minstrel: Re: minstrel digest, Vol 1 #157 - 11 msgs

[Stephen Fryer]

> To: minstrel at pbm.com
> Cc: Cley at juno.com
> Date: Mon, 30 Dec 2002 13:35:44 -0800
> From: Cynthia J Ley <cley at juno.com>
> Subject: minstrel: Ars Nova: seeking help with a Latin phrase
> 
> Greetings all. I am working through a rondeau-motet piece in which the
> underlying keywords are "in seculum" for the plainchant tune. Might
> anyone have a clue what the full Latin phrase might be? The overlay is
> comprised of two songs about the pains and death-pangs of love, so
> possibly even something from a Requiem Mass? Maybe?
> 
> The title is: Ja'i les maus d'amours--Que ferai--In seculum (found in R.
> Hoppin, Anthology of Medieval Music, 
> #56, p. 116-117).
> 
> Thank you for your help.
> 
> Arlys, An Tir

Well the phrase "in seculum" (classical spelling "in saeculum") means simply 
"forever."  It appears frequently in psalm texts and other places in the 
liturgy and mass.  Since it commonly appears at the end of a "line" in the 
chant it frequently comes in for melismatic embellishment, and this is what 
was being used as the tenor of motets and similar polyphonic pieces.

As an example, from Psalm 112:
Solo:  Laudate pueri Dominum: laudate nomen Domini.
Choir: Sit nomen Domini benedictum: ex hoc nunc et in saeculum.

The words to the tenor of a motet need have no connection with the meaning of 
the words of the motetus and triplum (whose meanings are sometimes only weakly 
linked with each other too), and the tenor seems to have been quite generally 
played on an instrument, and hence entirely without words.  The words written 
at the beginning of the tenor simply tell where the tenor melody was borrowed 
from.

I hope this is helpful.

Stephen of Hunmanby
False Isle, AnTir

Gloria Patri, et Filio: et Spiritui sancto.
Sicut erat in principio, et nunc, et semper: et in saecula saeculorum. Amen. 
Alleluia.