Musical Interactions in the Hymn Corpus of the Strahov Codex

Abstract

This essay concentrates on the polyphonic hymns of the Strahov Codex (CZ-Ps DG IV 47), one of the most important late fifteenth-century repositories of music for the mass and the office. Delving into the connection between the source and the Trent Codices, it uncovers traces of compositional interactions between some of Strahov’s unica and settings of the same texts in Trent 88 (I-TRbc Ms. 1375). The melodic and contrapuntal similarities detected between pairs of settings suggest routine contrapuntal strategies. In turn, this analysis of the relatively simple hymn repertory contributes to reconstructing musical networks in central Europe.