Matthaeus Greiters Fortuna - An Experimen in Chromatism and in Musical Iconography - E.E. Lowinsky

Matthaeus Greiter's "Fortuna": An Experiment in Chromaticism and in Musical Iconography-II
Author(s): Edward E. Lowinsky

Source: The Musical Quarterly, Vol. 43, No. 1 (Jan., 1957), pp. 68-85
Published by: Oxford University Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/740384 .
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MATTHAEUS GREITER'S FORTUNA:

IN CHROMATICISM
AN EXPERIMENT
AND IN MUSICAL ICONOGRAPHY-II
By EDWARD
E. LOWINSKY
GregoriusFaber, who published Greiter'sFortuna, was completely

aware of its symboliccharacter.This is evidentfromhis commentaries
on musica ficta,to which he devoted a substantialchapter (cap. XIII).
We need not discusshis definition:Quid est cantus fictus?and his clear
distinctionbetween musica ficta by key signatureand by accidentals,
since they only re-statetraditionalviews. His argumentbecomes more
interestingwhen he triesto answer the question: To what purpose did
the musiciansinvent musica ficta? First,he covers well known ground
when he adduces the two causes: of necessitas,to avoid prohibited
intervals,and of suavitas, to give delectationto the ear. But his commentarieson both purposes of musica ficta deserve attention.
As to necessity,he demands that the note E if sounded together
with Bb be changed to Eb so as to avoid a diminishedfifth,which is
He definesprohibitedintervals
admissibleonly in cadential formulas.41
as those that arise fromthe addition or subtractionof a half tone from
perfectintervals.
With regardto suavitas as a considerationformusica fictahe writes:
41 Faber has in mind progressionslike these:
Ex. 5
_______________
'Af
68

Matthaeus Greiter'sFortuna
Quae estratiosuavitatis?
Ea est ut primumcantio per se
iucunda efficiatur
orationiqueqacui
et suis
adhibetur,
peromniaconveniat,
condiaquasi flosculisita exomrnetur
animosdulciter
turque,ut audientium
harmoniae
varietatedelectet.
influens,
Nam quemadmodum
rideturchorda
qui semperoberrateadem: ut ille
canit: sic quoque symphoneta,
nisi
cantionem
variisfugis,clausulis,fictisquevocibusdecoramiucundamque
reddat,eiusquemaiestatem
iis interdum exprimat,tautologosmerito
abestut delectet,
habebitur,
tantumque
ut potiusiteratisijsdemclausulisac
vocibusceu Crambebis cocta,nauseamaudientibus
moveat.
Ad vitandum
in cantu,non leve
igiturtautologian
momentum
affert
Musica ficta,quae
miramcantionibus
in
conciliat
gratiam
loco adhibita.
69
What is the considerationof sweetness of sound?

It is in the firstplace that a composition be made agreeable in itself
and that it correspond throughout
with the text to which it is set. It
should be so adornedand embellished
as it were with figuresthat it flows
sweetlyinto the listener'ssoul, giving
pleasure throughthe varietyof hardances
mony.For as he who constantly
around one and the same note is ridiculed---as the poet sings43- so, too,
will a composerrightlybe held to be
monotonous unless he renders his
compositiondecorous and agreeable
by the use of a variety of fugues,
clausulas, and feigned voices [i.e.
musica ficta],and in this mannerexpressitsmajesty.Far fromgivingpleasure, he rathercreates tedium in his
audienceby theuse of thesame themes
and tones that are like warmed over
cabbage.44
in
Therefore,to avoid repetitiousness
musicafictais of no slight
composition,
importance,bringing,as it does, an
admirable grace to compositionsif
used at the rightplace.
Faber's theoryof musica ficta, although based on the traditional

distinctionbetween causa necessitatisand causa pulchritudinis,goes
considerablybeyond it. He postulates the use of musica ficta as an
estheticelementof harmonicvarietywithoutwhich a compositionruns
the risk of becoming dull and monotonous. Not a word about the
danger of jeopardizing the integrityof the modes stressedso urgently
by Glareanus and othertheoristsof an earlierperiod!
a Orig. orationisque.
43See Horace's Ars Poetica 356 . . . citharoedus Ridetur chorda qui semper
oberrat eadem.
This passage agrees with Juvenal VII,
154: occidit miseros crambe repetita
to Prof.K. Gries.It is
magistros.I owe both this and the precedingidentification
possible,however,that Faber knew both passages fromhis readingsin Erasmus's
Adagia, one of the mostwidelyread booksof the time.Bothquotationsoccurthere,
thesecondone attributed
to Suidas,who treatsit as a Greekproverb.Incidentally,
the
Greekwordsin thisand thefollowing
quotationappearin Faber'stextin Greekletters.

70
The Musical Quarterly
But Faber does not stop here. Musica ficta, in his view, is more
than an element of estheticvariety,it is an indispensableelement of
expression:
Deinde cum orationis,quae notulis
applicanda est,non unus sit tenor,sed
quaedam eius verba et sententiasubinde aliam atque aliam pronuntiationem,aliumque affectumpostularet,
ideo ut to prepon observetur,sua
cuilibet dictioni harmonia tribuenda
est. Nam non solum curare oportet
quam suavis aut iucunduscantus efficiatur, sed quam bene et apposite
tractandisrebusadhibeatur: siquidem
omnis harmoniae varietas ex rerum
diversitate oboritur. Videas autem
plaerasque cantiones ad aurium voluptatem tantum esse comparatas,
nihilquein se habere quod vim atque
naturam orationis exprimat, idque
authorum inscitia evenire solet, qui
orationinon inservientes,
absque omni
discriminequemlibet textumcuilibet
modo accomodando,res hilares lugubriharmoniaexprimunt,
et e contrario.
Sed illi mihi perindefacerevidentur,
ut poeta ille qui cornutam cervam
fingebat.
Finally, since the text to which the

music has to be set is not of one
singlemood, but continuallydemands
for certainwords and sentencesnow
and
this,now anotherpronunciation,
another expression,therefore,
so that
decorumbe observed,everymode of
expressionmust receive its own harmony. For one should not only aim
at sweetnessand attractiveness
in comat
and
a
successful
but
also
position,
appropriaterenderingof the subject
matter to be treated, since indeed
harmonicvarietyarises from the diversityof subject matter.But observe
that most compositionsare arranged
merely for the pleasure of listening
and lack entirelythose elementsthat
express the power and the character
of the text.And this stems fromthe
ignoranceof the authors,who pay no
attentionto the text and adapt indiscriminately
any text to any style.
They write lugubriousharmonyto a
gay text and vice versa. Those seem
to me thereforeto proceed like that
poet who presented a hind with
horns.45
EvidentlyGregoriusFaber was well aware of the factthatthe radical

styleof musica fcta adopted by Matthaeus Greiterhad its originin the
composer'sintentionto create a musical image of Fortuna as the inconstantgoddess of luck. It needs hardlyto be stressedhow preciselyFaber
expressesthe ideas of the musica reservata without using the term.
Samuel Quickelberg,humanistand physicianat the court of AlbertV
of Bavaria, definesmusica reservataas the art of "adjusting the music
to the textand itssubject matter,of expressingthe powerof the different
human emotionsand of suggestingthe textual contentas vividlyas if
5 I was unable to find the specific passage to which Faber refers here. The
to the beginningof Horace's Ars Poetica:

generalsentiment
expressedcorresponds
Humano capiti cervicem pictor equinam iungere si velit . .

71
you saw it beforeyour very eyes."46And Coclico demands of the composer "that he ruminate the text well as to which mode or harmony
it asks for, and that he apply that text with taste to its proper place;
for those who set words full of consolationand joy to sad music, and
who, vice versa, compose gay melodies to sad words are in a plight
worse than the blind gropingin the dark.. ."47But Faber goes beyond
Coclico and Quickelbergin singlingout the elementof musica ficta in
the composer'seffortto lend expressionand eloquence to music.
Both in his commentariesand in the publicationof Greiter'sFortuna
GregoriusFaber shows himselfbolder and more outspoken than the
theoristsaround and beforehim. This may perhapsbe explainedthrough
the fact that he was not a professionalmusicianor theorist.In 1554 he
receivedhis degree as doctorof medicineat the Universityof Tiibingen;
Hans Albrecht48suggeststhe possibilitythat he exercisedhis officeas
Musices Professorordinarius at Tiibingen so as to be able to study
medicine there at the same time. At any rate, after 1554 no trace of
musical activityon his part remains. Being a physician,Faber shared
neitherin the pride of the professionalmusiciansin preserving"guild
secrets" nor in their fear of publishingbold experimentswithout disguisingthem. Indeed, had not Vesalius, ten years earlier,publishedhis
epoch-makingwork on anatomy in that same cityof Basel where now
Faber's music treatise was printed? Why should the "anatomy" of
musica fictain its most advanced formnot be publishedwiththat same
clarity?Besides, there is significancein the fact that the threetheorists
of the mid-16thcenturywho transmitthe most modern use of musica
ficta- Listenius,Greiter,and Faber - were Protestantsand thus free
fromcertaininhibitionsthat traditionimposedon theirRoman Catholic
confreres.
One vital question needs now to be answered: did the performers

of that time have the theoreticaltools necessaryto understand and
masteras audacious a work as Greiter'sFortuna? We know that John
Hothby in his Calliope legale developed the theoryof mutations in
systematicfashion; but he did not go beyond hexachordsbased on Db
46E. E. Lowinsky,Secret Chromatic Art . . ., p. 92.
47Ibid., p. 108.
48 See Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, under Gregorius Faber.

72
and F4.o Theory,in otherwords,had by 1480 advanced to the use of

five flats and five sharps. Hothby's example did not remain isolated.
Pietro Aron devotestwentychaptersof his treatiseon the modes50to a
demonstrationof how each of the twentytones of the Guidonian scale
can be solmizatedin six different
ways,i.e. as ut, re, mi, fa, sol, and la.
Oddly enough, Aron uses only hexachordsinvolvingflats.Hence, if he
wants to show how, forexample, G can be interpretedas fa, he changes
it to Gband basesit on thehexachordstarting

on Db. However,in his
last great treatise,Lucidario in Musica of 1545, Aron uses hexachords

constructedwith flats and with sharps for the same demonstration.I
have long been puzzled by this contradiction.I found the explanation
finallyin the correspondencebetween Aron and Giovanni del Lago of
Venice on the one hand and Spataro and his Bolognese musicians51
on the other. In this correspondence,now preservedin the Vatican
Library,52Spataro and his Venetian colleagues discuss among many
otherproblemsthat of solmizationand mutation.In a letterof January
4, 1529, Spataro pointsout the fallacyof Aron's attemptin the treatise
on modes to derive all mutationssolelyfromhexachordsinvolvingflats.
He quotes his teacher,Ramis, and Hothby and shows that hexachords
involvingsharps are just as necessaryas those involving flats. When
Aron, four years afterSpataro's death, which occurred in 1541, published his Lucidario reversinghis formerstand, he showed himselfconvinced by Spataro's arguments.
Even more interestingin our contextis the fact that one question
hotlydebated in the most searchingdetail is whetheror not the tones
C and F may be lowered half a tone by notatinga flat and the tones
B and E raised by notatinga sharp. We cannot here go into the very
detailed and intricateargumentation.Sufficeit to state that Aron and
Lago stop with theirtheoryof mutationsbefore C and F with regard
E. E. Lowinsky,The Goddess Fortuna in Music, loc. cit., pp. 67-68.
o60Trattato della natura et cognitione di tutti gli tuoni di canto figurato non
da altri piu scritticomposti per Messer Piero Aaron Musico Fiorentino . . . Impresso
in Vinegia . . . 1525.
511 nostri Musici Bolognesi, as Spataro proudly calls them.
52 Vat. Lat. 5318. K. Jeppesen, Eine musikhistorische
Korrespondenz des friihen
Cinquecento, in Acta Musicologica, XIII (1941), pp. 3-38, gives an admirable survey
of the contents of the Vatican codex. In referringto a letter by Spataro of Oct. 24,
1530 (No. 89) Jeppesen states that one can see from it that Aron must have sent
Spataro a treatise on problems of solmization that is now unknown. I believe that
Spataro referred to the 1529 edition of Aron's Toscanello containing the famous
Aggiunta del Toscanello, a complacenza de gli amici fatta which, indeed, treats of
solmization and the setting of accidentals.
SCf.

73
to flatsand beforeB and E with regardto sharps,whereas Spataro and

his Bolognese musicianstake the positionthat all tones can be flattened
or sharpened. The main part of the correspondenceon this problem
was writtenin 1533.53Thus twentyyears before Greiter'sFortuna and
twenty-seven
years beforeRossetti'schromaticmadrigal were published
Italian musicians engaged in a livelydebate on the possibilityof using
Cb and Fb as well as B$ and E$. In the same year 1533 the Scintillede
Musica were publishedin Brescia by Giovanni Maria Lanfranco,"whose
practical tuning rules seem to agree with no systemother than equal
temperament."54
Incidentally,Lanfranco is one of the musicians who
is representedamong the letter-writers
of the musical correspondencein
the Vatican codex.55
It seems that Matthaeus Greiter,to our presentknowledge,is the

firstcomposer to have conceived of basing a polyphonicwork on the
systematictranspositionof an ostinato motifin the circle of fifths.It
happens that the Fortuna desperata motifused by him employsthe first
three tones of a hexachord in ascending and descendingorder. From
this piece to the instrumentalcompositionsof John Bull,56Alfonso
and Girolamo Frescobaldi58based on ascending and deFerrabosco,"57
53I referspecificallyto Lago's letter to Spataro of Aug. 15, 1533, and Spataro's
letter to Aron of Oct. 30, 1533.
54j. Murray Barbour, op. cit., p. 11.
Cf. Jeppesen, loc. cit., p. 16, letters Nos. 70-72 and 109.
56 The Fitzwilliam Virginal Book, ed. by J. A. Fuller Maitland and W. Barclay
Squire, I, 183ff.
55
5 Jacobean Consort Music, ed. by T. Dart and W. Coates, Musica Britannica,

IX, Nos. 23 and 39. While Greiter proceeds in the circle of fifths,Ferrabosco
arranges his transpositionsof descending hexachords in a chromatic order, going
down in half steps from G to C; Bull, on the other hand, arranges his hexachordseach of which is presented ascending and descending- in two rows, one starting
from G, the other from Ab, each time shiftinghis transpositionsby one whole step
upward. Thus Bull employs hexachords on all twelve tones, whereas the younger
Ferrabosco, like Greiter, uses only eight differenthexachords. It is regrettable that
the editors of Musica Britannica did not see fit to publish Ferrabosco's twin fantasia
in its entirety,but suppressed the remarkablybeautiful and original fantasia on the
ascending chromatic hexachord (from C to A) which is available only in a rather
remote corner of musicological publication, in The Musical Antiquary, III, 70.
I am indebted to Dr. Vincent Duckles of the Universityof California, Berkeley,for
putting his transcriptionof the complete work at my disposal.
68Frescobaldi (Fiori Musicali, 1635) uses the ascending and descending motif
ut mi fa re ut firston hexachords with sharps, G, D, A, E, D, G, then on those
with flats,F, Bb, Eb, F, startingand ending each time on the hexachord of C. The

74
scendinghexachordsarrangedin varyingpatternsof systematictransposition throughpart or whole of the circle of fifthsthereis only one step.
A connectionbetweenthe Englishcomposersand Greiterwould be hard
to prove, but is not impossible in view of the spread that Greiter's
compositionmust have enjoyed, having been published in Basel in a
theoreticalwork writtenin Latin.
From a comparisonof Greiter'swork with these later instrumental
compositionsit would appear that the technical design survived,while
the iconological meaning was lost. That this is not necessarilytrue
can be shown througha verycuriousand little-known
print.The library
of the monasteryof the Minoritesat Vienna containsin a bookletof eight
folios59a beautifulengravingof the fantasia by John Bull on the chromatic hexachord cited above; it is wronglyattributedto Poglietti.The
titleshows a ladder with the inscriptionMusica Aulica, i.e. courtmusic.
On the rungs of the ladder are inscribedthe six syllablesof the hexachord do, re, mi, fa, sol, la. A richlydressedman stands on the lowest
rung whereas a bareheaded man falls fromthe highestrung, losing all
his money on the way. Between the middle rungs of the ladder one
reads the legend: in medio consistitvirtus- thereis virtuein moderation. To the leftof the ladder one reads: Dum tolliturAulicus inquit,
i.e. "while carried upward the courtiersays" (add: do re mi etc.); on
the rightside: Dum cadit Alterait, "while fallingthe othersays" (add:
la sol fa etc.) At the end followsthe wise counsel:
dich nicht
In gliickubernimb
nicht
Undtin ungliick
Verzweyffle
In good luckdon'toverdo
In hardluckdon'tdespair.
Finally therefollowsthe observation:In fine videbiturCuius Toni, i.e.

the mode will become manifestat the end of the piece. The distinct
double meaning of this phrase is highlightedby the death's head placed
below.
composition is entitled Recercar con obligo del Basso come apare; it is part of the
organ Mass "delli Apostoli" based on the Gregorian Mass Cunctipotens Genitor Deus
(In Festis Duplicibus 1) and appears after the toccata for the elevation. Possibly
Frescobaldi intended to convert the pagan symbolismof mutation into the Christian
symbolof transubstantiation.
59 The print is described by H. Botstiber in his edition of the keyboard works
of Alessandro Poglietti and other Viennese Baroque masters in D.T.Oe. XIII, 2,
p. XVII. Our attempts to secure a photographic reproduction of this engraving
and its illustrationsfailed. ProfessorLeopold Nowak, director of the music division
of the Austrian National Library, whom we thank for answering our inquiry, reported that the music libraryof the monasterywas being moved to other quarters.

75
The relationbetweenthe pictorialrepresentations

with theiraccompanying legends and the traditionalsymbolismof Fortune's wheel is
obvious. The connectionof the hexachord moving up and down with
the wheel of Fortune goes back to the beginningof the 16th century.
Senfl's Fortuna ad voces musicales,published firstin Sebald Heyden's
De arte canendi in 1511 but also quoted in its entiretyby Faber
(pp. 102-115), has the Fortuna desperata melody in the tenor, while
"the discant goes up and down the hexachord like this: c d, c d e,
c d e f...
a g, a g f, a g f e . . . While the tenor, the centre of
the polyphonicsetting,personifiesFortuna, the up and down motion
of the discantis a perfectmusical symbolof the wheel."00
The rare printcontainingJohn Bull's chromatichexachordfantasia,
which combinesthe idea of Senfl'sascendingand descendinghexachord
motion with Josquin's and Greiter'sidea of mutation,proves the international and lasting character of the musical Fortuna symbolismthat
60 See E. E. Lowinsky,The Goddess Fortuna in Music, loc. cit. p. 74. A sense of
the symbolic significanceof the ascending and descending hexachord seems to linger
on in a madrigal by John Farmer fromhis First Set of Madrigals (1599), reprintedin
Vol. 8 of E. H. Fellowes's The English Madrigal School (No. 16). The tenor of the
madrigal moves up and down the hexachord on F in varyingrhythmicpatternsaccompanying the followingtext:
Take time while time doth last,

Mark how fair fadeth fast;
Beware if envy reign,
Take heed of proud disdain;
Hold fast now in thy youth
Regard thy vowed truth,
Lest when thou waxeth old
Friends fail and love grow cold.
These words may well be interpretedas a warningof the pitfallsof Fortuna: the transitorinessof worldlybeauty, the evil power of envy and disdain, the loss of friendsand
love. Against all this the poet sets a man's loyalty to his own "vowed truth." In
consonance with this sentimentFortuna turns her wheel up and down, but the key
of F is never abandoned. John Farmer's model was probably Alessandro Striggio's
five-partmadrigal
Ahi dispietato Amor, come consenti
Ch'io meni vita si penosa e ria
. .
It is found in the second book of six-partmadrigals of 1571. The composer added to
the fiveparts of the madrigal a "sesta parte si placet which, in keeping with the meaning of the text, winds its way laboriously and painstakinglythrough the other voices,
in constantlychanging rhythmicvariants of the ascending and descending hexachord"
(Alfred Einstein, The Italian Madrigal, Princeton, 1949, II, 765).
I owe my acquaintance with Farmer's madrigal and its Italian model to Professor
Joseph Kerman, University of California, Berkeley.

76
stretchesover nearly two centuries.6'The picturesand legends in the

17th-centuryprint that Botstiberfound "entirelyobscure" now make
sense.
How consciouslycomposerscultivatedthe musical designof Fortuna
throughthe two devicesof ascendingand descendingmotionand mutation may be shown in one last example by Marco da Gagliano, who
dedicates his composition,La Fortuna," Al SerenissimoGran Duca di
Toscana Cosmo Secondo. Fortuna is introducedby the poet as singing:
OvunqueiratoMartein terrascende
lo'l seguoogn'horsh la mia rota
errante.
Whereverirate Mars on earth descendeth

I followon myfleeting
wheelall over.
Marco da Gagliano sets these lines for soprano with figuredbass:

Ex. 6
OVWun -
Io'l se -
- que i - ra - to
9uo ogn'-
hors~
lamia
Mar - +e in
ro
.-
ter- ra
scende.
taer-ren- - fe.
The turningof the wheel is projectedin the rapid up and down motion
of the melody ("rota"), while Fortune's ficklenessis reflectedin the
harmonicprogressionoscillatingbetweenB-flatmajor, F major, C major,
C minor,G minor,D minor,and D major. Instead of fallingdownward,
however,the harmonicmotionis containedwithina narrowcircle.This
is symbolicof the continuationof the poem, in which Cosmo is praised
for having Virtue as guide and Fortuna as servant.63Though Fortune
61Botstiber dates the print as of the end of the 17th century.
62Musiche a una dua e tre voci di Marco da Gagliano Maestro di Cappellh
del Serenissimo Gran Duca di Toscana Novamente composte et date in luce. In
Venetia MDCXV. Appresso Ricciardo Amadino, p. 2.
63 Duce Virti fortuna ancella is an old motto very
popular in the Renaissance.

77
is still true to her ficklenature, the prince knows how to bridle her
whims by the power of his virtue. Monteverdi, in his Prologue to
L'Incoronazione di Poppea, representsFortuna by constantchange of
meter,rhythm,and key,Virtue by completestabilityof keyand meter.64
Monteverdi's opposing of Fortune and Virtue in tones is the musical
counterpartof Alciati's pictorial contrastof Fortune and Hermes. In
both cases the accompanying text makes the meaning unmistakable.
Indeed, the musical symbolic tradition of Fortuna may perhaps
account for the designsof the fifthand sixth canons in Bach's Musical
Offering.Canon No. 5 uses contrarymotion and augmentation,canon
- an extraordinary
No. 6 modulates throughthe entirecircle of fifths
for
even
Bach
in
but
order.
The two canons
undertaking
ascending
are accompanied by the followinginscription:
Notulis crescentibuscrescat
Fortuna
AscendentiqueModulationeascendat
Gloria
Regis.
Augmentednotesstand here for augmentedfortune,ascendingmodulation for ascending glory.Augmentationoccurs in some of the earliest
Fortuna pieces," and if descending modulation symbolizes the evil
aspectsof Fortuna desperata,ascendingmodulationmay well be equated
with Fortuna bringingglory"6to her favoriteas he ascends to the peak
of power.
How does Greiter'sFortuna affectthe theoryof the secretchromatic

art in the Netherlandsmotet?A comparisonshows interestingpoints of
similarityand difference: the Netherlandersas well as Greiter use
modulationin the circle of fifths,
theypreferthe subdominantregionof
flats,they use ostinato or freelyrepeated motifsin transposition,they
employ modulation for expressive and symbolic purposes. Indeed,
Faber's commentarieson the estheticand expressivefunctionof musica
ficta fitthe Netherlandishtechnique marvelouslywell. As to points of
difference:in the Netherlandishmotetmodulationusuallyoccurs within
4 E. E. Lowinsky, The Goddess Fortuna in Music, loc. cit., p. 77, n. 58.
a Ibid., p.
75.
66"Since Fortune
sends victory in warfare to one side or the other, since her
gifts include dignities most conspicuously, . . . she is therefore much concerned
with the bestowal of fame. She and Fame are at all times closely associated, but
sometimesshe appears actually doing the work of Fame." H. R. Patch, op. cit., p. 110.

78
the diatonic mainstreamof music, from which it emerges at a well

chosen point of textual emphasis and to which it returns.Greiter's
Fortuna is one constantmodulation. The Netherlandersof the middle
of the centuryuse implied modulations in serious, non-experimental,
music to expresstextsof a deep religiousemotionvibratingwith overtones of Reformedsentimentand doctrine.Greiteruses modulation,as
did Josquin, to depict a pagan deity.67 The choice of Ovid's verses
reveals humanistic inspiration.The most conspicuous differencelies
naturallyin the opennessof Greiter'soperationsas compared with the
secret characterof Netherlandishprocedure.But even if we assumeand it is likely- that Greiterhimselfnotated the piece with regard to
accidentals as plainly as GregoriusFaber published it, the important
point is this: given the key signatureof one flat, the ostinato motif
ut, re, mi, re, ut, consistenttranspositionof this motifin the direction
of the lower fifth(or upper fourth), the harmonicimplicationsin the
four-voicecomplex, and the rules of musica ficta, Greiter'sseries of
modulationsis virtuallymandatoryand inevitable.
For this we have authentic proof in the composer's own treatise,
Elementale Musicum luventuti accommodum Matthaeo Greitero authore, 1544. This tract, the only copy of which Eitner places in the
of Mainz, has, to myknowledge,not yetbeen described.68
Stadtbibliothek
It was publishedin Strassburgin aedibus lacobi lucundi, according to
the imprintat the end of the treatise.A woodcut shows Arion sailing
on the back of the dolphin and playinghis harp. The treatiseis unusually brief;it is one of the many elementarytextbookson musicforschool
instruction.In the praefatioGreiteroutlinesthe threeareas with which
he intendsto deal: the Guidonian table, solmizationand mutation,and
67Pirro (loc. cit., p. 275) points out that Greiter imitates Josquin also in
others of his compositions such as his Ich stund an einem Morgen (published in
Ambros's Geschichte der Musik, Vol. V, Leipzig, 1889, pp. 361-62). Here Greiter
"repeats obstinatelyin the bass Lass sy faren (la, sol, fa, re and through transposition mi, re, ut, la) - another allusion to a work of the same master" (i.e. Josquin).
The work in question is naturally Josquin's Missa La sol fa re mi (see Smijers'
edition, Werken, Elfde Aflevering,Missen, II). Robert Eitner in his study on Das
alte deutsche mehrstimmigeLied und seine Meister (in Monatshefte fiir Musikgeschichte, XXVI, 1894, p. 40) speaks of Greiter's song as perhaps the oldest
example of a chaconne because of the ostinato motif in the bass, but it sufficesto
referto the Kyrie of Josquin's Mass, where the bass is treated in the same manner.
68I wish to thank Dr. Diepenbach, director of the Stadtbibliothekof Mainz, for
his kindness in sending me a microfilmof the treatise.
It is not mentioned in Schiinemann's Geschichte der deutschen Schulmusik,
2nd ed., Leipzig, 1931, which gives the most comprehensive survey of musical
treatises written for German schools (see especially pp. 60-69 and 99-121).

79
mensural notation. Like other Protestantwritersof the early period of

the Reformation,Greiter takes his examples from Gregorian Chant.
The treatise conformsin general to the requirementsand standards
of a methodforthe instructionof choirboys.Remarkable is the chapter
on musica ficta, in which Greitergoes considerablybeyond what one
might expect in an instructionbook for children.We quote the most
importantpart of thischapter:
&
MUSICA FICTA EST immutatio
alteratio totius tabulae praedictae:
fingitin quacunque claue, quamcunque
uocem, seruato tamen ordine uocum.
Nam in F potest cani re uel sol, uel
etiam mi aut la. Eaedem & in c. In
G & in d autem fa uel mi. Sic in a &
e, sol fa uel ut, Item in b molli &
4 duro potest cani, ut re sol & la:
& sic in alijs clauibus,praeterordinem
praescriptumantea.
Signa autem huius Cantus fictisunt,
b molle: aut 4 durum in locis non
solitis.ut b molle in G uel in d, aut
alijs, cuius rei hoc est paradigma.
Ex. 7
Musica ficta is the mutationand alterationof the whole aforesaid[Guidonian]table: it feignsanysolmization

howsyllable on any key, preserving,
ever, the order of solmization.For F
can be sungas re or sol or also mi or
la. The same obtains for C. On G
and on D you can take fa or mi. Likewise you can solmizateA and E as
sol, fa, or ut. On Bb and Bhyou can
sing ut re sol and la and thus on
other keys,outside of the order prescribedbefore[in theGuidoniantable].
The signs of this cantus fictus,however, are b molle or 4 durumin unusual places such as b molle on G
or D or otherkeys,of which the following is an example:
a
b
If F can be solmizated as re, sol, mi, and la, or E as sol, fa, and ut,
that means that Greiterasks for familiaritywith the hexachordson Eb,
Bb, Db, Ab, A, B, and E, progressingto tones as far removedas Gb on
one side and Dj on the other.
It is truethat in his musical illustrationGreitergoes no fartherthan
Ab. But the significanceof the example restson the factthatit corroborates the principleof "secret chromaticism"to the effectthat, once one
note- "the code-note"- has been shown in need of being raised or,
mostly,flattened,a chain of melodic and harmonicprogressionsinvolving the intervalsof the fourthor fifthoftensupportedby motiftransposi-

80
tion is used by the composerto enforce-withoutwritingthe accidentals

-a modulation logical and convincingin its harmonic and melodic
evolution.
This principleis clearly demonstratedin Greiter'sexample, which
startson G withoutkey signatureand introducesthen the notes Bb, Eb,
and Ab. Once the firstBb is established,Greiterbrings about the Eb
and Ab by the skip of a fourthand by motiftransposition(a and b).
It is remarkablethat the progressionmi re ut fa mi re mi appears both
timesin identical rhythmicform.The accidentals are notated as usual
in theoreticaldiscussionson musica ficta,but only at the turningpoints
of the modulation.Once a flathas been written,its continuationis taken
for granted,except when it recurs in another octave. Thus, while we
need 15 accidentalsthroughoutthe passage, only fourare notated. The
example with accidentalsis meant to point the way to the correctintermusic withoutwrittenaccidentals.
pretationof the contemporary
Clemens non Papa uses at the end of his motetVox in rama69 almost
literallythe same motifas does Greiterin his example of musica ficta.
He intonesit firston E, thenon A prescribingthe Bb, finallyon D implying the transposition;this leads into a finelywroughtmodulation as
logical and effectivein its building up to a climax- leading fromD
minorto G minorto C minor- as it is surprisingin its resolutionback
to A minorand its endingon an A-major chord.
Matthaeus Greiter'sideas on musica fcta agree furthermore
entirely
with the example of cantus fictusgiven by Listeniusin his Musica of
1537, wherethe same effectof a chain reactionof musica fictais demonstratedin a melodytouchingupon Bb, Eb, Ab, Db by melodic progressionsof fourthsand fifths
withoutbenefitof motiftransposition.70
Greiter
and Listenius are two German theoristswho enlarge the concept of
musica fcta, which usuallyrefersto the raisingor flatteningof one tone
only,into that of a logical modulationin the circleof fifths.
In his Fortuna Matthaeus Greiterelaborates in indubitablefashion
upon his theoryof musica fcta. This astonishingcompositionplaces the
secret chromatic art of the Netherlandersin a new perspective: if a
German masterof minorstature,whose death-dateis recordedby Eitner
as December 20, 1552, by F6tis as December 20, 1550, by Muller (see
note 72) in December 1550 (if thislatteryear be correct,it would mark
69 E. E. Lowinsky,Secret Chromatic
Art, Ex. 34, discussion pp. 35-37.
ToIbid., pp. 84-86.

81
the latestpossibledate of the Fortuna composition),and who lived in a

conservativemusical climate,was capable of conceivingand executing
a chromatic piece of such boldness involving Db, Gb, Cb, Fb, and
Bbb, then the much tamer,but technicallysimilar,chromaticconstructions of Netherlandishmastersof recognizedsuperiorityare more easily
understood.Greitermusthave knownNetherlandishcompositionsin this
vein. It is only from them that he could have learned the technique
he uses in his Fortuna.71The Italians startedpublicationof theirchromatic experimentsonly about 1550 - if we leave Willaert'searly chromatic duo out of consideration.Looking back at Rossetti,we can have
little doubt that this Italian composer intended to use Cb, Fb, and
Bbb in a madrigal publishedalmost ten yearsaftera German composer
had used these same notes in a secular work devoted to a pagan deity
treatedwith awe by Catholics and Protestantsalike.
In conclusion, a word about Matthaeus Greiter and the possible

purpose of his Fortuna. The sparse data known of his life" are quickly
summarized: he was a monk and choristerat the cathedral in Strassburg; he left the monastery,turned Protestant,and married in 1524.
In 1529 he became deacon at the ReformedSt. Martin's Church, in
1529 he held the same position at St. Stephen's Church. In 1538 he
became music teacher at the Gymnasium Argentinense.His various
activitiesdid not secure an income large enough for a familywith ten
children.He lost some sources of income in 1546 when he was accused
of adultery.In 1549 he and his Protestantcolleague WolfgangDachstein
acknowledged the Interim and establishedtogethera school of choirsingersforthe serviceof the Interim,bringingupon himselfthe hostility
of the Protestantcity council. He lost his position at the Gymnasium
in January1550 and died, accordingto his newestbiographer,thatsame
year as a victimof the plague.
As a poet and composer he put his talents into the service of the
1 Here it may be pertinent to record that Gregorius Faber does not quote a
single Italian composition (neither do Glareanus, Coclico, Hermann Finck, and
other theoristsof this period belonging to the German-language circle). He does,
however, print whole pieces by Ockeghem, Obrecht, Josquin, Brumel, Senfl, and
Stoltzer.
802.
72
Quellenlexikon and Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, III, cols. 799-

82
Protestantmovement.He is known as the author of textsand melodies

for a small number of German chorales- at most 16 to 20 - and as
the composer of over a dozen secular German songs, mostlyin cantus
firmustechnique."
In such a modest output,limitedalmost exclusivelyto the genre of
German spiritualand secular song, the Fortuna compositionstands in
isolation.What could possiblyhave promptedGreiterto such
mysterious
an extraordinaryartisticenterprise?The only clue to this puzzle is provided by Carl von Winterfeldin his Der evangelischeKirchengesang.74
In a footnotein Vol. I (p. 179) we read the following:
Greiterfounda special delightin ingeniouscompositions.
Thus he handed
of Brandenburg,
Albrecht
firstdukeof Prussia,a four-part
on thedistich:
setting
Passibusambiguisfortunavolubiliserrat
Et manetin nullocertatenaxqueloco,
in whichthreevoicesimitating
each otherin fugalstyleexpressthe faltering
melodicturns,whilethe fourth,
the
step,the restlessness,
through
appropriate
tone levelsaftervarious
tenor,executesa shortphraserepeatedon different
of thecanon: Omniafacitfortuna
in omnibus.
pauseswithindication
Winterfeldgave no referencewhatevereitherto a book
Unfortunately,
or to an old print or manuscript."75
Yet the followingconclusionsare
Winterfeld
must
have
known
a source of Greiter'sFortuna
inescapable:
other than Faber, for Faber does not give the canon mentionednor
does he referto Albrechtof Brandenburg.The source knownto Winterfeld, most likely a manuscript,if not a single-sheetprint- perhaps
with a dedicationto Duke Albrecht- seemsto have remainedunknown
see MGG, loc. cit. To the list of reprints
73For sourcesof his compositions
offered there add the following: Monatshefte fiir Musikgeschichte, XXVI, 40; R.
von Liliencron, Die historischen Volkslieder der Deutschen, Nachtrag, Leipzig,
in MGG that Passibusambiguis

1869, pp. VI-VII, XXXVIII-XLI. The statement
was publishedin Hugo Leichtentritt's
MusikalischeFormenlehre,
Leipzig, 1911, is
erroneous.The only workof MatthaeusGreiter'sreprintedby Leichtentritt
is his
quodlibet,Elslein, liebstesElslein mein. To the literaturedealing with Greiter's
musiclistedin MGG shouldbe added: K. von Winterfeld,
Der evangelische
Kirchengesang, Leipzig, 1843 (see below); E. Koch, Geschichte des Kirchenliedes, Stuttgart,
1866-77, I, 145; O. Douen, ClIment Marot et le Psautier Huguenot, Paris, 1880, I,
307, 313; H. J. Moser, Geschichteder deutschenMusik, 4th ed., Stuttgart-Berlin,

1926, p. 442; A. Pirro,op. cit.,p. 275.
74Leipzig,1843.
1 An inquirydirectedto the one-timeStaats- und Universittitsbibliothek
in
KSnigsbergconcerningthe compositionremainedunanswered.

83
to all other modern writerswho mention Greiter'sFortuna, including

Fitis,"6Eitner, Pirro, and Levitan.7
Even in the absence of the source itself,von Winterfeld'sinformation
is invaluable. Duke Albrechtof Prussia,an adherentof the Reformation,
was a greatfriendof music." Under him the courtchapel of Kdnigsberg
grew beyond its modest beginningsand comprised a choir of fourteen to twentysingers,the officialinstrumental
music of trumpetplayers
and drummersconsistingof twelve to fifteenmembers,and a smaller
number (fromthreeto five) of stringinstrumentplayers.Naturally,the
church music would have been incomplete without an organist,and
Albrecht'schamber music withoutthe lutenistswhose play he especially
enjoyed.7"
Duke Albrecht engaged in correspondencewith famous musicians
such as Ludwig Senfl, Thomas Stoltzer, and Johann Walter.80He
always asked fornew compositionsand a great numberof the compositions sent to him are known. He must have shared the general admiration of his contemporariesfor Josquin, some of whose works were
secured for him by his agents in Munich.81From old catalogues in the
Staats- und Universit~itsbibliothek
at Kanigsberg we know that the
duke's personal music librarycontained not only the currentpublications of practical music from the printingshops of Nuremberg and
Wittenberg,but also beautifullywrittenchoirbooksin folio, the whole
7 Biographie Universelle des Musiciens, 2nd ed., Paris, 1862, III, 98. Of all
writerswho spoke of Greiter's Fortuna none has recognized more clearly its significance as an experiment in musica ficta than F~tis. In his article on Greiter he has
this to say on our composer: "But he deserves special attention for a Latin song
set for four voices the text of which begins with the words: Passibus ambiguis. Over
a tenor phrase repeated after pauses of varying length and ascending from fourth
to fourth or descending a fifth,and consequently passing constantly from one key
to another by that ancient method called cantus fictus,Greiter established between
the other three parts a net of imitations of a remarkable elegance in which the
voices sing in a natural manner, and without introducing a single difficultintonation. This piece, a masterworkfor its time of origin, is contained in the book of
GregoriusFaber..."
? Levitan in his article mentioned above lists Greiter's composition as one of
many pieces exemplifyingcantus fictus.
78 Cf. Maria Federmann, Musik und Musikpflege zur Zeit Herzog Albrechts,
Kiinigsberger Studien zur Musikwissenschaft,Band XIV, Kassel, 1932.
* Ibid.,
pp. 13ff,47ff, 113ff, 117ff, 101ff. In the account-book of 1541-42 we
find expenses for strings,frets,and repairs on four viole da gamba. Obviously, Duke
Albrecht had the players and the instrumentsneeded to performGreiter's Fortuna.
o Ibid., p. 148ff,where the pertinent literature is listed.
81 Ibid., p. 148.

84
theoreticalliteratureof the time- the works of Glareanus, Heyden,

Lampadius, Listenius,Rhau, Spangenberg,Luscinius,Hermann Finck,
and others- and finallya complete collectionof the humanisticodes
publishedin the thirties(the catalogue in questionwas writtenin 1540),
such as the Melodiae Prudentianaeet in Virgiliumof 1533, Hofhaimer's
Harmoniae poeticae of 1539, and Ducis's Harmoniae in odas P. Horatii
Flacci of 1539, now lost. Undoubtedly,the prince shared the strong
humanistictendenciesof the prominentItalian, French, and German
courts of his time. The music-lovingcourt of Munich was apparently
Albrecht'smodel. His extensivecorrespondencewith Senfl and his numerous agents in Munich, who were always on the lookout for new or
rare music for the duke's chapel, suggestthis. From Munich Albrecht
was bound to hear about the musica reservata.He must have been
greatly intriguedby this new trend in music. When Adrianus Petit
Coclico, who servedthe duke from1548 to 1550,82 triedto restorehimself in his favor,83having been banished under a charge of bigamy,he
sent the formerpatron his psalm collectionpublishedin Nurembergin
1552 under the titleof Musica Reservata and his CompendiumMusices
published in the same year, in which latterwork he promisedto bring
to lightmusica reservata.
Matthaeus Greitermust have been well aware of all this when he
attemptedto paint a picture of Fortuna in tones in the best tradition
of musica reservata,using the new and as yet highlyesoterictechnique
of radical chromaticism.Besides, he knew also that the duke was
thoroughlyacquainted with Fortuna in all of her aspects. Refusingto
recognize Poland's suzerainty,Albrechtwas involved in war and suffered defeat in 1521. He fled, but returnedin 1525 and bowed to
Poland in the peace of Cracow. Because of his establishmentof a
secular duchy he was outlawed by Charles V. In spite of political and
religioustroubleof all kinds he ultimatelysecured the safetyof his new
duchy. Certainly,Greiter'scanon Omnia facit Fortuna in omnibushad
a special meaning for him. At the same time this canon had another
meaning for the composer who equated Fortuna with the power of
mutation.As Fortuna facit omnia in omnibus,so mutation,in Greiter's
own words,fingitin quacunque clave quamcunque vocem.
If we place Greiter'scompositionagainst this backgroundthe extraordinarywork begins to make sense froma historicalpoint of view. If
82 Cf. M. van Crevel, Adrianus Petit Coclico, The Hague, 1940, p. 177ff.
* See Coclico's lettersto the duke published by van Crevel, op. cit., pp. 401-04.

85
the compositionwas destinedfora music-lovingprince inclinedtowards

the modern trends of musica reservata,we can understandboth its
humanisticinspirationand its boldness of design. But while the sociological backgroundmay explain the origin of a work of art, while the
iconographic intent may account for its design, neither can explain
the individual genius with which it is executed. For with his Fortuna
Matthaeus Greiterliftedhimselffor one artisticmomentfromthe level
of a mere talent to that of a genius- if it is a sign of genius to conceive and felicitously
bold design.
execute an extraordinarily
ERRATA
The following
corrections
shouldbe made in Ex. 3 of Part I, proofsof
whichcouldnotbe submitted
to theauthor:
m.38,alto: F shouldbe a halfnoteinsteadof a wholenote.
m.44,discant:place a naturalsignaboveG.
m.47,thetextsyllableunderthe discantshouldread "er" insteadof "e".
m.70,discant:the thirdnote shouldbe an E wholenote insteadof a D
halfnote.
m.78, the textunder the tenorshould read "certata" instead of "Astata."
In footnote
nameofthefamous
art-historian
andfounder
28,line12,thecorrect
of theWarburgInstituteshouldread AbyWarburg.


Matthaeus Greiters Fortuna - An Experimen in Chromatism and in Musical Iconography - E.E. Lowinsky

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Matthaeus Greiter's "Fortuna": An Experiment in Chromaticism and in Musical Iconography-II

Author(s): Edward E. Lowinsky

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