Editing the Cantigas de Santa Maria: Notational Decisions

Abstract

This paper presents at first the main methodological questions that the musical editor of the CSM must confront; then it discusses rhythmic transcription and proposes a novel approach to the notation, based on clues unwillingly provided by the copyists (hesitation and emendation) when trying to capture what they heard or sung under 13th-century notational constraints. It illustrates the use of regular or varied Parisian or Arabic patterns and instances of notational ambiguity that expose the limits of philological reasoning. It is argued that the choice of a notational figure did not necessarily depend on its performing speed, and that tension between musical input and scribal convention could imply counter-intuitive notational choices. Ternary subdivisions within a binary framework (or vice-versa) and temporal equivalence of different kinds of metre, e.g. 3/4 and 6/8 (compressed third mode), are admitted in the range of transcription solutions called for by the notation of the Cantigas. Exemplary songs are discussed to demonstrate the advantages of this approach.