# Old piece of sheet music a chant?



## Guest

I bought a page of sheet music dated circa 1500 and I'm wondering if it is a chant or not. Chant has four staff lines due to limited range of the human voice but this has five.









Front









Back

The three-diamond clef is odd. It doesn't look like the normal Fa clef but I suppose that's what it must be.

It took some puzzling it out but the words read:

"Custodi me domine sub umbra alaru tuarum protege me."

I typed that into Google and it seems I have a typo. The phrase should read:

"Custodi me domine sub umbra alaru*m* tuarum protege me."

There is a missing "M" for some reason.

It's part of Psalm 16:5-9. From the Vulgate:

_Perfice gressus meos in semitis tuis, ut non moveantur vestigia mea. Ego clamavi, quoniam exaudisti me, Deus. Inclina aurem tuam mihi, et exaudi verba mea. Mirifica misericordias tuas, Domine, qui salvos facis sperantes in te. Custodi me, Domine, ut pupillam oculi. Sub umbra alarum tuarum protege me a facie impiorum qui me afflixerunt. _

Or:

_Keep my steps steadfast in Thy paths, that my footsteps may not falter. I have cried to Thee, for Thou, O God, hast heard me. Incline Thy ear unto me, and hear my words. Shew forth Thy wonderful mercies; Thou who savest those who hope in Thee. *Guard me, as the apple of Thy eye. Protect me under the shadow of Thy wings* from the face of the wicked who have afflicted me._

It's part of the Psalter of St. Jerome.

I do not know what the preceding sentence fragment at the beginning of the document is from. Perhaps one of you religious folk would know.


----------



## Guest

Sorry, the full Latin phrase on the document is "Custodi me domine _ut pupillam oculi_ sub umbra alarum tuarum protege me."

I left out the apple of my eye part.


----------



## EdwardBast

This is not my area of expertise. However, just because you see a single line of notation does not mean the composition is monophonic (like chant). Polyphonic compositions were routinely written not in score form, but with the separate parts following one another on a page or a series of pages. I've transcribed the first two phrases, first in 3/4 and then in 6/8. I interpreted the ligatures (those groups of connected notes) as they would have been read in black notation of the French Ars Nova (late 14th to early 15th centuries). No idea if this is the right system to apply, but it works:


----------



## Guest

Thanks! I like playing chant on the bass with a bow. It sounds very melancholy and haunting and your transcription will make this a lot easier.


----------



## EdwardBast

Victor Redseal said:


> Thanks! I like playing chant on the bass with a bow. It sounds very melancholy and haunting and your transcription will make this a lot easier.


You might have figured this out already, but the note at the end of each line (usually with stem up to the left and stem down to the right) is not sung. It is a custos or "direct" telling the singer what the first note on the next line will be.


----------



## Guest

Yes, I know about the custos. That's the reason it looks like a partial note. If it looked like a complete one, you WOULD play it.

Below is a Polish chant in modern notation. Note all the weird time signature changes.


----------



## Guest

Here's another from 1525. An antiphonal from _pars hiemalis_ or Winter Volume comprising the offices of Advent, Christmastide and Epiphany.









Front









Back

The whole chant reads: "The kings of Sheba and Seba shall bring him gifts, Alleluiah. All those from Sheba shall come, alleluiah, alleluiah. They shall bring gold and frankincense. Before you, O God, all the earth shall bow, shall sing to you, alleluiah, alleluiah."


----------

