9. Lenka Hlávková: Canticum boemicale Otep myry in the context of Credo settings in cantus fractus.
Channel: SMNF cz
Date: 2020-12-23

Cantus Fractus 2020 conference
http://www.smnf.cz/en/news/Virtual-conference-Rhythm-in-Music-and-the-Arts-in-the-Late-Middle-Ages/

Poetry, prosa and regular rhythmic structures in music around 1400.
Canticum boemicale Otep myry in the context of Credo settings in cantus fractus. 

Lenka Hlávková, Charles University Prague





In his study published in 2002, Christoph März contributed substantially to the discussion on the possible relationship of the Bohemian cantio Otep myry and Frauenlob‘s Cantica canticorum. He came to the conclusion that the melody and form of the Bohemian cantio is close to the form of a latin sequence and he argues against older views connecting Otep myry with Minnesang. The form of the cantio is composed of six musical phrases with pregnant mensural rhythm which, when set together, build an elaborated and regular formal structure. A few years ago, I identified the same way of thinking within mensural settings of the liturgical texts of Credo chants: their authors were not only familiar with the contemporary French notation of rhythm which was known at Prague University around 1370 at the latest, but they also had an idea about forms of French secular poetry (formes fixes). Could it be a coincidence that two Credos in cantus fractus were copied by the same scribe into the manuscript Vyšší Brod 42 just a few folios from the unique record of Otep myry?