8 Pieces from the Apel Codex (c. 1500)

for 3 instruments with optional voice. High pitch version (transposed up a 5th).

These rather elaborate pieces come from the so-called Codex of Magister Nicolas Apel (MS 1494 of the Universitätsbibliothek in Leipzig), a collection compiled at the end of the fifteenth century (the cover includes a receipt for the binding, dated 1504). Nikolas Apel (1475-1537) was a cleric and scholar who worked at Leipzig University.
Apart from the first setting of Christ ist erstanden, in which all three parts take an equal part in the action, these pieces are basically written in a texture in which one part, either the discantus or tenor, has a cantus firmus, normally derived from plainsong (“Christ ist erstanden” is one of the few vernacular religious songs to appear in pre-Reformation sources), with quite elaborate added parts. Where the tune is in the tenor, the two outer parts often move in parallel tenths, in the manner much beloved among Franco-Netherlandish composers such as Obrecht. At times some of this music has a slightly primitive quality: some theoreticians might have quarrelled with the occasional bit of dissonance treatment.
In transcribing these pieces I was tempted to quarter the note values, which would have reflected the somewhat virtuosic nature of this music; however, I decided to halve the note values in order that the frequent cross rhythms would not have to be beamed; as they stand, these rhythms maybe grouped in a variety of ways. But the the essential point is that the tempo should not be too slow, especially in an instrumental performance: something like semibreve = 60-70 is probably best for performances in small rooms.
The text underlay in the Apel Codex is quite sketchy, and in most of these pieces the appropriate plainsong text has been supplied (in italics). Some of the plainsong melodies, e. g. Veni redemptor and Veni creator, are standard repertoire, but two of them are a little more obscure: In principio is a verse of the response ”Verbum caro factum est”; the text is taken from a setting by Johannes Walther; Ad te clamat omnes is a verse of “O praeclara stella maris” - the text was taken from the Antiphonale Pataviense of 1519 (facsimile in the series Das Erbe Deutscher Musik.) The first of the Christ ist erstanden settings may well have been intended purely for instruments; it is difficult to fit the text right through one voice as the melody wanders from part to part.
These pieces are particularly effective on wind instruments (cornetts, sackbuts. etc). For players of such instruments we are making available an alternative version of this music at a pitch a fourth or a fifth higher (EML 240a). The written pitch (as in the original source) is more appropriate for recorders, flutes and strings.
Editorial accidentals are shown in the usual way, that is printed small above the stave, applying to the one only. The original accidentals are taken as applying to the whole bar unless contradicted.

Produkt-ID: LPM-EML240A

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