Source title | Josquin. Vihuela menor. Este motete se puso por estos termios altos/porque en otro estilo no suena tambien. Segu[n]do grado. |
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Title in contents | Obsecro te domina en quinta a cinco Josquin. |
Text incipit | Obsecro te d[om]ina |
Category intabulation
Genre motet
Fantasia type
Mode
Voices
Length (compases) 235
Tuning E & B
Courses 6
Final IV/0
Highest I/7
Lowest VI/3
Difficulty easy + med.
Tempo medium
Language LA
Vocal notation texted puntillos
2 vihuelas at the fifth.
No vocal model survives for this work
The first four lines of the text are based on the “Obsecro te” prayer (to the word orphanarum)
This prayer was a favorite during the later part of the Middle Ages and invariably appeared in Books of the Hours from the 15th century and onwards.
Elders points out that the text, a paraphrase of the lengthy well-know prayer, appears related to a version found in the book of hours of Mary of Burgundy.
Valderrábano’s text omits the words shown here in italics:
Obsecro te Domina sancta Maria mater Dei, pietate plenissima, summi regis filia, mater [dei] gloriossisima, mater orphanorum, consolatio desolatorum, quam filius tuus unigenitus [coronavit], salva me, honorificentia populi mei.
Elders concludes on stylistic grounds that there is no stylistic or other consequential evidence to dispute Josquin’s authorship. The work is published as an “opus dubium” in vol. 24 of NJE, no 24.8 in a hypothetical reconstruction by Willem Mook.
Obsecro te Domina sancta Maria mater Dei, mater gloriossisima, mater orphanorum, quam filius tuus unigenitus [coronavit], salva me, honorificentia populi mei.
I implore you, mistress Holy Mary, mother of God, most glorious mother, mother of orphans, who has been [crowned] by your only-begotten son, save me, most honorable of my people.
—translation from Elders article.
des Prez, Josquin. New Josquin Edition. Ed. W. Elders, et al. Utrecht: Vereniging voor Nederlandse Museikgeschiedenis, 1987.