Two mid-16th-century manuscripts of polyphonic music from Brno

Abstract

This article presents two hitherto unexplored manuscripts containing Mass Ordinary and Proper cycles from the first half of the 16th century. Masses by Josquin des Prez, Heinrich Isaac, Antoine Brumel, Dionisius Prioris, Heinrich Finck, Thomas Stoltzer and Wolfgang Grefinger, as well as works by other composers, are to be found there.

These two choirbooks originated around 1550 in Brno, today in the Czech Republic, to service the liturgy at the parish church of St James. They are preserved as a part of a unique parish library comprising predominantly medieval manuscripts and early prints dating from before c.1530, now kept in the Brno City Archive. There were probably three manuscripts extant in the first half of the 19th century, with one of the smaller choirbooks now lost or unidentified. The two choirbooks that are preserved alone contain sufficient polyphonic repertory for the festive liturgy at St James. Due to their repertory, these manuscripts are unique within the Moravian musical culture of the 16th century, and within the Czech lands only a newly discovered choirbook from northern Bohemia, now in Prague, contains similar compositions by Isaac, Josquin and Brumel.