Lisa Colton | Getting to know a “completely unintelligible” English motet of the ars nova

Event details

Speaker: Lisa Colton (University of Huddersfield)

Date: 15 January 2020

Time: 3.15 - 5.00pm.  

Venue: Alison House, Atrium (G10)

Abstract

The motet 'Omnis/Habenti' is found in only one source, the rear flyleaves of the book Oxford, Bodleian e museo 7, ff. 266v–267 (Ob 7). As is typical of fourteenth-century insular polyphony, its texts are in Latin, and it carries no direct sign of authorship. The song was one of twenty-two pieces featured on Gothic Voices’ recording 'Masters of the Rolls: Music by English Composers of the Fourteenth Century', an acknowledgement of the craft of the song as well as its effective sound in performance. 'Omnis/Habenti' has also attracted attention as a song betraying continental influence. Peter M. Lefferts listed the piece as one of twenty-four motets of “continental style” found in insular sources,[1] noting that all the unica within Ob 7 and Durham Cathedral Priory C.I.20 (DRc 20) were likely candidates for having been written in France.[2] Lefferts further suggested that the motet was one of three in Ob 7 that “may be contrafacts of motets that originally had secular French texts”, or that might have been modelled on continental song forms, urging the identification of tenor material and potential concordances.[3] The possibility that 'Omnis/Habenti' might have been retexted is supported by the motetus, whose poetic meaning is ambiguous. Indeed, Christopher Page highlighted it as “the nearest thing to a completely unintelligible poem that I have so far encountered in medieval song”.[4]

In this research seminar, I will place 'Omnis/Habenti' within the context of the ars nova, and offer a new identification for its tenor voice. Several aspects of the music and poetry suggest that the motet’s composer was closely familiar with continental styles and structures. Analysis of the motet suggests that the complexity of language – its apparent unintelligibility – owes much to the experimental nature of French ars nova song, in which composers created upper-voice structures that worked with tenor material to convey subtle meanings. Rather than a motet whose original poetry has been interfered with by English scribes, I suggest that 'Omnis/Habenti' can be compared productively with some of the politically motivated works of Philippe de Vitry and his contemporaries.  

Biography

Lisa Colton is Reader in Musicology and Director of Graduate Education (School of Music, Humanities & Media) at the University of Huddersfield. Lisa’s research interests lie in medieval musicology, medieval studies, music and gender, and twentieth-century British music. Her monograph, Angel Song: Medieval English Music in History, was published by Routledge in 2017.