The Polyphony Database
polyphonydatabase@gmail.com
About the database❯
PolyphonyDatabase.com is a detailed catalogue of early music sources designed to help musicians perform, academics study, and enthusiasts explore a vast and glorious repertoire quickly and easily. It aims to combine the practicality of CPDL with the academic rigour and ambition of the RISM census, to make use of similar projects where possible, and to directly combat the frustrations performing musicians have with all existing resources.
Its three main goals are:
- To assist performers, directors, and editors by cataloguing the contents of primary sources, source concordances, and basic information about how each piece of music can be performed.
- To provide a reliable starting point for academic research by linking to library catalogues, other existing databases, and facsimile images of early music manuscripts and prints.
- To provide a repository for properly sourced critical editions, performing scores, and recordings of as much of this music as possible, each carefully vetted for typesetting quality and accuracy, and made available for free download, so that this music might be discovered and appreciated by a wider audience.
The database was founded by Francis Bevan in 2014 as an outlet for his editing hobby and is regularly updated by him and a small team of enthusiasts. If you would like to contribute some cataloguing time, recordings or editions, submit corrections, commission an edition or just donate some cash, please get in touch with Francis via email: polyphonydatabase@gmail.com. Read more about the project's history at the 2018 Crowdfunder page.
The best way to help fund the project is to commission performing editions. New editions can be made quickly for as little as £10.
Understanding the clef images
A red clef means the voice is missing from this source. Where there are no concordances to fill in the gaps, this means the piece will require reconstruction.
A green clef means the voice is incomplete in this source. This might denote a fragment of a larger work, or a e.g. canonic voice that isn't written out in full.
A faded clef means much of the piece can be performed without this voice. For example, an extra 6th voice in the Agnus Dei of an otherwise 5vv Mass setting, or a short gimel in a big votive antiphon. Filtering by number of voices will exclude these clefs, while filtering by a specific voice combination will include them.
A blue clef denotes a voice that uses more than one clef in this source - this is particularly prevalent in earlier printed sources. We've estimated the larger clef on the left to be the most used to give an idea of voice distribution at a glance.
An X clef is used as a placeholder for voices we know are necessary, but haven't yet worked out which! This can be because there are no extant sources for a missing voice and no reconstruction has yet been attempted (it will normally become obvious which voice is missing once editing starts), or because we have catalogued a source from an incomplete facsimile that we know to be complete elsewhere.
Title |
Function(s) |
Composer |
# |
Sources |
Audite reges auribus
|
|
Reiner, Jacob
before 1560–1606
|
8 |
|
Audite reges - Inclinate aurem vestram
|
|
Sermisy, Claudin de
c.1490–1562
|
4 |
|
Audite verbum Domini
|
Advent I |
Croce, Giovanni
c.1557–1609
|
8 |
|
Audite verbum Domini - Annunciate et auditum
|
Advent I |
Donato, Baldassare
1529–1603
|
5 |
|
Audite vocem meum
|
|
Gindron, François
c.1491–after 1560
|
4 |
Quartus liber modulorum, quatuor, qui... (RISM 1555/14)
Quartus liber modulorum, quatuor, quinque et sex vocum, (quos vulgus moteta vocat) à quibusvis celeberrimis authoribus excerptus, & nunc primùm in lucem aeditus.
[Geneva]: Du Bosc, Simon and Guéroult, Guillaume, 1555
(Partbook, Print)
RISM
#1
|
|
Attrib: F. Gindron |
|
|
Audivi vocem angelorum multorum
|
Easter II |
Leoni, Leone
c.1560–1627
|
8 |
|
Audivi vocem angelorum multorum
|
Easter II |
Agazzari, Agostino
c.1580–1642
|
2 |
Sacrarum cantionum, quae binis, terni... (RISM A353)
Sacrarum cantionum, quae binis, ternis, quaternisque vocibus concinuntur. Liber II. Opus V. Motectorum. Cum basso ad organum
Venice: Amadino, Ricciardo, 1608
(Partbook, Print)
RISM
#15
|
|
Attrib: Augustini Agazzari |
|
Sacrarum cantionum, quae binis, terni... (RISM A354)
Sacrarum cantionum, quae binis, ternis, quaternisque vocibus concinuntur. Liber II. Opus V. Motectorum. Cum basso ad organum
Venice: Amadino, Ricciardo, 1609
(Partbook, Print)
RISM
#15
|
|
Attrib: Augustini Agazzari |
|
|
Audivi vocem de caelo
|
|
Lobo, Duarte
?1594–1646
|
6 |
Liber missarum IIII. V. VI. et VIII. ... (RISM L2591)
Liber missarum IIII. V. VI. et VIII. vocibus
Antwerp: Plantin, Christophe and Moreti, Balthasar, 1621
(Choirbook, Print)
RISM
#12
|
|
Attrib: Edvardi Lvpi |
|
|
Audivi vocem de caelo dicentem beati mortui
The Cardinall's Musick
|
Office for the dead |
Byrd, William
c.1540–1623
|
5 |
Baldwin partbooks (GB-Och 979-983)
Windsor: Baldwin, John, c.1575-c.1581
(Partbook, Print/MS)
#12
|
|
Attrib: mr w birde |
|
(GB-Ob Mus.Sch.e.423)
Oxford, c.1575-1586
(Partbook, MS)
#74
|
|
Attrib: Mr Byrde |
|
(GB-Ob Tenbury 389)
Oxford, c.1580-1610
(Partbook, MS)
#77
|
|
Attrib: mr Byrd |
|
Dow partbooks (GB-Och 984-988)
Oxford: Baldwin, John and Dow, Robert, c.1581-c.1588
(Partbook, MS)
#33
|
|
Attrib: Mr Wm Birde |
|
(GB-CF D/DP Z6/1)
Chelmsford, c.1590
(Partbook, MS)
RISM
#20
|
|
Attrib: Mr Birde |
|
McGhie MS (GB-DORmcghie)
Wimborne, c.1595-c.1613
(Partbook, MS)
#77
|
|
Attrib: Mr B |
|
(GB-Ob Tenbury 341-344)
Oxford, c.1600-c.1650
(Partbook, MS)
#17
|
|
Attrib: Mr Byrde |
|
|
Audivi vocem de caelo dicentem venite virgines
|
All Saints |
Taverner, John
c.1490–1545
|
4 |
|
Audivi vocem de caelo dicentem venite virgines
Taverner Consort
|
All Saints |
Tallis, Thomas
c.1505–1585
|
4 |
|
Audivi vocem de caelo dicentem venite virgines
|
All Saints |
Sheppard, John
c.1515–1558
|
4 |
|
Audivi vocem de caelo tamquam vocem aquarum multarum
|
Holy Innocents |
Bagni, Benedetto
fl.1608
|
8 |
|
Audivi vocem de caelo tanquam vocem tonitrui magni
|
Easter II |
Lalleman, Laurens
|
5 |
|
Audivi vocem de caelo tanquam vocem tonitrui magni
|
Easter II |
Belli, Giulio
c.1560–after 1620
|
6 |
Sacrarum cantionum quaturo, quinque, ... (RISM B1761)
Sacrarum cantionum quaturo, quinque, sex, octo, & duodecim voc. Cum Litaniis Beatae Virginis Mariae. Liber Primus
Venice: Gardano, Angelo, 1600
(Partbook, Print)
RISM
#13
|
|
Attrib: Ivlii Belli |
|
Promptuarii musici sacras harmonias s... (RISM 1613/2)
Promptuarii musici sacras harmonias sive motetas V. VI. VII. & VII. vocum ... Pars tertia
Strasbourg: Kieffer, Carl, 1613
(Partbook, Print)
#53
|
|
Attrib: Julii Belli |
|
|
Audivi vocem de caelo tanquam vocem tonitrui magni
|
Easter II |
Lipparini, Guglielmo
fl.1600–1637
|
8 |
|
Audivi vocem de caelo tanquam vocem tonitrui magni - Et vox de throno
|
All Saints, Easter II |
Manchicourt, Pierre de
c.1510–1564
|
6 |
|
Audivi vocem in caelo angelorum multorum dicentium
|
Easter II |
Aleotti, Raffaella
c.1570–after 1640
|
5 |
|
Audivi vocem quasi tubae
|
All Saints |
Massaino, Tiburtio
before 1550–after 1608
|
5 |
|
Audivi vocem vestram
|
|
Brouck, Jacob de
fl.1568–1583
|
6 |
|
Au doux vergier Ada se desarma
|
|
Anon
|
4 |
Tiers livre, ou sont contenues plusie... (RISM 1555/17)
Tiers livre, ou sont contenues plusieurs chansons tirées du recueil: des meileures tant anciennes que modernes, composées de divers excellents musiciens: desquelles avons changé la verbe lubrique en lettre spirituelle et chrestienne. Le tout à quatre parties & en quatre livres.
[Geneva]: Du Bosc, Simon and Guéroult, Guillaume, 1555
(Partbook, Print)
RISM
#18
|
|
Attrib: Anon |
Contratenor pages missing |
|
Aufer a me iniquitates - Ego clamabo in caelum
|
|
Morel, Clement
fl.1534–1552
|
4 |
|
Aufer a nobis Domine cunctas iniquitates nostras - Miserere populi tui
|
|
Knöfel, Johann
1525-1530–1617
|
6 |
|
Aufer immensam Deus
|
|
Elsbeth, Thomas
d. after 1624
|
6 |
Selectissimae et novae cantiones sacr... (RISM E656)
Selectissimae et novae cantiones sacrae vulgo motecta appellatae, nec umquam antehac in lucem emissae sex vocum tum ad vivam, tum ad omnis generis
Frankfurt: Hartmann, Friedrich, 1600
(Partbook, Print)
RISM
#15
|
|
Attrib: Thomam Elsbethum |
|
|
Aufer iram a corde tuo
|
|
Benoist, Nicolaus
fl.1538–1540
|
4 |
|