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The Genius of Dunstable

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2020

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Extract

The mystery which shrouds the personality of Dunstable will probably never be elucidated. All that is known of him for certain is that he died on the 24th of December, 1453, and that he was an astronomer as well as a musician. For the rest, one may admit as a conjecture that he was older than Dufay and that he passed an important part of his life on the Continent.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Musical Association, 1920

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References

The Paper was read by Mr. W. Barclay Squire, who also translated it from the original French.Google Scholar

See the thematic catalogue in Miss Stainer's article “Dunstable and the Various Settings of ‘O Rosa Bella’” (Sammelbände of the I.M.G., II, p. 1). This catalogue should be completed by (1) the undeciphered piece on folio 18 of Ad. MS. 10,336 (British Museum), mentioned by Mr. Barclay Squire in the article on Dunstable in Grove's Dictionary (1905); (2) the little Motet “Sumens illud ave,” in the Bibl. Naz. Centrale at Florence (Cod. MS. XIX, 112), reproduced by Johannes Wolf in his Handbuch der Notationskunds, I (Leipzig, 1913), p. 382 et seq.; and (3) by the Kyrie for Sundays in the British Museum (Lansdowne MS., 462).Google Scholar

Eleven in the Denkmäler der Tonkunst in Oesterreich, Jahrg., VII (1900) and XXVII (1920); one in Miss Stainer's article (1900) referred to in the previous note; one in Professor H. E. Wooldridge's and Mr. A. Hughes-Hughes' “Early English Harmony,” II. (1903); and one in J. Wolf's Handbuch der Notationskunde (cf the last note. These transcriptions are quoted in the order of date, omitting duplicates which have appeared subsequently, such as those in Wooldridge and Hughes-Hughes' “Early English Harmony” (1903); J. Wolf's Geschichte der Mensural-Notation (1904); Wooldridge's “Oxford History of Music,” Vol. II (1905); Riemann's Handbuch der Musikgeschichte II, 1 (1907) and Musikgeschichte in Beispielen (1912).—Among modern manuscript transcriptions mention should be made of those by Mr. Barclay Squire of 34 compositions of Dunstable, in Ad. MS. 36,490 of the British Museum (cf. A. Hughes-Hughes, “Catalogue of the Manuscript Music in the British Museum,” Vol. I (1906).Google Scholar

Handbuch der Musikgeschichte, II, p. 109 et seq.Google Scholar

Denkmåder der Tonkunst in Oesterreich. VII, p. 187.Google Scholar

Denkmäler der Tonkunst in Oesterreich VII, p. 203.Google Scholar

cf. the parallelism between the passage marked by the two asterisks and that in the Motet O Crux gloriosa, indicated supra, by the same signs.Google Scholar

Denkmäler der Tonkunst in Oesterreich, VII, p. 183.Google Scholar

Sammelb. der I.M.G., II, 1, pp. 1415.Google Scholar

Denkmäler der Tonkunst in Oesterreich, VII, p. 201.Google Scholar

Quam pulchra (Denkmäler der Tonkunst in Oesterretch, VII, p. 190; Salve Regina, also attributed to Lionel (ibid., p. 191); Sancta Maria (ibid., p. 197); Sub tuam protectionem (ibid., p. 198); Salve Regina (ibid., XXVII. p. 39); Patrem (Wolf, Gesch. der Mensuralnotation, III, p. 177); Sumens illud ave (Wolf, Handb. der Notationskunde, I, p. 382); O rosa bella (Denkmäler der Tonkunst in Oesterreich, VII, p. 219); Puisque m'amour (ibid., p. 254).Google Scholar

cf. especially Quam pulchra, 1st Salve Regina and Patrem.Google Scholar

The Roman MS. (Cod. Urb. 1411); in all the others O rosa bella is anonymous. Cf. Wooldridge. Oxford History. II, p. 126 et seq.Google Scholar

There is every reason for believing that he was a native of the district of Liège.Google Scholar

Stainer (Dufay and his Contemporaries) supposes on good gronnds that he came from Sart-lez-Spa.Google Scholar

This expression is used here in a general and abstract sense, for it is not proved that there was an English School properly so called, of which Dunstable was the chief.Google Scholar

Stable, in another version; notable is more probably correct, considering the number of syllables in the line.Google Scholar

One of the most characteristic examples is the Ave Regina coelorum, printed in Haberl's Dufay (Leipzig, Breitkopf & Härtel, 1885). A work of his old age, probably written to be performed at the master's death-bed, it presents entirely new expressive in ideas, though based primarily on Dunstable's variation-style.Google Scholar

Here must be recalled the celebrated Sumer is icumen in. On the other side the absence of prejudice in England with regard to consonances of thirds and sixths and the consequent propensity to favour sequences of chords in faux-bourdon.Google Scholar

Handb. der Musikgeschichte, II, 1, p. 111.Google Scholar

Cf. J. Wolf. Florenz in der Musikgeschichte des XIV. Jahrh. (Sammelb der I.M.G., III, 4, p. 644).Google Scholar

Idem. Gesch. der Mensuralnotation, III, No. 40.Google Scholar

After two centuries' pause, it seems to have re-appeared in the form of accompanied monody. On this deep subject also H. Riemann has expressed ideas which seem by no means illfounded.Google Scholar

Oxford History of Music, II. 1, p. 126, et seq, 1903.Google Scholar

Excepting purely descriptive pieces such as the Cacciando per gustar of Zacharias (J. Wolf, Florenz in der Musikgeschichie Sammelb. der I.M.G., III, 4, p. 618).Google Scholar