Anon: Six 4 part pieces from Berlin

Description

These six pieces come from Berlin, Staatsbibliothek, Preussischer Kulturbesitz, MS mus. 40021, a substantial collection of mostly sacred music compiled at the end of the fifteenth century. The repertoire is linked to that found in two other large German manuscripts of the time: Leipzig, Universitätsbibliothek, MS 1494 (so-called Apel Codex) and München, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, MS 3154.
The original purpose of these pieces is not entirely clear: obviously the titles are not real titles (they are mostly found only in the index, anyway), but simply a provisional way of identifying them: many pieces of this time that appear with solmization titles are simply songs for which the texts were lost. The exception of course is Ich stund an einem Morgen, where we have a well-known melody in the tenor: even here the treatment is quite different from most surviving settings, presenting only the first phrase in the tenor. Either this is a genuine instrumental piece, or possibly a movement from a lost mass based on the tune. The same applies to two other pieces (2 and 3), which also have a very slow-moving tenor.