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Guillaume de Marchaut was one of the most important poets and composers of the middle ages in France. His work is represented in the collection of the Burgerbibliothek Bern by a manuscript of the highest quality: the 13 column-width miniatures and many of the initials are polychromatic and accented with gold leaf. Notation provided with some of the songs makes this manuscript, easily datable by its scribal colophon, important to the study of music history.
Online Since: 12/20/2012
This monastic breviary was used at Hermetschwil Abbey. The rubrics are primarily in German. The binding is from the workshop of dominus Valentinus.
Online Since: 11/10/2016
The manuscript contains principally the chants for the liturgy of the Hours (response and antiphones), and also some chants of the Ordinary (in a part with tropes), hymns, and sequences, and spiritual chants in Latin and German. In all, six chants (p. 87-89, 103, 107) are for two or three voices. In this case, the voices are not noted one under another, but one after another. The spiritual chants are written with a mensural notation, and the other liturgical pieces in German plainsong notation, the so-called German “Hufnagelnotation”.
Online Since: 12/19/2011
Song collection of St. Gall organist Fridolin Sicher; 49 songs for three to five voices in 16th century mensural notation without texts. Among the composers are, among others, Alexander Agricola, Loyset Compère, Josquin Desprez and Jacob Obrecht. Several pieces give the name of the composer and the beginning of the text (in French, Italian, Flemish or Latin). Usually one piece fills a double page, less frequently all (three or four) voices are arranged on a single page
Online Since: 09/23/2014
The song book of Chaplain Johannes Heer of Glarus: a collection of 88 folk-, students-, love-, drinking- and joke songs, among them 40 unique items; from the pre-reformation period (1510-1520).
Online Since: 12/31/2005
Songbook compiled by the universal scholar Aegidius Tschudi (1505-1572) from the middle of the 16th century. The volume contains 215 musical scores in measured notation using the five line staff, mainly by contemporary French, Dutch, and German composers such as Josquin Desprez, Adrian Willaert, Jacob Obrecht, Heinrich Isaac, and Ludwig Senfl. The descant (or soprano) parts are found on the left-hand pages, with the alto (or tenor) parts on the right-hand pages.
Online Since: 12/09/2008
Songbook owned by the universal scholar Aegidius Tschudi (1505-1572) of Glarus; together with Tschudi's estate, it became the property of the Abbey Library of St. Gall in 1768. This volume contains in one binding the part-books for bass and descant voices for 17 motets and chansons in five or six parts by contemporary composers such as Josquin Desprez or Loyset Compère, written in mensural notation using the five line staff. This songbook was written by several hands, among them Tschudi himself, who added notes about modes on fol. 12r–v and 24v–25r (the schemata on fol. 25v likely are by Heinrich Glarean). Except for one piece, all the compositions in Tschudi's songbook also appear in Cod. Sang. 463; therefore these part-books seem to be drafts for the final collection.
Online Since: 06/25/2015
An organ tablature by the St. Gall cathedral organist and calligrapher Fridolin Sicher (1490-1546). Starting in 1512, while he was a pupil of the organist Hans Buchner in Konstanz, Sicher gathered 176 pieces by 94 composers (including Paul Hofhaimer, Hans Buchner, Jacob Obrecht, Josquin Desprez, Matthaeus Pipelaere) together in this volume. Two thirds are sacred vocal pieces, the rest are originally secular songs. The descant is in measured notation on a five line staff, while the remaining vocal parts are indicated with alphabet letters and rhythmical symbols. Some of the compositions may be found only in this particular organ book.
Online Since: 12/09/2008
An opulently illustrated large-format gradual containing four-part vocal pieces, from the Cloister of St. Gall, written and illuminated in the year 1562. By order of Prince-Bishop Diethelm Blarer, the Italian Manfred Barbarini Lupus from Correggio composed these challenging vocal pieces, Father Heinrich Keller (1518-1567) wrote the text, and the manuscript illustrator Kaspar Härtli from Lindau on the Bodensee illuminated the first pages with the important holy days of the church year. The volume has richly ornamented borders and numerous miniatures, among them five of full-page size, and contains the heraldic shields of St. Gall monks living at that time; the ornamented pages include many depictions of musical instruments of the period (some of which are no longer known).
Online Since: 12/09/2008
Large-format antiphonary with chants in four parts, written and illuminated between 1562 and 1564. By order of Prince-Abbot Diethelm Blarer (1530-1564), the Italian Manfred Barbarini Lupus from Correggio composed the pieces for four voices - antiphons, responsories, hymns and psalms for the principal feast days of the liturgical year as well as passions according to Matthew, Mark and Luke. Father Heinrich Keller (1518-1567) wrote the text and the illuminator Kaspar Härtli from Lindau on Lake Constance created a full-page All Saints picture with Christ on the cross (f. IVr), as well as a donor portrait with the coats of arms of the then-living members of the St. Gall monastic community (f. 1r).
Online Since: 06/23/2014
Manuscript compilation containing a collection of fables (Ulrich Boner's Edelstein), decorated with simple pen drawings, farcical stories – preserved only here – by the so-called "Swiss Anonymous" as well as chronicle notes on the history of Zurich and Glarus.
Online Since: 12/12/2006