Weerbeke: Ave, mundi domina

The motet cycles known as motetti missales are among the most intriguing repertoires of late-fifteenth-century polyphony. This series features a new critical edition of the six cycles by Loyset Compère, Gaspar van Weerbeke, and Franchinus Gaffurius included in the Milanese Libroni and of the two anonymous cycles transmitted in the Leopold Codex (Munich MS 3154). For the first time this corpus is presented with uniform editorial criteria, facilitating the comparison of mensural choices and other compositional strategies. Furthermore, the introduction of each volume thematizes the peculiar characteristics of each cycle, in terms of textual choices, use of preexisting material, and musical design, allowing for a new assessment of the motetti missales that goes beyond the homogenizing stereotypes of earlier literature and accounts for the individual contributions of the various composers. The editors’ insight in this repertoire is the result of two interdisciplinary research projects financed by the Swiss National Fund and carried out at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in 2014–21.

The cycle Ave, mundi domina by Gaspar van Weerbeke (ca. 1452–1517) consists of eight four-voice motets on assorted Marian texts. All eight motets are preserved in Librone 1 of the Milanese Libroni (Gaffurius Codices), with two also appearing in Librone 2. Of all the surviving motetti missales cycles, Ave, mundi domina is the only cycle whose component motets can also be found in sources from outside Milan; particularly notable in this regard is its fourth motet, “Anima mea liquefacta est,” on a highly expressive text from the Song of Songs, which with seven concordant sources is not only the single most transmitted motet within the motetti missales repertory but also in Weerbeke’s entire output.