music libraries in eastern europe: a visit in the summer of 1961 (part iii)

Music Libraries in Eastern Europe: A Visit in the Summer of 1961 (Part III)Author(s): Dragan PlamenacSource: Notes, Second Series, Vol. 19, No. 4 (Sep., 1962), pp. 584-598Published by: Music Library AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/894604 .

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MUSIC LIBRARIES IN EASTERN EUROPE A Visit in the Summer of 1961 (Part III)

BY DRAGAN PLAMENAC

Weimar's Thiiringische Landesbibliothek (Director Dr. Iwan) proved only moderately rich in older music. The holdings were evacuated during the war and suffered minor losses. The library does not have a special music catalog; earlier musical imprints-both books and practical music- are listed in a handwritten inventory dating from the 18th century and carrying the inscription "Bibliotheca Philosophica," Vol. 2. Among old theoretical works the following may be mentioned: M. Koswick, Compendiaria musicae artis, 1520; Cochlaeus, Tetrachordon, 1520; Ornitoparchus, Micrologus, 1521; Bogentantz, Rudimenta, 1535; Sebald Heyden, Musicae ... libri duo, 1537. Worth mentioning among the practical music are: Joh. Cristoph Ziegler, Intavolatura per Viola da gamba (no place or date but late 17th century. Eitner, in his Quellen-Lexikon, reproduces the title after Gerber and does not know a copy); Vittoria Aleotti, Ghirlanda de madrigali a 4 v., Ven., Vincenti, 1593; Arcangelo Gherardini, Motecta cum 8 v., Mediol., F. & haer. S. Tini, 1587; H. L. Hassler, Lustgarten mit 4, 5, 6, & 8 St., Niirnberg, 1601; Valerius Otto, Musa Jessaea, Lipsiae, Lamberg, 1609 (unknown to Eitner); Hier. Praetorius, Magnificat 8 v. cum motetis, Hamburg, 1602; Michael Praetorius, Polyhymnia caduceatrix, Wolfenbiittel, 1619; H. Schiitz, Musicalia . . . d.i. Geistliche Chormusic, 1648. There are only a few interesting older music manuscripts, above all M. 8. 29b, a 17th-century keyboard tablature, and Q.341b, containing a "Tabulatur Buch geistlicher Gesange ... sambt beygefiigten Choral-Fugen" by Joh. Pachelbel, dated 1704. An item of note also is the manuscript of an extensive theoretical work by Joh. Gottfried Walther, the lexicographer and organist, entitled "Praecepta der musicalischen Composition," with a dedication to Prince Johann Ernst of Saxony dated 1708. A table of contents of the treatise was published by Eitner in his Monatshefte, Vol. IV (1872), and a detailed description by H. Gehrmann in the Vierteljahrsschrift fiir Musikwissenschaft, Vol. VII (1891), but the text of the work was not

printed until 1955 (ed. by P. Benary). The musical archive of the Weimar Stadtkirche (Herderkirche) does not

seem to have suffered any losses. The most important among its volumes containing older polyphonic music is Chorbuch A compiled in the 16th

century. Present-day Weimar lives on memories of its great literary and musical

past and offers interesting sights to the "sentimental" traveler. The ghosts of Goethe and Schiller, Liszt and Wagner still haunt the older parts of the town, especially the former ducal residence and the extensive grounds traversed by the gently winding Ilm river and once frequented by some of

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the foremost literary and artistic figures of Germany's classic and romantic periods. Possibly the strongest impression of this vanished world is obtained by a visit to Goethe's family home, part of which is being kept in the form in which it was occupied by the poet while another part of the mansion has recently been remodeled to house a museum illustrating the evolution of Goethe's life and thought. The museum's plan is inter- estingly conceived and the exhibited material skilfully arranged, but a pronounced Marxist tendency in its presentation must be taken in stride.

Erfurt, a larger city and much more alive today than Weimar, is generally known from its connection with post-Napoleonic political history. In the past, however, it was an important center of learning and until 1816 the seat of a university. The major library in the city has been designated, successively, by the names Universitats-Bibliothek, (K6nigliche) Offentliche Bibliothek, Stadtbiicherei, and now bears the name Wissenschaftliche Bibliothek der Stadt Erfurt. The most important part of the library by far is the section called "Amploniana," a collection of medieval manuscripts once owned by the late 14th- and early 15th-century physician and scholar Amplonius Ratinck and presented by him in 1412 to a college of Erfurt University. The collection consists of about 1,000 codices that have been described in detail in W. Schum's printed catalog.1 The manuscripts that are a part of the Amploniana are marked "C.A." whereas those out- side the Amploniana are marked "C.E." (Codices Erfordenses). In accordance with Ratinck's main field of interest, many of the manuscripts once owned by him deal with the natural sciences. There are no important individual sources of music among the codices, but this does not mean that there is at the Amploniana nothing to glean in the field of music. Indeed, five manuscripts in this collection have been singled out and studied by Jacques Handschin in an essay published in the Acta Musicologica, Vol. VI (1934), under the title "Erfordensia I." (A second article never appeared.) The codices studied by Handschin date, respectively, from the 14th and early 15th centuries. They consist of disparate elements, musical and non-musical; the musical material concerns both theoretical and practical music (early medieval polyphony and monophonic church song, as the case may be). The library marks of these manuscripts are as follows: 8° 44, Qu. 67, Qu. 332, Qu. 347, and 2° 169. Further investiga- tions into the codices of the Amploniana may yield other material of interest to the musical medievalist. It is good to know that the Erfurt library suffered no damage during the war. I was told that photographic repro- ductions of library material are readily available and may be dispatched to the U.S.

The old residential city of Gotha does not seem to have been much damaged by bombs but its important library-now called Landesbibliothek

1Beschreibendes Verzeichnis der Amplonianischen Handschriften-Sammlung in Erfurt, Berlin, 1887.

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-sustained conspicuous losses none the less. The library (Director Frank, Dr. Fiillner) is located in historic Friedenstein castle, in former times the residence of the ducal family. The library does not have a general catalog; a comprehensive inventory is in the making. The library's manuscripts are listed in three handwritten volumes, the first of which covers manuscripts on paper in folio and quarto size, the second those on paper in octavo size, and the third those on parchment. The codices, together with the three-volume inventory, were taken to the Soviet Union after the war and returned in 1956. The Gotha collections contain great treasures in French illuminated 15th-century manuscripts, oriental manuscripts, incunabula with miniatures, old bindings, and so on. As I was told, the manuscripts in their great majority are now back in Gotha; but enormous quantities of printed volumes have not (yet?) returned from places of evacuation.

One of the most brilliant eras in the history of the city was the mid- eighteenth century when the ducal court at Gotha became a center of intellectual and artistic activity under Duchess Louise Dorothee, who was an enthusiastic follower of the ideas of the French encyclopedists and entertained a lively correspondence with Voltaire. Among the outstanding musicians who were drawn to her court was Georg Benda. The Duchess also provided the initiative for the publication of the Correspondance litteraire, a kind of literary and artistic chronicle issued by Melchior Grimm in Paris from 1753 on, which became a source of the first magnitude for our knowledge of contemporary arts and letters. Grimm remained for decades, long after the Duchess had died, in close contact with the Gotha court where he died in 1807. It is not surprising, then, that there should have been preserved at Gotha extensive manuscript material that shows discrepancies with the text of the printed Paris editions of the Corre- spondance (1829 and 1877), as well as material concerning the musicians who were active at the Gotha court during this period as composers, con- ductors, performers, and teachers.

Bibliographical tools at Gotha for the musically interested visitor also

comprise a handwritten "Verzeichnis der Musikalien und der Schriften iiber Musik" compiled in 1937-38 in two large volumes, and a separate one-volume "Catalogus Canticorum Spiritualium" compiled in 1938-39, both by H. Gaensler. The "Catalogus" covers an extensive collection of printed song- and hymn-books from the 16th century on, among them

many polyphonic works. In addition, the Gotha library owns a substantial collection of Leichenmotetten-funeral motets composed as parts of eulogies honoring deceased persons of distinction, a type of composition whose popularity lasted in Germany from ca. 1580 to 1750. These "motets," depending on the period, vary as to form from simple monophonic songs to elaborate cantatas. (The largest accumulation of such funeral motets- about 24,000 items-was formerly preserved in the collection of the counts (princes) of Stolberg-Stolberg and is now at the Central State Archive in Diisseldorf.)

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The Gotha library does not possess important manuscripts of older polyphonic music, with the exception of the so-called Waltersches Choral- buch (Cod. Chart. A.98), a MS in folio containing sacred compositions on Latin and German text for 4 to 7 parts and dated 1545. Composers' names are lacking for the most part but include Josquin, Verdelot, La Rue, Lupus, Senfl, Mouton, Finck, Rener, (Pseudo-)Obrecht, and two German Passions by Joh. Walter (cf. Eitner Q.-L. X,169-170; MGG, art. Gotha). Another music manuscript of some interest is a little volume formerly owned by, and bearing the signature of, Duke Friedrich II, dated 1709. It contains anonymous suites for the clavier. A notice on this manuscript by H. Gaensler may be found in the local periodical Rund um den Friedenstein, Vol. 15, (1938), No. 22.

Of the very substantial pre-war collection of musical incunabula and other early music books in the Gotha Landesbibliothek the following are still extant (many others are missing): Tinctoris, Terminorum musicae diffinitorium, Treviso ca. 1495 (library mark: Mon.typ.40 113; cf. J. Wolf, "Verzeichnis der musiktheor. Inkunabeln," in Vol. II of the publications of the Paul Hirsch music library, Berlin 1922, p.80); Bonaventura de Brixia, Regula musice plane, Venice n.d. (Mon.typ.40 25; cf. J. Wolf, l.c. p.90); Compendium musices confectum ad faciliorem introductionem discantuum, Venice 1509 (Mon.typ.1509, 4° 22); Holthenser, Encomium musicae, Erfurt 1551; A. Petit Coclico, Compendium, 1552; Seb. Heyden, De arte canendi, 1540; J. Zangius, Practicae musicae praecepta, 1554; Aiguino, La illuminata . . ., 1562; Avianus, Isagoge, Erfurt 1581; Crusius, Isagoge, Nuremberg 1592; Zacconi, Prattica di musica, 1596; Theoph. Keiser, Musica nova, Steinfurt 1602; Alsted, Elementale, 1611; Crappius, Musicae artis elementa, 1608; Biittner, Rudimenta, 1625; Lippius, Synopsis, 1612; Joach. Thuringus, Nucleus musicus, Berlin 1622; Friccius, Music- Biichlein, Liineburg 1631; Scacchi, Cribrum musicum, 1643.

After completing my researches at the Gotha library, I took advantage of the opportunity and paid a rapid visit to the attractive hilly region of Thuringia. The trip took me to the Inselsberg, Eisenach, and back to Gotha over territory that has become familiar to every opera-goer through Wagner's Tannhduser. In the Wartburg, I saw Elisabeth's "teure Halle" with decorations dating from the mid-nineteenth century that seem to come out of a stage-setting for Wagner's opera; but on the Hirselberg, I am sorry to say, I was unable to find any trace of "Frau Venus."

The building that formerly housed the library of the university of Jena was completely destroyed during the war. As a consequence, the depart- ments of the library are now scattered among different places in the city: the main reading-room is temporarily located in a former eating-place; the books are stored elsewhere; and the administration is housed in still another building. Fortunately, the precious manuscript holdings of the library (Keeper of MSS Dr. Georg Karpe) did not suffer any damage or deterioration. This applies to the famous series of codices containing

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sacred polyphonic music of the 16th century as well as to the early 15th-century "Jenaer Liederhandschrift" (Pal.germ. 329). The codices containing polyphonic music have been made fully accessible through K. E. Roediger's excellent printed catalog (Die geistlichen Musikhand- schriften der U.-B. Jena, 2 vol., 1935). In addition to Roediger's catalog there is at the library a card catalog covering printed musical material. When I visited in Jena the cards for works before 1800 had just been separated from the rest and sent to Berlin for inclusion in the RISM inventory. At the end of his printed catalog of the Jena codices (see Textband, pp. 111-114) Roediger gives a list of various 16th-century musical imprints preserved at Jena. These imprints have not been included in the card catalog mentioned.

Zwickau's Ratsschulbibliothek (Director Frau M. Vater), exceptionally rich in music of the 16th and 17th centuries, is known to the librarian and historian through R. Vollhardt's Bibliographie published as a Beilage to the Eitner Monatshefte from 1893 to 1896. The library has been housed in the City Museum building since the latter's erection in 1914. At the time of my visit the address was "Lessingstrasse am Stalinplatz," but the name of the large square on which the building is situated very likely has recently been changed. The building and its entire contents are in perfect pre-war condition and Vollhardt's catalog is still valid, although the Zwickau library's copy of the book contains a large number of later additions and corrections.

One of the library's interesting manuscripts, CXV,3 (Cat. No. 50), is a 17th-century lute tablature using German tablature notation. A complete table of contents of the mauscript may be found in J. Dieckmann, Die in deutscher Lautentabulatur iiberlieferten Tdnze des 16. Jahrhunderts, 1931, p. 109 ff., where, however, the glosses in a Slavic tongue that accompany the individual pieces have been partly omitted and partly misread. The tablature contains mostly dances (galliards, passamezzi, saltarelli) and among them, on pp. 28 and 43, are two versions of a galliard attributed in the source to "Cyprian." In an early article in the Archiv fiir Musikwis- senschaft,2 Leo Schrade discussed the possibility that these pieces were written by Cipriano de Rore, and ventured the opinion that the Slavic tongue of the marginal notes might be Polish. An examination of the manuscript established that the text is not in Polish but in Czech, and that consequently the tablature is of Czech origin.

Of the architectural landmarks of 18th-century Dresden, artistically and authentically recorded for posterity in the paintings of Bernardo Bellotto, almost nothing had been left standing after the bombings of the last war. The entire old core of the city was obliterated and many square miles of urban territory laid waste. Of these monuments of a bygone age only the imaginative and graceful Zwinger complex has recently been rebuilt, as a

2 "Eine Gagliarde von Ciprian de Rore?" in Archiv fur Musikwissenschaft, Vol. VIII (1926), p. 385-389.

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representative local showplace and to provide room for the city's famous gallery of paintings after its return from exile in the Soviet Union. The pathetic remnants of other monuments of architecture such as the Frauenkirche are being allowed further to decay in a state of complete abandon.

The city's main library, called Sichsische Landesbibliothek, had been known as a repository of musical source material of the first importance for certain areas of music history, especially the 18th century. Its music division as it existed before the war developed from 1896 on through the gradual consolidation of the older holdings of the "Royal Public Library" with the private music collection of the Saxon kings and numerous collections deposited with the library for safekeeping by educational and ecclesiastical institutions of the city and region. (As far as the local church collections are concerned, those of the Frauenkirche and Sophien- kirche were completely wiped out in the last war; the substantial body of music that once belonged to the Catholic Hofkirche suffered heavy losses.) The historic building in which the library was housed, the so-called "Japanisches Palais," was leveled by bombs; the collections found shelter in a spacious former barracks building on the outskirts of the city (Marienallee 12), made available by the Soviet military authorities until permanent new quarters can be built in a more central location. The music holdings that suffered most were those belonging to the 19th and 20th centuries; the amount of practical music destroyed approximated 75%, that of modern literature on music 90% of the original holdings. Com- pletely blotted out was the library's important old collection of opera librettos; some of it has been reconstituted since on the basis of material derived from the City Library and new acquisitions. Older source material, printed and manuscript, has on the whole been preserved, but a large number of valuable older items suffered substantial damage from humidity to which these materials were exposed for long stretches of time in their places of evacuation. Under the guidance of its director, Dr. B. Burge- meister, and Acting Chief of the Music Division W. Reich,3 the library is doing a superior job of restoring the deteriorated material, as far as humanly possible, to its former condition. A special laboratory has been organized (expert in charge Herr Thamm), equipped with all facilities, in which damaged books and manuscripts are being rehabilitated by means of the most varied and up-to-date methods. I had an opportunity of becoming acquainted with the laboratory's equipment and was able to appreciate some of its remarkable achievements.

The most extensive collections of primary source material relative to individual composers in the Dresden Landesbibliothek are characterized by the names of Fasch, Hasse, Heinichen, Naumann, Quantz, Vivaldi, and Zelenka; most of these men were connected with the Dresden court for

3 Mr. Reich is preparing a doctoral dissertation at Leipzig University on the subject of the vast literature of "Leichenmotetten" mentioned above.

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extended periods of time. The collections of works by these composers comprise both printed and manuscript material (including autographs). The Dresden collection of works by Vivaldi is second only to the body of works by the Venetian master in the Foa and Giordano collections at the Turin Biblioteca Nazionale; of Zelenka, Dresden possesses by far the largest number of works that have been preserved in any single library.

The only music catalog of the Dresden library that has ever appeared in print is the one published by R. Eitner and 0. Kade as a supplement to Eitner's Monatshefte in 1889-1890. It covers the basic holdings of the former "Kinigliche Offentliche Bibliothek," which at best comprise a fourth of the material in the Landesbibliothek. Of catalogs and inventories available at the library before the war only the systematic card catalog of practical music has been preserved. It is organized in chronological order (according to composers' birthdates). The cards for the surviving material have been separated from those for the material that was lost; in addition, there has been made of the card catalog a copy arranged in alphabetical order. The "deposita" at the Dresden library, collections that the Landes- bibliothek had taken over for safekeeping from other institutions, include a considerable number of 16th- and 17th-century printed anthologies to which handwritten fascicles were added containing further miscellaneous compositions. A catalog of this MS material added to copies of printed Sammelwerke was prepared in 1959 by Dr. H. Kiimmerling (now in Liidenscheid, West Germany). It is in one of these handwritten fascicles that an unknown motet by H. Schiutz was found in 1960 by Dr. W. Braun (see the above report on Halle). The motet has been published by Baren- reiter under No. 1722. A copy of Dr. Kiimmerling's inventory has been deposited at the Musikwissenschaftliches Archiv in Kassel; in addition, an alphabetical card catalog of this miscellaneous material has been prepared by the Dresden library. Summing up, it may rightly be said that the energy and resourcefulness displayed by the administration of the Dresden Landesbibliothek in overcoming serious handicaps and solving problems left over as a legacy of war have been a most heartening experience.

In moving into Czechoslovakia, the visitor desirous of assessing wartime losses sustained by music libraries and achieving a clearer idea of the present state of musical source material is confronted with a situation basically different from the one prevailing in Poland and East Germany. Unlike libraries in the latter countries, the fate of which was determined by wide-spread bombings and the conditions under which the library holdings were evacuated and stored, library buildings in Bohemia and Moravia and their contents were left untouched by actual warfare. The

problem here proved to be one of "addition" rather than of "subtraction": instead of experiencing losses the public patrimony of old books and manuscripts found itself substantially increased by the nationalization of a large

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number of private collections and archives scattered throughout the territory in the residences of the old nobility. It had of course been known that some of these collections-for example the music archives of the Lobkovic family formerly kept at Roudnice castle-are exceptionally rich; but only now has a situation been created that will make it possible in the future to gain access to these nationalized collections which, as I was told, amount approximately to one million and three or four hundred thousand items. It also has to be borne in mind that this widely scattered material before its nationalization was very incompletely cataloged, if at all. Naturally, this situation cannot be changed overnight. A part of the nationalized material has been brought to Prague where it is being processed and cataloged; but a substantial portion has been left in the provinces for the time being. Moreover, the material transferred to Prague has not been permanently stored as yet; items are occasionally shifted for reasons of administrative expediency. Thus the handling of this material seems still to be in a state of flux, and this should explain why some of the recently nationalized sources may not yet be as readily accessible to the casual visitor as items that have for decades or centuries been preserved in public collections and are listed in printed catalogs.

Musical source materials in Prague are scattered among numerous cultural institutions. Here is a list of the most important among them: 1. the Stdtni a Universitni Knihovna (Czechoslovak State and University Library) occupying the vast building complex known as the Clementinum; 2. the library of the Ndrodni Museum (National Museum) in its main building on Vaclavske Namesti (St. Wenceslas Square); 3. the Hudebni Odde'leni Ndrodniho Musea (Music Division of the National Museum) in the Old Town, Velkoprevorske Namesti 4; 4. the library of the Metropolitan Chapter of St. Vitus Cathedral in Hradcany castle; 5. the library of the Pamdtnik Narodniho Pisemnictvi (National Letters Memorial), formerly the Strahov Monastery; 6. the archive of the Stdtni Konservator Hudby (State Con- servatory of Music) in the Rudolfinum building.

The Czechoslovak State Library was formed by the recent consolidation of several libraries into a representative central institution that compares to national or state libraries in other countries. Among the component parts of the newly-established State Library which kept their old names within the new system, the most important by far is the University Library whose origins can ultimately be traced back to the foundation of Prague University in the 14th century. Before 1952 its name was "National and University Library." Another new development is the establishment of a separate Music Division, capably headed by Dr. Marie Svobodova. The old music manuscripts of the University Library have not been made a part of the Music Division but continue to be kept in the Department of Manuscripts. They are recorded in the well-known general manuscript catalog by J. Truhlar, two volumes of which cover the Latin MSS (Catalogus codicum manu scriptorum latinorum, 1905-1906) and a third volume the

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Czech MSS (Katalog ceskych rukopisu, 1906. In addition, Part I of a catalog of German MSS (up to 1550) was published in 1909. During the last decades a large number of manuscripts has been added to the collection; these volumes are not listed in the Truhlar catalogs. For the past five years Dr. V. Plocek has been working on a comprehensive and up-to-date inventory of medieval music manuscripts (until 1500) in the University Library; he expects to complete this work in another three to four years. A very informative article by Dr. Plocek on the music manuscripts in the library and his work on the new catalog may be found in a publication entitled "Rocenka Universitni Knihovny v Praze 1958" (Year-Book of the Prague University Library for 1958), pp. 12-20. I regret that Dr. Plocek was absent from Prague at the time of my visit and that I was unable to meet him. I took advantage, however, of the opportunity to make "personal" acquaintance with some codices that had been old friends under the guise of microfilms, among them XI E 9, the well-known early 15th-century manuscript of Strasbourg provenance, and some prominent Czech collections of the 16th and early 17th centuries, containing both monophonic and polyphonic material. Among these MSS were VI B 24, with liturgical music on Latin and Czech texts, and XI B 1 abcd, an elaborate codex of four volumes in folio containing a single voice-part each (one volume missing), copied in 1573-1578 for the use of the church of St. Michael in Prague and including works by G. Rychnovsky, J. T. Turnovsky, and other com-

posers. This manuscript is an example of the numerous significant collections of church music ("Cantionals") produced from the late fifteenth to the early seventeenth centuries at many Bohemian and Moravian churches thanks to the activities of so-called "literary confraternities." These asso- ciations contributed importantly to the development and spreading of

polyphonic choral singing and composition throughout old Bohemia. The holdings of old printed music in the University Library are also

very considerable. Among its many rare items we may single out 11 B 41, a collection of Italian monodies of the early 17th century bound in one volume by a contemporary music lover. The collection was already known to A. G. Ambros and has been described in detail by J. Racek in a mis-

cellany published in 1958 by the University of Brno ("Sbornik praci filosoficke fakulty brnenske university").

The body of old music manuscripts in the Prague National Museum, kept in its main building on Wenceslas Square, has been listed in a two- volume catalog by F. M. Bartos (Soupis rukopisu Ndrodniho Musea, 1926-1927). Keeper of MSS is Dr. J. Tich). The collection includes codices of prime importance for the history of music in Bohemia, such as the early 15th-century Czech cantional of Jistebnice (II C 7), the Hussite Latin Gradual of Martin of Vyskytna (XIII A 2), and other basic sources that testify to the lively activity in the field of church music in Bohemian lands at this period. In addition to administering its old collection of manuscripts, the National Museum has recently been put in charge of

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handling and cataloging the large body of music of every description that has been taken over by the State following nationalization of archives and collections in the castles of the high nobility scattered all over Bohemia. To this effect a special Music Division has been set up at the National Museum, which is housed in a palace in the Old Town. The amount of material taken over is so considerable that it will take years to complete the cataloging and to make the material fully available to scholars. Only when this work and the cataloging of medieval music manuscripts in the University Library are completed will it be possible to get an adequate idea of the rich collections of old musical source material contained in the two most important Prague libraries. Chief of the Music Division of the National Museum is Dr. A. Buchner, who has been particularly active in the field of the history of musical instruments. Utilizing material assembled from various sources, Dr. Buchner has succeeded in building up in the newly established Music Division a first-rate collection of instruments which rivals older collections of international repute. In recent years Dr. Buchner's name has become known through the publication of attractive and widely disseminated iconographic books on musical instruments based for the most part on material drawn from the collection at the Prague museum.

In the immediate vicinity of the Music Division of the National Museum, on Maltezske Namesti (Maltese Square) is the seat of the Knihovna Josefa Dobrovskeho (J. Dobrovsky Library). This is the new name that has been given to the book collection formerly owned by the counts Nostitz. It is housed in the beautiful old Nostitz palace and is likewise being administered as a branch of the National Museum. It is in this library that a complete copy of the oldest printed collection of Italian organ music-A. Antico's Frottole intabulate da sonare organi, 1517 (RISM I, 15173)-was discovered after the last war. The only other copy known, in a private collection now at Milan, is incomplete.

Time was too short for me to visit the Metropolitan Chapter Library on Hradcany Hill. Its important old holdings of music were cataloged by A. Podlaha in 1926. I found time, however, for a brief visit to the library of the former Strahov Monastery. This old and distinguished Premonstra- tensian foundation was abolished in 1948 and its library nationalized be- cause of attitudes "inimical to the Government." The institution has been transformed into a "National Letters Memorial" (Pamdtnik Ndrodniho Pisemnictvi) and is administered by the Czech Academy of Sciences. At Strahov, too, I wanted to examine manuscripts that had been familiar to me under the form of microfilms. One of them was the late 15th-century codex D.G. IV 47 (see my article "Browsing Through a Little-Known Manuscript" in the Journal of the American Musicological Society, Vol. XIII, 1960). Unfortunately, it was vacation time, and both the director, Dr. J. Vaclavkova, and Prof. Mrkvicka, in charge of manuscripts, were unavailable. The codices were in their recesses under lock and key and

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I was unable to examine any of them. Nevertheless, I was kindly shown around the historic buildings situated in an impressive spot overlooking the city. The lavishly decorated representative halls of the former monastery's library rival similar baroque structures in Austria, South Germany, and Switzerland. I was also given an opportunity to look into the existing old catalogs, which I found deficient. However, I was told that just as there is a new card catalog in the making at the Music Division of the National Museum, so there is one in the making at Strahov also. Once the catalog is completed, it will open up for full investigation a collection of source material of considerable importance.

The last of the repositories of source material mentioned above is the archive of the State Conservatory of Music, housed in the Rudolfinum building. Although it cannot compare to the great collections of musical sources in the University Library, National Museum, and the Strahov Pamdtnik, it possesses a few interesting manuscripts, such as the Benes'ov Cantional (1576-1588) containing compositions by J. T. Turnovsky.

Scholarly editions of older Czech music have been published chiefly in two series. The more voluminous of the two, named Musica Antiqua Bohemica, has recently reached its fiftieth number; it may be regarded as the Czech counterpart to the Polish series "Wydawnictwo Dawnej Muzyki Polskiej" (see NOTES for last March, p. 229). It includes, in critical editions for practical performance, compositions from the second half of the 17th century (P. J. Vejvanovsky) to the dawn of 19th-century romanticism (J. H. Voiris'ek). A very useful thematic catalog by J. Pohanka of the works contained in the fifty volumes already published has recently been issued with an introduction by Prof. J. Racek of the University of Brno. The other series of old music bears the title Hudebne Historicke

Dokumenty (Musico-Historical Documents); it is not exclusively devoted to monuments of Czech music but also comprises anthologies of international vocal music of the Middle Ages and Renaissance. There are in this series three issues of interest from the standpoint of Bohemian music history: Umeni Vokilni Polyfonie (The Art of Vocal Polyphony), 1955 (ed. by J. Vanickj), which includes some older compositions of Czech origin; Ceski Polyfonni Tvorba (Czech Polyphonic Production), 1958 (ed. by J. Snizkova), entirely devoted to Czech vocal music of the late Renaissance; and a collected edition of the preserved compositions by Christoph Harant of Polzic, one of the most significant figures in Czech

musical, literary, and political history of the late 16th and early 17th centuries (1958, ed. by J. Berkovec).

The fact that the architectural monuments of Prague had been left untouched by the war was cause for sincere rejoicing. The city in its natural setting, its old palaces, churches, gardens, offer sights of rare beauty. At the time of my visit this beauty was marred by the ugly memorial to J. Stalin erected in a commanding position on Letna Hill. According to recent reports the monument has since been removed.

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Continuing my journey through Bohemia I next stopped at Hradec Krdlove for a visit to the Krajske vlastivednk Museum (Regional Museum) sheltering a number of remarkable music manuscripts. Most important among these codices are the so-called Franus Cantional written in 1505 for the local literary confraternity, the voluminous Specialnik Codex from about 1550, and several large-size manuscripts with polyphonic music from the late 16th century likewise copied for the Hradec "literators." Most conspicuous in this last group is MS II A 13, commonly known as the "Czech Cantional of Hradec Kralov6," richly adorned with miniatures and including compositions by G. Rychnovsky.4 Unluckily, the codices had been locked away in Hradec also, and the very obliging young attendant was unable to find the keys. Finally I was able to examine a collection of old material, printed and manuscript, leading a somewhat neglected life in a cupboard in the Museum's archive. The titles of some of the fragmentarily preserved 16th-century imprints in this group-among them the 1555 edition of H. Isaac's Choralis Constantinus-have been summarily cited in J. Buzga's article "Koniggratz" (the German name of Hradec Kralove) in MGG VII, 1368-9. The article does not, however, mention the manuscript items preserved in the same collection. It may be useful, therefore, to give at this place a list of this hitherto unknown material (the numbers refer to those used in the brief handwritten inventory kept at the Museum): 8660 a and b, 8717: Discantus, Altus, and Bassus parts of a 16th-century MS containing anonymous motets. The first fascicle of 8660a (Discantus) has been torn out. 8670: Discantus part only of a 16th-century collection of motets by Leritier, Joannes Simonides Montanus, I. [Isaac?], Brumen, Petrus Masse(n) us, Archadelt, Clem (ens) non Pa (pa), Henricus Schaffen, L.Z. [Zinssmeister?], T. Crequi(llon), Finot, Philippus Verdelot, Mailard. 8705: Bassus part only of an early 16th-century MS containing sacred compositions on Latin and Czech texts (Masses and motets). Composers represented: Barizon (Mass), I. Obrecht, and I.Ob. (I have been unable to trace these pieces in J. Wolf's Obrecht edition), Compere, H.J. [Isaac], A.D. (Kyrie and Gloria), and anonymous composers. 8707: Bassus part only of a 16th-century MS collection of motets on Latin and Czech texts, all anonymous. 8710-8711: Discantus and Vagans part-books of a 16th- century collection of anonymous motets. The handwriting seems to be the same as in 8660a and b and 8717. 8730: added to the Quinta Vox of a print lacking a title and containing compositions by Josquin, Ludo(vicus) S(enfl), and anonymous composers is a manuscript section of 12 pages. Authors mentioned are Josquin (Stabat mater) and Muschateller (Petrus Apostolus et Paulus doctor). In his MGG article Buzga asserts that the collection of old imprints at the Museum includes a copy of the "Petrucci

4A study of this MS by P. Hartmann, Cesky kanciondl krdlovehradecky, dealing with the codex primarily from the point of view of art history, is found in one of the Museum's recent publications (Prdce Krajskeho musea v Hradci Krdlove, Serie B, No. 2, 1959).

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Liber XV Missarum." A collection under this title was published, not by Petrucci but by A. Antico, in 1516; however, I was unable to find this print among the 16th-century material at Hradec and I note that preserved copies of the print listed in RISM I under 15161 do not include a copy at the Hradec Museum.

On my way from Hradec Kralov6 to Brno I had originally intended to visit Kromeriz (in German Kremsier), a city whose extensive musical collections have become known thanks to detailed printed catalogs by A. Breitenbacher (1928 ff.) and historical studies by P. Nettl, K. Vetterl, E. H. Meyer, and in recent years especially J. Sehnal. This Moravian town became in the second half of the 17th century a lively center of musical activities during the episcopate of the prince-bishop of Olomouc C. Liechten- stein Castelcorn, who maintained at his Krome5riz residence a remarkable instrumental ensemble. Composers of note such as P. Vejvanovsky and H. J. F. Biber were in the service of the bishop, and the music archives

preserved in the former archepiscopal residence contain a body of sacred and secular music of international significance. The archives also include material having its origin in the relations between an archbishop of Olomouc of more recent date, Archduke Rudolph, and his friend and teacher in composition, L. van Beethoven. After Rudolph's death in 1831, his valuable library and music collections were transferred to Vienna and

incorporated in the archives of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde; but a minor part of the material, including compositions by the Archduke, remained in Kromeriz. (Informative articles on this material, by P. Nettl and K. Vetterl, were published in the Zeitschrift fiir Muskwissenschaft, Vols. IV and IX, respectively.) Since the musical collections at the

Krom'erriz archives had already received so much attention and my time was limited, I decided to abstain from visiting this town and pay a fleeting visit to Olomouc instead.

The main library of Olomouc is the Stdtni Vedeckd Knihovna (Scientific State Library), Bezrucova 2, formerly known under the name Universitni Knihovna). This institution preserves a number of important late medieval musical codices, among them MS III E 8 (late 15th century), which contains a version of the famous song of St. Wenceslas ("Svaty Vaclave") in mensural notation. The song may have originated as early as the 13th

century; its importance with respect to music history and Czech national culture has been discussed in Zden'ek Nejedly's monumental work on the

history of Hussite chant (new edition under the title Dejiny husitskeho zpevu, Vol. II, 1954). Among sources of Baroque music preserved at the

library mention may be made of works, printed and manuscript, by the

distinguished 17th-century violinist and composer H. J. F. Biber. However, most of the musical material kept in Olomouc was transferred before the war to Kromeriz by A. Breitenbacher, former archivist of the Olomouc

archbishopric, who compiled the catalogs of the Kromeriz collections mentioned above.

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I took advantage of my brief stay in Olomouc to visit the Stdtni Archiv (State Archive), Wurmova 11 (Drs. J. Bistrickj and M. Kouril). In addition to charters and documents having reference to the Archdiocese, the Metropolitan Chapter, and the old University of Olomouc, the Archive preserves the valuable collection of codices from the 11th to the 18th century belonging to the Metropolitan Chapter. An excellently edited "Guide" (Prhvodce) through the material kept in the Archive was published last year. It includes a list of the Chapter's 635 manuscripts. Among these volumes, MS CO 362 (old library mark: I d 3) proved interesting from a musical standpoint. It is a 14th-15th-century collectanea of theologi- cal writings and vocabularies. On fol. 133v to 136V appear several three- part compositions in a 15th-century hand: a drinking song with Czech text, Naly piwa stareo (Pour in old ale), followed by sacred pieces, Margareta sponsa Christi and others. Naly piwa has been published in modern transcription as No. 71 in J. Pohanka's historical anthology of Czech music (see below). A 15th-century manuscript in the same collection at the Olomouc Archive, CO 300, contains another item of interest for the history of Czech music: the text of the "leich" Jizt' mne vse radost ostdvd by Magister Zavis (late 14th century). The music is found in a Munich manuscript and has been printed in J. Pohanka's anthology under No. 19.

There is a definite change of climate in moving from Prague to Brno. The provincial capital of Moravia seems to have increasingly become a stronghold of musico-historical research in Czechoslovakia, in contrast with Prague where studies in methodology, psychology, and similar subjects are currently favored. This situation, partly based on regional imponder- ables, has come about as a natural consequence of the establishment in 1919 of a music archive at the Brno Museum by the late Prof. Vladimir Helfert, the foremost figure in Czech musicology of the last generation; out of this archive grew the remarkable present-day "Musico-Historical Division of the Moravian Museum" (Moravske Museum, Hudebne Historicke Oddeleni). Partly descended from a titled German family but an ardent Czech patriot, Helfert died in 1945 of a disease contracted in a concentra- tion camp during the last war. He had received his musicological training at the Prague and Berlin universities. One of his early fields of interest was music that originated in the 18th century at the castles of the nobility in Moravia. This led to general studies on the Czech "musical emigration" during the Baroque and early classical periods, and to the foundation of a music archive at the Brno Museum as a center for the scholarly investigation of the various problems connected with Czech music. As part of his general plan Helfert also started a Janacek Archive, which has since become the leading center of research into this Moravian composer's life and work. As a professor at Brno University, Helfert trained a number of gifted musicologists of the younger generation who are now continuing his work along the lines laid down by their teacher. The direction of the Music Division at the Moravian Museum is being successfully carried on by

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Dr. Theodora Strakova assisted by Jaroslav Pohanka, whereas Helfert's position at the University has been assumed by Prof. Jan Racek. Racek's Ceskd Hudba (Czech Music), in its revised edition of 1958, is undoubtedly the best general handbook on the history of music in Bohemia and Moravia from the Middle Ages to the present. Particularly useful is the bibliographical section that comprises about 50 pages. There are no musical examples to be found in Racek's study; but his text is intended to be used concurrently with a comprehensive anthology of Czech music from the Middle Ages to Smetana to which Racek's book indeed constantly refers: J. Pohanka's Dejiny ceske hudby v prikladech (History of Czech Music in Examples), likewise published in 1958. The work recalls A. Schering's Geschichte der Musik in Beispielen in its title, its editorial principles, and its appearance; it has a wealth of material not to be found elsewhere.

In spite of the vast resources found in the libraries and other musical collections in the capital, there is to my knowledge no single institution in Prague that quite matches the Music Division of the Brno Museum as a center of historical research in Czech music both old and new. The Division has thematic catalogs of almost all the material it owns. Dr. Strakova is working on a comprehensive thematic catalog of works by Czech "musical expatriates" in former centuries, following the guiding principles set by the late Prof. Helfert. After the last war the Division came into the possession of important collections of music formerly kept in castles of the nobility and in monasteries on Moravian territory. Thus, the Division preserves the collections once owned by the counts Haugwitz at Ndmest' castle as well as those of the Benedictine monastery of Rajhrad (in German Raigern) and the Augustinian monastery of Old Brno. The material from Rajhrad includes a good collection of 18th-century compositions (Masses and other church music, symphonies, divertimenti, con- certos); particularly well represented are the following composers: F. X. Brixi, J. Brixides, Caldara, Dittersdorf, Eybler, Hasse, J. and M. Haydn, Holzbauer, V. V. Masek, G. Reutter, F. J. A. Tuma, Vanhal, Wagenseil. Both monastic collections, from Rajhrad and from Old Brno, comprise several manuscript tablatures for the lute, mandora, and guitar. Mr. Pohanka is working on a catalog of tablatures of every description that are at present preserved, or were formerly preserved, on Czechoslovak territory.

To the traveler approaching and crossing the southern border of Czecho- slovakia, the array of barbed wire, lookout posts, and floodlights that for miles accompany the train on both sides of the tracks cannot fail to

appear as a grim reminder of the "political realities." But to this writer, whose trip was now coming to an end, these paraphernalia of coercion seemed strangely paradoxical in the light of the goodwill and friendliness that he had experienced in the course of his journey. As far as his work, at least, is concerned, the "curtain" behind which he was moving proved to be made not of iron, but of a considerably less rigid material.

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