Early sixteenth century collections of lute intabulations reveal that a lutenist’s core repertoire came from vocal music, including sacred works such as mass movements and secular works such as frottole and madrigals. These arrangements suggest that lutenists often accompanied vocalists. Intabulations for lute and solo voice by Franciscus Bossinensis and Willaert bear idiomatic features of musical reworking, including ornamentation and alteration. When Bossinensis transcribed frottole by Cara and Tromboncino, he utilized conventional melodic formulas to ornament the tenor voice. Willaert adapted madrigals by Verdelot, making necessary alterations at the cadences so that the grammatical and musical accents in the now solo vocal line properly aligned. Both composers utilized musica ficta, though Willaert did so with less restraint.

Works: Adrian Willaert: Quanto sia liet’il giorno (29-31); Franciscus Bossinensis: Afflitti spirti miei (33), Non val aqua mio gran foco (36), Quella bella e biancha mano (37); Anonymous: Vale diva mia, vale in pace (38).

Sources: Philippe Verdelot: Quanto sia liet’il giorno (29-31); Tromboncino: Afflitti spirti miei (33), Non val aqua mio gran foco (36), Vale diva mia, vale in pace (38); Antonio Caprioli: Quella bella e biancha mano (37).

Index Classifications: 1500s

Contributed by: Jaime Carini

The Italian madrigal developed during the sixteenth century as generations of composers contributed layers of innovation, beginning with its earliest manifestation as the frottola and culminating in its final form, the madrigale concertato. Composers utilized various methods of musical borrowing and reworking, including crafting arrangements, creating intabulations, parodying pre-existing works (sometimes for comedic purposes), modeling upon other compositions and styles, and quoting from other pieces. Musicians converted the madrigal into a piece for solo voice with accompaniment, such as Francesco Bossinensis’s arrangements for voice and lute. Similarly, intabulations were adaptations of madrigals for solo keyboard or lute. Most parodies were crafted for humorous reasons, such as Antonfrancesco Doni’s Il bianco e dolce cigno, which incorporated into its parody of Arcadelt’s madrigal by the same name a hundred segments of melody from madrigals by numerous composers, including Arcadelt, Verdelot, and Festa. Certain composers, such as Gesualdo and Monteverdi, modeled compositions upon the works or the style of their predecessors and peers, and their compositions, in turn, served as models for others. Quotations connected new compositions to previous ones for several reasons: (1) honoring the original composer, (2) establishing a rivalry, or (3) preserving street, folk, and popular songs within the newly-composed madrigal. Musical borrowing and reworking, then, unified the developing madrigal art form as it matured in the hands of many diverse composers.

Works: Anonymous: Che debb’io far che mi consigli Amore in MS. Magl. XIX, 164-167 (National Library in Florence), No. XXXVI (106); Francesco Bossinensis: Che debb’io far che mi consigli Amore in Tenori e contrabassi (106), Tenori e contrabassi intabulati col sopran in canto figurato per cantar e sonar col lauto, Libro primo and Libro secundo (106-7, 128); Willaert: Quanto sia liet’ il giorno (250-52); Andrea Gabrieli: Anchor che col partire (374); Cambio Perissone: Canzone Villanesche alla napolitana (443); Palestrina: Io son ferito e chi mi punse il core (591-92); Jacopo da Nola: Io son ferito e chi mi punse il core (591); Giovanni Francesco Capuano: Io son ferito e chi mi punse il core (591); Marenzio: Io son ferito e chi mi punse il core (592), Dolorosi martir, fieri tormenti (615), La rete fu di queste fila d’oro (643), Due rose fresche (643-44), Basciami, mille volte (644); Giovanni Ferretti: Hor va, canzone mia, non dubitare (595-96); Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck: Liquide perle Amor (614-15); Benedetto Pallavicino: Liquide perle Amor in Quinto libro a cinque (615); Antonio Barrè, “aria” of Bradamante from Orlando furioso in Il primo libro delle Muse: Madrigali ariosi di Antonio Barrè et altri (645); Ghiselino Danckerts: heroine’s oath of fidelity from Orlando furioso in Il primo libro delle Muse: Madrigali ariosi di Antonio Barrè et altri (645); Giordano Passetto: Audi bone persone in Villotta alla padoana con quatro parte (750); Girolamo Belli d’Argenta: I furti (754-56); Monteverdi: Cruda Amarilli (852).

Sources: Tromboncino: Che debb’io far che mi consigli Amore (105); Verdelot: Quanto sia liet’ il giorno (250-52); Domenico Ferrabosco: Baciami vita mia in De diversi autori il quarto libro de madrigali a 4 voci a note bianche (311); Cipriano de Rore: Anchor che col partire (374); Adrian Willaert: Canzone Villanesche alla napolitana (443); Anonymous: Io son ferito e chi mi punse il core (591); Palestrina: Io son ferito e chi mi punse il core (591-92, 643); Anonymous: Hor va, canzone mia, non dubitare in Quattro libri delle Villotte (595-96); Marenzio: Liquide perle Amor (614-15), Cruda Amarilli (852); Marc’Antonio Ingegneri: Dolorosi martir fieri tormenti in Il terzo libro de madrigali . . . con due canzoni francese (615); Andrea Gabrieli: Due rose fresche (643-44); Anonymous, folk arias to Ariosto’s verses from Orlando furioso (645); Stefano Rossetto: Il lamento di Olimpia (645); Anonymous: Voltate in qua e do bella Rosina, Damene un poco de quella fugacina (750); Anonymous [Guglielmo Gonzaga]: Villotte mantovane (753); Benedetto Pallavicino: Cruda Amarilli (853).

Index Classifications: 1400s, 1500s, 1600s

Contributed by: Jaime Carini

A bibliography on musical borrowing, commenced by J. Peter Burkholder and David C. Birchler, now continues under Burkholder’s supervision at Indiana University. This collaborative project focuses on scholarship pertaining to western art music that describes what musical borrowing means in relationship to the pieces represented within the publication. Bibliographic entries comprise a citation, an annotation, and a list of works that borrow musical material from other sources and are discussed in some detail in the publication. [Editor’s note: The bibliography is now this online bibliography and extends to jazz, popular music, and film music. Most annotated entries include a list of sources borrowed from as well as a list of works that borrow.]

Index Classifications: General

Contributed by: Jaime Carini

Those who today perform and listen to the passions by J. S. Bach engage with these pieces in a context that is very different from their original setting. The compositions known as the St. John Passion and the St. Mark Passion, for instance, are not definitive works as we sometimes suppose. Rather, they are pastiches formed by Bach’s use of various types of musical borrowing and reworking. He adapted existing pieces by other composers, created updated versions of his own compositions, added or subtracted arias, and parodied his own works. Tables summarize Bach’s versions of these two passions and the parody models for the corresponding movements within them.

Works: J. S. Bach: St. John Passion, BWV 245 (68-77), St. Mark Passion, BWV 247 (84-94).

Sources: J. S. Bach: St. John Passion, BWV 245 (68-77); Anonymous: St. Mark Passion (80-91); Handel: Brockes Passion (91-94).

Index Classifications: 1700s

Contributed by: Jaime Carini

Documents from the Gonzaga Archives in Mantua demonstrate that Guglielmo Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua, was a composer of some repute who produced madrigals, motets, and magnificats. Letters reveal the publication and reception history of these works, including instances of musical borrowing. Gonzaga’s madrigals and motets have been identified with two anonymous collections that were published in 1583 by Gardane of Venice. The madrigals were utilized by Ludovico Agostini and Girolamo Belli d’Argenta in their own collections, Lagrime del peccatore (1586) and Furti amorisi (1587), respectively. Because Agostini and Belli attributed these borrowings to Gonzaga, their compositions further strengthen assertions by Einstein and Gallico, among other scholars, that the anonymous works published by Gardane are indeed by Gonzaga.

Works: Ludovico Agostini: Lagrime del peccatore (121-22); Girolamo Belli d’Argenta: Furti amorisi (122).

Sources: Guglielmo Gonzaga: Padre che’l ciel (120-22), Madrigals (122).

Index Classifications: 1500s

Contributed by: Jaime Carini

Intabulating polyphonic music for the keyboard presents certain problems of representation, whether the transcriptions are sixteenth-century arrangements or twentieth-century modern editions. While an intabulation is often thought of as a representation of the original work, in some cases, it might be better to consider it as a recomposition of its source.

Works: Jacques Buus: Recercar primo, Intabulatura d’organo (89); Anonymous (transcriber), Frescobaldi (composer): Capriccio sopra un soggetto in Ravenna, Biblioteca comunale classense, MS Class. 545, fol. 27 (89-90).

Sources: Jacques Buus: Recercar primo, Secondo libro (89); Frescobaldi: Capriccio sopra un soggetto (89-90).

Index Classifications: 1500s, 1600s

Contributed by: Jaime Carini

Housed in the Chiesa Collegiata at Castell’Arquato are keyboard intabulations of vocal works (among them transcriptions of madrigals and sacred pieces) that were crafted by a single, anonymous hand. Three pieces within Fascicles IV and VI of these intabulations, along with their models, can be used to demonstrate that the intabulator performs multiple functions that range from transcription to interpolation and recombination. The seventy-year transmission of the four-voice hymn Fit porta Christi displays numerous stylistic changes. Magnificat was modeled upon two different Magnificats, with odd-numbered verses modeled after an unknown source and even-numbered verses modeled upon a Magnificat by Lasso. O gloriosa domina stitches together borrowings from Willaert. Consequently, each of these three pieces maintains an idiomatic relationship with its models.

Works: Anonymous: Canti donque (133-35), Assumpta est Maria (135-37), Ego dormio (137), Adoramus te, Christe (138-39), Fit porta Christi (139-43), Magnificat (143-45), O gloriosa domina (145-49).

Sources: Anonymous: Fit porta Christi (139-42), Magnificat (143-45); Lasso: Magnificat primi toni (143-45); Willaert: O gloriosa domina—Maria, mater gratie (145-49).

Index Classifications: 1500s, 1600s

Contributed by: Jaime Carini

Archival evidence reveals that Heinrich Schütz’s Saul, Saul, was verfolgst du mich? was first performed in 1632 as part of an anniversary celebration commemorating the Protestant victory at the Battle of Breitenfeld. This performance occurred nearly twenty years before Schütz published Saul in Symphoniae sacrae III (1650), allowing him time to conceivably revise the concerto. A table summarizes other potential sources that Schütz may have also adapted for Symphoniae sacrae III, along with their original and revised scorings. In all of these cases, and perhaps that of Saul, Schütz retained the text and many musical features common to both the sources and their adaptations.

Works: Schütz: Saul, Saul, was verfolgst du mich? (385-387).

Index Classifications: 1600s

Contributed by: Jaime Carini

Modena, Biblioteca Estense Universitaria, Alpha.M.5.24 (often referred to as the “Modena Manuscript”) is an important collection of Ars subtilior French songs, including some composed by Matteo da Perugia and Antonella de Caserta. The contributions by these two composers have garnered attention because they invoke music from the previous generation’s most influential composer, Guillaume de Machaut. Following a common practice of the late 14th century, Antonello de Caserta imbues his song Biauté parfaite with the metrical and textual qualities found in Machaut’s song of the same title. Matteo da Perugia uses Machaut’s Se vous n’estes as a scaffolding for a new composition by adding a new countertenor to the original song. He also quotes two Machaut songs directly in his ballade Se je me plaing de fortune. Tables and charts with extensive musical examples highlight the connection between the Modena Manuscript and Machaut’s works. These examples also demonstrate the variety of borrowing and reworking that occurs in compositions of the early fourteenth century, which are consistent with copying and transmission practices elsewhere during the period. Even so, the relationship of the composers represented within the manuscript to their looming predecessor is difficult to interpret without the referencing later notions of authorship and authority. This problem is alleviated by the emerging sense of authorship for secular songs and a new practice of circulating polyphonic songs. This opens the possibility for seeing an emerging historical self-consciousness among composers at the end of the fourteenth century. Thus, the invocation of Machaut in the Modena Manuscript can be interpreted as an early example of the borrower invoking the authority of the source.

Works: Antonello de Caserta: Biauté parfaite (172, 175-77); Matteo da Perugia: Se vous n’estes (172, 177-80), Se je me plaing de fortune (172, 180-87); Anonymous: Dame qui fut (185-87); Johannes Ciconia: Sus une fontayne (187).

Sources: Machaut: Se vous n’estes (177-80), De Fortune je me doi plaindre (179-87), Se je me plaing, je n’en puis mais (179-87); Filippotto da Caserta: En atendant, souffrir m’estuet (188), Sus une fontayne (188).

Index Classifications: 1400s

Contributed by: Jaime Carini, Elizabeth Stoner, Nicolette van den Bogerd

Palestrina’s Missa O regem coeli, Missa Sicut lilium inter spinas, Missa Benedicta es caelorum Regina, and Missa Quem dicunt homines, four of his over fifty imitation masses, constitute a collection of different modeling techniques. Missa O regem coeli utilizes movements from itself in a process of internal borrowing. Self-quotations from his own motet in Missa Sicut lilium inter spinas raise questions of memory and visuality. Finally, Missa Benedicta es caelorum Regina and Missa Quem dicunt homines integrate multiple sources that transmit Palestrina’s interactions with the Vatican repertory.

Works: Palestrina: Missa O regem coeli (16-56), Missa Sicut lilium inter spinas (57-111), Missa Benedicta es caelorum Regina (112-52), Missa Quem dicunt homines (153-78).

Sources: De Silva: O regem coeli (16-56); Palestrina: Missa O regem coeli (24-56), Sicut lilium inter spinas (59-111), Quam pulchri sunt (59-111); Josquin, Benedicta es caelorum Regina (113-18, 120-26, 135-45, 150-52); Piéton: Benedicta es caelorum Regina (113-20, 138-45, 150-52); Morales: Missa Benedicta es caelorum Regina (113-18, 126-45, 150-52), Missa Quem dicunt homines (153-72, 177-78); Richafort: Quem dicunt homines (153-77); Divitis: Missa Quem dicunt homines (153-72, 177-78); Mouton: Missa Quem dicunt homines (153-72, 177-78).

Index Classifications: 1500s

Contributed by: Jaime Carini