Original scientific paper

Chant books from Sinj by the Franciscan Petar Knežević (1767) in the context of polifonia semplice and cantus fractus: concordance with Italian sources

Hana Breko Kustura orcid.org/0000-0002-3104-3682 ; Hrvatska akademija znanosti i umjetnosti Odsjek za povijest hrvatske glazbe

Abstract

This essay offers a broad context for studying two phenomena characteristic of the Western European liturgical music: cantus fractus and the ‘simple polyphony’. An examination of the general history of cantus fractus has shown that scholars of litur-
gical music neglected this area, considering it less important than Western plainchant sources. ‘Simple polyphony’, by contrast, has been studied more since the conferences in Cividale (1980) and in Venice (1996). By the end of the nineteenth century
notated choral books of the Franciscan origin had recorded occurrences of the simple polyphony and of cantus fractus in Dalmatian liturgical practice.
The principal focus of the research is the repertory of the musical manuscripts which belong to the Franciscan Province of the Most Holy Redeemer (Provinciae Sanctissimi Redemptoris), in particular the two chant-manuscripts (Cantorie and Kyriale) by the Franciscan Petar Knežević (Sinj, 1767). The content and the type of mensural notation
used in Knežević’s sources correspond with the mass ordinary repertory in other Croatian Franciscan manuscripts, such as those from Trogir, Dubrovnik and Makarska.
In this essay I discuss the main principles of counterpart as well as Satztechnik from Knežević’s collections, which belong to the phenomenon of ‘simple polyphony’.
A new finding is recognized: there are repertory concordances between the chant book (the so-called ‘Kantual B’) by Petar Knežević and a seventeenth-century Kyriale, which belongs to the Franciscan repertory from the Italian region of Basilicata.
Among other examples discussed are the Mass ‘Sesta per F’ and ‘Missa u Harvatski jezik’, in Croatian. This study aims to show that the musical manuscripts by Knežević belong to the eighteenth-century Franciscan cantus fractus tradition. Yet the insertion of a Croatian text to the melody of the Latin mass Sesta per F testifies to the ways in which the common repertory was both adopted and adapted to suit the needs of the local church.

Keywords

cantus fractus, simple polyphony; liturgical chant books by the Franciscan Petar Knežević; Missa in F fa ut

Hrčak ID:

27825

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/27825

Publication date:

15.7.2008.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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