Liane Renee Curtis, Ph.D. 1991

Advisor: James Haar

Dissertation Title: Music Manuscripts and Their Production in Fifteenth-Century Cambrai

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Dissertation Abstract:

Cambrai Cathedral is well known as a fifteenth century musical center, and home to the composer Guillaume Dufay. The wealthy chapter also promoted the copying and production of music manuscripts. Since few northern sources of sacred music survive from the early and mid-fifteenth century, the study of those which are still extant is particularly important. The music manuscripts 6 and 11 of the Cambrai Bibliothèque municipale are unusual in many respects, such as their large dimensions, and late use of parchment and black notation. Dates of the mid-1430s for Ca 6 and early 1440s for Ca 11 are proposed. The seven works unique to these sources, including several Kyries which may be of English origin, a Credo, and three hymns are edited here.

Through an examination of archival documents and Cambrai music sources of both chant and polyphony (Ca 11), a number of manuscripts can be identified as having been copied by the wellknown scribe Simon Mellet. The breadth of his production in the years 1445-1480 gives us a new understanding of the role of a cathedral scribe. Two outside scribes, Jean de Namps and Gerard Sohier, were hired to recopy the cathedral antiphoners in the years 1446-1456. This monumental project stressed the high priority of chant in the musical life of the cathedral, as well as the constant flux of the liturgy, which resulted in the need for this recopying. Other documents reveal the use of choirboys in polyphony earlier than 1417, and provide information on groups with musical responsibilities, including the greater and lesser vicars.

Dr. Curtis is the founder of Women’s Philharmonic Advocacy, an organization that works to advance the performance of music by women composers. She is also the president of the Rebecca Clarke Society and has been a resident scholar at the Women’s Studies Research Center at Brandeis University since 1996.