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• 2 Motto Motets from the Copenhagen MS

2 Motto Motets from the Copenhagen MS

for 5 instruments.

These two pieces are taken from MS 1872 of the Royal Library in Copenhagen, a collection compiled by Georg Heyde, a court trumpeter there. The collection is one of the earliest to give indications of instrumentation: a few parts are assigned to sackbuts, crumhorns and cornetts respectively.
Both pieces have tenor parts consisting entirely of repetition of a single motto theme associated with a particular patron of the time. The first piece is based on the device “Alles in Ehren” of Johann Friedrich I of Saxony; this motto or slogan appears in medallions from the 1530s onwards. The second piece is based on the motto of Duke Albrecht of Prussia: it would appear from the manuscript that the piece was presented to that gentleman in 1543 by “Giorgio P”, who can be none other than Jorgen (Georg) Presten This latter was one of the leading musicians at the Danish court for a short time (he was leader of the choir in the royal chapel in 1551) before he died of the plague in 1553. In neither piece is the text for the remaining four parts underlaid, so we can assume that Heyde included them in the Copenhagen collection as potential instrumental pieces.
The original note values have been halved throughout. A few editorial accidentals are printed small above the stave, applying to the one note only.