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ABSTRACT

CLAUDE GOUDIMEL: EXEMPLAR OF THE
CALVINISTIC MUSICAL ESTHETIC

By

Stuart Jay Ouwinga

This thesis is an attempt to present the sixteenth
century French composer, Claude Goudimel (1510?-1512), not
only as representative of a highly developed school of
contrapuntal art, but also as ideologically bound by his
conversion from Catholicism to Calvinism to a system not
always entirely conducive to the predominant kinds of con-
temporary musical expression. It is introduced by a
discussion of the origin and development of the Calvinistic
attitude toward music, and of its material "canon", the
Genevan Psalter. This volume was directly responsible for
the composer's greatest and most varied work. From the time
of his conversion until his death he was preoccupied with
setting these tunes.

Since little is known of Goudimel's life, almost
the entire available body of his writings is included
within this work. These literary pieces include dedications

and dedicatory odes to his volumes of musical settings, and

-+.__fi_____.__..__——-————-- 4 4-

Stuart Jay Ouwinga

two personal letters, all in English translation. All
known personal facts are included, as well as a thorough
discussion of the Rome/Palestrina controversy.

Goudimel was murdered in Lyons, 27 August 1572, as a
result of the infamous massacre of Huguenots which began in
Paris on Saint Bartholomew's Day (24 August) and spread to
many other French cities. From this it is presumed that he
was a prominent figure in the early French Protestant move-
ment, a fact substantiated by the many memorial odes and
sonnets which appeared. The best of these are included in
the text.

Since Goudimel wrote both ”Catholic" and "Protestant"
music, the distinguishing factors are discussed. It is when
he became a Protestant, however, that the composer's music
became best known. 'And, accordingly, the various psalm
settings receive the bulk of attention, including examples
of the many variant settings of a typical tune.

In sum, this thesis is an updated biography of
Goudimel, availing itself of virtually every discoverable
and obtainable reference to the composer's life and work.
Since most research in this area was and is being done by
French men and women, many of the composer's dedications and
all of the poetry appears in English for the first time. It
was the present author's attempt to preserve the poetry as
poetry rather than merely literal translation. Attention

was thus given primarily to meter, rhythm, and rhyme-scheme.

 

Stuart Jay Ouwinga

Exact meanings are usually intranslatable, but the mood
and intent are, hopefully, unchanged. All translations,
unless indicated, are the author's own. As this was begun
the evening of 27 August 1972, it can be construed as a

400-year memorial of the composer's death.

CLAUDE GOUDIHEL: EXEMPLAR OF THE
CALVINISTIC MUSICAL ESTHETIC

By

Stuart Jay Ouwinga

A THESIS

Submitted to ~
Michigan State University
in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of

MASTER OF ARTS
College of Arts and Letters

1973

To my father, who first taught me
about Calvinism,

and

To my mother, who first taught me
about Music.

‘. f‘ SONNET

Called out of silence to this stunning light
Left burning by past revellers in sound

And sanctity, how did you come to fight
Under the burden of the gift you found

Qemanding more than does the sun at night,‘
Evoking more than graves revoke the ground?

Goudimel, one of millions, one of few,

— gut of what troubled noise did music take
Upon itself to stir your songs, to make

Qecaying echoes dare a noise that is new?

is it your harp that helps this ancient psalter
flake David's sense lined out to David's kin?

Entering into Song, once you were in,
Love graced the notes you did not dare to alter.

s. o., 3-6-73

ii

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to thank the following people for
their assistance in the completion of this thesis:

Mr. Richard E. Klausli, who served as both academic
and thesis advisor, read the final copies, and served on‘
the committee for my oral examination.

Dr. Gomer L1. Jones, for reading the final copy
and serving on the committee for my oral examination.

Dr. Russell Friedewald, for reading the final copy

and serving on the committee for my oral examination.

iii

Chapter
I.
II.
III.

IV.

{av-r»!-

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION . . . . . . .
THE CALVINISTIC BACKGROUND .
CLAUDE GOUDIMEL

The Obscure Life

The Few Writings

The Abundant Music
CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS

BIBLIOGRAPHY

iv

Page

28

102
105

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

In January, 1537, the French reformer John Calvin,
with his colleague Guillaume Farel, submitted a memorandum
to the City Council of Geneva in which it was proposed that
the singing of the psalms within public worship of the
newly reformed church would be conducive to the nourishment
of piety. It was not until 1562 that this goal was
achieved in the appearance of the completed Genevan Psalter.
Although originally the "brain-child” of Calvin himself,
this psalter was the culmination of the combined talents of
both poets and musicians who, while carefully supervised by
Calvin and confined by the limitations of his redoubtable
'theological system, were quite free to develop their
individual gifts toward the production of a unique document,
as beautiful as it is austere. While not to make less of
the merits of such artists as Marot, Beza, Bourgeois,
”Maitre Pierre”, and others, it was the genius of Calvin
that brooded over the production like a mother hen and
hatched a phenomenon of such influence that it has affected
the development of Protestant hymnody for the past 400
years. But the influence of Calvin on music, originally

1

limited to the words and music of the Genevan Psalter
itself, now seems to have been more subtly and profoundly
embodied in the opinions and attitudes expressed in his
writings. His goal, the psalter, was his self-approved
apotheosis of all that he believed to be musically
necessary as relating to the direct worship of God, public
or private, formal or informal.

What he did for music was to effect the production
and dissemination of that one distinguished body of psalm
settings. But his attitudes and feelings about music in
general, and worship music in particular, had their effect
not only on the rapid physical reproduction of psalters
but also in the works of the musicians and artists contem-
porary with him and immediately succeeding him. Wherever
Calvinism spread its most obvious manifestation was psalm-
singing. That this era was at first marked by abstemiousness
and austerity among Calvin's followers did not mean that the
creative spark was dead. It was a time of profound conflict,
both physical and spiritual; and after the somewhat manner-
istic efforts of the Calvinist Reformation's first‘devotees
found their focus, those who succeeded became productive
especially in the fields of literature and painting. But
music too soon caught the rhythm of the times and, after
the relaxation of the fears of papistic influence, an
original strain developed--based on the fusion of the

Genevan tunes with the learned techniques of "Catholic”

counterpoint. The tenor voice, which had previously carried

the tune, or cantus firmus, became the superius (soprano)

 

 

and polyphony was gradually being replaced by homophony.

It was during the sixteenth century, the time of the
Reformation, that these stylistic changes were taking_p1ace;
and it seems logical to assume that the ostensibly spiritual
movement had its important effect on musical expression.

Caught in that upheaval, and deeply affected by
personal and social revolutionary forces, was the composer
Claude Goudimel. Both Catholic and Protestant influences are
found in his music. 'Although his psalm-motets are considered
his best works, it was his 1564-1565 harmonized version of
the Genevan Psalter which became the most widely circulated
and popular of all other comparable versions by other
composers. Usually regarded as musically rather crude,
it is nevertheless important for more than simply historical
reasons. Its musico-social influence on the development of
psalmody and hymnody is incontestable.

It is the author's desire in this thesis to clarify
some of the difficulties involved in the original Calvinistic
concept of music; and, using an evaluation of Goudimel's work
as an example, to point out some of the problems encountered
by this talented artist as he attempted to reconcile the
diverse forces of his creative nature with his newly adopted

religious position and the limitations it implied.

CHAPTER II

THE CALVINISTIC BACKGROUND

Claude Goudimel, in the brief preface to his 1565
setting of the Genevan Psalter, not only hints at, but
rationalizes the predicament he encountered in presenting
harmonized versions of the tunes:

To our Readers:

To the melody of the psalms we have, in this

little volume, adapted three parts, not to induce
you to sing them in Church, but that you may
rejoice in God, particularly in your homes. This
should not be found an ill thing, the more so
since the melody used in Church is leftlin its
entirety, just as though it were alone.

It would be improper to scrutinize these two uneasy
sentences out of their Reformation context. They invite
comparison with Calvin's own preface to the original
unharmonized Genevan Psalter, and in that light much of
their apparent obscurity can be least be partially clarified.

These two prefaces, differing in almost every aspect,
even intent, are related in conviction. The Goudimel preface

is, in effect, a reaction to the reformer's theologizing on

music, and especially to the effect that this theologizing

 

lOliver Strunk, ed., Source Readings in Music History
(New York: W. W. Norton, 1950), p. 349.

4

had already had on the musical practices of the Reformed
Church. In the twenty-two years (1543-1565) between these
prefaces the final words on music within Calvinistic public
worship had quite successfully been put into effect. Only
three years before Goudimel's preface (1562) the great work
on the Genevan Psalter had been completed.

Calvin's preface has rarely received a very thorough
examination in the light of the reformer's theological views.
Musicians studying an age of polyphony are generally discon-
certed at the abrupt appearance of enforced monody of a
restrained nature. Consequently, many scholarly and respected
authorities are given to glib and denigrating statements on
the phenomenon of the musical expression of Calvinism. Some,
however, have reexamined the sociological forces prevalent
when this useful music was conceived and, in the light of
its accompanying theology, have been able to acquire a more

informed focus on its singular raison d'étre. Because more

 

than four centuries have elapsed since the "baptism” of
Calvin's "brain-child”, almost anyone with a spark of
hiStorical perspective is now in a better position, so long
as he is even partially sympathetic, to offer some more
reliable judgments on the matter. Many facts are still
unknown, and known facts are sometimes ignored for various
reasons. At most, then, statements on so complex a subject

can be only partially conclusive.

One of the finest recent evaluations of Calvin's
preface attempts an objective clarification of the reformer's
own feelings on music as revealed in his literal statements.2
Calvin, says the author, divides worship into preaching,
prayer, and the Sacraments. Prayer is differentiated into
that which is spoken and that which is sung. There is no
objection to singing because of the authority of historical
precedence. Therefore, ”music . . .becomes for him one of the
three fundamental expressions of formal worship.”3 Calvin
always distinguished between music used within public
worship and that used for amusement anywhere else. Elsewhere
he is quoted as affirming that "we have the right to express
through gay songs our joy in living. Everything‘is to be
moderated, that we do not take the world and its pleasures
as an absolute, but, on the contrary, as a suite of gifts
which God has given us and for which we must return
thanks (. . .) and nowhere is it forbidden to laugh or to
tipple, or to delight oneself with musical instruments or
to drink wine.”4

Certain other familiar Calvin-isms.are also stated or
implied here: the omniscience of God, the corrupted state

of the world, and the Platonic imperative to be moderate in

 

2Charles Garside, "Calvin's Preface to the Psalter:
.A Re-Appraisal," Musical Quarterly, XXXVII (1951), pp. 566-577.

_ 31bid., p. 568.

4Leon Wencelius, L'Esthetique de Jean Calvin (Paris:
Société d'Edition "Les Belles Lettres," no date), p. 266.

all things. In his Commentary on the Book of Job, Calvin
sums up the foregoing conclusions even more succinctly, and
seems to suggest the perpetual apprehension that anything
which should amuse might be abused: "Music itself cannot be
condemned, but because the world almost always abuses it,

we should always be on our guard as this passage (in Job)
warns us."5

Returning to the preface, after the three-fold division
of the expressions of formal worship with its implication
that music is associated very closely with prayer, Calvin
reveals his very Greek, very Renaissance conception of the
duality of music--that music is both melody and text. And,
as far as texts are concerned, none can compare with the
inspired psalms traditionally ascribed to King David. These
are to be used to the exclusion of all non-Biblical texts,
including the great Catholic hymns of the past. These
feelings are the ”rock" upon which a whole tradition of
Protestant psalmody is built.

In the final paragraphs of the preface are contained
some of the most brilliant and poetic passages ever composed
to praise the gift of music. Calvin's interest in music
spreads far beyond his own limitations on its use within
public worship. Says Calvin: "Now among other things proper
to recreate man and give him pleasure, music is either the

first or one of the principal, and we must think that it is

 

5Wencelius, op. cit., p. 572.

6 His discussion con-

a gift of God deputed to that purpose."
tinues until it seems to embody more of a respect for music's
power than for its charm: ". . .for there is hardly anything
in the world with more power to turn or bend, this way and
that, the morals of men, as Plato has prudently considered.
And in fact we find by experience that it has a secret and
incredible power to move our hearts in one way or another."7

Hereupon follows the famous metaphor of the funnel
pouring melody into the heart, and the comparison of the
bird's instinctive singing to man's knowing what it is he
sings. (To appreciate its full beauty almost the entire
half would have to be quoted.) It has been aptly summed up
thus: "This statement is not the extravagant enthusiasm of
a musician praising his beloved art, as Luther did so often,
but the carefully reasoned and dispassionate statement of
a man who was primarily a lawyer, theologian, and
philosopher."8

While this preface quite possibly contains the best

of Calvin's statements on the character and use of music,

both the Institutes and the Commentaries also contain”

 

 

scattered opinions and ideas on the subject. The treatment
of music is unavoidable in a system so inclusive as Calvin's;

most necessarily so because the Bible, upon which the entire

 

6Garside, op. cit., p. 572.

7Strunk, op. cit., p. 347.

8Garside, op. cit., pp. 572-573.

system is constructed, is replete with allusions to musical
practices among the people of God.” Collectively, the
references to music in Calvin's writings comprise a profound
statement which has often been misconstrued by critics not
.fully agreeing with the reformer's other ideas. More
objectively, many scholars have recently attempted to scrape
away some of the accretions that time and misconstruction
have attached to his insights. A
Fundamental to Calvinistic belief is the idea of
"Christian Liberty," i.e., that man is free to communicate
directly with a personal God without the intervention of
priest or POpe. Music is an expression of this freedom and
thus "through holy songs we incite ourselves to praise God,
meditate on His works, love Him, fear Him, glorify Him."9
Musical praise was not necessarily to be confined to formal
public worship; nor was it mandatory that informal vocal
music employ sacred words. This seems to be implicit in
Calvin's division of music into psalms, hymns, and odes.10
The performance of certain plays with music and dancing (e.g.,
those of Beza and Louis Des Masure) suggest an "excellent pic-
ture of the use of music as Calvin wished to see it outside

the service.”11

 

9Wencelius, op. cit., p. 225.

101bid., p. 257.

11H. P. Clive, "The Calvinist Attitude to Music and
its Literary Aspects and Sources,” Bibliotheque d'Humanisme
et Renaissance--travaux et documents, XIX, p. 298.

 

 

10

This mention of artistic forms is not surprising;
Calvin, himself an excellent prose writer and adequate poet,
was immersed in the scholarly intricacies of Renaissance
Humanism. It is not wise to divorce Calvin's literary ideas
from his musical ones since music was to him predominantly a
means of conveying words. "Instead of referring to pagan
Antiquity, Calvin appealed to the sponsorship of the Fathers
of the Church. But the leitmotif was the same: in both
ancient periods music and poetry had been closely joined."12
The words which most impressed Calvin were those charged with
"weight and majesty". Since the Psalms of David, which cover.
the gamut of human feelings with immeasurable moral effect,
fit his specifications, David replaced Orpheus and Apollo.13
Other reasons for using the psalms are: l. The example of
the ancient Church and Saint Paul's testimony (Ephesians
5:19; I Corinthians 14:15, 26; Colossians 3:16). 2. The
warmth and uplift they would bring to prayer. 3. The dis-
covery of what benefit and consolation the pope and his
partisans have deprived the Church, by appropriating the
Psalms to be mumbled between them without understanding.
This last, libelous-sounding statement is Calvin's own.

(Calvini Opera, ed. 1863 seq., vol. Xa, 12.)14

 

 

12Francois Lesure, Musicians and Poets of the French
Renaissance (New York: Merlin Press, 1955), p. 51.

13

 

 

Clive, o . cit., p. 294.

14Louis F. Benson, The Hymngdy of the Christian
Church (Richmond: John Knox Press, 1956), p. 80.

 

11

But these ancient Hebrew writings were scarcely fit
for the sixteenth century Huguenot bourgeoisie. Calvin,
attuned to the studied lyricism of French Renaissance poetry
and aware of the efficacy of simple verse on the retention
of thoughts, has been called "the first (post-Reformation)
church leader who deliberately set up a literary standard
for his church song and called a poet to his service."15
His sojourn in Strassburg was the occasion of his exposure

to popular religious song, and he was apparently so moved

that upon his return to Geneva he made it a sine qua non

 

'that the psalms be made a part of public worship. "This
purpose, indomitable and perhaps not without a touch of
the heroic, is the historical basis on which the whole

structure of Metrical Psalmody rests."16

Simply put, the
Psalms kept doctrine safe while the tunes made it popular.
And it was also Calvin's sensitive nature which responded
to the popular music of the Strassburg service: "He

”17 And he soon dis-

occupied himself looking for tunes.
covered the magnificent tune of Mattheus Greiter which
became the famous Psalm LXVIII, the "Marseillaise of the

Huguenots."

 

15Ibid., p. 100.

16Benson, op. cit., p. 81.
17Wencelius, op. cit., p. 281.

12

What he wished for music to effect and what he
actually effected within the continuing history of music

are bound up within Calvin's detailed system of active
thought. The complete body of musical references could be
enumerated, layed out, and analyzed to the last empirical
detail without establishing what is the "spark" that set the
whole psalm-singing movement into operation. For all its
apparentreasonability, the system called Calvinism is
ultimately based on the irrational, on faith in a Supreme
Being as revealed in natural phenomena and in what is called
"Grace".’ This latter, Grace, is "Special” in its redemptive
effect on those persons who respond to the-teachings and
sacrifice of Christ as the only means of redemption from the
depraved state of mankind. It is "Common" in the beneficent
effect this sacrifice has had on all mankind and the created
universe itself: "God so loved the world that He gave His
only begotten Son . . .” (John 3:16). The duty of the man
who accepts these ideas is to desire to become like Christ--
ultimately self-sacrificing in his relationships with other
people. That this ideal state cannot be attained by mere
human volition does not nullify the mandate--the Gift,

the sacrifice of Christ, was the final and complete redemp-
tive gift of God; and man's response involves the exalted
and exultant humility of thankfulness, a willful gratitude
bound up in continual petition for more of the Grace that

first effected it. Following upon this Biblical train of;

13

thought as interpreted by Calvin is the belief in an ultimate
judgment by God of every individual according to what he

has done "in the flesh”. Salvation, then, while involving
faith put into action, is pg: the result of human merit.

God is sovereign, and human responsibility, especially
artistic, must be characterized by that "weight and majesty".
prescribed by Calvin for the music of praise.

From this perspective, simplified and possibly
abstruse to the uninitiated, the ideas of Calvin on art and
music must be considered. Because his redoubtable doctrines
have been so often exaggerated it is easy to lose sight of
their original ingenuousness. The natural world and its
stylized manifestations--e.g., art, music, and literature--
are basically good. But everything has been tainted with
Original Sin which has thoroughly disrupted the God-man,
and consequently man-man, relationship. Redemption is
possible, and the creative person responding to God and His
gift of the Christ must take into consideration the infinite
variety and beautiful order underlying the created universe.
-Since he has received these good gifts, he must also present
gifts as nearly good and perfect as his talents will allow,
always aware that he is not perfect himself, but is becoming
graciously perfected by his Creator.

What Calvin did for music, directly or by the popular
influence of his ideas, is generally consistent with these

very strictures. To sum up his theories: Music has the

14

power to move the soul of man, but not of animals. (”Soul”
must be assumed to mean an intangible, immortal quality of
mankind that distinguishes him from the beasts, as Calvin
himself must have observed that animals do respond to music.
They do not perform or compose it, however, unless artifi-

cially conditioned.) Music is not able to drive out evil

 

spirits. Although music influences the human soul, it

does not have the miraculous or therapuetic powers attributed
to it by earlier theorists. This would detract from God's
omnipotence. Calvin agrees with the contemporary theorists--
Bardi, Galilei, etc., the "Musical Humanists”--on the

emotive power of music, that the text is more important than
the tune, and that for the sake of clarity monody or syllabic
homophony is to be preferred to polyphony. The last seems
partially to justify these four-part homophonic settings of
the psalm-tunes by Goudimel which can be described as a kind
of "harmonic monody“. Simplicity sounds the keynote, and
severely monodic psalm settings throw the texts in clear
relief. The elaborateness of the Catholic service was
distasteful to Calvin for, among other reasons, the confusion
of texts in vocal polyphony. He considered such excesses
spiritually dangerous. The ”inspiration" of his ideas, so
finely worded but not entirely original, can be found in

the writings of Plato, Aristotle, Saint Paul, Jerome,

Chrysostom, Augustine, the "Musical Humanists", and even

15

Luther.18 Calvin's own doctrine of "Common Grace" is

present in the respect with which he held the teachings
of even the "pagan" philosophers.

As relating to musical practice, Calvin is much
condemned for his insistence on unaccompanied unison psalm-
singing, at least within public worship. Pratt19 notes that:
". . .it is often supposed that nothing but unison singing was
intended or practiced. It is true that Calvin opposed the
printing of harmonized versions, partly because he felt that
they would distract attention from the sense of the words,
partly perhaps for other*practical reasons." Among these
practical reasons may be imagined the difficulty of teaching
elaborate polyphony to an entire assembly of worshippers,
many of whom would necessarily be recalcitrant and unmusical.
And it was imperative that the entire assembly be at least

encouraged to take part in the singing--another reason for

the stressing of vernacular participation. Although

 

contrapuntal settings of the psalm-tunes were being produced
by Goudimel and others even before the Genevan Psalter was
completed, it is thought by some that "none of these poly-
phonic settings found its way into the approved public

worship of the Calvinist churches.”20 But public worship

 

18Clive, op. cit., p. 107.

19Waldo Selden Pratt, The Music of the French Psalter
of 1562 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1939), p. 65.

20Robert M. Stevenson, Patterns of Protestant Church
Music (Durham: Duke University Press, 1953), p. 19.

 

 

16

has a way of interpolating usages which are not ”approved",
and it would be difficult to be definite on the question of
what actually took place. To soften Calvin's insistent tone,
some authorities argue emotionally: ". . . it is not from a
lack of aesthetic sense that Calvin preferred unison singing,
but in his concern for absolute purity which, for him, is

essential for beauty.”21

And some, after having objectively
studied the music and history of the Genevan Psalter, and
still unable to place this stringent music in reasonable
perspective, have responded with curously self-conscious
embarrassment: ”Our (French) musical inferiority compared to
that of Germany is the evident consequence of the narrowness
of ideas and practical utilitarianism of Calvin in the

22 The reformer is blamed for what

matter of sacred song."
he could not sensibly be expected to accomplish; Whereas,
what he did accomplish--The Genevan Psalter-~is no small
achievement for a non-musician. It is, of course, an

intellectual and volitional tour de force, but as such it

 

has had a strong influence within the history of human
sensibility.
It seems unlikely that any other leader of the

Calvinist Reformation would have conceived the idea of

 

21Wencelius, op. cit., p. 269.

22Orentin Douen, Clement Marot et le Psautier
Huguenot ( Paris: L'Imprimerie Nationale, 1879), vol. II,
p. 375.

 

l7

furnishing metrical arrangements 32d tunes to all 150
psalms. The artists who did the actual work were felicitously
hand-picked by Calvin for their God-given talents regardless
of whether they were of the Reformed conviction. On this
matter, however, only the spiritual stance of Clément Marot,
the first versifier, remains questionable, although he
was greatly sympathetic to revolutionary causes. Marot
contributed about one third of the texts; he was superseded,
at Calvin's request, by the scholarly Theodore de Béze (Beza),
who was also Calvin's successor at Geneva. The authorship of
the tunes is less certain. Louis Bourgeois, a Parisian
musician, was persuaded by Calvin to commence the project.
He, like Marot, left Geneva for unspecified reasons before
the task was completed. The identity of his successor, one
”Maitre Pierre”, will probably never be ascertained, though
most scholars believe he was one Pierre Dubuisson who was
active at that time and place. One cannot help but believe
that Calvin, the formidable theologian, was enthusiastic
about the activities of these artists and that through them
his own creative capacities were vicariously extended.

While it is unfortunate that Calvin is not given more
credit, if not for the music and verse, at least for the
concepts behind it, there is some truth in the following

observation:

 

18

Happily Calvin was not the Reformation;
harmonized religious song responded so well to
its spirit that it established itself in France
in spite of the reformer, and it developed con-
siderably, judging by the large numbsg of har-
monized Psalters Wthh were printed.

True, Calvin was not the Reformation; and harmonized
religious song did become established almost immediately.
The spirit of any such reforming movement is not bound by
the well-reasoned personal opinions of any one of its
leaders. Because Calvin's emphasis was on the clarity of
verbal declamation, it cannot be concluded that he was
opposed to contrapuntal music per se. He had a purpose: it
was imperative that the plain word be funneled into the heart
as directly and simply as possible. The Psalter was to pro-
vide this necessary tool of devotion both public and private.
The enjoyment of other music for various occasions was, as
we have seen, considered a legitimate pastime and praise-
worthy even in a religious sense. But what other music was
available? The most highly developed counterpoint was the
exclusive ”property” of the Catholic Church and therefore
anathema to the early Reformed. Popular song was pre-
dominantly homophonic, certainly harmonized, however simply.
The secular chanson, a delightful blend of homophonic and
polyphonic styles, was certainly not beyond the technical
skill of many educated Huguenots. It was in fact the

Huguenot composers Goudimel, Le Jeune, and Jannequin, who

developed the chanson to a very high level.

 

23Douen, op. cit., p. 375.

19

It is not clear whether Calvin objected more to the
complexity of contrapuntal music or to its association with
the Catholic Church. The former sometimes seems a rationale
for the latter--he was sensitive enough to realize the effect
and value of contrapuntal music since he could not have
escaped being exposed to it many times; but because his
reforms demanded the iconoclastic deracination of everything
papistic, this music also had to go--perhaps reluctantly, but
very justifiably. Some of the documented condemnation of
Calvin on such music is, however, partially erroneous. One

example from the Institutes declares:

 

The songs and melodies which are composed to please
the ear only, as are all the quaverings and trills

of Papistry and—all that they call broken-music and
composition, and four-part songs, in no wise accord
with the majesty of the Church and cannot be other

than gravely displeasing to God.24_

 

.Recent scholarship has shown it to be only partially

authentic:

This famous text is found only in the French
translation of 1560, a translation which abounds in
errors, contradictions, even nonsense, and which,
naturally, Calvin did not review. This text is
absent from the Latin edition of 1559, the only one
which has authority. Calvin said: 'The songs and
melodies which are composed to please the ear only
in no wise accord with the majesty of the Church,
and cannot be other than gravely displeasing to God.‘
The author of the translation intercalated: 'as are
all the quaverings and trills of Papistry and 311
that they call broken-music and composition, and four-
part songs.‘ What importance has this intercalation?

 

 

. 24Emile Doumergue, ”Music in the Work of Calvin,”
Princeton Theological Review, VII (October, 1909), p. 547.

 

20

Moreover, even were the text authentic, the
legend would not be advanced, for it does not at
all mean what it has been made to mean. Calvin
would not be condemning here ex professo either
harmony in general, or four-part singing in
particular, but only a certain harmony, which he
would carefully specify--'the four—part singing
of Papistry,‘ nothing more.

In reality, . . ., Calvin, after the example of
the Lutherans, whose musical sense is not contested,
and on the advice of Goudimel, (sic) to whom no one
denies artistic genius,--Calvin simply desired that
in the churches, the Calvinists should sing 'all
and well, '. . .' -__

In other terms: singing in unison (this for
the music) and singing in the common tongue (this
for the words)--such is the democratic singing
which Calvin confined himself to requiring with
more energy and vigor than all the other reformers.

 

25

To judge simply by the great number of harmonized
psalm books which appeared, it would seem that this "democratic
singing", whether or not it was entirely unisonal at first,
soon became almost universally harmonious--not only in musical
terms, but also almost certainly within the grand structure

where Calvin had placed it.

Interestingly enough, it was not pply for the Psalms
of David that Calvin had an ear: "nor did our Reformers
reject those other ancient hymns which for ages had been
closely united with the psalms in public devotion. The 13

Deum, the Nunc Dimittis, the Magnificat, were likewise trans-
26

 

 

ferred in a metrical shape to the Protestant ritual."

 

25Doumergue, o . cit., pp. 547-548.

26Charles W. Baird, The Presbyterian Liturgies
(Grand Rapids: Baker, 1957), p. 18.

 

21

The reformers referred to were successors of Calvin
in the Reformed tradition. They were perhaps more "Calvinistic”
in their recognition of the value of these former hymns and,
of course, another generation removed from the fear of Papistic
associations. Included, however, within Calvin's own services

were the Nunc Dimittis and a musical setting of the Ten

 

Commandments. When Calvin returned to Geneva from his reward-

 

ling stay in Strassburg, he discovered that his colleague, the
indomitable Guillaume Farel, with whom he had previously sent
the memorandum on psalm-singing to the Geneva City Council,
had already made a beginning, however slight, in worship
music: "All that he did towards the performance of Divine
service, was to set the Apostle's Creed and Ten Commandments
to music, and cause them to be sung by the congregation."27
Included in the completed Psalter, in addition to the 150
psalms, were found settings of the Ten Commandments and the
Song of Simeon. In the first complete harmonized Psalter of
Goudimel, which appeared in 1564, there also were included
two table prayers-~for before and after the meal. These were
not included in subsequent settings, but the Ten Commandments
and the Nunc Dimittis were still present and continued as
part of the Calvinist "psalm” tradition. The Song of Simeon
still appears today in the hymnbooks of some denominations.
It is not surprising that the Ten Commandments,

liammering so heavily as they do upon the Sovereignty of God,

vwould have special appeal to Calvin and his followers. No

 

27Baird, op. cit., p. 48.

22

service was complete without their humbling reiteration. And

the Song of Simeon with its nobly nostalgic theme of parting,

enhanced by the haunting tune of Bourgeois, has scarcely

been equalled since by another piece of such a nature. It

was sung at Calvin's funeral, not as a special Requiem, but

simply out of custom. ”They sang, as usual, the Song of

Simeon, with which, in the Calvinistic worship, the cele-

bration of the Supper is always closed."28
Calvin's attitude toward musical instruments seems

marked more by unfamiliarity with their potentialities than

by actual displeasure with their usage. As has been noted,

their playing was an acceptable form of diversion outside

of public worship. But within the House of God, at least in

Geneva,-even the retention of an organ was not condoned. This

may have been due to the influence of Farel and the puritanical

City Council. Calvin was not opposed to organs per se, but

apparently did not consider them of indispensable use in

public worship. Although he cannot be quoted as arguing the

point, he would probably have reasoned much the same way as

he did in opposing vocal harmony--the clarity of the Word

must predominate. An interesting anecdote, recently brought

to light from the minutes of the Council of Geneva, related

how for eighteen years Calvin attempted to gygid the destruc-

tion of an organ in the former monastery of Rive. He

 

28Baird, op. cit., p. 48.

23

suggested that it be sold and the money be given to the poor.
But he was unable to effect this, and the instrument was

finally dismantled for scrap metal.29
The situation was somewhat different at Strassburg,

possibly due to the influence of the German Lutheran movement:
"The organ is not completely suppressed, but its role is

strongly restrained.”30 And according to the Strassburger

 

Kirchenordnung of 1598: ”The organist would give a short

 

introduction; he would play the melody which the congregation
would then sing, he was permitted one or two short interludes;
at the end of the service only, after the benediction, he had

31 This does not

the leisure of executing a longer piece."
differ greatly from the present-day practices 1n Calvinistic
churches. Again, while the opinions and personal wishes of
Calvin were not honored to the letter, the spirit of Calvinism
was not so restricted that its followers could not very soon
recognize and select from the rich resources available that
which was usable and praiseworthy for their pious exercises.

It has been customary to think of Calvinists as preoccupied

with the evil inherent in things per se. This became true of

 

9Percy A. Scholes, The Puritans and Music in England
and New England (London: Oxford’University Press, 1934]
pp. 337-339.

 

 

30Theodore Gérold, ”Les Premiers Recueils de Melodies
Religieuses Protestant a Strasbourg," Revue de Musicolo ie,
VI, (1925), p. 49.

31

 

Gérold, op. cit., p. 50.

24

certain groups within the Calvinistic tradition--especia11y
the Scottish, the English and American Puritans, and to some
extent the Dutch elements. But it is somewhat of a post hoc,

propter hoc supposition. If such ideas were merely implicit

 

in the life and works of Calvin they often became explicit

in the misconstructions of his followers and within the
varying ethnic temperaments into which they were dispersed.
While Calvin was merely unconvinced that organs had any
-redeemable function within public worship, the later Scottish
Covenanters were plainly hostile and boasted when the last
organ in the country was destroyed. In the Netherlands, on
the other hand, the organ was, after a short interlude, gladly
reinstated within the Reformed Churches and became a central
figure in the musical tradition of the Dutch.

In his enthusiasm for the participation of the entire
congregation in devotional activities, Calvin did not over-
look the children. He proposed, in fact, a choir of children
who were to be taught ”modest and churchly singing". Listening
to their clear voices the people may ”little by little" join
in praise.32 It would seem that Calvin, realizing hbw much
easier it is for children to memorize, desired that the con-

gregation learn by rote by listening to a children's choir.33

32John T. McNeill, The History and Character of
Calvinism (New York: Oxford University Press, 1967), pp. 139-
140.

 

 

33Wencelius, 0p. cit., p. 266, 293 (footnote).

25

Whether these children's choirs were ever effectively
employed is not known. But psalm-singing in general became
irrepressible. The students at the Geneva Academy sang

psalms in French from 11:00 to 12:00 daily.34

Already in 1545
a Walloon student at Strassburg had written to a friend in
Antwerp: "You would not believe the joy that is experienced
in singing the praises of the Lord in the mother tongue, as
is done here. Each one has in his hand a book of music."35
And this was long before the official Genevan Psalter had
been completed. .

The refugees at Strassburg had been a singing group;
and even under Farel at Geneva there had been some musical

activity, as related in a letter of one Gerard Roussel to a

Bishop Briconnet in 1525: "The singing of the women mingling
with the voices of the men produces a marvelous effect most
pleasing to hear."36 Sometime later, probably after the
Psalter had been completed and the first harmonized versions
had appeared, it was observed by Florimond de Remond, a

staunch Catholic, "Everyone carries a psalter, . - ., and sings

these psalms as spiritual songs, even the Catholics, not

 

34McNeill, op. cit., p. 195.

351bid., pp. 147-148.

361bid., p. 149

26

thinking any evil of it, for these psalms are pleasant, easy
to learn and appropriate for playing on instruments."37
That the Huguenots later used instruments is also
confirmed by another contemporary observer: ”They sung, . . .,
Psalms in French rhyme, with vocal and instrumental music,
which extremely pleased such people as were fond of novelty,
and contributed to increase their numbers daily.”38
It is apparent also that singing in harmony, at least
in public, became prevalent. After a description of a Catholic-
Protestant conflict at Pré-aux Clercs, one author sums it up
in the reflections of another historian:
With the divining sense of the great historian,
and in spite of the confusion of names and dates
which he strangely mixes, M. Michelet appears to
have uncovered the truth. The novelty which alone
explains the enthusiasm of the students, the crowd,
and the doubled rage of the clergy, is the appear-
ance of harmony, the first public execution of a39
true and splendid religious music in four parts.
Whether harmonized or not, the singing of psalms
became so popular that in less than two centuries more than
thirty editions of the Genevan Psalter appeared in the
Netherlands alone and almost as many in Germany. The psalms

'were translated into about twenty different languages and

 

37H. Kling, "Les Compositeurs de la Musique du
Psautier Huguenot Genevois," Rivista Musicale Italiana, VI,
(1899), p. 517.

38Baird, op. cit., p. 87.

39Douen, op. cit., II, 13.

27

became known in some places as the "siren of Calvinism". It

is from the appearance of psalm-singing that the church of

40

Calvin may be dated. That this practice was conducive

toward unifying the young church is undeniable.

This Singing of psalms by the entire assemby, and
not only by the priest alone, was in the eyes of
the reformers a glorious privilege of their church:
they clung to the idea that each one could take
part and avoided as a dangerous innovation all

that might make it difficult pr risk the exclusion
of any part of the assembly.4

Many years later, with mixed bewilderment and nostalgia,
the great philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, attesting to the
tenacity of psalm—singing in certain locales, observed:

I remember having seen in my youth, near Neuchatel,
a sight rather agreeable and perhaps unique on the
earth...0ne of the most popular amusements of these
simple peasants is to sing with their wives and
children the four-part psalms, and one is very
surprised to hear coming from these country cot-
tages the strong and masculine harmony of goudimel,
so long forgotten by our learned artists.4

And since it is with this ”strong and masculine
harmony" that the psalms of Calvin's Psalter became most well
known, it is wise to pursue the peculiar music with which

these words were so long associated.

 

40Doumergue, op. cit., p. 539.

41Felix Bovet, Histoire du Psautier des Eplises
Réformées, (Neuchatel: Librairie Generale de J} andoz,
1872), pp. 68-69.

42Wencelius, op. cit., p. 294.

CHAPTER III

CLAUDE GOUDIMEL

The Obscure Life

 

So little is known about the life of Claude Goudimel
that the major encyclopedias, dictionaries of music, and
articles include him within a few paragraphs, concluding with
a listing, either partial or as complete as is known, of his
compositions. But outside of relating the known facts of
his life and enumerating his output, only one other consid-
eration is often brought up: the controversy involving his
supposed stay in Rome, with the attendant possibility of his
having been the master of Palestrina. Little is ever
mentioned of the importance of his place in that momentous
social, political, and religious upheaval which coincided
with his lifetime--the Reformation, particularly the
Calvinist Reformation, with which his major musical concern
is thoroughly identified and which eventually cost him his
life.

Goudimel was born in or near the city of Besancon,

in eastern France, that part then known as Franche-Comté.

28

29

Georges Becker1 supplies two irrevocable proofs: the pre-
face of a selection of masses edited by Goudimel in 1554 is

signed Claudii Godimelli Vesontini (Vesontini being the Latin

 

 

for Besancon), and the title of a book of chansons published
_____,__ .________

in 1586--it is probably a re-edition--carried the indication

that these chansons were collected and reviewed by Claude

Goudimel, natif de Besancon. The actual date of Goudimel's

 

birth has been subject to much speculation. Generally the
guesses range from 1500 to 1510. Becker opts for 1505: his
reasons, which involve the Rome/Palestrinacontroversy, will
be brought up later.2

Eleanor Lawry? in her remarkable work on the psalm-
motets, notes that the Goudimel family was involved in the
baking industry. Unless other sources are discovered, this
is all that is known of the composer's native situation.
Many sources list the variant spellings of the name Goudimel,
the most recent authorities no doubt relying on an ancient

footnote in La France Protestante (ed. Emile Haag, Paris:

 

Joel Cherbuliez, first edition, 1885, page 308): "Few names

have been more often altered than his, one finds it written

 

1George Becker, "Goudimel et son Oeuvre," Bulletin
de la Société de l'Histoire du Protestantisme Francais, XXXIV,
(1885), p. 338.

 

 

2Becker, loc. cit.

3Eleanor Lawry, "The Psalm Motets of Claude Goudimel",
New York, New York University, 1954, diss., p. S.

30

Gaudimel, Gaudinel, Guidomel, Goudmel, Gudmel, Godmel,
Godimel and even Gaudiomel, or Gaudio Mell.” To this list,
Michel Brenet? who was perhaps first to ascertain the

family's involvement in baking (des metiers de boulanger

 

et de fournier), adds the additional, somewhat more Gallic,
variants: Godymel, Godimet, Jodimel, Jodymel, Jodrymel,
and Jodimey.

But it is the final variant of the older list--
Gaudio Mell-which proves the most interesting because it is
directly involved with the Rome/Palestrina controversy. This
scholastic brouhaha was partially an attempt to account for
that lacuna between Goudimel's suggested birthdate and the
next available date in his life, 1549, when some of his
chansons appeared in a collection published by du Chemin of
Paris.5

The controversy resulted from the discovery of two
obscure references in two equally obscure sources to one

Gaudio Mell. Since the myth, from its origin to its most

 

carefully reasoned conclusion, is best presented in the still
excellent, though dated, work of Brenet, it is this author's
‘work which will be cited in the following resumé of the

situation.

 

4Michel Brenet, Claude Goudimel (Annales franc-
cxnntoises), Besancon, 1898, p.47.

 

 

5Becker, op. cit., p. 349.

31

The first source appeared in 1684, one hundred twelve
years after Goudimel's death (1572), seventy years after
that of Palestrina (1614). The author was one Antimo
Liberati, organist and composer of the Roman school. In a
short historical exposé he attempted to present an artistic
genealogy of the masters of religious music. Relating to
Palestrina's education, he noted that among the many foreign
masters who founded the musical schools in Italy and Rome
was one Gaudio Mell, a Fleming of great talent and a
pleasing and cultivated style, who founded at Rome a noble
and excellent school of music, from which flowed many
virtuous streams; but the principal and superior torrent,
who absorbed and surpassed all the others was Giovanni
Pierluigi da Palestrina.6

Naturally eighteenth century writers wished to deter-
mine the exact identity of this Gaudio Mell. A Rinaldo de
Mell was first proposed; then his name was replaced by that
of Goudimel, which name, it must be remembered, occurred in

many variant spellings.

 

6The original source, quoted and translated into
French by Brenet, is: Lettera scritta del sig. Antimo
Liberati in riposta ad una del sig. Ovidio Persapeggi,
etc. Roma, 1685, in 63 pages. The letter is dated from
1684. An example of this rare small volume can be
finand in the library of the Paris Conservatory.

 

32

The musical historian Baini,7 then preparing a large
monograph on Palestrina, accepted this interpretation without
question as it did propose to offer more information on his
man. Now the myth had authority and the smell of authenticity
behind it. More musicians were added to Palestrina's musical
family tree, and Goudimel became the founder of a Roman
school. The fact that many of his students were older than
he (Animuccia) or were scarcely born at the time of his
supposed sojourn in Rome (Alessandro della Viola and Giovanni
Maria Nanino) did not seem to disconcert the deluded.

Orentin Douen, the pastor famous for his large work on Clément
Marot and the Huguenot Psalter, added Lassus to the list of
Goudimel's pupils and continued with incredible assertions
about Goudimel's clerical school being sanctioned by Pope

Paul III and establishing various precedents in the politics
of the Vatican.8

Returning to the test as interpreted by Baini, recent
research has revealed so many errors in his method of working
that little credence is now given to these suppositions. And
although further research into the original Liberati text has

proved futile, if Goudimel had held at Rome so high a rank

 

7This great early work of Baini, Memorie storico-
ggitiche della vita e delle opere di G. Pierluigi da
Egdestrina, was published at Rome in 1828, in two volumes.

 

8Orentin Douen, Clement Marot et Le Psautier Huguenot,
Paris, L'Imprimerie Nationale, 1879, II, p. 23.

33

as is imagined, it seems certain that the numerous and well
informed Italian musical writers of the sixteenth and seven-
teenth centuries would not have omitted his name, his music,
or his teachings from their many volumes of contemporary

observations.

The existence at Rome of some of Goudimel's manuscripts
was also indicated by Baini; but their precise location was
not specified. Neither was their number or nature, nor any
indication whether these pieces were unedited or printed.
Nothing of Goudimel appears in the collectiOns of the
pontifical chapel of which the catalogue has been published.9

Since the Missa brevis of Palestrina is constructed

 

on some of the same themes as those of Goudimel's mass,

Audi filia, many writers have tried to perpetuate the story

 

that the latterwas instructor of the former. They fail to
note that this practice of using other composers' themes was
in common usage among sixteenth century composers, including
Palestrina. Goudimel's mass was printed in Paris in 1558,
along with a piece by one Jean Maillard called Je suis

déshéritée. Both compositions were used by Palestrina in

 

his Missa brevis and in his Missa sine nomine, which

 

 

appeared together in 1570. One can conclude that Palestrina
knew from printed copies the two French pieces which he

saw fit to use as bases for his own compositions.

 

9Haberl, Bausteine fur Musikgeschichte, II, Leipzig,

 

1888.

34

In addition to the Liberati manuscript cited by

Baini, another reference to Goudimel by one Ottavio Pitoni,
a contemporary of Liberati, is handled so cavalierly by
Baini that more serious doubt is cast on his scholarly
abilities. In 1677 Pitoni became master of the chapel of
Saint Mark in Rome. Liberati, whose birthdate and death-
date are unknown, had been living in Rome since 1661, when
he entered the pontifical chapel. For some time after that
date the two were Roman contemporaries. Pitoni died in

1743. -

Pitoni consigned his research to the composers living
between 1500 and 1700. Baini, who drew largely on Pitoni's
work, made no mention of the latter's article on Goudimel,
which opposed his hypothesis by creating a contradiction
between the known facts of Goudimel's life and the date of
his death. A copy of Pitoni's work was found among the papers
of one Adrien de la Page, a French writer, who brought it back
from Italy among his literary explorations. It now resides

in the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris. Under the heading,

 

Claudio Goudimel Vesontino, is found a short, purely biblio-
graphical reference indicating that Pitoni knew neither that
Goudimel lived in France nor that he died in 1572. There is
no allusion to a Gaudio Mell.

Under the heading, Gaudio Mell, however, the following

 

is entered:

35

Gaudio Mell or Claudio Mell, Fleming, founded
at Rome a noble and excellent school of music from
which came many illustrious professors, among whom
was Gio. Pierluigi da Palestrina, he left Rome and
became chapelmaster to the king of Portugal; from
which, through curiosity, he returned to Rome in
1580 to see Palestrina, and while he was chagrined
at not being able to see him, he eventually recovered
from it. This is what Antimo Liberati reports in his
letter to Persapeggi, folio 22. If could be that this
is the Goudimel already mentioned. 0

Pitoni only borrowed the first part of Liberati's
account; the pages of Liberati make mention of the career of

Gaudio Mell after his professorship, and this is why Baini
preferred to stick with Liberati's text without citing that
of Pitoni.
Another volume of the papers of La Fage contains a
brief version of the same account:
Glaudio or Gaudio Mell, Fleming, after having
founded at Rome a good school of music, became a
"master" in Portugal, from which he returned in

order to be consoled by the sight pf his pupil
Palestrina in 1580, so it is said.

This latter quotation was, according to La Page, in
the autograph of Janacconi, Baini's teacher; and it is from
Baini that La Page received the text in question.

These accounts of Pitoni and Janacconi do not conflict.
The problem lies in Baini's confusing Gaudio Mell, said to
have lived in Portugal until 1580, with Goudimel, whose con-
tinual residence in France from 1549 until his death in 1572

has been fully established. Although the existence and merit

 

10Brenet, op. cit., p. 11. (Translation mine, 8.0.)

11;p;g., p. 12. (Translation, S.O.)

36

of the royal chapel at Lisbon, Portugal have been attested to
since the fifteenth century, the historians of that country
have not yet given out a complete chronological list of the
masters of that chapel. Thus Gaudio Mell remains more
obscure than Goudimel--a name in Italian notebooks, but not

yet an historical personage in his adOpted country.

The second major document upon which this controversy
hangs dates from 1546, but was discovered much more recently
than the research of Baini. It is not concerned With
Goudimel's supposed role as teacher of Palestrina, but is
offered to attest his presence in the Eternal City at a
determined date.

In 1546 the Netherlandish musician Adrien Petit,
called Coclicus, pursuing a musical chair at the University
of Wittenberg, presented his petition to the Price Elector
of Saxony. Ernest Pasque, who discovered this manuscript,
published it not in the original Latin but in a German
translation; and he was reluctant to disclose its archival
origin.12 His German version shows Petit soliciting the
good graces of a Lutheran prince, proving his artistic merit
and Protestant zeal. He continues, saying that in 1534
.Alexandre Farnese, becoming Pope under the name of Paul III,

and wishing to surround himself with artists, engaged him

 

12Brenet, op. cit., p. 12. The second footnote
indicates that Pasque's translation was published in the
jNiederrheinische Musik—zeitung, 1861, #3.

37

(Petit) as chanteur in his chapel. Petit so distinguished
himself by his talents, along with his celebrated compatriots
Goudimel and Constanzo Festa, that the Pope favored him by
appointing him his confessor and giving him the bishopric of
Duiatum, near Rome, among other gifts of gratitude. But
because of his affluence, he made many enemies who denounced
his Lutheran opinions. He was arrested, imprisoned in the
famous fortress of Sant' Angelo, judged by the Pope himself,
dispossessed of his personal goods and condemned to perpetual
imprisonment. Fortunately, a bishop Lodi, who admired his
talents, obtained his pardon and procured the means for his
leaving Rome.

Another letter of Petit, which does not refer to
Goudimel, makes mention of dealings with the kings of France
(Francis I) and England (Henry VIII).13

The stories of Petit are almost too colorful to be
believed. The name Duiatum does not resemble any known area
near Rome. Neither Petit nor Goudimel is included in the
published lists of the chapel of Paul 111. Nor is there any
mention of the name Petit or Coclicus among the musicians

surrounding Francis 1.

 

13This letter was published by Otto Kade in
Mgnatshefte ffir Musikggschichte, XXIX, 1897, pp. lOff.
Also included is a biography of Petit.

 

38

In 1552 Petit's long list of musicians, Compendium

 

musices, appeared.14 Neither of the names Goudimel nor
Festa was included. This was only six years after Petit
had indicated their supposed relationships under Pope Paul
III.

It seems most reasonable to say that, from lack of
specific evidence, it is unlikely that Goudimel ever visited
Rome, and even more doubtful that he established a music

school there and became the master of Palestrina.

Because the composer Goudimel is already an obscure
personage, it may seem unnecessary to pursue the unproved,
even more obscure, controversies and "legendary" aspects of
his life. Even though the myths promulgated, especially by
Douen, were long held as fact, the conclusions of Brenet are
now generally accepted. As late as 1946, however, Robert
Jaques,15 who had not availed himself of Brenet's research,
attempted to revive the stories of Goudimel's Roman excur-
sion. His discussion is unconvincing; but that such an
attempt was made is curious and deserves some attention to

those authors who were most active in propagating the legend.

14Copies of this rare document, according to Brenet,
p. 14, can be found in the Mazarine library and the library
of Bordeaux.

15Robert Jaques, "The Contribution of Claude Goudimel
to Church Music,” New York, Union Theological Seminary, 1946.

39

Though it is impossible to point to a common denominator
among them, it is interesting to note that they were all
Protestant; and their arguments are all subtly interlaced
with a definite need to have Goudimel, the Calvinist, be
master of Palestrina, the ostensibly Roman Catholic. Such
biases can lead to absurd logic, as in Douen, and often result
in misperceptions as to the importance of the influence of
Calvinism on musical history. Because Calvin stressed the
underscoring of the word with the simplest unaccompanied
musical line, some have placed him in the grand-parentage of
the oratorio. Perhaps because of its secular associations,
opera is carefully excluded from his ultimate progeny.
Remembering the concurrent developments of opera and ‘
oratorio in Italy late in the sixteenth century and the
simultaneous developments in France of sacred and secular
monody, it is more nearly correct to assume that Calvin--
the Humanist scholar-~was simply in tune with the spirit of
the times. The monodic presentation of the musically
heightened word--whether the French vernacular versions of
the ancient Hebrew psalms or the Italian vernacular versions
of the ancient Greek plays--was gradually replacing the usage
of many interwoven voices. The music of Goudimel and his
contemporaries ranges from the elaborate polyphonic mass,
motet, and chanson to the simple solo song with lute accom-
paniment and homophonic dances. While Goudimel's music does

not cover this entire gamut, it does arise from the radically

4O

changing and diverse milieu in which these forms of expres-
sion were employed: the Roman Catholic Church (Masses,
Magnificats, and Motets), secular diversion of an occasional
nature (chansons), private devotion among members of the
Reformed (Calvinistic) Churches (homophonic psalm settings,
melodic psalm settings), and, possibly, sacred occasions in
the Reformed Churches (Psalm-motets). Usages in the regular
public worship of the Reformed Churches are speculative;
there was apparently much practical diversity from place to
place. The appearance, in 1549, of some of Goudimel's four-
part chansons establishes the first known and provable fact
of his existence as a composer. And it is to his remaining
productive years, so far uncolored by myth and too much

speculation, that more attention must be given.

Though it is impossible to separate the man from
his music--it is mainly from publication dates and prefaces
to his works that the scant facts of Goudimel's life have
been culled--for the sake of clarity, the few known remaining
facts of the composer's life will be presented before the
writings and music are treated in more detail.

Between 1549 and 1552 a total of twenty-nine chansons
by Goudimel appeared in company with those of other composers

16

in several volumes published by Duchemin of Paris. It is

assumed that Paris was Goudimel's residence at that time. He

 

16Brenet, op. cit., pp. 14-15.

41

was employed by Duchemin as proofreader (correcteur) and

 

editor; during this association his works were brought out
by that publisher. In 1551 the first book of psalm-motets
appeared.17 The preface to this first selection of psalms
is of extreme interest and will be presented later, when the
composer's work is evaluated. It must be noted now, however,
that secular chansons and other "Catholic" pieces appeared
periodically almost to the end of Goudimel's life. His
preoccupation with Genevan psalmody, which began as early as
1551 or before, when Calvin's Psalter was as yet incomplete,
appears to have been interrupted occasionally by what some
would call "reversions" to an earlier type. But order of
publication, while important, cannot be taken as an infallible
record of a composer's artistic or spiritual development.
Perhaps Goudimel's greatest period of activity was
between the years 1551 and 1558. He produced such hetero-

geneous works as the Amours and Odes d'Horace of Ronsard,

 

the great contemporary French poet; chansons spriituelles

 

on the words of Muret, Magnificats, Masses, chansons, motets,
and his first psalm settings. The date of Goudimel's conver-

sion to Calvinism is presumed to be between 1558 and 1561.

 

17Although Douen places the first psalm settings in
1562 and Becker 1D 1555, Brenet, researching the records of
Duchemin, has discovered the date to be 1551. The remaining
facts of Goudimel's life, unless otherwise noted, are also
derived from Brenet, whose work supersedes the above two
authors and has not been surpassed in this century except for
some smaller discoveries by Pidoux and Lesure.

42

But this date, unfortunately, was arrived at by the same
semi-trustworthy chronological speculation previously noted.
His last published masses appeared in 1558; the real pre-
occupation with the psalms began in 1561. While remembering
that his first psalm-settings appeared in 1551, it must also
be noted that the Genevan tunes were rapidly becoming common
property among Protestants and Roman Catholics alike. But
the exact date of Goudimel's conversion is of little impor-
tance when one considers its staying power. As will be seen,
it was more than a preoccupation with the usable tunes of the
Genevan Psalter. Outside of his affecting prefaces to some
of the psalm settings, a few incidental episodes bear on the
seriousness of his religious convictions.

An interesting pre-conversion incident, illustrating
more fully the force of his change, is related by one Auguste
Castan.18 In 1554, in the course of a criminal process
begun against a musician named Claude Boni, one Francois
Bonvalot, administrator of the archbishop's residence at
Besancon and a declared enemy of the Reformation, addressed
himself in a letter to Goudimel, asking him to gather, at
Paris, accounts of the legal antecedents of that individual.
Presumably, Goudimel, since he had the confidential respect

of Bonvalot, was also not in sympathy with the Reformation.

18Cited by Brenet, page 20, footnote #1, Auguste
Castan, "Une date de la vie de Claude Goudimel,” in the
Mem. de la Soc. d'emul. du Doubs, 1875, p. 522ff.

43

Since the name Goudimel no longer appeared on the
title pages of Duchemin's editions after 1556, it is assumed
that the association of the two men dissolved at about that
time. Lesure,19 who located the most recent document of the
composer, not only brought more light on Goudimel's years as
editor, but offered a reference to the liquidation of his
contract.20

Goudimel, here spelled Godimel, is described as

”musician, student at the University of Paris, proofreader

(correcteur), at present living at the home of Nicolas du

 

Chemyn, book merchant (marchant libraire), printer,

 

bourgeois de Paris, living on the rue Sainct Jehan de Latran,"

 

 

etc. The notice, dated 17 August 1555, centers on the dis-
solution of a contract which fixes the conditions of their
collaboration. This contract has not been located; Lesure
suggests that it would be dated 1548, as Goudimel's music
edited by Duchemin, began to appear regularly from the
beginning of 1549. Both Brenet and Lesure, assuming for lack
of evidence that Goudimel was neither employed by the king nor
any religious community, conclude that, since he must somehow

eke out a living, he chose this position as correcteur.

 

 

19Francois Lesure, ”Claude Goudimel, étudiant
correcteur et €diteur parisien," Musica Disciplina, II,
1948, pp. 225-230.

20Cited in Lesure, op. cit., p. 227, footnote #5,
Paris, Archives Nationales, Minutier Central, LXXIII, 21.

 

 

44

Lesure also mentions the clarity of his texts and the fas-
tidiousness which attended their redaction. It seems
correct to assume that Goudimel, living with Duchemin,

bourgeois de Paris, found his work rewarding, and that the

 

spirit of the Calvinistic work ethic, becoming so influential
in mid-sixteenth century society, already prevailed in his
method. For reasons still obscure, the partnership dissolved
sometime between 1555 and 1556.

The dedication of his third book of psalm-motets,
20 June 1557, indicates that Goudimel now lived in Metz.
Reasons for his removal from Paris are unknown. The dedica-
tions to his first and second complete psalter settings,
1564 and 1565, also confirm his residence in that city. One
of the few extra-musical references to his life describes an
incident of 18 March 1565, in which Goudimel became the
godfather (parrain) of a child at the Reformed Church of
Metz. The godmother was one Catherine Senneton, daughter
of Antoine Senneton, president of justice of Metz, to whom
Goudimel dedicated his seventh book of psalm-motets. It
was during his stay at Metz that the composer devoted his
full attention to the Genevan tunes, continuing to produce
his psalm-motets as well as the two different versions of
the complete collection of all 150 psalms.

It is not known when Goudimel left Metz. The con-

jectures of Brenet involve the composer's relationship with

45

21 The first of

the poet Paul Schede, known as Melissus.
two letters (which will be cited later) from the composer to
the poet, dated 1570, bears no indication of locale. The
second, dated 23 August 1572, was sent from Lyons. It has
been generally assumed that Goudimel spent at least the last
several years of his life at Lyons. Though he lived in the
vicinity of Geneva, there is no evidence that he ever

visited Calvin's "City of God”.

The obscurity of Goudimel's life lies in such stark
contrast to his violent death that it is this latter fact
alone that remains in the memories of some musical historians.
That he was murdered on 28 August 1572, as a result of a
presumably religio-political conflict in the city of Lyons
has been attested to by many contemporaries. The infamous
massacre of Huguenots at Paris on Saint Bartholomew's Day
(24 August 1572) has been recounted in most standard histor—
ical works. It has been suggested, however, that the con-
flict at Lyons may not have been a direct result of the

22

Parisian melée of four days previous. Regardless of the

 

21The best sources of information on the poet
Melissus are: Allegemeine Deutsche Biographie, XXI, (1885),
p. 293 ff.; Melissis Schedlasmata poetica, Frankfurt, 1574;
and Melissis Sohediasmata reliquiae, Frankfurt, 1575. The
latter two contain the poet's works; the last, his pieces
addressed to Goudimel, Lassus, Muret, Baif, Ronsard and
others .

 

 

 

22M.1e pasteur Puyroche, "La Saint- Barthelemy
21 Lyon", Bulletin de la Societe de L'Histoire du Protes-
‘tantisme Francais, XVIII, 1869, pp. 305, 353, 401.

 

46

various causes, Goudimel perished. That he was well-known

is indicated by a surprisingly large number of eulogies.23

The first notice of his death appeared in a pamphlet

by one Jean Ricaud, one of three Protestant ministers living
in Lyons in 1572.24 The passage concerning Goudimel's

death has been quoted by Douen, Brenet, Becker, and other
musicologists:

Goudimel, excellent musician, and the memory
of whom will be perpetual for having happily worked
(on) the psalms of David in French, the greater
part of which he has set to music in the form of
motets in four, five, six and eight parts, and were
it not for his death would soon have completed the
work. But the enemies of the glory of God, and
some evil persons, envious of the honor which'this
person had acquired, have deprived thosS who love
(a) Christian music of so good a thing. 5

The ingenuousness of this statement speaks almost
more eloquently than those more sophisticated eulogies in
the form of poems. Some of the latter, however, give more
graphic accounts, whether truthful or imagined, of the
composer's death. In the collected works of Melissus

(Melissis Schediasmata reliquiae, Frankfurt, 1575) are

 

included seven brief epitaphs by various authors. Of

 

23All eulogies and their sources, with some French
translations, are cited in Brenet, op. cit., p. 28, footnotes
1-3, p. 29, footnote 1. Becker, op. c1t., includes four
eulogies, pp. 345-347.

24Brenet, o . cit., p. 27, footnotes 2 and 3. The
author cites the original source and the documents in which
the final establishment of its authorship are to be found.

ZSBrenet, p. 27.

47

the two Latin pieces by Melissus himself, the fourth verse
of one reads:

Goudimel ille meus, meus (eheu!) Goudimel ille est
Occisus. Testes vos Arar et Rhodane

Semineces vivosque, simul violenter utrisque
Absorptos visi plangere gurgitibus.26

And he, my Goudimel, alasl, is dead;
Your rivers saw it happen, Sa6ne and Rhone;
You saw how those half-dead and those who lived
Shook when they found themselves pitched in your depths.

(after the French of M. Brenet)
From the same volume, a Latin verse by one J. Posthuis
begins thus:
Qui cygnos dulci superabat et Orphea cantu
Claudius, Eois notus et Hesperiis,
Heu facinus! praceceps Araris turbatus in undas
Insontem medio liquit in amne animam. .
He who surpassed the songs
of Orpheus and the swans,
Claude, celebrated in the East and West,
(0 grievous crime!) was thrown
Into the rushing Sa6ne,
Giving his warm soul to her waves' cold test.
(after the French of M. Brenet)
These passages indicate that Goudimel may not yet
have been dead when he was thrown into the river. A most
affecting eulogy, in the form of a sonnet, was offered in
sympathy to Melissus, the composer's friend, by one A. Du
Cros:
Pourquoi t'ebahis-tu, que malheureusement
On ait a Goudimel ainsi ravi la vie

Veu que de nuire a nul il n'eut jamais envie
Honoraut la vertu, cheminant rondement.

 

26Brenet, loc. cit., p. 27.

27Brenet, op. cit., p. 28.

48

Pourquoi demandes-tu, si c'est 1e payement
De ses divins labeurs pour l'ingrate patrie?
Oste de ton esprit, Melisse, je te prie,
Et cette question et cet etonnement.
Voudrois-tu de sa mort cause plus suffisante
Que d'avoir ete bon, et de vie innocente?
S'il eust ete athee, idolatre, ou sans foi,
Traitre, meurtrier, parjure abominable;
Alors pourrois-tu bien, au regne ou tu nous voi,28
Trouver cette mort rare, et fort esmerveillable.

Why are you wondering how unhappily
Our Goudimel has thus been reft of life;
wishing no harm to anyone, nor strife;
honoring virtue, rounding out his way?

Why are you asking: Is this proper pay
for his divine career? His country's grief
is but ingratitude. Your disbelief, '
Melissus, must be shed entirely.

Would you believe death could sufficiently
atone for suffering life so innocently?

If he had been a traitor to his cause,
idolator, murderer, seamy or scurillous,--
But you well know: in following God's laws
he found his death rare, strong, and marvellous.

Another sonnet-epitaph, simply signed ”R. E. P.,"

is found in a collection, La Fleur des Chansons, containing

 

music by Lassus and Goudimel. It appeared in 1574:

Sous 1e penible faix de ce poudreux tombeau,
Du mielleux Goudimel la cendre se repose,
Surmonte par la mort qui domte toute chose,
Mais non ce qui estoit d'iceluy le plus beau:
Car son esprit gentil, qui luit comme un flambeau
Par tout cest univers, pour la douceur enclose ..
Dans ses tons musicaux, par cil qui tout dispose,
Est ores iouissant d'un repos tout nouveau.
Et comme, estant icy, d'une douce musique
Il louangeoit son Dieu, mariant maint cantique
Du Roy-prophete hebreu a ses plaisants accords,
Ainsi estant aux cieux avec ioye et liesse,
I1 rend graces a Dieu pour ce que de largesse29
Il l'a faict iouissant des celestes thresors.

 

28Becker, op.cit ., p. 346.

29Douen II, pp. 35-36.

49

Under the burden of this dusty stone,
Great Goudimel in ashes now is lying,
Conquered by death as all things, but not dying
From those bright deeds for which he is well known;
His gentle spirit like a flame was shown
Through all the world for all the sweetness lying
Within his music, phrase to phrase replying,
Exultant in an newly turning tone,
And as, when he was here, with music sweet
He would praise God, his moving tones would meet
The words of David--Hebrew prophet-king;
So, being now in Heaven with joy and mirth,
Returning thanks to God, chanting His worth,
He glories in those treasures he would sing.

The most sophisticated of all memorials, also a
sonnet, follows the acrostic principle: each line begins
with a letter from Goudimel's name in toto, a fortuitous
fourteen. It is signed S. G. S., and is usually ascribed

on one Simon Goulart, Senlisien.

 

Combien est l'homme heureux qui perdant cette vie,
La trouve dans les cieus' Combien doit s 'esjouir
A qui Christ avec soi donne pour en jouir
Une vie tirant une gloire infinie.

Ue ce monde la rage et fureur ennemie
Envahit meschanment (o triste souvenir)

Goudimel le divin qui nous faisait ouir
Odes du grand David en celeste harmonie.

Vi, maugre 1e gosier venimeux et cruel
Du Lyon infernal, saint chantre Goudimel
Je te voy maintenant dans l'angelique bande

Mariant a la voix les louanges de Dieu.

Entre les bons tu vis en ce tenebreux lieu 3O
Ueur laissant a jamais tes Psalmes pour offrande;

Called from this life, how happy is this man

_ Lifted to Heaven. How right he should rejoice
fit what his Christ has given. His new-found voice
Utters of life more than a mortal can

Uescribe. The rage and furor, while they ran,
Engaged the world in travesty of Grace.
Goudimel, now most blessed, your singing race
Urdained the songs of Zion sweeter than

 

30Becker, 0 . cit., p. 347.

50

Ultimate David did himself. Your psalms
Dispell your dying, Lyon's hell, the qualms
:hferred and felt, the horror of the Sa6ne.

Married, the voice and verbiage of our Lord
Ulect to tell His praise. Your felling sword
Ueft nothing to assauge the swirling Rhone.

The Few Writings

It is unfortunate that Oliver Strunk, in his excellent
compilation, Source Readings in Music History (W. W. Norton,
New York; 1950), includes only Goudimel's brief preface to
the 1565 settings of the Genevan Psalter. This inclusion
follows the justly famous preface of Calvin to the still
unfinished Psalter of 1543 and in some ways seems to trace
at least one of the tenets of Calvin to its practical con-
clusion: the careful exhortation to use "this little book"
only at home, as harmony at church is not to be recommended.
Virtually nothing of the composer's personality shines
through this apologetic note. For this, it is necessary
to turn to his previously published collections, the psalm-
motets, two of which bear lengthy dedications. In addition
to these three complete prefaces and several dedicatory odes,
there remain the two late letters to Melissus. Not sufficient
iperhaps for a thorough investigation into Goudimel's artistic
and spiritual make-up, this small handful of manuscripts, all
that has been discovered of the composer's literary effort,
are revealing enough to offer a few interesting insights

intc>his particular milieu.

51

The preface to the first book of psalm-motets reveals
that as early as 1551, the same year that an important but
incomplete version of the Genevan Psalter appeared, Goudimel
had already been serously impressed by the Calvinistic
movement:

To the very noble and very eminent person,

Your Grace, Jean.Brinon, lord of Villaines and
adviser to the King in his Parliament at Paris,
Claude Goudimel begs humble greeting. The
divine Plato wrote among other things (very illustrious
Senator) that there was among men nothing more
deceiving, nor which induced humans to error, than
the seeming sanctity, and false similitude to think
true and good, of which it has happened that formerly
so many liberal sciences, curiously bound, and
divinely inspired under the shadow and color of good,
have been corrupted and put to bad use, as it
clearly appears to us from painters, poets, and others
who up to the present have been more occupied with
lascivious, disorderly, lewd, and damnable works than
with using their intellect to exalt and glorify the
name of the Almighty who has wished all sciences to
be known to man, for the contemplation of his high
and divine majesty. What should I say of the very
noble and excellent science of Music? That Strabo in
the tenth book of his Geography by the evidence of
pythagorics calls philosophy; and for all that (O
offense deplorable) we see it today so depraved and
disguised by lascivious, coarse, and immodest chansons
that many good souls are entirely corrupted and
enervated. I do not wish on that accOunt to accuse

. those who (rejecting all lewd uncleanliness) are
engaged in composing motets, psalms, and sacred and
faithful songs: in the imitation of which (my highly
honored lord) inspired by a good will and Christian
affection, I set about publishing the praises of the
Creator. And knowing for a long time that in you,
possessed of the spirit of God, all particular
virtues and refined sciences appear as a miracle and
are by you divinely sustained and humanely nurtured,
and that among all the arts Music by means of you, and
support of your noble birth, has been more renowned
in this country of France than it ever has been before:
I have had the boldness to offer to you and dedicate
this my humble labor, not knowing to whom more worthy
I could dedicate*it, nor who by the multitude of his

52

favors and kindnesses has obligated me more than you;
under the name of whom my present work stands assured
from the sting of slanderers and envious ones, and
received by the good and virtuous. Begging you to
receive and to regard it worthy of your lordship.
From Paris this sixth day of August 1551.31
(translated, E. Lawry) ‘
After the traditionally formal greeting, Goudimel pro-
gresses to an extremely overwrought and pregnant sentence
which, except for its complicated structure, could have been
written by Calvin. The initial reference to "divine Plato"
and the tortuously reasoned condemnation of artistic decadence
are built upon the puritanical presuppositions of the reformer.
Whether it was the works of Calvin or of one or other contem-
porary religious leaders that influenced Goudimel's conviction
is open to question. That he was a conscientious and
Chighly intelligent student who was at one time completely
converted to the reforming spirit has been established;
but his individual instructors and mentors are not known.
It can only be assumed that the Calvinistic attitudes and
dicta had already infiltrated and become established in the
areas of Goudimel's intellectural maturation. Though his
references to Plato, Strabo, and the Almighty seem to bespeak
an erudition approaching the formidable, his ideas cannot
be construed as entirely original. When he puts forth the

basic question, "What should I say of the very noble and

‘excellent science of Music?,” he consigns it immediately to

 

31Eleanor Lawry, "The Psalm Motets of Claude Goudimel",
New York: New York University Press, 1954, p. 8.

S3

philosophy and lapses into the recurrent and obsessive
tirade against corruption in art, specifically in music,
i.e., the abundance of "lascivious, coarse, and immodest
chansons". Against this ill-defined and over-felt
decadence he places the Almighty, "who has wished all
sciences to be known to man, for the contemplation of his
high and divine majesty". While the Calvinistic concept of
the sovereignty of God is evident here, the adjective divine
loses power as it was also used to define Plato. His invo-
cation of the Platonic spirit derives from Calvin and
ultimately from Augustine.

It is not clear what musical forms were being referred
to when the composer lists "motets, psalms, and sacred and
faithful songs”. While the first two categories are generally
understood in their sixteenth century context, "sacred and
faithful songs" seems to cover all unclassified pieces of
religious musical literature. Nevertheless, the word
"faithful” received especial significance during the
Reformation; and compositions such as those to which Goudimel
referred, and which he intended to imitate, would‘almost cer-
tainly be associated with Protestant worship, either public
or private.

There is little else of the personal in this dedi-
cation--simply the whirlwind of obsequious rhetoric in which
these things were customarily enveloped. In his dedication

to Book III of the psalm-motets, however, the composer

54

exchanges some of this dreadful artificiality for the tone
of a more amiable puritan:

To Monsieur de La Bloctiere, M. Claude Belot,
from Anjou, lawyer in the court of Parliament of
Paris. C. Goudimel, his good friend wishes salu-
tation. Sir, in order to assure you of the good
wish that I have always had not to bury by ingrati-
tude the debt which obliges me by the friendship
that’your kind favor brings me, I know of no better
way nor more suitable to your particular favor and
reverence towards letters and the Muses, than to
present to you this, my third book of Music to the
divine verses of the divine and royal Prophet. Also
I could in no wise choose the man who seemed to me
should favor this, my humble work, with better
heart than you, who along have amiably constrained
me t0‘change, even to lay aside the secular lyre
of the secular poet Horace, in order to take in hand
and boldly undertake to touch and handle the sacred
harp of our great David. O greatly desirable
exchange! here I could only sing a song ill suited,
rude, and discordant, unworth certainly of a true
Christian; here, now besides I hear a Calliope
harmonious, sweet, and consummate in its perfection
of Music for my instruction and consolation. Pray
now, Sir, and good friend, recognize for your own
what had already been half yours before and receive
it with as good countenance and good will as it is
addressed to you by one who prays all powerful God,
author and distributor of all good things, to
magnify your spirit from day to day in the perfec-
tion of true and divine harmSny. From Metz, this
twentieth day of June 1557.3

(translated, E. Lawry)

In his reference to "the secular lyre of the secular
poet Horace", Goudimel betrays some guilt at not having
spent more time in the setting of sacred texts. His musical
setting of the Odes of Horace appeared in 1555. His return
to the psalms--"O greatly desirable exchange!“-- is accom-

panied by the ever petulant denigration of things merely

 

32Lawry, op. cit., p. 9.

55

secular, not necessarily lewd or lascivious. If Plato were
"divine" Horace certainly is not so; his words, to Goudimel,
are "ill suited, discordant, unworthy certainly of a true
Christian". Could we possibly assume that he was rationa-
lizing some difficulty in setting these words? In the words
of David, however, he hears "a Calliope harmonious, sweet,
and consummate in its perfection of Music, for my instruction
and consolation”. The classical reference to the Muse as
metaphor for ”divine" David's art is apparently not incon-
sistent with the composer's convictions. More notable, but
perhaps more subtle, is the phrase ”for my instruction and
consolation", typical of the Calvinist's attitude to the
Scriptures.

The concluding sentences constitute what a dedi-
cation should be; they stand in direct contrast to the
fawning conclusion to the dedication of Book I. In a subtly
beautiful insight Goudimel consigns his work to a friend,
asking that he 'recognize for your own what had already been
half yours before . . ." By which, it seems, he regards the
psalms as the common property of Christians and is simply
handing back to a brother believer a copy stamped with an
original musical perspective. This is followed by a virtual
benediction, indicating that the dedicatee is no impersonal
personage but is held in high affection by the author.

1 Less personal and again too verbose is the dedica-

tion to Book IV:

S6

A Monseigneur Monsieur de Senneton, conseiller
du roy en la Court de Parlement a Paris et presi--
dent a Metz.

Sir, knowing with what affection you have received
my first attempt to set the Psalms of David, as much
for the subject which in itself is much recommended
for Christian men, as for the good opinion that you
have of my work, I have just finished another volume
of my projected plan, hoping by this means to please
to a certain extent your wishes and those of my
friends. That which I have done more ardently for
the assurance which I have from you in this work,
has with your grace been approved: persuading my-
self also that the finished and perfected work will
please you, since it is neither fashioned with less
care, nor by any other hand than that which origin-
ally showed it to you. I also hope that you recog-
nize here what great diligence and other grace that
you have already seen in it. Then your humanity,
recognized among all, and the honor and good which
is your singular virtue, the benefit of which I
received from you daily, have constrained me, as
far as I am able, for all other recognition of
such honest friendship which you bear me through
your grace, to bring to light this, my work, under
the favor and tutelage of your name, as a token
of complete good will, with perpetual obligation
to remain forever

your humble and obedient servant

Claude Goudimel33

Book V is dedicated to Francois de Scepaulx, seigneur
de Vieilleville, comte de Duretal et maréchal de France, who
was governor of Metz while Goudimel lived there. Stanzas
four through six concern the composer's religious feelings

and social position:

 

3Francois Lesure, ”Deux 'nouveaux' receuils
-de Psaumes en Forme de Motets de Claude Goudimel, ”Revue
de Musicologie, LIV (1968), pp. 100-101.

 

S7

Je ne veux pourtant que l'on die
Que ma lyre soit engourdie
Tenant 1e mouvoir de mes doys

Je ne veux point qu'une paresse
En si beau sujet soit maitresse
Des humbles soupirs de ma voix

Je veux, quelque tems qui se brasse
Lever les yeux devant la face

Du Seigneur qui me sauvera

Quelques rages, quelques tempestes
Qui puissent menacer nox testes

Ma voix toujours 1e chantera

Puis ayant certain asseurance
De ta faveur qui me dispense
De ne trembler dessous la peur,
J'ay bien ose prendre l'adresse
De presenter a ta hautesse 34
Ce petit trait de mon labeur.

I do not wish for men to say

my lyre and muse have passed away.

My fingers clutch a subtle note

too beautiful for laziness

to master them or be mistress

of that which leaves my humble throat.

I wish, in spite of winds that brace,
to raise my eyes before the face

of Him who saves and keeps me warm.
No matter what the wrath, or rage,

or swirling tempest may presage,

I will still sing above the storm.

Then, being certain in your grace,
under the favor of your face,

not trembling and distraught with fear,
I dare to summon up the nerve

to offer you with simple verve

this little labor I hold dear.

Various fragments and more dedicatory odes appearing
in further collections of Goudimel's psalm-motets can be

cited to indicate the composer's attitude toward his own

 

34Ibid., p. 101.

58

works and toward music in general. From Book VI comes the
couplet:

Le plus fidelle tesmoignage 35
De tous mes labeurs les plus beau.

The most faithful witness
Of all my labors the most beautiful.

And from Book VIII, dedicated to one Anthoine Poart,
Seigneur de Foignon:

Le plus doux travail de ma vie 3
Guidant mon esperance aux cieux.

The sweetest pains-taking of my life
Guiding my hope toward Heaven.

The expressions "faithful witness” and "hOpe toward
Heaven", whether or not they were fresh in Goudimel's time,
have become clichés in fundamentalistic Protestant Christi-
anity-~along with such doctrinal bywords of Calvinism as

Predestination and The Sovereignty of God. Yet in the words

 

 

of this devout sixteenth century composer they retain an
ingenuousness now often lost.

Also from the dedication to Book VIII, the following
lines contain the only reference to the actual performance
of Goudimel's music:

Puis c'est toi qui chante a rechantes
Mes premiers travaux que tu vantes,
Et qui tous s'animent de toy:

Donques que scauroye mieux faire

Que donner ce que je scay plaire
A celuy qui fait cas de moy?37

 

 

35Michel Brenet, Claude Goudimel, Besancon, 1898,
p. 31.

36Loc. cit.

37

Lawry, op. cit., p. 15.

59

Since it is you who sing and sing again

My earliest efforts, those which you are praising,
Giving them all the gladness you contain;

What better trust could occupy my doing

Than to give pleasing gifts and to remain

Dear to the one who cherishes my singing?

How, when, and where this music was actually per-
formed has not been documented; but, as further evidence
that it attained some degree of popularity, Lawry38 cites
the following reprintings: Book I (1551, 1557, 1564), Book
.II (1559, 1566), Book III (1557, 1566), Book IV (1560, 1565),
Book V (1562), Book VI (1565), and Books VII and VIII (1566).

Also from Book VIII, the following lines show the'
influence of the psalms, suggesting that Goudimel was as
interested in the meanings of the words as he was preoccupied
with their musical settings: '

Qui sur tout ne veut qu'on se lasse

De chanter et chanter la grace

Et les louanges de ce Dieu,

Qui, sous 1e vent de sa parolle, 39

Fait trembler l'un et l'autre polle.

Who through all things desires that one allow
Himself to sing, and in his singing show

The grace and praises of this mighty God,

Who, in His words' deep rushing, takes the role
Of one who shakes the earth from pole to pole.

It is not only the many books of psalm-motets that
contain these diverse and sometimes poetic dedications, but

the various other psalm settings are often preceded by odes

 

38Lawry, op. cit., p. 15.

39Orentin Doue, Clement Marot et le Psautier Huguenot,
Paris, L'Imprimerie Nationale, 1879, II, p.30.

 

60

and sonnets also. One, which Douen40 does not identify by
date, begins with both a Sonnet and an ode. They are,-
according to Douen, probably not by the composer but by a

poetic friend of his. But who can say for sure?

SONNET

A Monseigneur Monsieur de'Ausance,
Chevalier de l'ordre et lieutenant general du roy a Metz,
Claude Goudimel.

Si j'avois appris l'art d'un Lysippe ou Apelle,
Pour animer tableaus avecques 1e pinceau,
Ou pour tailler en cuire aveques le cizeau,
D'une scavante main, quelque image imortelle,
Tu recevrois de moi la piece la plus belle
Qui feust en ma boutique, et l'ouvrage plus beau,
Qui sembleroit parler, et qui, franc du tombeau,
Rendroit de tes beaux faits la memoire eternelle.
Mais 1e ciel en naissant ne m'ha donne cest heur
De pouvoir autre don offrir a ta grandeur,
Que cest oeuvre qui prend 1e surnom de la Muse.
Il n'est pas aussi grand comme est la voulonte;
Imite toutefois la divine bonte, 41
Qui le petit present du pauvre ne refuse.

If I have learned the art of Lysippus

Or apelles--to liven up tableaux

Or work in leather like the one who sews

With knowing hands--what image, then, is this
That you receive from me; the finest piece

0f work from my small shop, a song which grows

And seems to, singing, say all that it knows

To bring back memories of your works of peace.
The heavens at my birth have given this‘hour

No better reason than to sing and shower

Your name with greatness. Music for the Muse
Is named--a gift less grand than the good-will

Of Him we imitate, but worthy still:

As a present from the poor He will not refuse.

 

4ODouen, op. cit., II, p. 31.

41Douen, op. cit., II, p. 31.

61

ODE
A mon dict Seigneur d'Ausance

Iadis 1e Royal prophete,
Fameux lyrique poete,
Chanta en langaige hebrieu,
Dessus sa harpe d'ivoire,
Et la grandeur et la glore
Des grand's merveilles de Dieu.

Plus d'une voix prophetique,
Soubs les loix de la musique,
Predict comme le Sauveur
De ce monde viendroit naistre,
Lequel nous feroit congnoistre
Sa bonte et sa grandeur.

Ce sainct don de prophetie
Et ce beau don de poesie,
Qu'il avoit de Createur,
Ioinct a la doulce pratique
,De ce bel art de musique,
C'estoit un rare bon-heur.

C'estoient trois graces ensemble,
Que le ciel bien peu assemble,
Et qui de divinite
Son ame avoient eschauffee,
Plus que la muse d'Orphee,
Eslongne de verite.

De l'une et de l'aultre grace
La France a suyvi la trace,
Restoit la troisieme soeur,
La Fille du ciel, musique,
Que doibt avoir un cantique
Confit en telle douceur.

Le ciel, pour tout heritaige,
M'a donne pour mon partaige
Ceste grace d'entonner
Une voix harmonieuse,

Faisant la harpe fameuse
D'un tel Roy refredonner.

62

Ayant receu faveur telle
De la puissance immortelle,
Que doibz-ie faire, sinon
Le Royal prophete ensuyvre,
Faisant la harpe revivre
Soubz la faveur de ton nom?

Of old a Royal prophet,
A famous lyric poet,
Chanted in ancient Hebrew,
Above his harp of ivory
The grandeur and the glory
Of his God and what He could do.

Then in a voice prophetic,
Within the laws of music,
Prophesied that the Savior
Of the world would come to be
Born, as to have us see
His good-will and his grandeur.

This gift of prophecy
And this gift of poetry,
Received from his Creator,
Joining as heart to heart
With music's careful art,
Gave him much gladness later.

Three graces came together.
(This only heaven could gather.)
And who by holiness
Is warmed within his soul
Becomes more true and whole
Than the muse of Orpheus.

Of one and another grace
France has retained a trace.
From sisters three, the third--
Music, the daughter of heaven--
Remains to sing, and even
To thwart the sweetest bird.

Heaven, for my heritage
Gave me the gift to guage
These graceful notes, to entone
So rich and deep a voice
The Harpist would rejoice
At the harmony alone.

 

42Douen, op. cit., II, p. 31.

63

Having received such grace
How shall I rightly place
The immortal power and fame
Of the Royal prophet's word,
And have the harp record
The favor of your name?

In the sonnet, the poet compares his art to the
painter and the worker in leather, even going so far as

to call his music an item produced in a ShOp (Qui feust

 

en ma boutique, . . .). His concern for craftmanship derives

 

not only from the medieval guild systems, but also from
the new interest in the bourgeois--the middle and working
classes--that flourished in the atmosphere of the Reforma-
tion. This perfectionistic preoccupation with the "made
thing" has been a characteristic of intellectual Calvinists
ever since. The almost servile tone of the author in the
last part owes something to the customary formal dedication,
as previously exemplified, but as much or more to a pre-
vailing Christ-like spirit that sees the human gift of
creativity as an emulation of the divine. And thus this
dedication, couched in the usually more impersonal language
of poetry, transcends in human feeling those earlier prosaic
flatteries.

The ode, however, does not come off so well. It
is too long, and, as it comes on the heels of a sonnet,
redundant and awkward in conceit. The tone is in char-

_ acter, however, and the notion of a pious parody comes

64

through.43 In form though lyric as a popular chanson in
the Villon-Marot tradition, the content concerns the usur-
pation of mythical conceits by those from the Judeo—Christian
tradition. A strange hybrid, it is perhaps more acceptable
to the Roman Catholic attitude than to the newly ”reformed".
David replaces Orpheus, and the here ambiguous Graces, no
longer attending Venus, have converted into a mini-trinitarian
guardian-angel delegation for the divine preservation of a
somewhat sanctimonious art. But through these infelicities
of form shines a familiar spirit of profound piety--a shade
too puritanical, but of irreproachable conviction.

A similar ode, even longer and more disconnected,
precedes the 1580 setting of the psalms, that interesting
compromise between the purely polyphonic style and the

block-like, unadorned version of 1564-5.

ODE

A Monseigneur Monsieur Roger de Bellegarde, gentilhomme
ordinaire de la chambre du roy, Claude Goudimel.

Comme iadis les poetes,
Les Sybilles et Prophetes,
Remplis d'un divin esprit,
Au Dieu des dieux 1e plus sage
Encommencerent l'ouvrage
Qu'ils coucherent par escrit;

 

43H. P. Clive, ”The Calvinist Attitude to Music
and its literary aspects and Sources", Bibliotheque d'Humanisme
et Renaissance--travaux et documents, pp. 302-307. This
excellent essay illustrates the extreme lengths to which some
of Calvin's ideas were pushed. It was assumed that if the
words of a secular chanson were changed, the whole piece,
words and music, would Become ”sacred”. A large body of works,
called ”pious parodies", arose from this tradition.

6S

Ainsi moi, dont 1a poitrine
De meur, s'eschauffe et mutine,
Par mains accords bien reduits,
A toi, qui es L'Accord mem,
Je presente 1e proeme
De l'oeuvre que ie conduis,

Oeuvre porte sur les ailes
Des louanges immortelles
Du Dieu iadis adore
Par 1a troupe fugitive,
Qui vit la deserte rive
Du pays tant desire.

Car, comme la renommee
De la harpe d'Idumee
S'espand dedans l'univers,
D'autant qu'un roy plein de'adresse
A la chorde chanteresse
Daigna manier ses vers;

Ainsi cestr melodie,
Faite beaucoup plus hardie,
Ira suivant pas a pas
De ces louanges sacrees
Les routes plus asseurees
Contre l'oubli du trespas.

Tellement que la noblesse
De ceste antique Deesse,
Iointe a son premier bon-heur,
Au lieu d'amours et de moises,
Dedans les bouches Francoises
A recouvre sa grandeur.

C'est cette sesme noblesse
Pour qui l'on dit qu'en la Grece
D'un seul nom estoient nommez
Les announceurs des presages,
Les Musicients, les sages
Et les poetes estimez.

'Ceste grandeur recouverte
Rendra la ville deserte
Ou regnent les voluptez,
Et la Musique divine
Servira de medecine
A toutes adversitez.

66

Car, comme les Platoniques
Pensent que les Republiques
Et les royaumes terriens
Changent, ainsi que se change
L'entresuitte et le meslange
Des accords musiciens;

Ainsi cest accord celeste,
Qui poursuit et qui deteste
L'empire de Cupidon,

Fera que verrons changee
D'amour la flamme enragee
En un cleste brandon.

Qui est-ce donc qui merite
De ces Accords la conduite,
Sinon un qui soit ne tel
Que la discrete sagesse,
La vaillance et la noblesse,
Doit un iour rendre immortel?

Ce sera toi, Bellegarde,
Que Dieu de son ceil regarde,
Qu'un roy cherit de faveur,
Que toute la France honore,
Que ie prise, et qui encore

- 44
As du tout gaigne mon cueur.

As long ago the poets,
The Sybils and the Prophets,
Filled with a holy fire.

To the God of gods most wise
Began to realize
In words their warm desire;

Thus I, whose heaving breast,
Would let you have the best
Of that which warms my heart
(As does a perfect poem),
Do offer you the proem
Of my imperfect art.

Art carrying on its wings
The praises that it sings
To God forever blessed
By this His faithful flock
Which flees from rock to rock
Within a land distressed.

 

44Douen, op. cit., II, pp. 33-35.

67

For when the mounting fame
Of a harpist with no name
Began to strike the world,
It was a skillful king
Who, knowing how to sing,
Deigned to record each word;

And thus this melody,
Strong as a tune should be,
Shows, step by step through time
The rising route of praise,
The most assured ways
-Against neglectful crime.

Such that the nobleness
Of this antique Goddess
In her first happy state,
Revives the loving chance
Among the tongues of France
To sing back what is great.

And this same nobleness
Is, as they said in Greece,
Named by a single name
By bringers of good news,
Musicians, those who muse,
And poets of good fame.

This grandeur re-revealed
Empties the town and field
Where carnal pleasures reign,
And Music's soothing note
Serves as the antidote
To every wracking pain.

For as the men Platonic
Dream of their states laconic,
And earthly royalties
Change, and in changing, fall;
Music reigns over all
In well-mixed harmonies.

Thus this celestial sound
Which shatters to the ground
The empire of false love,
Reduces it to shame
By true love's raging flame,
Touched from a torch above.

68

Who is it who deserves
This art my music serves,
If not one who so clever,
Considerate, and discreet;
In wisdom so replete
His name should last forever?

It is you, Bellegarde,
Whom God's eye does regard;
Kingly you take your part,
Adored by all of France.
Your honor has by chance
.Completely gained my heart.

Notable in this ode, as well as in the previous, are
references to France. A touching concern for the welfare of
that unhappy country which turned against many of its native
sons can be found in Goudimel's genuine desire for her con-
version, and in his acknowledgement (in the first ode) that
she has retained at least some grace. Whatever this "grace"
may be, it is not too clearly defined in this context. May
it be presumed that the sensitive composer was one of the
first to recognize and note the elegance and grace in artistic
style by which France was already becoming known? But still,
she seemed to lack some transcending salutary "grace", a
kind which would be in keeping with Goudimel's acceptance
of the Calvinistic doctrines. But the composer, ihfhis
poetry (and if it is not his, it nevertheless assumes the
same attitude as his other dedications) does not beg the
question; he simply accepts humbly what he believes to be

true, and expands the Calvinistic aesthetic into practical

considerations beyond the ken of Calvin himself.

69

Also included are intimations of the psalms: stanza

III: ". . . la troupe fugitive,/ Que vit 1a deserte rive/

 

 

Du pays tant desire." And, as Douen4S notes, the end of

 

stanza VIII is reminiscent of Marot's statement about the

Psalter: ”Et la Musique divine/ Servira de medecine/ A

 

 

toutes adVersitez." Marot: "Cest un jardin plein d'herbes

 

et racines,/ Ou de tous maux se trouve medecines." ("It

 

 

is a garden full of herbs and roots,/ Where medecines for
all evils can be found.")

The ancient concept of music as a healing art,
though contradicted by Calvin and perhaps chosen by the poet
only as a happy conceit, appears in stanzas V and the
previously noted stanza VIII. The effect is as a restorer
of national, or at least parochial, morality, rather than

as a physical tonic. This is closer to Calvin's concept

 

 

of music as a funnel of either good or evil words. In stanza
V, the result is ”. . . Contre l'oubli du trespas.” And in
stanza VIII it serves ”. . . A toutes adversitez.” (Marot:
". . . de tous maux . . .")

 

Stanza IX anticipates Dryden in seeming to‘assert
that music will survive the earth's crumbling. But perhaps
too much analysis is not in order for a poem so disjointed

and possibly spurious.

 

Ibid., p. 34, footnote 1.

 

70

The remaining dedicatory piece by Goudimel is that
previously mentioned, short, often quoted introduction to
the 1565 setting of the Psalter:
To Our Readers:
To the melody of the psalms we have, in this little
volume, adapted three parts, not to induce you to
sing them in Church, but that you may rejoice in God,
particularly in your homes. This should not be
found an ill thing, the more so since the melody used
~in Church ii left in its entirety, just as though it
were alone. 6
So terse and tenuous a statement reveals the predi-
cament Goudimel encountered in presenting harmonized versions
of the Genevan tunes. While he is apprehensive about pre-
senting these settings for public worship, he does not hesitate
to offer them for home use. He reasons that since Calvin's
melodic canon is not being violated, his efforts are justified.
Suddenly his restlessness is terminated, leaving the reader
with the impression that he has more to say and that the
initiated must be thoroughly familiar with the reasons for
his particular attitude. But only in placing these uneasy
sentences within the context of the Calvinistic milieu is
their apparent obscurity at least partially clarified.
The two letters written late in Goudimel's life to
1115 poet friend, Melissus, are possibly the most affecting
and personal pieces of the composer's writing. Both concern

his incessant and conscientious application to the setting

of words the poet had given him.

‘_

46Oliver Strunk, Source Readings in Music History,
W. W. Norton, New York, 1950, p. 349.

 

A ’D-S‘.
n.n

A

A

- A

the t
howex

actua

 

 

71

P. Melissus.

I am sending the second part of your poetry,
which I have set to music as time has permitted me.
Accept it in the same good spirit in which it is
offered you. If I had had more time I would have
done it better and sooner. Be assured that in order
to put it in good order I spent the entire day yes-
terday; but it is the nature of mortal men to fool
themselves, especially when they wish to do things
too quickly. If you find mistakes, would you be
kind enough to correct them, for I would sooner show
.my ignorance than lose the respect of a man like you.
Expect from me all that can be asked of a friend.
Give my regards to Truchetus, Comes, and Brunellus.
Goodbye, my Melissus.--Written the last day of
November, lS70.--To you until death.

Claude Goudimel47
The letter is no less personal for being practical;
the tone is warm, the clichés, sincere. The final letter,
however, reveals more of the circumstances of Goudimel's
actual surroundings and mundane concerns.
To Paul Melissus, poet laureate.

I have received both of your letters, most honey-
sweet Melissus, and your Symbolum, the one with your
most distinguised dedication to me; which was exceed-
ingly pleasing because of the very great skill it,
shows. In view of which, since I have not sent an
immediate reply, I wish that you will pardon me; for
I have been distracted with many affairs on account
of property...believe me, which caused me the greatest
annoyance, so that I was compelled to depart for ‘
Besanfion where that person...is living. When I was
broug t thither, possessing a title of restoration,
he refused to listen so that I was reciting to deaf
and dead. I summoned that person to justice; he
appeared; we disputed for a period of two months not
without the utmost disgust. At length with both our
_cases discussed back and forth, sentiment was wide-
spread to his detriment, so that the lawsuit was
terminated; I have assuredly come into possession of

 

47Becker, 0p. cit., p. 344.

72

a solemn pledge. These things completed, I left
Besancon, returning to Lyons. Scarcely getting
sight of the city walls, I contracted a horrid

and dangerous fever; which for the duration of a
month surprisingly distorted and wasted me, so it
was for this reason that I was not able heretofore
to provide your Symbolum with the harmony of music.
But when, God willing, I get up out of bed and
regain strength, I shall certainly take my pen

in hand, and whatever skill the muses bestow upon
me I shall pour forth on it. Farewell, my most
beloved Melissus and, as you are wont, honor my
.affection. Again farewell.

Lyons, August 23, 1572.

C. Goudimel48
(translated, E. Lawry)

How strange, that only one day before the infamous
massacre in Paris, Goudimel, in this interesting letter,
could give no indication of the rumblings which in a few
days would erupt in his own town. From all indication it
can be assumed that he was still severely ill when, a few
days later, he was assassinated. Of course, he had no
way of knowing what terror was about to strike and, indus-
trious as always, having battled for wOrdly property and
physical health, was still planning further musical activity
when the last battle took place. .

As these two letters, collected in the works of
Melissus, are mentioned by most biographers of the composer,
one would assume that the poet's Symbolum, mentioned

specifically in the last letter, would have been investi-

gated, particularly for that "most distinguished dedication”

 

48Lawry, op. cit., p. 12.

73

to Goudimel. But such does not seem to be the case; the
volume, if extant, is either too rare to peruse or, if it
has been checked, the dedication may offer no more insight
into the composer's life.

Possibly more can be gained from the letters them-
selves. Kindness, conscientiousness, and industry seem
to characterize Goudimel throughout these pieces. He trans-
cended major changes in personal conviction, the petty
trials of property ownership, and, possibly, ill health to
devote his life to musical composition. From the last letter,
it can almost be inferred that he had finally "transcended"
his preoccupation with psalm settings. But it is for these
that he is best known; and in addition to his own preferred
judgement on these works, the many reprintings have borne
this out. It is the music, especially the settings of the

Genevan Psalter, which now must be considered.

The Abundant Music

 

The final section of Brenet's work on Goudimel,
containing a catalog of the composer's works, lists sixty-
eight separate entries. Beginning With the first book of
psalm-motets (1549) and concluding with a volume by Lassus
which includes music by others, including Goudimel (1597),
the list contains much music which is now lost. But judging
by what remains, Goudimel must be considered a prolific
composer. The gamut of his works may, for reasons of sim-

plicity, be divided between sacred and secular, Catholic

74

and Protestant; when divided by form there are three main
divisions: Masses and Motets, Chansons and other secular
pieces, and psalm settings.

The sacred-secu1ar division is dependent mainly
on textual differences but also, excepting one psalm setting
(1565), upon a more homophonic style in the latter--some
of the chansons. The Catholic-Protestant division, which
does not coincide with the composer's successive embracings
of these two faiths (he apparently began writing psalm-motets
when he was still within the Mother Church), is dependent
more on textual differences, as the "Protestant” psalm-motet
does not differ greatly in style from the Latin motets and
masses. These traditional Latin texts were felt by Calvin
to be too papistic and incommunicable for use in public
worship; his ”reformed" church must exist solely on a diet
of vernacular psalms. Thus, all the psalm settings are here
considered "Protestant” music. Since it is with Goudimel's
expression of Calvinism that we are mainly concerned, the
Catholic works will not be discussed. But certain interest-
ing points must be brought out concerning the secdlar chansons.

It is interesting that after so severe a condemnation
of the secular chanson in the preface to his first book of
psalm-motets, Goudimel continued to publish many of these
airy numbers. It would appear that either his preface lacks
sincerity or the time and truth of his conversion is indefinite.

The latter is likely true since, except for his growing

75

involvement in setting the psalm tunes, there is not sufficient
evidence to pin-point the exact time of his acceptance of the
Calvinistic ideology. In this respect, his life is similar
to that of Calvin himself. As to the former: the outburst
of formal condemnation of the chanson need not cast doubt
on the composer's sincerity simply because it was followed
by the appearance of more chansons. True, the chanson tra-
dition had degenerated, at least verbally, into the licentious
delectation of the elite. But it does seem that Goudimel
was over-reacting--a prevalent behavioral phenomenon of.this
revolutionary era. While not all his chansons are extant,
those few that remain, judging by their titles only, are
not marked by particularly risque language. Douen49 lists
a number of them, including:

Ne pensez pas vous monstrer cruelle.

Ie sens en moy croistre l'ardant desir.

Si l'ame estoit au corps semblable.

Bon iour, mon coeur, bon ior, ma douce vie.

Vous m'avez promis.

Probably the necessity of supporting oneself through
musical composition dictated the continuing publication of
old and new chansons, as these would presumably be‘the more
marketable until the rage for psalms took over. At any rate,
considering the unsettled personal and political situations

of the time, the composer appears more human for having been

a bit naughty at times.

 

9Orentin Douen, Clement Marot et le Psautier Huguenot,
Paris: 1879, II, p. 25.

 

76

Also within the realm of secular music, but not
so frivolous, belong the settings of the great French poet
Ronsard. Three composers were selected by the poet to
provide music for his UUgs: Jannequin, Certon, and Goudimel.
A fourth, one M. A. Muret, completed the work. An excellent
treatment of the entire situation, including many musical

examples, is contained in Julien Tiersot's Ronsard et la

 

Musique de son Temps (Breitkopf and Haertel: Leipzig, no

 

date). Commenting on one of the settings of Goudimel, the

ode Errant par les champs de la Grace, Tiersot notes that

 

"it consists of a harmonious beauty, an ampleness of lines
of which many other examples cannot be found in the secular
music of the sixteenth century”.50
Notwithstanding the little known beauties of some
of his secular and Catholic music, it is to the music of
Calvinism, the tunes of the Genevan Psalter, that Goudimel
devoted his most supremely successful attention. The element
of risk involved, not only politically but also in treating
still not well known sectarian music, must have been sub-
sequently obviated by a rising interest, even among Catholics,
in this peculiar body of melodies. The composer's interest,
judging by the date of his first book of psalm—motets (1551),
antedated by eleven years the appearance of the completed

Psalter (1562). Of these psalm-motets, the several books

of which appeared over many years, Eleanor Lawry has given

 

50Julien Tiersot, op. cit., p. 29.

77

the best account in her excellent and definitive disserta-

51 The essence of her statement is as follows: The

tion.
motets contain from one to ten partes each; scoring is
predominantly a i but individual partes vary from U‘g to

x

3'8. Two motets have ggppps firmus settings, in nine more
the cantus predominates. Fifteen show little use of the
cantus; in fourteen the cantus is negligible. Melodic
similarity unifies most of the works.

While some motets flow in an unchecked stream of
"Gombertian" polyphony, many follow JOSquin's tradition
with points of imitation separated by clear-cut cadences
contrasted with occasional chordal sections.

Standard devices include: imitation at different

intervals, sometimes in pairs, sometimes becoming canons

i 2»

IA"

U, U i, and even double canons; inversion, retro-
gression, and retrograde inversion; varied order and spacing
of the entries of vocal parts; and subtle rhythmic fluctu-
ations between binary and ternary groupings in individual
voice parts, producing an ensemble of intricate counter
rhythms.

Dissonances are frequent. They comprise the various
suspensions, including that type in which the dissonant note
is repeated; stressed and unstressed passing tones; échappée

and cambiata; upper (rarely) and lower neighboring tones.

 

51Eleanor Lawry, op. cit.

78

Augmented and diminished intervals occur but they do not
involve the bass.

Accidentals are reminiscent of the rules of musica
£1253; some seem to be added for the sake of color alone.
The treatment of the texts is often madrigalistic.

These intricate polyphonic works which are of
paramount importance in the history of sixteenth century
music and represent the consummation of Goudimel's craft
are a far cry from the succeeding psalm settings. So much
depends upon the flow of independently moving voices that
the original melodies are often lost. To remedy this, or
perhaps in a kind of Calvinistic condenscension to the hgi
polloi, Goudimel turned to works of the utmost simplicity.
Before considering these particular harmonization, it would
be wise to turn again, and in more detail, to the tunes
of the Genevan Psalter, from which all this meticulous
business was begotten.

Although it would be impossible to trace each of
the finished tunes of the Genevan Psalter to its original
source, sufficient research has been done to indicate that
these tunes fall into about three main categories: 1. Old
sacred tunes, including Gregorian Chant; 2. P0pular tunes,
including secular chansons; and 3. New, freely composed

tunes . 52

 

52The most complete work on the origins, altera-
tions, and final redactions of the tunesAcan be found in:
Pierre Pidoux, Le Psautier Huguenot I, Bale, Barenreiter,
1962.

 

79

Pidoux53 suggests, for instance, that the tune for

Psalm XX derives from the Ordinarium Missae: LIn Festis

 

 

Duplicibus l. Cunctipotens Genitor Deus. Following are
the initial phrases of each:

Cunctipotens Genitor Deus:

 

fin
L

 

 

 

Psalm XX:

 

Douen,54 in his earlier research into the origins
of the tunes, neglects to mention the Gregorian influence.
But he supplies many chansons and cantiquesngpulaires,
some associated with Catholicism, which show marked simi-
larities to the Protestant tunes. The following phrase,

for instance, derived from the chanson Gente pastourelle,

 

is found, sometimes with slight variation, in many of the

Genevan tunes:

 

53Pidoux, Ibid., pp. 28-29.

54Douen I, p. 725.

80

Gente pastourelle:

 

 

Psalm LVI:

 

Because of the popularity of Goudimel's harmonized
versions, the tunes were for many years wrongly attributed
to him. While the merest amount of investigation would
have proved this false, it is interesting in that it indi-
cates the subjective emotional aura that attended the spread
of psalm-singing. Perhaps it was the misunderstood and
somewhat obscure relationship between Calvin and the musicianly
Louis Bourgeois, the initial composer-arranger of the psalm-
tunes, which prompted the public to find a hero in the more
versatile Goudimel. And Bourgeois, having left Geneva for
Paris some time before the Psalter was completed, may have
been nearly forgotten, if ever very well-known, by the‘
time the well-made arrangements of Goudimel came into vogue.
Naturally, ill the music would have been called Goudimel's,
including the tunes, much as we now refer to Bach's chorales,
none of the tunes of which are his own. Also, the music of
the sixteenth century was a culmination of church-dominated

polyphonic refinement--an apotheosis of centuries of usage

81

often involving the free appropriation of any available
tunes. Composers were only becoming recognized as original
artists--originators and arrangers of their own and/or
others' tunes; hpp a tune was handled, not who wrote it,
was the criterion for musical excellence and craft.

The successor to Bourgeois was the obscure "Maitre
Pierre", possibly Pierre Dubuisson. He is generally con-
sidered to be an inferior musician when compared to Bourgeois;
much as Beza usually takes second place to Marot as a psalm
versifier. While this may be true, excellent pOems and tunes
sometimes seem to emerge in spite of their creators: one
should be glad for the finished product and at least acknow-
ledge the spirit that produced it. If the tunes of "Maitre
Pierre" are not all of as high quality as the best of those
of Bourgeois, there remain some excellent melodies.

Because of the obscurity of "Maitre Pierre" and the
fact that numerous other even more obscure Pierres were
active at the time, it is likely that others contributed
to the final redaction of the Psalter's musical canon. More
amazing, and more important is the fact that these diverse
talents, under the auspices of Calvin, produced so consis-
tent a style that, even in its variety of rhythm, it some-
times giVes the impression of being hermetically sealed--
quite consistent with the common dogmatic conception of

Calvinism. It was dogma that produced the tunes--dogma

82

infused with a humanitarian and missionary spirit whose
lessence seems somehow captured in these carefully pruned
but expressive melodies.

It is generally believed that the particular style
of the tunes can best be attributed to the transitional
period from which they sprang. To symbolize the major
upheavals of thought and feeling in the sixteenth century,
it seems almost simplistic to fix on this type of tune as
'characteristic of that era. But this does also seem quite
reasonable: Remembering that at the time of the Reforma-
tion the music of the newly-formed churches fell into the
category of popular music, and was in fact heavily dependent
upon popular music for its material; and since it is now
generally accepted that the popular music of a period is
one of the best sources of insight into the artistic expres-
sion of that particular time and place, it may be safely
concluded that this body of tunes--the Genevan Psalter--
constitutes a musical incarnation of early Calvinism not
unlike the codified Gregorian repertoire as it is related
to the Catholic faith. There is a kind of evolutionary
irony in all this: all things papistic were to be abhorred
by Calvinists. Yet some of the Genevan "mother" tunes were
unquestionably Gregorian in origin. All were, at the insis-
tence of Calvin, monodic self-sufficient melodies, useful

to everyone, not just the clergy. It appears that Calvin,

83

through temporarily necessary Puritanism, unconsciously did
a partial service for the mother Church by "cleaning up"
its own corrupted polyphony and encouraging the restoration
of melody, pure and simple, back to the common believer.
On the other hand, the Catholic simplicity of chanting Psalm
tones was abandoned for linguistic and anti-papistic reasons.
The whole construction of the Genevan Psalter is in a limited
way a kind of cultural "Reformation”. But Calvin, of course,
is only partially responsible. Not only did the other
reformers, especially Luther and exceptingZWingli: contri-
bute to the respect for more simple musical expression of
their theologies; but the Catholics themselves had for many
years lamented the confusion, especially verbal, into which
their music had developed; and many were known to have been
impressed by the reforming trend.55
In spite of their simplicity and popular spirit,
the suave ingenuousness of these tunes may also derive in
part from certain rather pedantic experimentations in con-
temporary musical practice, i.e., the so-called vers mesurés

a l'antique of the French poet Jean-Antoine de Baif, with

 

the musical settings of his associates. Assuming that the

‘knowledgable workers on the Psalter were apprised of these

 

55An excellent resumé of the many Church Councils
antedating the Reformation, which met with the intention of
purifying musical practices within the church can be found
in: H. P. Clive, "The Calvinist Attitude to Music", Biblio-
theque d'Humanisme et Renaissance, XIXC 1957), pp. 98-102.

 

84

experiments, the very likely made use of some of the pro-
psoed ideals. But it must be remembered that the Académie

de Poesie et de Musique, under which these proceedings took

 

place, was not formed until 1570, eight years after the
Psalter was completed. Inasmuch as a description of the
Baif experiments sounds so much like a description of the
Marot-Bourgeois style, it is likely that the influence of
the poet's circle was felt before its practice was given

official recognition:

. . .The poet . . .wrote strophic French verses in
ancient classical meters( vers mesurés a l'antique),
substituting for the modern accentual principle the
ancient Latin usage of long and short syllables:

and composers (Le Jeune, Mauduit, and others) set
these verses to music for voices a cappella, strictly
observing the rule of a long note for each long
syllable and a note half as long for each short
syllable. The variety of verse patterns thus pro-
duced a corresponding variety of musical rhythms

in which duple and triple groupings were freely
alternated. This measured music (musique mesurée),
as it was called, was too artificial a creation to
endure for long, but it did serve to introduce non-
regular rhythms into the later air de cour, a
feature which remained characteristic of this form
as it was developed by a school of French com-
posers in the first half of the seventeenth

century; and after about 1580, the air de cour

was the predominant type of French vocal music..

 

 

 

 

 

 

Although the author does not point out any relation-
ship between the Genevan psalm-tune and the Baif style, his
description closely resembles the practices of Bourgeois

in melody and, subsequently, Goudimel in his harmonized

 

S6Donald Jay Grout, A History of Western Music
(New York: W. W. Norton, 1960), p. 223.

 

85

version of 1564-5. Also, the verse-forms of Marot, with
their great variety, may have been influenced by Baif. The
psalm settings of Le Jeune, using somewhat altered psalm-
tunes, are a perfect compromise between the styles, as he

was one of the Baif coterie as well as a confirmed Calvinist.
But whether Goudimel was actually involved in the experiments
remains.to be proven.

The restriction of using only long and short (half
as long) notes is hardly better illustrated than in the
Genevan tunes. This may, in fact, be the most successful
body of tunes which in some way reflect those contemporaneous
rhythmic experiments; though they are far removed from Baif's
original intentions. The kind of musical mannerism which
resulted is akin to the Gallic precision and meticulousness
of Calvinistic thought.

It was the subtle fusion of various styles, popular
and Gregorian being the most predominant, plus the avail-
ability of current musical invention, that resulted in the
distinctive style of the Genevan Psalter. That these tunes
were musically satisfactory to contemporary taste seems
unquestionable; but some other questions are raised: So
accomplished a composer as Goudimel did not consider it
an unworthy task to set most of the collection three times.
But was it because he so highly regarded the tunes for
their basic musicality or because he, being a Calvinist,

was severely limited in his choice of materials? His

86

terse preface to the settings of 1564-5 seems to indicate
his intimidation by Calvin's ideals: the music is not to

be used in public worship, and not a single tune was
altered, other voices were merely added. But in spite of
these rationalizations, he did counter the acceptable method
three times, and later became a martyr-hero of the faith. 8
Also, since he continued to produce (or publish) secular
chansons and was contemplating larger secular works before
he died, it would seem that he was not so bound by the

stringent procedures of Geneva, but produced his musical

 

offerings on the basis of the tunes which he respected for
their musical as well as symbolical merit.

As to the characteristics of the tunes themselves,
these have been extensively analyzed, and it is necessary
only to touch on some of the major points insofar as they
relate to Goudimel's treatment.57

The many tunes represent all the modes of the
Gregorian system in both authentic and plagal forms.

I

Supposing the employment of musica ficta, the melodies

 

conform to the common practices of the sixteenth century.

Pratt58 suggests, rather anachronistically, that the pre-

ponderance of tunes built on the C-scale (altered hypolydian)

 

57This excellent and thorough analysis of the tunes
is found in: Waldo Selden Pratt, The Music of the French
Psalter of 1562 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1939).

S8

 

 

Ibid., pp. 34-35.

87

indicates a trend toward "modern" major tonality. He seems
determined to force all of the tunes into simplistic frame
of altered major and minor. But, in fact, the impression
of the Church modalities, sometimes slightly altered as was
customary in contemporary popular music, is predominant to
the ear.

Remembering that the ”paetic texts are laid out in
many meters, to which the tunes were naturally forced to
conform, and that the tunes themselves vibrate freely among
various types of mode or scale", a third point "concerns

the singular variety in the single lines as to the patterns

59

of their long and short tones". Because the latter is

given detailed attention in the source just cited, only
the concluding observations need be noted. They will reaffirm
some conclusions previously drawn:

The lengths of the lines are fixed by the verse
and its meters, but lines of the same length and
accent are often given several different patterns
in different tunes or even the same tune. To some
extent this may be due to outside sources, as
where secular melodies are borrowed or closely
imitated. .But attentive study of the facts as a
-whole indicates that the collection is pervaded
by some general tendency or intention to‘achiéve
large variety, while keeping to a certain general
uniformity. Even more than the diversity of
poetic meters or the use of all the accepted modes,
this opulence "style" for the musical contents of
the French Psalter.

 

59Ibid., p. 35.

60Ibid., p. 39.

88

Much of this style, as far as rhythm is concerned,
must be attributed to the original versifier of the psalms,
Clement Marot. His style set the pattern which his suc-
cessor, Beza, followed. The "unity in variety" displayed
in Marot's poetry was honored by Bourgeois and the other
redactors of the tunes. The spirit of the Humanists and
their respect for the classical tradition can be felt in
the combined production of all who worked on the Psalter.
And to this list must be added Goudimel. While Bourgeois
is the first musician of Calvinism, Goudimel must be con-

sidered its first real composer.

As the psalm-motets derived directly from Goudimel's
previous excursions into Catholic polyphony, the two later
complete psalm settings resulted from his acceptance of the
strictures of Calvinism. In 1551 Goudimel provided simple

harmonizations to the 83 tunes of the incomplete Psalter.

 

These were published in 1562 in Paris (Adrian Le Roy and
Robert Ballard) in four part books. Only a single Bassus
is still extant.61 Since the Psalter was completed in

Geneva in the same year, Goudimel apparently went to work

immediately, harmonizing the completed book. This setting

 

61Pierre Pidoux, ed., Claude Goudimel--Oeuvres
Completes (New York: The Institute of Medieval Music,
1967), Vol. 9, p. V.

 

 

89

appeared in 1564 (Le Roy and Ballard) under the following
title:
Les cent cinquante Pseaumes de David, nouvellement
mis en musique a-quatre parties, par C. Goudimel.
A Paris. Par Adrian Le Roy, 8 Robert Ballard,
Imprimeurs du Roy. 1564. Avec privilege de sa
maieste. Pour dix ans.

As only the Superius and Contra are extant of the
four part-books, the remaining voices must be derived from
an unaltered printing in 1565 (Teppp) and an edition of
Goudimel's music published in the same year by the heirs
of Francois Jaqui (Bassus). This last edition included the
four vocal parts in a single volume. When referring to the
settings of 1564-5 these three sources must be considered.
"One fact appears to be ascertained", says Pidoux: "The
utilization of the Jaqui edition as 'original source' of
Goudimel's harmonies is only possible conjointly with the
minute examination of the other two editions."62

Goudimel's homophonic style is usually considered
too ”primitive” to be worthy of much attention. The very
fact that such a work appeared among the works of a contra-
puntist and in an age of consummate polyphony, focfises
attention on the rapidly growing usage of simply harmonized
tunes and the rising importance of the solo song. That these

changes occurred simultaneously with the rise of Protes-

tantism does not necessarily indicate that the ostensible

 

62Pierre Pidoux, "Notes sur quelques editions des
psaumes de Claude GOudimel", Revue de Musicologie, 1958,
p. 192.

 

90

religious revolution was solely responsible. Interest in
accompanied monody was growing and was soon to flower in
the opera and oratorio at the turn of the century.

The fact that the composer so strongly stated in
hisipreface that the melodies were unaltered, obviates much
further exploration of the rhythm of these settings. There
are basically long and short note values, the original
Bourgeois redactions, to which three other voices are added.
Apart from the cadential formulae, the homophonic settings
are strictly note-against-note. Although only the final
notes, in the Pidoux edition, are rendered as breves, it is
likely that, in interpretation, the concluding chords of
each phrase were held longer than the semi-breves of the
score--possibly as long as the final chord itself.

As the completed Psalter contains 125 melodies for
150 psalms, the Ten Commandments, and the Song of Simeon,
several of these tunes are used for different texts. While
most of these repeated tunes are used twice, many are used
three times and one, four times. Interestingly, Goudimel
gave different and more elaborate settings to each‘of these
repeated tunes. Thus, the collection actually contains 29
polyphonic pieces among 125 more severely harmonized settings.

In all but seventeen cases, the original cantus firmus

 

lies in the tenor voice. In the exceptions, five of which

are polyphonic, the cantus lies in the superius. The reason

 

for this, it seems, is that the composer scrupulously followed

91

the melodies as presented in the original Psalter. There

they are notated in the tenor clef (C-clef on the fourth

 

line) with the exception of those having clausulae for
the Superius, which are notated with the C-clef on the
first line.63 I
The most recent research on these psalm-settings

indicates.that Goudimel, in his polyphonic setting of 1568,
"introduced into that new collection a certain number of
compositions which had already been included in the publi-
cations of 1564-1565. With minor changes, one finds repeated
. . .a total of eighteen compositions. It is noteworthy that
Goudimel did not repeat certain of the polyphonic pieces

in the new edition, and we may ask what his rationale was

in leaving them out”.64

Four of these pieces, Pidoux con-
tinues, were composed by Thomas Champion and were included,
intentionally or inadvertently, in Goudimel's first collection.
They were not included in the later group. Five other pieces,
possibly by Champion, were also excluded from the 1568 ver-
sion. ’

As to Goudimel's own music: the most striking

characteristic of the harmony in the 1564-5 settings is

the almost total lack of inverted chords. This movement

 

63Pierre Pidoux, ed., Claude Goudimel-Oeuvres
Completes (New York: The Institute of Medieval Music,
1967),‘Vol. 10, p. XI.

64

 

 

Pierre Pidoux, op. cit., Vol. 9, pp. V-VI.

92

in root position produces a strong but awkward bass line;

neither are the superius or contra very smooth. The range

 

of the tenor, being the lyrical cantus firmus that it is,

 

is almost invariably wider than any of the other voices,
including the bassus. This calls for much voice-crossing,
especially between the contra and the tenor; occasionally

these crossings-are found between the superius and the

 

contra or between the peppp and the bassus.

Even though the pepp: is well defined within this
open harmonic context, it would nevertheless be somewhat
obscured by the higher voices if the psalm were sung exactly
as it appears in print. Possibly, by this time, the pop-

ular cantus firmus style of monodic unaccompanied singing,

 

especially of the Calvinist psalms in Geneva, had taken so
firm a hold that everyone, no matter which vocal part he
were singing, was very familiar with the original psalm-
tune. Congregational singing as we know it today was just
beginning to develop, and even the most unlearned could
attempt to carry the basic melody at home or in those
churches where harmony was gradually being introduced,

while others attempted the other voices. There would likely
be a preponderance of members singing the well-known tune;
women and children would naturally carry the cantus up an
octave. Although Goudimel can hardly be called the originator

of the superius cantus firmus, he was one of the composers

 

93

whose music shows this gradual change of style most
strikingly--the gradual movement of the cantus from the
pepgp to the superius. As was noted, seventeen psalms of
the 1564-5 collection contain superius melodies; in the
1568 collection, all the melodies appear at least once in
the superius.

Except for the larger vocal range in the superius,
and consequently, occasional voice-crossings with the

contra, these superius cantus firmus settings do not differ

 

greatly in homophonic style from the others. The same
"strong and masculine” harmony prevails; the same chiches
decorate the cadences which almost invariably end on open
fifths. All in all, the homophonic pieces of Goudimel
appear to be polyphonic skeletons--the barest essentials

of what might be the basis for a polyphonic composition.
Outside of the cadences all notes move together; but only
one voice--the original cantus--can be considered a "vocal”
melody. Whether this tune falls in the £333: or the superius
does not seem to matter; the two voices are virtually inter-
.changeable--possibly the result of an established practice
of singing the cantus an octave higher or, if we may
retroactively judge from the present-day practices of hymn
singing, an octave loWer. The importance which Calvin gave
to the basic tune was not so much his original idea, though
he fitted it rationally into his larger philosophical

structure. It is more like a basic response to inherent

94

human limitations--one cannot sing in harmony with oneself;
but virtually everyone, even the entirely unmusical or "tone-
deaf", carries a large repertoire of recongnizable tunes in
his head, whether he can sing or whistle, or neither. And

to these were appended the Word.

In 1580 the printer Pierre de Saint André produced
in Geneva a volume of Goudimel's settings of the entire
Genevan Psalter. For some obscure reason the description
of the work in the title was identical to that of the edi-
tions of 1564 and 1565. Thus for many years an edition of
1568, listed in the works of the Parisian publishers Le Roy
and Ballard, was thought to be an identical reprinting of

the previous version. An extant Superius part—book (1568),

 

however, differed from the earlier setting; and it is now
generally believed that the Saint André edition must have
utilized this version of twelve years previous. A number
of copies of this later edition are extant and have been
used twice in modern editions of this work. Henry Expert

used a set of part-books from the Bibliotheqpe de l'Arsenal

 

in Paris (Maitres Musiciens de la Renaissance Francaise:

 

Paris, 1894-1897). And Pierre Pidoux, noting that the

Superius parts of 1568 and 1580 are identical, also utilized

 

a 1580 set in his continuing presentation of the complete
works of Goudimel (The Institute of Medieval Music: New

York, 1967).

95

Pidoux, in his preface, includes some interesting
observations on this collection: An anonymous 16th century

owner of the only extant Superius part-book (Bibliotheque

 

 

Nationale, Paris) wrote at the bottom of the first page:

 

"Ceulx en teste desquelz est - g - ont esté par mov mis en
J

tablature et certifies sur l'hebreu." (Those which have

 

- 6 - placed at their head were put in tablature by me and
certified for their Hebrew).6S Pidoux concludes:

There is no doubt that this refers to a lute

intabulation. The 'certification' of the Hebrew
text causes us to smile, because it does not ex-
tend beyond the first strophe of each psalm; it

is, of course, a possible precaution aimed at
allaying any suspicions concerning the 'orthodoxy'
of the French version. Was there a similar rea-
son for giving the names of the poets--C1ement
Marot and Théodore de Beze--only by their initials,
and for indicating the titles of the French psalms
only by their Latin incipits?

The questions posed by Pidoux will have.to go
unanswered until more intensive studies are done in Huguenot
intrigue.

The music of the 1580 version differs in several
ways from the previous settings. It is in some ways a
compromise between the severe style of the 1564-5 homo-
phony and the elaborate counterpoint of the psalm-motets.
It appears, in fact, to be the previous setting in augmen-

tation, as the predominant note-length of the cantus is

exactly twice as long as it is in the homophonic version.

 

65The compositions marked by this sign are Psalms:
I, XXXII, LXXIII, XXXVI, and CXXXIII.

96

The non-cantus voices are consequently much freer, their
predominant note-length being half that of the notes in the
melody.

In contrast to his former scrupulousness, Goudimel
actually alters ten of the tunes, possibly indicating that
this particular version was not intended for usage in
Reformed public worship. And pl; of the melodies, unlike
their earlier presentation, appear at least once in the
superius. They are usually repeated in the 3329: except

where these present clausulae for the superius.

 

While the psalms in the 1564-5 version are presented
in Biblical order, for some obscure reason those of the 1580
version follow another plan. As the composer sheds no light
on his re-placement, several other speculative opinions have
been offered: 1. the compositions are grouped into suites.
This would explain the unusual presence of compositions for
equal voices (P55. 80 to 87). 2. They are grouped by
similar subject matter. This is the case only at the beginning
of the volume. 3. They are grouped by mode, though this
procedure is not always strictly followed. 'Though this
latter assumption seems the most logical, the basic question

. 66
rema1ns open.

In the finalized Genevan Psalter one tune was used

for the following four psalms: XXIV (Z4), LXII (62), XCV

 

66Pidoux, op. cit., Vol. 10, pp. XI-XII.

97

(95), and CXI (111). Since Goudimel never repeated his
harmonies, except for occasional borrowings from earlier
settings, the presentation of the final phrases of these
four psalms in the collections of 1564/1565 and 1568/1580
will serve to indicate with what infinite variety and care

the composer labored on these melodies.67

Psalm XXIV (1564-1565):

 

Cantus firmus in tenor. Dorian mode, with D Minor
suggested by musica ficta at cadence. Third lacking from
final chord. All chords in root position. No overlapping
of voices.

 

 

 

67The settings of 1564-1565 are derived from Pierre
Pidoux, Claude Goudimel--Oeuvres Completes (New York: The
Institute of Medieval Music, 1967), Vol. 9. The reductions
of pss. 62, 95, and 111 are mine. The settings of 1568-
1580 are derived from Henry Expert, Les Maitres Musiciens
de la Renaissance Francais (New York: Broude Brothers, 1964),
Void. 2, 4, and 6.

98

Psalm LXII (1564-1565):

U .1

 

Cantus firmus in tenor. Transposed Dorian mode, with
G Minor suggested by musica ficta at cadence. (The sharp
above the score was suggested by the editor.) Third lacking
from final chord. All chords in root position. No over-
lapping of voices. Suspension (4-3) in superius at cadence.
Simple neighboring-tone ornament in contra, measure 2. Tenor
and bassus note-against-note; superius and contra much freer.
Free melodic imitation in superius anticipates cantus firmus.

 

 

 

Psalm XCVC 1564-1565):

 

Cantus firmus in tenor. Transposed Dorian mode, with
G Minor suggested By musica f1cta at cadence. Cf. previous
example. Tripled root and third in final chord. Two chords
in first inversion; chord of seventh on C (seventh tone is in
cantus firmus and resolves downward). Contra lies above
superius throughout. Suspension (4-3) in su erius at cadence.
One ornament in superius: appogiatura (4-3) which resolves
into unison with cantus firmus, measure 1. Penultimate measure
very similar to same in previous example except that the two
high voices are interchanged.

 

 

 

 

99

Psalm CXI (1564-1565):

 

Uaptus firmus in tenor. This setting differs only
slightly from that of Psalm LXII, q. v. Both accidentals
are supplied by the editor. The first chord of the penul-
timate measure is in first inversion with a doubled fifth.
The following dissonant passing tone proceeds to a direct
fifth superius with the bassus, measure 4.

Psalm XXIV (1568-1580):

 

Cantus firmus in su erius. Transposed Dorian mode
with "Picardiefi third. Full final chord, Two chords in

first inversion. Bassus resembles cantus firmus melodically.

 

This is the smoothest setting so far, in terms of movement
of voices. Overlapping voices in contra and tenor.

100

Psalm LXII (1568-1580):

:11 J E J

 

This setting is identical to the setting of the

same psalm in the earlier collection, from which Goudimel
borrowed it.

Psalm XCV (1568-1580):

 

F

Cantus firmus in spperius. Transposed Dorian mode.
Third lacking from final Chord. Two chords in first inver-
sion. N. B.: The reduction is given entirely in the treble
clef; in performance the voice crossing would not sound so
drastic as they appear. Or perhaps the composer has some-
thing other than the traditional SATB in mind(?).

101

Psalm CXI (1568-1580):

 

 

Cantus firmus in su erius. Transposed Dorian mode.
Third lacking from final chord. One chord in first inver-
sion. This final setting, note-against-note at the cadence,
is at that point as simple as the earlier homophonic settings.
A glance at the body of these later works, however, reveals
an intricate and sometimes quite elaborate counterpoint not
found in the collection of 1564-1565. But even the variety
given to the cadential formulae shows a neglected master at
work.

CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS

It would not be appropriate to go into heuristic
ecstasies about the unsung Goudimel and pursue these pecu-
liar bodies of psalm-settings to their last unsuspended I
cadences. The importance, it seems, of the 1564-1565 setting 3
belongs more to that complex realm maybe best called historico- 1
SOCial significance, than to any time-transcending merit in J
the harmony itself. Which is not to say that these homophonic

settings are unredeemably crude; even ingenuous is perhaps

 

not the best word: Goudimel, the contrapuntist, was a talented

and meticulous craftsman. That completed body of tunes--the

Genevan Psalter--contains many melodies of such profound and

moving beauty that they are still widely sung, usually to

different, less dated harmonies than those of Goudimel. But

in deference to his name and influence in the early dissemina-

tion of psalm-singing, settings of these tunes in modern

hymnals often indicate that the harmony is "after Goudimel".1
Four hundred years after the composer's death he

is mainly remembered as the most important harmonizer of

the Genevan Psalter--not the young, obscure composer whose

 

1The Psalter Hymnal, (Grand Rapids, Michigan: The
Publication Committee of the Christian Reformed Church, 1959)
contains three of the original settings of Goudimel (#233,
#334 and #432) and several psalm-tunes set by other composers.

 

102

103

early glory, never so finely repeated, was to weave melo-
dious phrases freely around some of those restrained, ex-
pressive tunes; but as the one who gave such devoted and
careful interest to those same tunes that he at one time
waived what contrapuntal magic he contained for a humbly
exalting offering, not so much of his musical skills as of
his newly found faith.

To the uninitiated these settings (1564-1565) appear
gauche, especially in the light of such contemporaries as
Lassus and Palestrina--the giant once thought to have been
a student of Goudimel. This again affirms the sociological
importance of these settings, the role they played in the
spread of the Calvinist movement. Even though Calvin's
'ideas on music were overloaded with intellectual restric-
tions, the fact remains: He created the Genevan Psalter.
And it is unlikely, in a time of flowering counterpoint,
that a composer without the determinating convictions of
Goudimel would have involved himself in so apparently un-
rewarding a project as the note-against-note settings. The
later settings are more musical but lack the complete
practicality of the earlier. Though other composers--

Le Jeune, Jannequin, and later, Sweelinck--made arrange-
ments of these tunes, only Goudimel was completely successful
in providing the early Huguenots with the most accessible
settings for general use as well as those for the more

SOphisticated.

104

Goudimel's conflict, in reassessing the developing
musical attitudes of Calvinism, was understandable, but
perhaps over-reactive. In defying the monophonic personal
opinions of Calvin by causing harmony to intrude on the
whims of one unmusical man, Goudimel was more sinned against
than sinning. But he succeeded as no one else had, or
perhaps could, in presenting those somewhat sacrosanct
tunes in their pristine form with his naively put "additions".
Thus, he enhanced the tunes much as the fig leaves enhanced
Adam and Eve; not really covering up their naturalness or
hiding any shame; simply pointing out the possibilities of

beauty inherent and to be inherited.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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