compiled and copied in the late 1470 s in or near the town of Glogau in Silesia, a border district between
Germany and Poland, which has often changed hands between the two countries. (Glogau is now Glogów,
Poland, and the partbooks now belong to the old Royal Library in Kraków.)
The Glogauer Liederbuch contains a huge miscellany of Latin-texted, German-texted, and textless
compositions, with which, evidently, the retired canons and brothers at the local Augustinian monastery
amused themselves in convivial singing and playing. That has been the chief use of partbooks ever since.
Nowadays we associate them with what we call chamber music—string quartets and the like—a genre
that, while by now thoroughly professionalized, began as a convivial one. The music in the Glogauer
Liederbuch, whether texted or not, can be regarded as the earliest extant chamber music—for chamber
music can be vocal as well as instrumental, if it involves an ensemble and if its primary or original
purpose was convivial. The genre of vocal chamber music has more or less died out, but there was an
enormous literature of it, attesting to an enormous market for it, in the sixteenth century. We will take a
close look at it shortly.
For now, though, let us concentrate on the textless and (presumably) chiefly instrumental repertory.
Significantly, the Glogauer Liederbuch contains no fewer than three textless arrangements of J’ay pris
amours. They are not found elsewhere and are thus probably the work of local composers, which testifies
all the more strongly to the widespreadness of the genre and its attendant practices. These arrangements
are identified not by the original French words but by a German tag, Gross senen (“Great longing”).
Their beginnings are lined up for comparison in Ex. 13-17. The first consists of the original superius
and tenor plus a new contratenor, placed, very unusually, in the topmost position. The other two are based
on the original tenor only, accompanied by two new voices. In Ex. 13-17b, the tenor is in the traditional
tenor position, in the middle. Ex. 13-17c replaces the contratenor bassus of Ex. 13-17b with a contratenor
altus, retaining both the tenor and the superius of the previous arrangement. There is even a fourth Gross
senen piece in the Glogauer Liederbuch, as shown in Ex. 13-17d. It is based on the superius of the
preceding pair of arrangements and thus contains no original J’ay pris amours material at all, but is still
demonstrably a part of the famous song’s tradition. It is not the musical child of J’ay pris amours, but its
grandchild. The family resemblance can be discerned only by those who are familiar with the middle
generation.
EX. 13-17Gross senen (J’ay pris amours) settings from the Glogauer Liederbuch a. Original superius and tenor beneath a new
cantus partEX. 13-17B Original tenor with two new voices