“Kyrie paschale” in Polish Organ Tablatures from the First Half of the 16th Century – Problems of Style and Attribution

Grzegorz Kos

Abstract

This article is devoted to an analysis of the intabulations of the ‘Kyrie paschale’ preserved in the so-called Lublin Tablature and in an organ tablature from the monastery of the Canons Regular of the Holy Ghost in Cracow. The intabulations are arrangements of consecutive sections of the plainchant melody Kyrie ‘Lux et origo’ and constitute sequences of segments (or modules) of a Mass in which organ music alternates with plainchant. In total, the two tablatures contain more than twenty segments of the ‘Kyrie paschale’ for organ, made up of ten modules repeated in transpositions and as variants combined to form various sequences and signed with three inconsistently ascribed attributes: N.C. (Nicolas Cracoviensis?), phÿnk (Heinrich Finck) and Josquin (Josquin des Prez).

Based on analysis of the sources, examination of the contrapuntal and formal structure of the segments and comparisons with analogous repertoire from other organ tablatures and with vocal arrangements of the ‘Kyrie paschale’ (as ordinaries both independent and part of a Mass cycle) by identified and anonymous composers, the author of the article has identified new affinities between intabulations and redefined the roles played in their writing by individuals whose names or monograms were partly inscribed in the tablatures. Having found strong arguments to exclude Josquin (an attribution that has often been challenged), the author now attributes crucial roles to two authors of Masses that were in all probability the material basis or inspiration for the organ intabulations: Heinrich Finck and the newly identified Heinrich Isaac. Other individuals involved in the creation and transmission of the segments of the ‘Kyrie paschale’ were anonymous copyists and composers of organ arrangements active during the first half of the sixteenth century (including N. C.). They skilfully modified the form of the original vocal model and its later arrangements, showing confidence and skill in altering their polyphonic structure and moulding a new – in spirit – instrumental melody.

It appears, however, that the organ modules were not necessarily rearrangements, but were purposely composed as instrumental ordinaries to supplement (by way of alternation) the vocal polyphony of specific Masses. Therefore, it is possible that Finck and Isaac not only created the vocal prototypes, but also either participated in the creation of their organ arrangements (by approving or authorising them) or even composed instrumental paschal Kyries themselves. The article includes a proposed reconstruction of a hypothetical sequence of organ and vocal polyphony in which the organ modules preserved in the Polish tablatures are combined with the vocal segments of the Masses by Finck and Isaac.