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Compositions

Sub tuum presidium
Benedictus de Opiciis


Edition

Transcription by Theodor Dumitrescu

XML score data



Sources listed in database

Source Loc. Title Voices Attribution
Av-Cr
SVb tuum presidium
4
"Be. de opi."
10v-11r
SVb tuum presidium
4
".B. opicius / benedictus dE Opicijs"

Incipits

Lofzangen (1515)
Sub tuum presidium incipit: Lofzangen (1515)
LonBLR 11 E.xi
Sub tuum presidium incipit: LonBLR 11 E.xi

Text

Sub tuum presidium ad te confugimus

sancta dei genitrix

nostras deprecationes ne despicias in necessitatibus

sed a periculis cunctis libera nos semper

virgo gloriosa et benedicta
Beneath your protection, we flee to you,

Holy birthgiver of God.

Despise not our supplications in our necessities,

but deliver us forever from all perils,

glorious and blessed virgin.

Editor's Commentary

Provides the main link between the manuscript LonBLR 11 E.xi (1516) and Jan de Gheet's Antwerp print of the previous year, Lofzangen (1515), not merely on musical grounds (as the only non-unicum in either source), but also due to the extra-musical materials accompanying the work in both sources. The text of the versicle and response "Post partum virgo inviolata permansisti" along with the collect "Concede nos," printed on the page following Sub tuum presidium in the print occur quite unusually at the bottom of the choirbook opening; likewise the virgin and child illustration above these prayers in the printed version reappears in an illuminated form at the start of the Superius in the manuscript. Even if one does not trust the date of 1516 at the head of the manuscript, the priority of the print is suggested by the readings in the Tenor at mm. 68-9: the repeated minims on the pitch B are split across a line ending in Lofzangen (1515), suggesting that they were originally a single semibreve analogous to that in the Superius; the form in LonBLR 11 E.xi, two minims with no line break, was therefore possibly derived directly from the print.

The date of 1508 which has been assigned to this composition, along with Summe laudis o maria, is due to an overly hasty reading of an introductory letter from Lofzangen (1515). This ostentatious humanist text merely informs us that the sons of Petrus de Opiciis performed before the 1508 convocation in Cambrai, but never specifies that the motets in the print were those executed on that occasion (indeed, elsewhere in the print Summe laudis is described as a new song):

"conuenit quod forte in manus his superioribus diebus inciderat filiorum Petri de opicijs montiferatensis maiestatis Cesarie familiaris domestici & negotiorum gestoris viri boni virtutum.honestatisque cultoris hympnus In gloriam & honorem beatissime virginis Marie / Ac rutulantis atque splendissime pacientie mundi monarche domini nostri Maximiliani recommendationem editus Cuius quidem Petri filij quantum magis eorum patris creduntur similes.tanto detecti sunt de Cesare vaticinantes miro in hercule carminis Compendio ac iubilo musices modulamine anno Millesimo quingentesimo octauo ante Communem principum in Cameraco consultationem.quem et explanare ac queque scitu digna enucleata ad te mittere statui quo facile posteros omnes principes virtutum specumen in Cesare speculari posse intelliges." (fol. Dr) [it is fitting that lately by chance there had come into my hands a hymn of the sons of Petrus de Opiciis of Monferrato (a household familiar of Caesar's majesty and a trade broker, a good man and cultivator of virtues and honesty), published unto the glory and honor of the most blessed virgin Mary and the praise of the shining monarch of the world, of most brilliant patience, our lord Maximilian; and the sons of this Petrus, as much as they are believed to be similar to their father, so were they observed singing of Caesar in a wondrous collection of song and musical jubilation, by Hercules, in 1508 before the general convocation of princes in Cambrai; and I decided to explain this hymn and send to you some explanations worthy of consideration, by which you will easily understand that all future princes can look upon the model of virtues in Caesar.]

Pre-existent material: Plainchant antiphon Sub tuum presidium, treated as melodic basis of points of imitation



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