Unrecorded Medieval Secular Music

Below is a list of over 2,000 primarily medieval secular incipits that, to the knowledge of the compiler, have not been recorded professionally, including works by Machaut, Thibaut de Navarre, Gace Brule, and other trouveres, as well as works from such well-known manuscript collections as the Cantigas de Santa Maria, the Montpellier manuscript, and the Codex Las Huelgas. The starting point for each entry was published editions of modern notation transcriptions, such as Hans Tischler, Trouvere Lyrics with Melodies, Higinio Angles, La musica de las Cantigas de Santa Maria del Rey Alfonso el Sabio, Willi Apel, French Secular Compositions of the Fourteenth Century, and similar volumes.

It was compiled with the thought that it might be useful for medieval performers and other interested parties to see what works have not been recorded, and possibly to inspire recordings of some of them. It might also spur discussion as to why certain works have not been recorded: Are they musically or textually "inferior?" Are they too similar to other works that have been recorded, or have performers simply not gotten around to them? Is there some other reason?

Some things to keep in mind:

Each entry contains the incipit, its manuscript source, a modern transcription, composer (if known), language/region, and form. Information provided in the modern transcriptions was the primary source for the manuscript sources, incipit spelling, composer, and musical form.

In some cases, the full citation of the manuscript source is given; however, in many cases only the abbreviation used in the modern transcription is given.

In trying to identify which incipits have recordings, there is always the possibility that a recording used an alternative spelling or contained characters that defied Internet searches.

Where an unrecorded incipit (or a close variation) is found in more than one modern transcription, that incipit may be listed more than once. This reflects the fact that the list of incipits was derived from published, modern transcriptions, not from manuscripts or other original sources.

Although this database only deals with incipits that have never been recorded, it should be noted that many professional recordings of medieval works are out-of-print or otherwise not commercially available. It would be wonderful if unavailable recordings, especially vinyl and out-of-print CDs, could be digitized and made available online. The database was compiled by Rodney L. Stenlake, a sometime amateur recorder player, who is solely responsible for any errors contained therein.

If you have questions or comments about the database, please contact Rodney Stenlake at rodney.stenlake@aya.yale.edu.