La storia di un'iscrizione canonica tra Cinquecento e inizio Seicento: il caso di 'Ad te, Domine, levavi animam meam' di Philippus de Monte (1564)

Abstract

De Monte's third book of five-part motets (Venice, 1574) finishes with Ad te, Domine, levavi animam meam for eight voices. This piece is built upon a complex four-part canon (rectus, retrograde, inversion and retrograde inversion) that bears the inscription «Misericordia & veritas obviaverunt sibi. Justitia & pax osculatae sunt». These same words, taken from psalm 84, v. 11, already appeared as a canonic motto in an anonymous, textless motet from Petrucci's Motetti A (Venice, 1502). Ludwig Senfl, both in his Crux fidelis and O crux ave, also used these biblical verses to indicate a double retrograde canon. Senfl's former composition, which appears in the form of a cross in one source (Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, 2 Mus.pr. 156#4, n.p., n.d.) may have in turn inspired Adam Gumpelzhaimer. His canon Ecce lignum crucis, also known as Crux Christi, not only has the same canonic inscription, but the piece was also depicted in the form of a cross by several artists at the end of the sixteenth and the beginning of the seventeenth century. In addition, theoretical sources such as Sebald Heyden's De arte canendi (Nuremberg, 1540), Heinrich Faber's Ad musicam practicam introductio (Nuremberg, 1550), Hermann Finck's Practica musica (Wittenberg, 1556) and Ambrosius Wilfflingseder's Erotemata musices practicae (Nuremberg, 1563) mention the use of this same psalm verse as a canonic inscription. The striking fact that the above-cited motets are all concerned with the theme of the cross is explained through an analysis of the content and theological meaning of Psalm 84, from which the canonic inscription is taken. Although the text of De Monte's eight-part piece (Psalm 24, vv. 1-3) has no overt links with the crux-topic, iconographical, textual and musical aspects of his composition nevertheless make it clear that Ad te, Domine, levavi animam meam forms part of the same compositional and theoretical tradition as the works by Senfl and Gumpelzhaimer. At the same time De Monte tries to emulate his earlier models by using even more complex canon techniques.