THE RECOMPOSITIONS OF BUUS´S RICERCARI FROM HIS LIBRO PRIMO…(1547) IN MANUSCRIPT P-CUG MM 242 AND THE DIDACTIC PROCESSES OF THE FRIARS OF THE SANTA CRUZ MONASTERY IN COIMBRA.

Abstract

This paper addresses the presence of seven recomposed ricercari by Jacques Buus in the manuscript P-Cug MM 242, based on the Libro primo de ricercari a quattro voci, published in Venice in 1547 by Antonio Gardane. These recompositions, probably copied in the third quarter of the 16th century, were made after the previously copied Buus´s ricercari in P-Cug MM 48. Besides the works mentioned, these manuscripts include mostly copies of motets and chansons from some of the most important Flemish and north Italian mid-sixteenth century prints. Two years ago I presented in Utrecht´s Med-Ren Conference 2009 the initial phase of the investigation done upon this manuscript and P-Cug MM 48, the other Coimbra manuscript in score-format which testifies the instrumental activity in mid-sixteenth century Portugal. P-Cug MM 242 includes copies of Buus´s recomposed ricercari in score-format, and this paper addresses the idea that the score-format served once as a pedagogical tool in the teaching of counterpoint through the music of a northern European master in the Santa Cruz Monastery in Coimbra. I show that the copies in the manuscripts were never intended to be used as a performing support – they contain many errors of vertical coordination between the voices that make the performance impossible – but testify instead to the didactic procedures of the friars. Through Buus´s recomposed ricercari, which were the object of many cuts, brief recomposed bridges, newly inserted sections, and written glosa figurations, I will describe the theoretic assimilation of formal processes, of style, mode, counterpoint and performing practice.