music iconography and medieval performance practice - college music symposium

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01 October 1991 Music Iconography and Medieval Performance Practice Written by Leslie Lassetter Introduction This study of iconography and performance practice is divided into two parts. Part I deals with the definition of iconography and its relationship to performance practice. Part II outlines some general principles necessary to the study of medieval music iconography, and deals with specific cases. These principles include balancing visual evidence against written sources, distinguishing between symbol and documentation of contemporary life, and recognizing in art the historical precedents for instrumental groupings in biblical illustration. A discussion of depictions of trecento angel musicians, as opposed to contemporary liturgical scenes, demonstrates that different types of depictions vary in their value as evidence for performance practice. Finally, a study of the instruments the trecento angels play leads into the possible role of the double pipe and the bagpipe in the development of early polyphony. I This paper includes the use of the term iconology, as well as iconography. Iconography, as defined by Erwin Panofsky, is the "branch of the history of art which concerns itself with the subject matter or meaning of works of art, as opposed to their form." 1 Iconography deals with the description of images. Iconology, on the other hand, involves the study of images and, therefore, involves interpretation. Emanuel Winternitz, one of the most important writers in this discipline, defines the subject as follows: "[Iconology is] the analysis and interpretation, by the historian of music, of pictorial representations of musical instruments, their players, singers, groups of performing musicians, and all other kinds of musical scenes. 2 James McKinnon, twenty years later, refined that definition, stating that iconology "seeks to penetrate to the real meaning of a particular art work after the comparatively prosaic task of determining its conventional or iconographic meaning has been performed." 3 To McKinnon, the essential character of iconography deals with ideas, and its definition in simplest terms is "the identification of subject matter in art works." 4 Its object, however, is musical thought, as opposed to organology—that field which McKinnon feels has dominated American music iconographers. 5 Another scholar's definition for iconology is "the study of images, their formulation, transmission, transformation and their intrinsic meaning," as distinguished from iconography which to him implies, "the descriptive and classificatory study of images with the aim of understanding the direct or indirect meaning of the subject matter represented." 6 This is in keeping with McKinnon's more recent, broader view: music iconography "in its purest form is simply the iconography of artworks with musicological subject matter, that is to say, the explanation of a musical picture's content." 7 One of music iconology's primary uses is uncovering the performance practices of the past. The term performance practice includes all those techniques that cannot be fixed in a written score, such as how performers hold an instrument, specific hand and finger positions, which instruments are used in ensembles, and their relative placement, and so on. Performance practice includes both the acoustic and the social aspects of a performance's environment: its location (in- or outdoors, for example); its occasion (festival, marriage, etc.); and the size, constituency, and behavior of the audience. Pictures provide evidence for these elements of music-making that words cannot. An artwork depicting an orchestra, for example, will demonstrate how many performers play each part (important in determining scoring), 8 the spatial arrangement of the musicians, whether a continuo group is playing, and what its makeup is; and what accessories are in use

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Page 1: Music Iconography and Medieval Performance Practice - College Music Symposium

01 October 1991

Music Iconography and Medieval Performance PracticeWritten by Leslie Lassetter

Introduction

This study of iconography and performance practice is divided into two parts. Part I deals with the definition of

iconography and its relationship to performance practice. Part II outlines some general principles necessary to

the study of medieval music iconography, and deals with specific cases. These principles include balancing

visual evidence against written sources, distinguishing between symbol and documentation of contemporary

life, and recognizing in art the historical precedents for instrumental groupings in biblical illustration. A

discussion of depictions of trecento angel musicians, as opposed to contemporary liturgical scenes,

demonstrates that different types of depictions vary in their value as evidence for performance practice. Finally,

a study of the instruments the trecento angels play leads into the possible role of the double pipe and the

bagpipe in the development of early polyphony.

I

This paper includes the use of the term iconology, as well as iconography. Iconography, as defined by Erwin

Panofsky, is the "branch of the history of art which concerns itself with the subject matter or meaning of works

of art, as opposed to their form."1 Iconography deals with the description of images. Iconology, on the other

hand, involves the study of images and, therefore, involves interpretation. Emanuel Winternitz, one of the most

important writers in this discipline, defines the subject as follows: "[Iconology is] the analysis and

interpretation, by the historian of music, of pictorial representations of musical instruments, their players,

singers, groups of performing musicians, and all other kinds of musical scenes.2 James McKinnon, twenty

years later, refined that definition, stating that iconology "seeks to penetrate to the real meaning of a particular

art work after the comparatively prosaic task of determining its conventional or iconographic meaning has been

performed."3 To McKinnon, the essential character of iconography deals with ideas, and its definition in

simplest terms is "the identification of subject matter in art works."4 Its object, however, is musical thought, as

opposed to organology—that field which McKinnon feels has dominated American music iconographers.5

Another scholar's definition for iconology is "the study of images, their formulation, transmission, transformation

and their intrinsic meaning," as distinguished from iconography which to him implies, "the descriptive and

classificatory study of images with the aim of understanding the direct or indirect meaning of the subject matter

represented."6 This is in keeping with McKinnon's more recent, broader view: music iconography "in its purest

form is simply the iconography of artworks with musicological subject matter, that is to say, the explanation of

a musical picture's content."7

One of music iconology's primary uses is uncovering the performance practices of the past. The term

performance practice includes all those techniques that cannot be fixed in a written score, such as how

performers hold an instrument, specific hand and finger positions, which instruments are used in ensembles,

and their relative placement, and so on. Performance practice includes both the acoustic and the social

aspects of a performance's environment: its location (in- or outdoors, for example); its occasion (festival,

marriage, etc.); and the size, constituency, and behavior of the audience. Pictures provide evidence for these

elements of music-making that words cannot. An artwork depicting an orchestra, for example, will demonstrate

how many performers play each part (important in determining scoring),8 the spatial arrangement of the

musicians, whether a continuo group is playing, and what its makeup is; and what accessories are in use

Page 2: Music Iconography and Medieval Performance Practice - College Music Symposium

(music stands, mutes, etc.). Performance practice also encompasses the social status of the musician and

the manner in which society views the composer, the performer, and music, in general.9 For example, a portrait

of a court violinist, who wears a satin uniform elaborately bordered in brocade informs us, at least partially, of

this performer's status in society. Similarly, a Brueghel townsman cradling a bagpipe and dancing amid other

peasant folk can relate many specific details (about the music's milieu, the details of the instrument, etc.) that

most written accounts would lack.

A student of music iconography also requires a considerable knowledge of symbolism, political movements,

theological doctrines, and allegorical languages that influenced a given artist. Such elements are not remote

from performance practice, since the use of music as a theme to illustrate something in many works can

distort the reality of the music. All that the artwork has drawn on must, to some extent, be examined if the

meaning of the work is to be revealed. Winternitz cites Charles Burney's lack of knowledge of the language of

ancient Egypt as evidence that iconologists must attempt to be familiar with all sources for an artwork. In his

General History of Music,10 Burney praises Egyptian musicians for inventing the lute. Burney, however, only

saw a picture of what he thought was a lute on an Egyptian obelisk. He had, however, confused the hieroglyph

for the word "good, which is based on the shape of the windpipe joined to the heart," with the form of a lute.11

There is also an elemental distinction between realistic and nonrealistic depiction. "By realistic art most of us

mean photographic art—that is, objects drawn in correct perspective and modeled in light and shade to look

three-dimensional."12 Medieval artworks, for example, often show performers and instruments schematically,

their details either unclear or obviously unrealistic. An artist's stylistic limitations often limit the depiction of

details. For example, an illumination of David with a harp from an eleventh-century manuscript (Plate A) shows

a plucking position with crossed fingers that does not seem realistic.

Plate A

Page 3: Music Iconography and Medieval Performance Practice - College Music Symposium

King David playing the harp; from an 11th-century manuscript (GB-Ccc 391, p. 24). Used with the permission of

the Master and Fellows of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.

The crossed index and middle fingers of the right hand appear to be wrong from the point of view of performance

practice. The position of the performer's left hand is also mysterious: it seems to pluck a single string with four

fingers—far more awkward than using a single digit.13 Another picture of King David from the twelfth-century

manuscript Hortus deliciarum by Herrad of Landsberg shows a further example of a seemingly unrealistic hand

position (see this picture on p. 13 of the New Grove article, "Iconography"): A plectrum held in the manner

shown would simply fall to the floor. (The artist does not show the thumb, which would hold the plectrum in

place.) A third medieval example which shows a realistic depiction is a miniature from the thirteenth-century

Cantigas de Santa Maria (Plate B).

Plate B

Page 4: Music Iconography and Medieval Performance Practice - College Music Symposium

Woman playing psaltery; from Cantigas de Santa Maria, late 13th century (E-E b.1.2. folio 260r). Photograph

provided and authorized by the Patrimonio Nacional.

The finger positions of the psaltery player appear to be workable.14 These examples demonstrate that we

cannot trust every medieval artist's work as accurate documentation; rather, the iconographer must assess the

possibly useful details of medieval artworks each on their own merits.

Later artworks (beginning with the Flemish) show almost an obsession with the portrayal of details. This does

not mean, however, that they are accurate. Grunewald's Isenheim Altarpiece (early sixteenth century), for

example, shows musicians performing on three-dimensional instruments, but the artist has distorted these

instruments and the musicians' playing technique.15 A painting or drawing style that shows many clear details

can easily lead to a common pitfall—trusting details merely because they are shown.

The iconographer must bear in mind the symbolism in artworks. An example of the importance of a knowledge

of symbols is an interpretation of Hieronymous Bosch's Ship of Fools, in which a nun and a monk sit at table,

singing and playing the lute. The unknowledgeable viewer might interpret this work as portraying nothing more

than the musical tastes of two clerics of Bosch's time. Leppert shows, however, that Ship of Fools symbolizes

the lust of a corrupt clergy.16 Similarly, one interpretation of the instruments in the same artist's complex

Garden of Delights holds that they become implements of torture for those who would destroy the world's

natural harmony, and the instruments themselves are distorted.17 Seventeenth-century Dutch genre paintings,

many of which include chamber music performances, have the quality of painted snapshots. These works,

however, carry hidden allegorical meaning. Jan Molenaer's Allegory of Fidelity in Marriage, for example, uses

string instruments as symbols of temperance.18 The man watering his wine is another symbol of moderation.

Moderation and temperance are appropriate to the theme of marital fidelity, but, as Jane Stevens has so aptly

put it, "if the music-making . . . has a largely symbolic purpose, can it be trusted as a realistic reflection of

actual performance practice?"19

Page 5: Music Iconography and Medieval Performance Practice - College Music Symposium

Depictions of eighteenth-century musical ensembles present a similar problem. According to Christoph-

Hellmutt Mahling, these works are intended to show a family's rank in society,20 and because many of these

artworks agree in the details of performance, Mahling considers them useful in questions of performance

practice. Mahling further demonstrates the value of these works for the study of performance practice by

showing that the spatial arrangements in many ensembles are those prescribed by Joachim Quantz in his

Versuch einer Anweisung die Flöte traversiere zu spielen.21 In other words, these written contemporary

instructions to the performers corroborate, in this case, the pictorial documentation.

II

In examining matters of performance practice in music iconography of the Middle Ages, a few basic conditions

must be kept in mind. Frank L. Harrison stated in 1978 that, "unlike musicologists concerned with some later

eras . . . medievalists have as yet barely broached the subject known in Germany as Aufführungspraxis."22 On

the other hand, the pictorial arts of the Middle Ages demonstrate a special interest in depicting musicians with

their instruments.23 If there are so many visual sources of performers and musical instruments, why then is

performance practice of early music so little understood? One reason has to do with the instruments,

themselves, few of which are still in existence today. According to Harrison,

The history of instruments is too often dealt with as if there were indeed an entity that could be called medieval

organology—an idea just as invalid as the supposition that the history of post-1500 instruments could be

treated as an undivided whole.24

Whenever possible, it is of value to balance visual evidence with written source material. If there is an account

of payments to musicians in a procession, for example, these should be studied next to an artist's depiction of

such a procession.25 An example of this principle exists in an artist's depiction of the coronation of Henry IV of

England (Plate C). The artist recorded trumpets sounding at the moment Henry is crowned. This corroborates

exactly the written sources.26

Plate C

Page 6: Music Iconography and Medieval Performance Practice - College Music Symposium

The coronation of King Henry IV of England; from Jean de Wavrin, Anchiennes cronicques d'Engleterre, French,

mid-15th century. (MS fr. 75, folio 308). Photograph provided by the Bibliotèque Nationale.

An example showing the importance of a knowledge of symbolism is the interpretation of a Flemish picture

from the Breviary of Queen Isabella of Spain (ca. 1497, Plate D), which has been variously labeled over time.

Plate D

Page 7: Music Iconography and Medieval Performance Practice - College Music Symposium

Levitical musicians playing on the steps of the Temple in Jerusalem while King David mounts steps; Flemish,

late 15th century (MS. Additional 18851, Isabella Breviary, folio 184v.). By permission of the British Library.

Bowles, in 1983, calls it "Musicians performing on the church steps,"27 while another caption, from 1968, is

"Musicians in the Square Before a Church."28 In a particularly incisive study, McKinnon shows that the best

caption would be "An introductory illustration to the gradual psalms; Levitical musicians play on the steps of

the Temple of Jerusalem, while King David looks on and David as pilgrim mounts the steps."29 McKinnon

shows that the performers in this work are not meant to represent twelve medieval musicians performing

together. Rather, they illustrate a theological point with medieval costumes and instruments. Therefore, one

must weigh the "foreground" visual evidence against the "background," hidden meaning in looking for matters of

performance practice in music iconography of the Middle Ages.

Besides taking into account what a scene represents, it is important to realize that an artist's intentions are not

always literal. One must be mindful of the degree of conventionality underlying the production of images at

different periods of Western art. The Middle Ages and the earlier Renaissance demonstrate this tendency at its

extreme.30

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The grouping of angels in trecento artwork—which derives from artistic, not musical sources—illustrates this

concept. When trecento artists depict Mary surrounded by four angel musicians, for example, the latter do not

indicate a grouping of four medieval musicians in an ensemble. Trecento artists, rather, turned to the motif of

David (Plates E and F) surrounded by his four musical assistants as their model.31 This was

. . . the best means of showing Mary . . . being adored by the angelic choirs. What better source of praise than

the psalms, and what better way to show angels singing—that is, playing instruments—than to borrow the

most obvious and common image of the praise for heavenly things, namely, David with four assistants.32

Plate E

Christ in Majesty (MS m.742 recto). Photograph provided by the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York.

Plate F

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David as Poet of the Psalms; from the Cathedral in Siena, Italy. Photograph provided by Professor Enzo Carli.

Despite the artistic conventions, what do trecento frescoes, sculpture, and manuscript illuminations say about

the instruments the musicians—mostly angels—play? "Did the artist paint these musical instruments purely

from his imagination, or do they correspond to actual instruments of the period?"33 This question is asked by

Federico Ghisi in his study of scenes from the life of Mary encircled by angel musicians with instruments in the

apse of a Romanesque church at San Leonardo al Lago near Sienna. He judges that "their forms as shown are

certainly of instruments that were played." In another study of trecento angels, Brown determines that though

the grouping of angel instrumentalists is not necessarily indicative of the medieval ensemble, nevertheless, the

painters painted instruments they knew from real life. Though he qualifies this as being difficult to prove, he

believes that the artworks show biblical stories without, however, showing influence of the ancient world on the

costumes: that is, the biblical characters are in contemporary dress. Brown postulates, therefore, that there is

not an influence of biblical times on the details of the instruments, themselves.34 This conclusion is also in

keeping with Bowles's opinion that the sacred genre is of little value in performance practice questions, but that

it may be of value for organology.35 Whether trecento artists help the musicologist to determine instrumental

ensemble practice or not, they at least allow us to see what instruments were played. The naming of those

instruments is something else altogether, a problem discussed below.

The discussion, so far, has dealt with angel musicians. Angels make up the largest body of performers in

medieval art, and biblical illustration accounts for most of the subject matter. What about human beings

involved in the liturgy? Why have illustrations of liturgical practice received little attention? There are, in fact,

extant liturgical depictions. Les Três riches heures (1415-17) by the Limbourg Brothers contains an illumination

of a Christmas Mass. A Commentary on the Pater Noster translated by Jean Miélot (fifteenth-century) in the

Page 10: Music Iconography and Medieval Performance Practice - College Music Symposium

Bibliothèque Royale of Brussels contains a depiction of Philip the Good at Mass.36 There are, however, "tens

of thousands of angel musicians, elders, and Psalter instrumentalists" in comparison to "these few mass

scenes [which] are isolated examples rather than representatives of established iconographic types." Yet there

is a "substantial body of medieval and Renaissance liturgical representation extant, even if existing biblical

illustration forms a greater amount by far." There is even enough illustration to distinguish the mass from the

office. A depiction of the liturgy from a fifteenth-century Dutch missal (Plate G) is one illustration from this

substantial body of works.

Plate G

Performing a liturgical service; from a Dutch missal, 15th century (MS K.2.32, folio 160). By permission of the

Board of Trinity College.

Iconography can also assist in assessing the problem of whether instruments were used in the liturgy. Brown

maintains that "the extent and nature of instrumental participation in sacred music of the thirteenth, fourteenth,

and fifteenth centuries are by no means clear."37 Harrison, on the other hand, defines two distinct contexts in

which instruments found acceptance in the ecclesiastical tradition. Pedagogically, the monochord,

organistrum, and tuned bells were integral to the teaching of music, especially in the larger churches. A twelfth-

century relief of Lady Music shows the tuned bells (Plate H).

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Plate H

Music with psaltery, fiddle, and carillon; from the king's door at Chartres Cathedral, 12th century. Photograph

provided by Chartres Cathedral.

By 1400, however, these pedagogical instruments were replaced by instruments with keys. In the ceremonial

context, "the organ was associated with certain new interpolations in the ritual . . . as an essential concomitant

in the performance of the Sequence."38 The organ stood on a small screen in the gallery; its musical

participation, in addition to the Sequence, consisted of alternating with the plainsong of the choir, according to

Harrison. Many questions remain, however, in the area of instrumental participation in the liturgy. Brown states

that,

To investigate the conventions of scoring, particularly in liturgical music, remains one of the most important and

pressing tasks for the historian of [medieval] performing practice.39

And McKinnon suggests that there are enough extant liturgical representations to realize such an

investigation.40

With regard to instruments, let us return to the trecento angel musician. Trecento angels differ from those

depicted in earlier centuries:

Thirteenth-century angels were content merely to hold up drapery or to stand silently by. But shortly after 1300

heavenly messengers can be seen to weep for the crucified Christ, to offer flowers to the Virgin and Child, or to

Page 12: Music Iconography and Medieval Performance Practice - College Music Symposium

play musical instruments.41

For the next two centuries, these messengers from heaven form the most important class of performers—

through sheer numbers—in Italian art, so it is important to examine the instruments they play. Ghisi, as

mentioned above, has made a careful iconographic study of angel musicians encircling the Marian frescoes in

the church at San Leonardo al Lago. He describes the musicians in the frescoes of each vault of the apse.42 In

one vault, angels form a bas ensemble with voice, including plucked and bowed string instruments (two

psalteries, two lutes, and a fiddle), a portative organ, and a solo singer. Three angels sing together in the next

vault; their trio suggests a polyphonic lauda. The final two frescoes include percussion, woodwind, and brass

instruments. In one, angels play long straight trumpets, a kettledrum, a bombard, and a pipe and tabor. In the

other, the celestial musicians play two kinds of trumpet (cylindrical and conical), cymbals, kettledrums, a

tambourine with jingles, a shawm or a bombard, and an aulos. To this double straight oboe, as Ghisi first

describes the aulos, we now turn our attention.43

In his study of angels, Brown states that the double recorder is the main soft instrument of the trecento, the

bas instrument seen most often in paintings.44 A detail from a Siennese painting (ca. 1340) of the Assumption

of the Virgin (Plate I) shows an angel playing this instrument in the left center of the foreground.

Plate I

Mary Ascending into Heaven by the Master of Siena; ca. 1340. Used with the permission of the Alte

Page 13: Music Iconography and Medieval Performance Practice - College Music Symposium

Pinakothek München.

Plate J shows two double pipe players from the Cantigas de Santa Maria.

Plate J

Two men playing double pipes; from Cantigas de Santa Maria, late 13th century (E-E b.1.2 folio 323v).

Photograph provided and authorized by the Patrimonio Nacional.

With regard to Brown's study, McKinnon comments,

. . . the portative organ must have figured prominently in contemporary music; while one is both convinced of

and surprized at the reality of dual-pipe playing during the period. We note further the total absence of the

transverse flute and the virtual absence of the recorder . . . . 45

McKinnon speaks of a double-pipe, Brown a double-recorder. Ghisi, in turn, gives three designative options for

the one instrument depicted in the San Leonardo fresco: double straight oboe, double aulos, and diaulos. All

these terms—McKinnon's, Brown's, and Ghisi's—refer to an instrument that, in the various paintings, looks the

same. The obvious problem is that of an accurate terminology. The New Grove Dictionary of Musical

Instruments provides no guidance in the matter. It lists the aulos only as an instrument used in classical

antiquity; none of the other nomenclature—diaulos, double recorder, etc.—appear as entries in this dictionary.

Winternitz, at least, makes some helpful distinction by identifying double pipes with a disclaimer that he will

not discuss whether all the double pipes illustrated in his article are double reed pipes. Winternitz, thus, coins

a generic term, double pipe. This name is adopted for the present discussion. This multiplicity of terms proves

Gerald Hayes's observation concerning the history of reed instruments between the early Christian years and

the high Renaissance; he writes, "It is in examining these [reed instruments] that we notice the only real

Page 14: Music Iconography and Medieval Performance Practice - College Music Symposium

weakness of instrumental music before the fifteenth century."46

The heir of the double pipe is the bagpipe, a set of double, triple, or quadruple pipes in mechanized form. The

string counterpart of the bagpipe is the organistrum. This line from the double pipe to the bagpipe and the

organistrum is important when considering that

Simultaneous occurrences of both these specialized drone instruments [bagpipe and organistrum] can be

documented in pictures through the centuries, in both the mainstream and side currents of music, in sacred art

and folk art, in court entertainment and fête champêtres, up and down the social ladder. This evidence is

particularly interesting for the study of the Middle Ages, when the organum and its instrumental vehicle, the

drone, were important elements in the origin of Occidental polyphony."47

An English angel with bagpipe rendered in sculpture (1377, Plate K) shows this instrument in a sacred artwork.

Plate K

Angel playing bagpipe; English, 14th century. Used with the permission of Timothy Eckersley.

An anonymous Italian representation of three musicians and two dancers (fourteenth-century, Plate L)

documents its secular use; the performer nearer the dance plays the bagpipe. Neither instrumentalist plays

from music. Performers generally improvised polyphonic dance music.48 Even in medieval depictions of

instrumentalists and singers together, only the vocalists read from music; instrumental musicians perform

without it.

Plate L

Page 15: Music Iconography and Medieval Performance Practice - College Music Symposium

Sonare et balare; from the Arab book miniature Tacuinum sanitatis in Medicina (Handbook of Health) by

Albucasis, late 14th century (Cod. ser.nov.2644, folio 104 recto). Photograph provided by Österreichische

Nationalbibliothek und Porträtsammlung.

The double pipe, the bagpipe, and the organistrum, as drone instruments, fall into a larger historical context in

relation to performance practice. Winternitz points out, "the importance of drone music in the face of developing

polyphony,"49 an early expression of which is the Notre Dame style with its long melismas over a held tone or

drone, as illustrated in Figure 1.

Figure 1: School of Notre Dame, two-voice organum; Historical Anthology of Music, Harvard

University Press, 1/28c (excerpt).

Page 16: Music Iconography and Medieval Performance Practice - College Music Symposium

What inspired the Notre Dame composers to write in this style? Did the bagpipe, with its capability of playing

two lines similar to the tenor and discant parts in Figure 1, inspire two-voice organum? If the sculpted angel in

Plate L suddenly had lungs and a real bagpipe, would the angel's music resemble that which is notated in

Figure 1? In other words, does the performance of instrumental music that we see (but do not hear) in artists'

representations influence the notated sacred vocal music which we can hear? Examples of vocal polyphony

imitating music for brass exist in the late fourteenth century,50 and some mid-fourteenth-century music, sacred

and secular, imitates the sound of instruments. In folk song, the imitation of bagpipes and drums is common.51

Did Leonin, Perotin, and their colleagues imitate instrumental music in the vocal works they composed for

Notre Dame around 1200? The potential to pose such a hypothesis exists through music iconography.

As predecessor of the bagpipe, the double pipe "existed in Europe after the fifth century," according to Ghisi.

How it was played, however, is not evident since artists' depictions are like still photographs rather than moving

pictures with sound. A fresco by Martini shows a double pipe player whose finger position of the right hand is

very clear; the left hand looks similar but is partially obstructed by the shoulder of another musician. It is not

evident whether the instrumentalist played one of the pipes as a drone, or sounded two melodies together

simultaneously. If the double pipe sounded two melodies together, then its music could have been an

instrumental precedent for the discant clausula. If such is the case, then the double pipe could have played

both parts of a clausula like the thirteenth-century "Hec Dies" shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2: Clausula for "Hec Dies," Historical Anthology of Music, Harvard University Press, 1/30

(excerpt).

This hypothesis, arrived at through music iconography, is, of course, only speculative. A video cassette of

these early performances will never be unearthed in an archeological dig. Music iconography, however, does

provide a window to the past, and as such, it gives us the potential to see the fundamental difference between

music-making in the Middle Ages and now. It is essential to understand that early music was performed at a

time when instruments, people, and conditions, especially the role of theology and politics, were totally

different from what musicians experience today. If one of the musicologist's major tasks is to "remove

misconceptions about musical practice in the past before recording," as Harrison emphasizes, then scholars of

Page 17: Music Iconography and Medieval Performance Practice - College Music Symposium

medieval performance practice must "suggest at least general criteria for performance in the inevitably different

circumstances of today."52 But first, the musical practice must be studied as closely as possible through

written and visual sources, that is, through manuscripts, frescoes, paintings, architecture, and sculpture. These

visual historical documents form a rich encyclopedic display of musical life in the Middle Ages, and, as such,

should be mandatory classroom material for even the most basic of today's courses in medieval music.

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______. La Pratique musicale au moyen age. Geneva: Minkoff, 1983.

Bragard, R. and De Hen, Ferd. J. Les Instruments de musique dans l'art et I'histoire. Rhode-St.-Genèse:

Compagnie Belge d'Editions S.P.R.L., 1967.

Brown, Howard Mayer. "St. Augustine, Lady Music, and the Gittern in Fourteenth Century Italy." Musica

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______. "Trecento Angels and the Instruments They Play." In Modern Musical Scholarship, 112-40. Edited by

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Cosacchi, Stephan. "Musikinstrumente in mittelalterlichen Totentanz." Die Musik forschung 8 (1955): 1-19.

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and Civilisation, 135-80. Edited by T. C. Mitchell. London: British Museum, 1980.

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1977): 9-12.

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Art Institute of Chicago; 7: The Frick Collection, New York . New York: Research Center for Musical

Iconography, 1986.

Foster, Genette. "Prospects and Problems for the Study of Musical Iconology in Thirteenth-Century Manuscript

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1Erwin Panofsky, Studies in Iconology: Humanistic Themes in the Art of the Renaissance (Cambridge: Oxford

University Press, 1939; reprint ed., New York: Harper & Row, 1967), 3.

2Emanuel Winternitz, "The Iconology of Music: Potentials and Pitfalls," Perspectives in Musicology (New York:

W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1972), 80.

3James W. McKinnon, "Musical Iconography: A Definition," RIdIM/RCMI Newsletter II/2 (Spring 1977): 17. This

article contains a clear explanation of the difference between iconology and iconography.

4McKinnon, "Musical Iconography," 16.

5McKinnon, "Musical Iconography," 15.

6Richard D. Leppert, The Theme of Music in Flemish Paintings in the Seventeenth Century, 1 (München-

Salzburg: Musikverlag Emil Katzbichler, 1977): 39.

7James W. McKinnon, "The Fifteen Temple Steps and the Gradual Psalms," Imago Musicae I (1984): 49.

8Christoph-Hellmutt Mahling, "Representations of Musical Ensembles and Historical Performance Practice,"

RIdIM/RCMI Newsletter III/2 (Spring 1978): 8.

9The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, s.v. "Performing Practice" by Howard Mayer Brown.

10Burney, General History of Music, as cited in Winternitz, 82.

11Winternitz, 82.

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12The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, s.v. "Iconography" by Howard Mayer Brown, 13.

13The crossed fingers might be the artist's way of showing fingers in motion. The left hand may actually be

damping the strings.

14Zoltán Falvy, "Images, Instruments, History of Music = Musical Iconology," RIdIM/RCMI Newsletter II/2

(Spring 1977): 11.

15The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, s.v. "Iconography" by Howard Mayer Brown.

16Leppert, 41.

17Leppert, 41. See, for example, the gigantic harp on which a man is crucified.

18The lute is especially associated with temperance and, therefore, is painted in a prominent, central position.

See Figure 1 in Jane R. Stevens, "Hands, Music, and Meaning in Some Seventeenth-Century Dutch

Paintings," Imago Musicae I (1984): 76.

19Stevens, 102.

20Christoph-Hellmutt Mahling, "Representations of Musical Ensembles and Historical Performance Practice,"

RIdIM/RCMI Newsletter III/2 (Spring 1978): 9.

21Mahling, 9.

22Frank L. Harrison, "Tradition and Innovation in Instrumental Usage 1100-1450," in Aspects of Medieval and

Renaissance Music: A Birthday Offering to Gustav Reese, ed. by Jan LaRue (New York: Norton, 1966; reprint

ed., New York: Pendragon Press, 1978), 319.

23Gilbert Reaney, "The Performance of Medieval Music," in Aspects of Medieval and Renaissance Music: A

Birthday Offering to Gustav Reese, ed. by Jan LaRue (New York: Norton, 1966; reprint ed., New York:

Pendragon Press, 1978), 705.

24Harrison, 319.

25Edmund A. Bowles, La Pratique musicale au moyen age, (Geneva: Minkoff, 1983), 13.

26Bowles, 13, 50, 51. For further reference to literary sources only, see Edmund A. Bowles, "Haut and Bas:

The Grouping of Musical Instruments in the Middle Ages," Publications in the Humanities from the Department

of Humanities, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1955): 115-40.

27The reader is referred to Plate 3 in Bowles, La Pratique, 31.

28This caption is from Robert Wangermée's Musique Flamande as cited in James W. McKinnon, "The Fifteen

Temple Steps and the Gradual Psalms," Imago Musicae I (1984): 29.

29McKinnon, "The Fifteen Temple Steps," 29.

30McKinnon, "Musical Iconography," 16.

31This in turn, strengthens David's position in medieval theology as an Old Testament manifestation of Christ

and the four evangelists (see Plate E). For a depiction of David with his four assistants from the following

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century, see Plate F.

32Howard Mayer Brown, "Trecento Angels and the Instruments they Play," in Modern Musical Scholarship, ed.

Edward Olleson (Stocksfield: Oriel Press, Ltd., 1978), 119.

33Federico Ghisi, "An Angel Concert in a Trecento Sienese Fresco," in Aspects of Medieval and Renaissance

Music: A Birthday Offering to Gustav Reese, ed. Jan LaRue (New York: Norton, 1966; reprint ed., New York:

Pendragon Press, 1978), 312.

34Brown, 128.

35Edmund A. Bowles, "A Checklist of Musical Instruments in Fifteenth-Century Illuminated Manuscripts at the

Pierpont Morgan Library," Notes 30/4 (1974): 759.

36James W. McKinnon, "Representations of the Mass in Medieval and Renaissance Art," Journal of the

American Musicological Society XXXI/1 (1978): 25. Quotations from the rest of this paragraph are from this

same source, p. 25. The Christmas Mass is illustrated in Figure 6c on p. 37 of McKinnon's article; Philip the

Good at Mass is illustrated in Figure 4c on p. 33.

37The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, s.v. "Performing Practice" by Howard Mayer Brown, 376.

38Frank L. Harrison, "Tradition and Innovation in Instrumental Usage 1100-1450," in Aspects of Medieval and

Renaissance Music: A Birthday Offering to Gustav Reese, ed. Jan LaRue (New York: Norton, 1966; reprint ed.,

New York: Pendragon Press, 1978), 321.

39The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, s.v. "Performing Practice" Howard Mayer Brown, 376.

40McKinnon, "Representations," 21-52.

41Brown, 112.

42The article by Ghisi is, itself, a good illustration of iconography vs. iconology.

43See Ghisi, Plates 18a-d.

44Brown, 128.

45The passage cited concludes, "the latter circumstance being one that will come as a great disappointment,

to some but comfort, perhaps, to others." James W. McKinnon, "Iconography," in Musicology in the 1980s,

eds. D. Kern Holoman and Claude V. Palisca. (New York: Da Capo Press, 1982), 88.

46Gerald Hayes, The New Oxford History of Music, III (London, 1960), 477 as cited in Harrison, 335.

47Winternitz, 85.

48Winternitz, 85.

49Winternitz, 83.

50See Harrison, 331 for further treatment of this subject.

51See Harrison, 333-34 for musical examples.