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 |
Las fortune de toy je fais mes plainctes
|
|
Anon
|
4 |
|
Las helas las seray
|
|
Anon
|
4 |
(B-Br 228)
Brussels, 1516-1523
(Choirbook, MS)
#33
|
|
Attrib: Anon |
|
|
Las il fauldra que ung estranger la maine
|
|
Anon
|
4 |
|
Las il n’a nul mal qui n’a le mal d’amour
|
|
Jeune, Claude le
c.1528–1600
|
5 |
|
Las j'ay peché devant ta face
|
|
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
#39
|
|
Attrib: Anon |
|
|
Las je languis
|
|
Clemens non Papa, Jacobus
c.1510–1555/1556
|
5 |
|
Las je languis
|
|
Maillard, Jean
fl.c.1538–1570
|
6 |
|
Las, je m'y plains, mauldicte soit fortune
|
|
Sermisy, Claudin de
c.1490–1562
|
4 |
|
Las je ne scay celle me laissera
|
|
Villiers, Pierre de
fl.c.1532–1550
|
4 |
|
Las me fault il tant de mal supporter
|
|
Maille
|
4 |
|
Las me faut il
Pothárn Imre
|
|
Lassus, Orlande de
c.1532–1594
|
5 |
Tiers livre des chansons a quatre cin... (RISM L764)
Tiers livre des chansons a quatre cincq et six parties novellement composez par Orlando di Lassus. Convenables tant aux instrumentez comme à la Voix
Leuven: Phalèse the Elder, Pierre, 1560
(Partbook, Print)
RISM
#16
|
|
Attrib: Orlando di Lassus |
= Las me fault il |
Mellange d'Orlande de Lassus, contena... (RISM L834)
Mellange d'Orlande de Lassus, contenant plusieurs chansons, tant en vers latins qu'en ryme francoyses. A quatre, cinc, six, huit, dix, parties
Paris: Ballard, Robert (i) and Le Roy, Adrian, 1570
(Partbook, Print)
RISM
#58
|
|
Attrib: Orlande |
|
|
Las me faut il - Oste moy doncq
|
|
Pevernage, Andreas
1542/1543–1591
|
5 |
|
Las ostes moi les douleurs qui jendure
|
|
Anon
|
4 |
|
La spagna
|
(Instrumental) |
Ghiselin, Johannes
fl.1491–1507
|
4 |
|
La Spagna
|
|
Anon
|
3 |
|
La speranza col timore
|
|
Tromboncino, Bartolomeo
1470–after1534
|
4 |
|
La speranza me tien vivo
|
|
Anon
|
4 |
|
L'aspetto sacro della terra vostra - Io che'l suo ragionar
|
|
Roussel, Francois
c.1510–after 1577
|
5 |
Il secondo libro de le muse a cinque ... (RISM 1559/16)
Il secondo libro de le muse a cinque voci composto da diversi eccellentissimi musici con uno madregale a sei di Giovan Nasco, et con doi dialoghi a otto, novamente stampato & dato in luce
Venice: Gardano, Antonio, 1559
(Partbook, Print)
RISM
#2
|
|
Attrib: Francesco Rosselli |
|
|
Las pourquoi meste vous si duere
|
|
Anon
|
4 |
|
Las, pourquoy donc
|
|
Phinot, Dominique
c.1510–c.1556
|
4 |
|
Las pourquoy m'estes vous si rude
|
|
Anon
|
4 |
|
L’aspre fureur de mon mal - Seroit ce un feu
|
|
Jeune, Claude le
c.1528–1600
|
4 |
|
Las que crains tu amy de quoy as deffiance
|
|
Sermisy, Claudin de
c.1490–1562
|
4 |
|
Las que feray
|
|
Wilder, Philip van
c.1500–1553
|
5 |
|
Las que mon dueil ne peult finir ma vie
|
|
Berchem, Jacquet de
c.1505–1567
|
4 |
|