(d 1348) Priest and composer. This name appears together with ‘Magister Heinricus’ in Coussemaker’s copy of F-Sm 222 (facs. in TM, ii, 1977) above a 14th-century motet dedicated to St Ida of Boulogne (1040–1113), the mother of three crusaders and an ancestor of Gui de Boulogne (d 1373) and Pope Clement VII (1378–94). This motet, Portio nature/Ida capillorum/Ante thronum Trinitatis (ed. in CMM, xxxix, 14; PMFC, v, 5), may have been composed for the nomination of Gui de Boulogne as cardinal at Avignon in 1342. In any case, the work dates from before 1376 since it is entered in the first section of the index of F-Pn 23190 (olim SERRANT). It is also transmitted (anonymously) in F-CH 564, I-IV 115 and NL-Lu 342A (inc.). The author of the text, ‘Heinricus’ (Henricus), is named in the text of the motetus, and may be identifiable with one of several composers of this name whose works are included in F-Sm 222 (see Henricus), or with the Henricus Helene of the motet Apollinis eclipsatur/Zodiacum signis lustrantibus that, like Portio/Ida, is preserved in I-IV 115. The name Egidius de Pusiex, presumably indicating the composer, has been identified with a priest (‘Egidius de Puisieus’, d 1348) who was chaplain and familiar to Hugues Roger de Beaufort, a nephew of Pope Clement VI.
Though Portio/Ida survives only as a four-part setting, paleographical evidence in I-IV 115 suggests that it was originally composed for three voices and later updated by the addition of a new contratenor; examination of musical variants between the different sources confirms that the motet was reworked and modernized in the later 14th century. The work is isorhythmic, and has a quadripartite form with successive diminution (6:4:3:2), a feature more typical of motets of the later 14th and early 15th centuries; however, a similar structure is present in a Gloria, also found in I-IV 115, that may have provided a model for the motet. The celebrated motet Sub Arcturo/Fons citharizantium (composed before 1373; see Johannes Alanus), which also features multipartite construction, may well have drawn its inspiration from Portio/Ida. (For another motet that shares its chant melody with Portio/Ida, see C. Wright, JAMS, xxvii, 1974, pp.306–15.)
R.H. Hoppin and S. Clercx: ‘Notes biographiques sur quelques musiciens français du XIVe siècle’, L’Ars Nova: Wégimont II 1955, 63–92, esp. 86–7
D. Leech-Wilkinson: Compositional Techniques in the Four-Part Isorhythmic Motets of Philippe de Vitry and his Contemporaries (New York, 1989), i, 169–81; ii, 83–5 [edn]
J.M. Allsen: Style and Intertextuality in the Isorhythmic Motet, 1400–1440 (diss., U. of Wisconsin, 1992), 340
K. Kügle: The Manuscript Ivrea, Biblioteca Capitolare 115: Studies in the Transmission and Composition of Ars Nova Polyphony (Ottawa, 1997), 147–8, 161
URSULA GÜNTHER/YOLANDA PLUMLEY