Featured Middle ages/Renaissance Neumatic Sheet Music

Greetings everyone,

I'm curious about this piece that came to me via my grandmother. I have always loved it as it hung in her various homes and am hoping to learn a little more about it. It came to my grandparents in the 1970s, I believe, via a friend who was an auctioneer. The story was that (and apparently this was quite common) the sellers would literally rip the pages out of the giant hymnal books and auction them off individually as art pieces. It's about 30"h x 24"w.

I'm mostly looking to know if anyone might have an idea of age, origin, etc. Thanks for your collective brain, everyone.

Neumatic Sheet Music by William Trevaskis posted Jan 29, 2016 at 5:58 PM

 

Looks almost transparent, May be parchment as would be correct material for such an item. You can see music on the reverse as well.

 

Yes, that's correct. This is two sided - again, a page torn from a large book. You're probably right about the parchment, too. I haven't removed it from the frame, but I'd like to get it reframed soon.

One thing I do know is that the reasoning for the size of these volumes of music was so that it could be seen from a distance within a candle-lit church by the entire congregation.

 

so that it could be seen from a distance within a candle-lit church by the entire congregation

Very improbable, few could read, and even fewer read music. Possibly for the choir, but the page turner would be kept pretty busy.

Anyway, a new word for me, neumatic.

 

That could most definitely be true, though the congregation wouldn't necessarily be reading the text (Latin in this case), rather the sequence of pitches/notes (neumes) and when/where to go "up" or "down" in pitch - hence the simplicity of early recorded melodies. Despite lack of ability to read, many in the congregation were taught the hymns through oral lessons, a common practice, I think.

Anyone up for translating the text on this page? My Latin is terrible and the legibility of it to me is nil. Thanks for the great discussion!

 

Hi,
Since these were hand done and took a long time, I feel that it was for the choir. They did not have copies for everyone. Those long aisles to where the congregation sat would make it almost impossible for the members to see the pages. The book would not be facing them anyway. I love sheets of music like these, even though the books were destroyed. It is a lovely piece.
greg

 

The Getty Center here in LA had a very nice exhibition of psalters a couple of years ago. The majority were in large print for the simple reason that they were too expensive and hard to make multiple copies of. For a 10-man choir, they could crowd around this large book and all would be able to see.
At the museum, the largest book I saw was about 4 feet tall - no joke. It was insanely huge, so I'm guessing they must have had an insanely large choir as well.

There do exist small, pocket-size psalters as well, but these must have been for either very rich churches, or for personal practice. Again, these were not mass produced and as such were terribly time consuming to make.

The books were torn apart because of two reasons: 1) artistic value - it is hard to appreciate the prettiness in a thick, closed book. 2) monetary value - one could get much more money out of parting out one of these books than selling them whole.
This is the same reason why many altarpieces were split up. These days, it is very very difficult to find a complete altarpiece, but that's the way the cookie crumbles. Shame, really, but I do believe that this parting-out kept more artifacts alive than they destroyed! Many altarpieces and psalters would have been burned or otherwise destroyed, if not for the parting out.

Source: I'm the art history guy who ended up getting a meteorology major instead...

 

Great info, thank you! I was also told that they monetary value was much higher as they were collected individually, hence the tearing of pages.

UPDATE: I recently received some documentation from my aunt, who sent me the piece. The documents, found amongst my grandmother's files, indicated that the piece was discovered and sold by a man named Martin Slotkin. The analysis in the document (which was typed in 1967) states that the piece is from 16th century Spain and was discovered by Mr. Slotkin during a dig under a chair factory. There, he found pages and pages of these psalters under the earth, bringing them back to the U.S. for sale.

There was also a document where the piece was appraised. Interestingly, the appraisal was for two pieces (valued at $250 each in 1967), but the two pieces are actually the front and back. Does anyone know if that is/was common practice on something like this? Thanks again for the great discussion.

 

Have heard this story about Spanish parchment hymnal leaves before. I don't know if it is true or not. The fact is, there are thousands of these on the market from various places. There are always a few to be found on ebay. Here is a large double leaf that sold for $65.00.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Very-old-double-sheet-on-parchment-16th-Century-hymnal-/281922115905?hash=item41a3de1941:g:4~AAAOSw--1Wq149&nma=true&si=o3AdNJpEBOrpbqQwyGCeSFzkWAM%3D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

Value is dependent on age, size, condition, and whether or not there are illuminations. Sometimes, the very large ones don't do as well as smaller ones that are more manageable. Good illumination will trump other factors.

Here is one I bought at the thrift for $1.00 and sold for $100.00 on ebay. It was framed with glass on both sides. I believe it was about 16" tall. Turns out that it was 15th century.