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 |
Sint lumbi vestri praecincti - Vigilate ergo
|
|
Crecquillon, Thomas
c.1505–1557
|
5 |
Liber sextus cantionum sacrarum vulgo... (RISM 1554/5)
Liber sextus cantionum sacrarum vulgo moteta vocant, quinque et sex vocum ex optimis quibusque musics selectarum
Leuven: Phalèse the Elder, Pierre, 1554
(Partbook, Print)
RISM
#9
|
|
Attrib: Crequillon |
|
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
#6
|
|
Attrib: T. Crecquillon |
|
Liber sextus cantionum sacrarum vulgo... (RISM 1558/5)
Liber sextus cantionum sacrarum vulgo moteta vocant, quinque et sex vocum ex optimis quibusque musics selectarum
Leuven: Phalèse the Elder, Pierre, 1558
(Partbook, Print)
#9
|
|
Attrib: Crequillon |
|
Opus sacrarum cantionum (quas vulgo m... (RISM C4410)
Opus sacrarum cantionum (quas vulgo moteta vocant)
Leuven: Phalèse the Elder, Pierre, 1576
(Partbook, Print)
RISM
#35
|
|
Attrib: Thomae Criquillon |
|
|
Sint lumbi vestri - Vigilate ergo et orate
|
|
Deiss, Michael
fl.1564–1568
|
4 |
|
S'in veder voi madonna
|
|
Phinot, Dominique
c.1510–c.1556
|
6 |
|
S’in veder voi madonna fu sempr’il mio pensiero
|
|
Phinot, Dominique
c.1510–c.1556
|
6 |
|
Si oblitus fuero - Decantabat populus
|
|
Ninot le Petit
fl.c.1500
|
4 |
|
S’io canto tu mi spacci per cicala
|
|
Jeune, Claude le
|
4 |
|
S'io esca vivo
|
|
Lassus, Orlande de
c.1532–1594
|
6 |
Corona de madrigali a sei voci di div... (RISM 1579/2)
Corona de madrigali a sei voci di diversi eccellentissimi musici, novamente posti in luce. Libro primo
Venice: Scotto, Girolamo (heir of) and Mosto, Giovanni Battista, 1579
(Partbook, Print)
RISM
#2
|
|
Attrib: Orlando Lasso |
|
Gemma musicalis: Selectissimas varii ... (RISM 1588/21)
Gemma musicalis: Selectissimas varii stili cantiones (vulgo Italis madrigali et napolitane dicuntur) quatuor, quinque, sex et plurium vocum continens: quae ex diversis praetantissimorum musicorum libellis, in Italia excusis, decerptae, & in gratiam utriusque musicae studiosorum, uni quasi corpori insertae & in lucem editae sunt, studio & opera Friderici Linderi lignicensis. Liber primus
Nuremberg: Gerlach, Katharina and Lindner, Friedrich, 1588
(Partbook, Print)
RISM
#12
|
|
Attrib: Orlando di Lasso |
|
Sambrook book (US-NYp Drexel 4302)
London: Tregian, Francis (ii), 1613-1619
(Score, MS)
RISM
#172
|
|
Attrib: Orlando di Lassus |
|
|
Si offers munus tuum
|
|
Lambardi, Girolamo
fl.1586–1623
|
4 |
Antiphonae omnes iuxta ritum Romani b... (RISM L367b)
Antiphonae omnes iuxta ritum Romani breviarii pro totius anni dominicis diebus in primis, & secundis vesperis nunc primum ... Secunda pars
Venice: Caenobio Sancti Spiritus, 1600
(Choirbook, Print)
RISM
#60
|
|
Attrib: Hieronymo Lambardo |
|
|
S'io havesse tant'ardire
|
|
Gero, Jhan
fl.c.1540–1555
|
3 |
|
S'io mir' ho male
|
|
Gastoldi, Giovanni Giacomo
c.1554–1609
|
5 |
|
S'io miro ogni bellezza
|
|
Maistre Jhan
c.1485–1538
|
5 |
|
S'io non lodo madonna
|
|
Arcadelt, Jacques
1507–1568
|
4 |
|
S'io non miro non moro
|
|
Gesualdo, Carlo
1566–1613
|
5 |
|
S'io non ti cognoscessi
|
|
Palestrina, Giovanni Pierluigi da
c.1525–1594
|
5 |
|
S'io parto i moro
|
|
Marenzio, Luca
1553/1554–1599
|
5 |
|
S'io pensasi ai piaceri
|
|
Anon
|
4 |
Lodi spirituali novamente composte, e... (RISM 1580/6)
Lodi spirituali novamente composte, et datte in luce ad instantia della Venerabile Congregatione dell’ Humiltà, per commune utilitâ delle scole della Dottrina Christiana
Venice: Gardano, Angelo, 1580
(Partbook, Print)
RISM
#15
|
|
Attrib: Anon |
|
|
S'io pensasse madonna
|
|
Verdelot, Philippe
c.1480-1485–?1530/1532
|
4 |
|
S'io pensassi madonna
|
|
Verdelot, Philippe
c.1480-1485–?1530/1532
|
4 |
|
S'io son stato a ritornare
|
|
Pesenti, Michele
c.1470–1528
|
4 |
|
S'io tal'hor muovo gli occhi - Al'hor lasso la man
Pothárn Imre (SATTB)
|
|
Lassus, Orlande de
c.1532–1594
|
5 |
|
S'io t'involassi o bella
|
|
Conversi, Girolamo
c.1550–after 1575
|
5 |
|
Sio ti servo la fede
|
|
Anon
|
4 |
|
S'io veggi'in altra donn'una beltade
|
|
Donato, Baldassare
1529–1603
|
4 |
|
S'io veggio sotto l'un et l'altro ciglio
|
|
Gombert, Nicolas
c.1495–c.1560
|
6 |
La piu divina, et piu bella Musica, c... (RISM 1541/16)
La piu divina, et piu bella Musica, che se udisse giamai delli presenti Madrigali, a Sei voci...
Venice: Gardano, Antonio, 1541
(Partbook, Print)
RISM
#3
|
|
Attrib: Gomberth |
|
Verdelot a sei. Madrigali di Verdelot... (RISM 1546/19)
Verdelot a sei. Madrigali di Verdelot et de altri autori a sei voci novamente con alcuni madrigali novi ristampati & corretti
Venice: Gardano, Antonio, 1546
(Partbook, Print)
RISM
#3
|
|
Attrib: Gomberth |
|
|
S'io vi mento madonna
|
|
Gero, Jhan
fl.c.1540–1555
|
3 |
|