New Senfl Edition, vol. 5: Magnificat Settings, Masses

Ludwig Senfl (c.14901543) is a key figure in the Central European musical world between the time of Heinrich Isaac (1450/51517) and Orlando di Lasso (1532?94). In both of his positionsat the imperial court of Maximilian I, where he launched his career as a singer and composer, and in Munich, where he worked from 1523 as court composer for Wilhelm IV of Bavariahe was greatly involved in the musical developments of his time. Although the extraordinary quality of Senfls music has been acknowledged since the dawn of musicology, the major part is still inaccessible in an edition and therefore only inadequately studied by scholars and performers alike. The New Senfl Edition (NSE) fills this gap by publishing Senfls uvre in a critical edition that will provide a comprehensive overview of the composers work based on up-to-date research. The repertoire is hereby organised systematically according to number of voices and alphabetically; the transcriptions as well as the critical apparatus are conceived according to up-to-date editorial guidelines. Works surviving only in fragmentary form along with works whose authorship remains uncertain have been included in the edition to complete the picture, whereas clearly misattributed works are not edited. The fifth volume of the New Senfl Edition presents those of Senfls compositions that form the central genres for church services and the Liturgy of the Hours: Senfls polyphonic Mass Ordinaries, as well as his cycle of eight Magnificat settings. The volume presents the compositions systematically organised by genre. A fundamental new edition and re-evaluation of the works in both genres was urgently needed, not least because research since Theodor Kroyers edition of the Magnificats in 1903 and the first publication of Senfls Masses in 1937 has provided numerous new insights into the time and the background to these compositions, source material, and an expansion of the canon of works. In addition to the numerous new source finds, research has been able to show, for example, that the Magnificats were composed 14 years earlier than previously thought and that the repertoire of polyphonic Mass settings must be expanded to include a previously unknown work. This opens up completely new research questions with regard to the music history of the 16th century, but also with regard to the composers canon of works. The critical reports, which come along the musical material, provide information on each motet with regard to the texts set to music, the pre-existent plainchant material, an evaluation of the sources, as well as contextual and historical information. The edition thus provides philologically reliable musical texts, along with extensive scholarly research on each individual composition. In order to help emancipate Senfls work from narrowly conceived, nationalist historiographies of music, the NSE will be published in English. The published volume (in print and online, open access) forms part of the renowned series Denkmäler der Tonkunst in Österreich which ensures the international dissemination of Senfls music. This enables a comprehensive explorationscholarly and practical alikeof one of the most prominent composers of the first half of the sixteenth century.