschriften der osterreichischen Nationalbibliothek, ii (Berlin, 1961), pp 1091fGoogle Scholar; Göllner, T., ‘Notationsfragmente aus einer Organistenwerkstatt des 15. Jahrhunderts’, Archiv fur Musikwissenschaft, 24 (1967), pp 170–7CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

58 See Göllner, ‘Notationsfragmente’, and Ward, ‘A Central European Repertory’.

59 See Menhardt, op. cit. and Göllner, op cit, also Strohm's recent ‘The Ars Nova Fragments’

60 Timm, , Uberlieferung, p. 148Google Scholar.

61 Ibid., p. 151

62 See Rumbold, ‘The Compilation’

63 Witter, J. J., Catalogus codicum manuscriptorum in bibliotheca sacri ordinis Hierosolymitanis Argentorati asservatorum (Strasbourg, 1749), p 25Google Scholar. See also Menge, H. H, Das ‘Regimen’ Heinrich Laufenbergs textologische Untersuchung und Edition, Göppinger Arbeiten zur Germanistik 184 (Göppingen, 1976), p. 547Google Scholar.

64 See Kammerer, F., Die Musikstucke des Prager Kodex xi e 9, Veröffentlichungen des Musikwissenschaftlichen Instituts der deutschen Universität in Prag 1 (Augsburg and Brno, 1931)Google Scholar.

65 Senn, W., ‘Aus dem Musikleben in Neustift’, Stifte und Kloster: Jahrbuch des Sudtiroler Kulturinstituts, 2 (1962), pp 426–40Google Scholar; also Senn, W, article ‘Neustift’, Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, ix (Kassel and elsewhere, 1961), cols. 1412–17Google Scholar.

66 See Schwob, Biography, passim. In this context it may be of interest that as early as 1419, Oswald met a prominent person who not only had connections with the University of Vienna but might also have influenced the cultivation of music in Breslau and Cracow. For in 1419 Oswald had his coat of arms augmented by Przemislav (Przemko), Duke of Troppau, who had studied at the University of Vienna and later became a precentor and canon at Breslau, he was also enrolled at the University of Cracow soon after. See Schwob, , Biography, p 159Google Scholar; and Pietzsch, G., Zur Pflege der Musik an den deutschen Universitaten bis zur Mitte des 16. Jahrhunderts (Darmstadt, 1971), p. 34Google Scholar.

67 On the importance of the Councils as book markets see: Lehmann, P, ‘Konstanz und Basel als Büchermärkte während der grossen Kirchenversammlungen’, Erforschung des Mittelalters, i (2nd edn, Stuttgart, 1959), pp. 253–80Google Scholar. On the role played by the Councils in the diffusion of polyphony see Pirrotta, N., ‘Music and Cultural Tendencies in 15th-century Italy’, Journal of the American Musicological Society, 19 (1966), pp. 127–61CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and Strohm, R., ‘European Politics and the Distribution of Music in the Early Fifteenth Century’, Early Music History, 1 (1981), pp. 305–23CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

68 Schwob, , Biography, pp. 237ffGoogle Scholar.

69 See Strohm, ‘The Ars Nova Fragments’.