Ludwig Senfl - A Catalogue Raisonné

The high esteem Ludwig Senfl (appr. 1490-1543) was met with by his contemporaries and his outstanding composing technique have lead to the attempt to issue a first complete edition of his oeuvre only shortly after the establishment of musicology as a scholarly discipline (1903), which, however, similar to the second edition of his works (1937-1974) remained unfinished. Despite the keen interest in Senfl`s musical oeuvre and the manifold approaches to get to know Senfl closer as a singer, writer and composer a satisfactory characterization of his works is still a desideratum. The reason for this is to be explained by the fact that for one thing all available publications of his works are incomplete, which until now has made a determination of chronology, style and reception of Senfl`s works rather difficult and that a fundamental overview over his enormous oeuvres of appr. 500 compositions, which are spread over 180 sources stored in archives and libraries all over Europe is still lacking. We intend in the framework of this project to provide for the first time an overview of this kind in the form of a complete catalogue of Senfl`s works by searching all preserved sources in order to thereby establish the basis for further fact finding about this key-figure of the first half of the 16th century. Univ.-Prof. Dr. Birgit Lodes, who has published and initiated various papers about Senfl in the past, will be head of the project. Within this project a postgraduate (Stefan Gasch; employed 100%) and a doctoral candidate (employed 75%), furthermore a part-time assistant for the digitalisation of micro-films as well as for additional support during the finalization of the print manuscript will be employed. The postgraduate employee is responsible for further project management and the compilation of the catalogue of works, tasks that will have been accomplished within the second third of the project term. The composition of the catalogue and the conducting of associated studies that deal with other topics in this field (chronology, style, proliferation, reception) and their respective answers that are based on the catalogue of works are scheduled for the third year of the project. The doctoral candidate will work on the cataloguing of the clearly defined number of sources within Eastern Germany: This should, on the one hand, serve a speedy progress of the catalogue compilation and will, on the other hand, open a perspective to engage in independent research work. This thesis shall for one thing comment on the reception of Senfl`s music, originally composed for the Catholic Court in Munich within the Protestant areas of Eastern Germany and further examine the musical and socio-cultural development during the early Reformation. The project aims not only at providing a detailed characterization of this unique composer and key-figure of the generation between Josquin Desprez and Orlando di Lasso, but also at granting an extensive view of Senfl`s extraordinarily rich musical oeuvre as a whole and making it available and fruitful for future generations of scholars.

The high esteem Ludwig Senfl (appr. 1490-1543) was met with by his contemporaries and his outstanding composing technique have lead to the attempt to issue a first complete edition of his oeuvre only shortly after the establishment of musicology as a scholarly discipline (1903), which, however, similar to the second edition of his works (1937-1974) remained unfinished. Despite the keen interest in Senfl`s musical oeuvre and the manifold approaches to get to know Senfl closer as a singer, writer and composer a satisfactory characterization of his works is still a desideratum. The reason for this is to be explained by the fact that for one thing all available publications of his works are incomplete, which until now has made a determination of chronology, style and reception of Senfl`s works rather difficult and that a fundamental overview over his enormous oeuvres of appr. 500 compositions, which are spread over 180 sources stored in archives and libraries all over Europe is still lacking. We intend in the framework of this project to provide for the first time an overview of this kind in the form of a complete catalogue of Senfl`s works by searching all preserved sources in order to thereby establish the basis for further fact finding about this key-figure of the first half of the 16th century. Univ.-Prof. Dr. Birgit Lodes, who has published and initiated various papers about Senfl in the past, will be head of the project. Within this project a postgraduate (Stefan Gasch; employed 100%) and a doctoral candidate (employed 75%), furthermore a part-time assistant for the digitalisation of micro-films as well as for additional support during the finalization of the print manuscript will be employed. The postgraduate employee is responsible for further project management and the compilation of the catalogue of works, tasks that will have been accomplished within the second third of the project term. The composition of the catalogue and the conducting of associated studies that deal with other topics in this field (chronology, style, proliferation, reception) and their respective answers that are based on the catalogue of works are scheduled for the third year of the project. The doctoral candidate will work on the cataloguing of the clearly defined number of sources within Eastern Germany: This should, on the one hand, serve a speedy progress of the catalogue compilation and will, on the other hand, open a perspective to engage in independent research work. This thesis shall for one thing comment on the reception of Senfl`s music, originally composed for the Catholic Court in Munich within the Protestant areas of Eastern Germany and further examine the musical and socio-cultural development during the early Reformation. The project aims not only at providing a detailed characterization of this unique composer and key-figure of the generation between Josquin Desprez and Orlando di Lasso, but also at granting an extensive view of Senfl`s extraordinarily rich musical oeuvre as a whole and making it available and fruitful for future generations of scholars.