Nymphes des bois

In 2024, an article by Marianne Hund, "Josquin's Nymphes des bois, uncovering the hidden layers" was published in the Tijdschrift van de Koninklijke Vereniging voor Nederlandse Muziekgeschiedenis. The below section presents Hund's alternative hypotheses regarding the work.

It was common practice and a source of amusement for fourteenth and fifteenth-century musicians to solve the riddles and enigmatic remarks which composers often inserted in their music in order to test their intellectual and musical capacities.^[12] Medieval thought is multilayered and, being a child of his time, Josquin too made use of this idiom.^[13] The canon which accompanies the Tenor of Nymphes forms an example. It also might suggest that the parts initially handed out to Josquin's singers, were not equipped with indications about pitch, mensuration or accidentals whatsoever. Part of the fun would have been to test the singers' capacity to discover these hidden layers by themselves. For a well-trained singer familiar with Ockeghem's repertoire, a solid knowledge of musical theory and the canon accompanying the Tenor would have been sufficient to solve all technical problems.^[14] In the course of the sixteenth century musicians gradually lost the understanding of the hidden layers in music and poetry of the Middle Ages. This might explain Susato's considerable alterations of the text, which as it were 'neutralise' the enigmatic extra line of the poetry. For that reason Susato's textual adaptations don't have much to do with Josquin's initial concept and therefore were dismissed by Hund.^[15]

The hidden layers mainly occur in Section I and are always connected with certain anomalies in music and text.

Section I

The first anomaly. How a 'cold' can lead towards the dating of Nymphes

Changez vos vois tant clères et haultaines en cris trenchans et lamentations

In bars 14–15, the last syllable of the word lamentations ends on a melisma in the Altus, the Quinta pars and the Bassus. In French vocal repertoire, melismas on words ending with an, en, in, on, and un are avoided since they entirely block the nasal cavities and make the singer sound ridiculous, as if he has a terrible cold. But in the present case, the word lamentations would authorise a stuffed-up nose.^[16] The fact that Josquin more or less obliged his performers to sing this impossible melisma must have caused quite some hilarity, for early 1501 a parody on Nymphes saw the light which especially refers to the 'cold'. This parody enables one to date the lament between February 1498 (the first anniversary of Ockeghem's death), and the end of 1500. Josquin himself may have been its author.^[17] February 1498 seems to be the most likely, since obits usually were held at the first anniversary of someone's death.^[18]

The second anomaly. How a fate-goddess managed to cut away Ockeghem's golden voice

Car Atropos, très terrible Satrappe a vostre Ockeghem attrape en sa trappe

Between bars 17 and 23 the Tenor (Ockeghem) is cut away twice: five breves in bars 17–18, and eight breves in bars 21–23.^[19] In bars 20–21 the remaining voices – the four composers – call Ockeghem's name in vain, for physically he has ceased to exist. However, his music remains and will be a light (lux) forever shining upon them (perpetua luceat eis). This explains the fact that in bars 19–20 the Tenor briefly returns at the words Et Lux to reaffirm that Ockeghem symbolically still is a shining beacon for those left behind. This is confirmed by the way Josquin uses the wording of the refrain of Molinet's Latin epitaph on Ockeghem:^[20] ut sit clarificatus sol lucens super omnes (so that "he may be the glorified sun shining upon all"). In bars 19–20, below et lux in the T, the Quinta pars enters with the motif g–d1, the solmisation syllables of which are ut–sol in hexachordum durum.^[21]

The third anomaly. How an extra line of poetry caused Ockeghem's 'downfall'

(Vray tresorier de musique et chief d'oeuvre) Doct elegant de corps et non point trappe

In bar 27 the line of poetry which does not occur in Molinet's original is introduced. It is inserted between lines 7 and 8, and not only deviates from the rhyme scheme of Molinet's poem, but is also contrary to the conventions of the formes fixes in the poetry of the time.^[22] Since Ockeghem was well known for his tall and handsome physique, non point trappe (not at all stocky) already sounds rather strange and slightly sarcastic. Josquin literally uses the false bottom of the word trappe. In fifteenth-century (and modern) French, trappe also means 'trap door'. This is painted musically in a truly outrageous way. In bars 29–30 on the word trappe, a conjunct descending line starts from S (f¹–d) to A (b^♭–g). Then in bar 30, within the span of one breve, a 'cascade' follows from d¹ Altus ('la' in the soft hexachord), to a Tenor ('la' in the natural hexachord), f♯ Quinta pars (ficta, no hexachord function) and, skipping the 'la' of the hard hexachord, abruptly lands on its fundamental Gamma-ut in the Bass, on the word grant. In hexachord terms: in three moves Ockeghem tumbles down through the three lowest hexachords to land at the bottom of the system. Lower than this a musician of the period could not fall.^[23] It is like the sudden opening of a trap door, a late medieval device to get rid of a persona non grata by sending him to the dungeons of the castle into oblivion. This association is still extant in modern French.^[24]

Had there been a conflict between the two composers?

A possible conflict between the two composers could point back to Josquin's employment in Paris, between 1480 and 1482. There had been substantial trouble between the regular choir under the direction of Ockegem and the eight elite-singers – among which Josquin – freshly arrived from the court of René d'Anjou in Aix en Provence, who had died recently. The new singers had a privileged position and were directly and lavishly paid by the king. This of course caused jealousy and complaints from the regulars and eventually threatened the cohesion of Ockeghem's choir. At the end of December 1482 or the beginning of January 1483 Ockeghem might have decided to put an end to these quarrels by sending away the new singers, without any consideration for their talents. A heavy blow for Josquin, who was young and ambitious, and admired him greatly. He must have been furious. Early February 1483 he is back home in Condé.^[25]

Was there still a chance of making things up?

Grant dommaige est que la terre le coeuvre

Of course there was, for it would have been rather unchristian and indelicate to send a colleague to his grave like that without somehow making things up first.

Grant.

Unanimously the composers cry out: what a great pity it is that the earth is covering him. And now look at the Quinta pars. From bar 33 onwards this voice runs up from low c to high e and then returns to g in bar 36, as if following the text to the letter and musically heaping a pile of earth onto Ockeghem's grave.

And here comes the last hidden layer: This pile of earth can be interpreted as the Dutch/Flemish expression: zand erover (literally: sand over it), meaning: "let's stop talking about it, let bygones be bygones, let's forgive and forget".^[26]

Section II and III

The next two sections represent what is befitting for a funeral song: no more false bottoms, no more crocodile tears, no more puns, but sincere regret about the loss of one of the greatest composers of the late 15th century.

Section II

Accoultrez-vous d'habitz de doeul, Josquin, Piersson, Brumel, Compère.

During the vigils the four composers, exhorted to mourn their 'good father', kneel around the bier, lit by candles at the four corners, with their heads covered by the hoods of their mourning cloaks and their notes falling down like teardrops. The Tenor is absent, symbolising that Ockeghem is only present in the mind. The Altus refers to the incipit of the cantus firmus an octave up, returning to the Phrygian mode, and in this way functions as an Ersatz of the T.

Section III

Requiescat in pace, Amen.

During the laudes the five-part setting is taken up again, but the Tenor no longer has a leading function. The Altus, serving once again as a kind of 'Ersatz' Tenor, modulates the incipit of the Requiem chant from the Phrygian mode to the Hypophrygian mode, which symbolises acceptance and resignation.^[27] Hence, in this last section, and contrary to what happened in bars 29–30, Ockeghem is gently and respectfully rocked into his grave, accompanied by the descending repeats of the word 'Amen'. Josquin also uses gematria in order to evoke the name Ockeghem, which counts sixty-four notes, the same amount as the total number of notes of this section.^[28]

Hund argues that in Section I the 'special effects' in the lower voices were not supposed to be heard by the general public, for that would have meant professional suicide for Josquin. He constructed Nymphes in such a way that the Superius masks the anomalies, only to be noticed by his 'expert singers'.^[23] And it is always the Quinta pars leading the dance:

• At the melisma in bars 14–15 the Quinta pars takes the lead with the motif a–c–b♭–a, functioning as a 'plaintive' cadence in the Phrygian mode, symbolising Josquin's 'crocodile tears'.
• At the beginning of bar 19: g–d (in hexachord terms ut–sol), referring to the refrain of Molinet's Latin poem on Ockeghem: Ut sol lucens super omnes. (like a sun shining upon all), indicating Josquin's professional admiration for Ockeghem.
• In bars 29/30: the unusual (but theoretically correct) way to solve the tritone with f♯–b instead of f–b♭,^[29] triggering off Ockeghem's 'downfall', thus expressing Josquin's resentment about Ockeghem as a person.
• In bars 33–37: The heaping of the earth onto Ockeghem's grave. Making things up again.

Although speculative, it is likely that Josquin reserved the Quinta pars for himself. This would turn Nymphes des bois into a very personal statement indeed.^[4]

• Elders, Willem (1994). Symbolic scores, Studies in the Music of the Renaissance. Leiden, New York, Cologne: E. J. Brill. pp. 121–. ISBN 90-04-09970-0.
• Elders, Willem (2013). Josquin Des Prez and His Musical Legacy: An Introductory Guide. Leuven University Press. pp. 208–. ISBN 978-90-5867-941-3.
• Harper, John (1991). the Forms and Orders of Western Liturgy From the Tenth to the Eighteenth Century. Oxford: Clarendon Press. pp. 105–108. ISBN 9780198162797.
• Hund, Marianne (2024). "Josquin's Nymphes des bois, unveiling the hidden layers". Tijdschrift van de Koninklijke Vereniging voor Nederlandse Muziekgeschiedenis. 74 (74). Amsterdam University Press: 93–139. doi:10.5117/TVNM2024.1.002.HUND.

• Free scores of Nymphes des bois in the Choral Public Domain Library (ChoralWiki)
• Nymphes des bois / Requiem, NJE 29.18 (Josquin Desprez): Scores at the International Music Score Library Project