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• T´Andernaken (2 settings)

T´Andernaken (2 settings)

for 3 instruments.

These two settings of the Dutch popular song “T´Andernaken op den Rijn” are separated by at least fifty years. The first setting, by the mysterious Tyting, is found in the earliest of the Trent Codices, which contains repertoire from the middle of the fifteenth century. Dating the well-known version attributed to Henry VIII (1491-1547) is difficult, and is obviously connected with the question of authorship; in most respects this piece is typical of Netherlandish music of the end of the fifteenth century. As the Henry VIII manuscript, though written well into the sixteenth century contains some quite old pieces, we are none the wiser. Most of the pieces attributed to the monarch show signs of his amateur status, either through straightforward incompetence or just minor eccentricities, and on the whole Taunder naken is a good piece of work, even if it lacks the rhythmic subtlety of some of the other settings of the time. Richard Taruskin has suggested that the alteration of the cantus firmus in bar 5, which results in an unexpected internal cadence, should indicate an amateur composer; there may be something in this, though other settings from the time by known composers (e.g. Erasmus Lapicida) also change the melody at this point. The opening figure of the Henry VIII setting is the same as that of those of Lapidica and Agricola, both of which appear in Petrucci´s Canti C (Venice, 1504), a book that must surely have been known to the monarch, who may well have composed his version - or commissioned it from a Flemish “ghost” composer - early in his reign.
All the ten surviving T´Andernaken settings are more or less elaborate rhythmically, and several writers have suggested a connection with the 15th-century basse-danse repertoire. Certainly the two settings in Canti C are very similar to the La Spagna version found in the same print. And the relatively simple harmonic structure of the Henry VIII setting, combined with its avoidance of imitative counterpoint (note the way the bass “break” in bar 12-13 is simply accompanied by the discantus) keep it quite close to the style of improvised dance music.
The original note values have been halved in both settings; note, however, that the tenor part in the Tyting version is originally written in half the note values of the remaining parts, so for this part no change was made. Editorial accidentals are printed small above the stave, applying to one note only; for the sake of convenience the original accidentals, printed on the stave, are taken as applying to the whole bar.