Alpha vibrans; Cetus venit; [Amicum querit]

Four-voice anonymous motet

Sources

Chantilly: Bibliothèque du Musèe Condè 564, fol. 64v-65 (4/2).

Editions

1. GÜNTHER, Ursula. 'The fourteenth-century motet and its development', Musica Disciplina, XII (1958), p. 51.
2. The Motets of the Manuscripts Chantilly, Musèe Condè, 564 (olim 1047) and Modena, Biblioteca Estense, a M. 5,24 (olim lat. 568), edited by Ursula Günther, [n.p.]: American Institute of Musicology, 1965. Corpus Mensurabilis Musicae 39, p. 23.
3. Motets of French Provenance, edited by Frank Ll. Harrison, Monaco: Editions de L'Oiseau-Lyre, 1968. Polyphonic Music of the Fourteenth Century V, p. 136.
4. Medieval Music, edited by W. Thomas Marrocco and Nicholas Sandon, London: Oxford University Press, 1977, no. 59.

Literature

1. GÜNTHER, Ursula. 'The fourteenth-century motet and its development', Musica Disciplina, XII (1958): 27-58.
2. SANDERS, Ernest. 'The mediaeval motet', Gattungen der Musik in Einzeldarstellungen: Gedenkschrift Leo Schrade, Erste Folge, Bern, Munich: 1971, pp. 497-573.
3. NEWES, Virginia. 'Writing, reading and memorizing: the transmission and resolution of retrograde canons from the 14th and early 15th centuries', Early Music, XVIII/2: 218-234, pp. 223-224.

Text

TRIPLUM

Alpha vibrans monumentum
alma vexit ad crementum.
Iubar fit Egipti portentum,
in lucem mox proditus;
onix fulgens in prerupta
intus gemma extra ducta,
altrinsecus non est rupta
sic puella incorrupta.

Achates apocalipsis
in scopulo discernitur.
Vates tunc matris felicis
in lectulo reperitur.
Thimus manat cum virore,
niveum ferens candorem
virgo mater cum pudore
utriusque tenens florem.

Novus partus novam prolem
prophitentem ipsum solem
destinat ad mundi molem
et vasta mundi spatia.
Frutex et flos pariunt fructum,
qui canit ante vultum.
Paranimphus et sodales
sistro ymno sunt equales.

A summis silicibus
prodeunt cives gloriosi,
perstrepentes laudibus
eunt heredes generosi.
Eya, pervigiles
inquiunt complices superni:
Accedite, humiles,
ad gaudium cordis interni.


MOTETUS
Coetus venit heroicus
nati vitam imitatus,
cuius princeps seraphicus
mirifice transformatus.
Hunc claustrales et regales
prosecuntur ad libitum
linquentes paternas lares
suum ferentes habitum.

Alter intrat vir etheus,
suffultus ut Heliseus
cui cedit Philisteus,
prostratus ut Iebuseus,
alte sonans inclitus:
"Tua cupio comercia
ac necti volo penitus
michi tua consortia."

Amictusque floribus
clamat ex mentis letitia:
"Tuis accinctus funibus
letor et de inopia
certi", floresque relegavit.
Ex partu virgineo
novo flores adoptavit
conceptuque calcaneo.

Cygnus venit et columba,
rosa mundi, mens iocunda,
clara fit virgo iocunda,
Francisci timpanistria.
Amor traxit divinorum
rogatusque musicorum
biblicum insontem morum
nactus zelo contentorum.