Description
With “Das Lochamer Liederbuch – Band 3” of the new edition, the instrumental part will now be the focus of attention. There, vocal pieces, i.e. songs, as found in the first part of the songbook, are arranged for a keyboard instrument.
Broadening the musical horizon
In its role as a song collection, the Lochamer Liederbuch is extremely important for early German-language music. However, the bound instrumental part, which in analogy to the famous Buxheim organ book actually deserves to be recognized separately as the Locham organ book, considerably increases the importance of the manuscript. So far, all treatments of the Locham Songbook have focused on the song section.
The variety of tablatures
Not all of these 32 tablatures, which are in the instrumental part, have an equivalent in the song part; for some the vocal model is lost, others can only be found in parallel manuscripts. In addition to some lesser-known songs from the song section of the manuscript, “Das Lochamer Liederbuch – Band 3” contains mainly instrumental pieces.
Linking the musical sources
Where possible, these tablatures are accompanied by their vocal models, some of which were also taken from other manuscripts. The ten edited pieces in “Das Lochamer Liederbuch – Band 3” include, for example, the popular “Anavois” (often found under the title “En avois” due to incorrect readings), “Mein herz in hohen freuden ist” and the beautiful “Paumgartner”.
Research and contextualization
The Lochamer Liederbuch (LOCH for short) is so rich in resources that the edition series itself remains an anthology with “Das Lochamer Liederbuch – Band 3” and the last volume, which again presents compositions from the source in 10 blocks and places them in the context of parallel traditions of the 15th century. The omissions, i.e. the pieces that have not yet been edited in the course of the three volumes, mainly concern the area of the monophonic song recordings in the song part of the source, and the “Fundamentum organisandi” in the tablature part.
Between tradition and rediscovery
In the present “Das Lochamer Liederbuch – Band 3” of the series, emphasis has been placed on the tablatures of the back part of LOCH, which do not show any song equivalents in the front, vocal part of the manuscript, but which can occasionally be found as song versions in parallel sources. Another focus is on pieces that have so far received little attention in research and performance and are, so to speak, “between the stools”, either because the Lochamer-Liederbuch is only a secondary source for these repertoires (as with “Zart lip wie süß dein anfanck ist” or “Benedicite – Almechtiger got, herr Jesu Crist”), or because, as an addendum and Latin contrafact, they fail to arouse the interest of those who want to deal with the Lochamer-Liederbuch as a German-language source. The editorial approach requires, particularly in the case of the focal points set here, that the pieces in the edition be embedded in a considerable proportion of “context”, i.e. pieces from the parallel traditions.
Instrumental music of the 15th century
“Das Lochamer Liederbuch – Band 3” is an indispensable resource for every lover and researcher of medieval music. This volume provides an in-depth insight into lesser-known musical works and offers a comprehensive examination of 15th century instrumental music. With its well-founded edition and Marc Lewon’s knowledgeable commentary, it opens up new perspectives on musical practice and the cultural contexts of the period. “Das Lochamer Liederbuch – Band 3” serves not only as valuable teaching material for musicians and academics, but also as a source of inspiration for all those involved in the performance and interpretation of historical music.
