Modulorum sub/superinventiones. Evidence of super librum singing in two tricinia from Tr. 87

Abstract

This essay shows how Ms. 87, Castello del Buonconsiglio, Trento, helps us understand 15th-century improvisational usages. As we know, oral tradition was based on aeri, a melodic pattern repertoire, performers used to draw from. Evidence occasionally surfaces in notation. One of the six short tricinia from Tr. 87 (f. 119r), the same one developed in Du Fay’s Vergene bella, is attested here in two versions, a simple one and a longer and more ornate one. Their contrapuntal and formal setting is quite interesting; its relationship is discussed with English improvisation usages Guilielmus Monachus explained in his De preceptis artis musicæ, as well as with the modulorum superinventiones Tinctoris cited in De inventione et usu musicæ.