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Musical Offerings
⦁
2016
⦁
Volume 7
⦁
Number 2
77
Beyond his city-wide monopoly on music publishing, Petrucci had to
find a way to distance himself from names in the international market.
At this point in Petrucci’s story it is necessary to introduce two new
characters: his editor, Petrus Castellanus, and his most-often published
composer, Josquin des Prez.
While almost nothing is known about the life of Castellanus, significant
research on his contribution to Petrucci’s works has been done by Bonnie
J. Blackburn. Petrucci names Castellanus as the editor in
Odhecaton B
and notes that it is from his musical “garden” that at least some, if not
all, of the music has been selected.
35
According to Helen Hewitt:
As an editor. . . he did an excellent job. As one compares
the version he prepared for publication with manuscript
readings, one is constantly impressed with the accuracy
and good judgment he displayed. In almost every case
where a choice is possible the
Odhecaton
proves the
better version. Of actual errors in the print the number is
too slight to warrant mention. And his choice of
compositions shows his penetration into the art of
musical composition of his time.
36
Castellanus’s careful selection of appropriate and relevant music
contributed to the marketability of Petrucci’s prints.
Perhaps no selection of music in Petrucci’s works is more outstanding
than that of Josquin, who is, perhaps, the most renowned composer of
vocal music in the Renaissance and one of the first international musical
celebrities. Prior to Petrucci’s first publication of Josquin’s works, only
eight motets in seven manuscripts exist that predate 1502.
37
Although the
number of lost manuscripts can only be speculated, current evidence
suggests that Josquin may have been virtually unknown before Petrucci
began to print his music. Although Petrucci published the works of many
other Franco-Flemish composers, such as Compere, Gaspar, Brumel,
Obrecht, Agricola, and Ghiselin, his most-often published was, without
a doubt, Josquin.
35
Bonnie J. Blackburn, “Petrucci’s Venetian Editor: Petrus Castellanus and
His Musical Garden,”
Musica Disciplina
49 (1995): 17.
36
Helen Hewitt and Isabel Pope, eds.,
Harmonice musices odhecaton A
,
(Cambridge, MA: Medieval Academy of America, 1942), 9–10.
37
Marilee J. Mouser, “Petrucci and His Shadow: A Case Study of Reception
History,”
Fontes Artis Musicae
51, no. 1 (2004): 20–21.