(from Lat. tri-: ‘three times’ and canere: ‘to sing’ or ‘to play’).
A term applied by many modern scholars to any three-part vocal or instrumental composition of the Renaissance or early Baroque. Less frequently found than ‘bicinium’, it was not often used in contemporary sources to designate a similar pedagogical repertory. Although it was first employed in manuscript in 1540 (Jan z Lublina’s Tabulatura, PL-Kp 1716; see Chybiński) and in print in 1542 (Rhau’s Tricinia … latina, germanica, brabantica & gallica), earlier publishers, Formschneider, Kugelmann and Petreius, had already provided tricinia, compositions suitable for performance in Lutheran schools and homes and by small church choirs (see Noblitt, 1989). These large collections contain a somewhat more contemporary repertory than the bicinium publications, including French chansons published between 1520 and 1536, as well as a few conservative Franco-Flemish trios (often in cantus firmus style and frequently with moralizing biblical contrafacta). Contemporary Italian and French publications do not use the term (although they were sources for the Lutheran editors; see Bernstein, 1980), but later Catholic composers including Castro, Aichinger and Hagius did. A broader meaning, without didactic intentions, is implicit in Praetorius’s calling Monteverdi’s Scherzi musicali ‘tricinia jocosa’ (Syntagma musicum, iii, p.129) and in numerous German publications by Regnart, Kauffmann, Franck and others who printed villanellas as tricinia ‘nach italiänischer Art’. The appearance of both text and continuo figures in the third voice of some Praetorius, Dilliger and Grimm trios indicates a further amalgamation of bicinium and tricinium textures into the geistliches Konzert (see Adrio).
(selective list)
This list includes the German collections using the term in title or dedication, and those Italian and French collections with a pedagogical purpose or those that are sources for German publications.
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Trium vocum carmina (Nuremberg, 15389; H. Formschneider); Concentus novi, 3vv (Augsburg, 15408; J. Kugelmann), ed. in EDM, Sonderreihe, ii (1955); Di Constantio Festa il primo libro de madrigali (Venice, 154113; A. Gardano); Trium vocum cantiones centum (Nuremberg, 15412; J. Petreius); G. Scotto: I madrigali, 3vv (Venice, 1541); Tricinia … latina, germanica, brabantica & gallica (Wittenberg, 15428; G. Rhau), ed. T. Noblitt (Kassel, 1989); Motetta, 3vv (Venice, 15436; A. Gardano); J. Gero: Quaranta madrigali (Venice, 154323); Premier livre à 2 ou à 3 (Antwerp, 1544; T. Susato); C. Othmayr: Tricinia in pias aliquot (Nuremberg, 1549), ed. in EDM, xxvi (1956); G. Tiburtino and others: Fantasie et recerchari, 3vv (Venice, 154934); Elettione de motetti, 3vv (Venice, 154913-14; G. Scotto) |
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W. Figulus: Tricinia sacra ad voces pueriles (Nuremberg, 1559); Selectissimorum triciniorum (Nuremberg, 1560–632; J. Berg & U. Neuber); Modulorum, 3vv … volumen I [–II] (Paris, 15652-3; A. Le Roy & R. Ballard); Tricinia sacra (Nuremberg, 15672; T. Gerlach); C. Hollander: Triciniorum … collecta (Munich, 1573); J. de Castro: Triciniorum sacrorum … liber I (Leuven, 1574, 2/1592); O. de Lassus: Liber motettarum, 3vv (Leuven, 1575); J. Regnart: Tricinia, kurtzweilige teutsche Lieder (Nuremberg, 4/1584) [earlier edns lack ‘Tricinia’ title], ed. in PÄMw, xix (1895); J. Paix: Selectae … fugae 2, 3 … vocum (Lavingen, 1587 [lost], 2/159030); H. Dedekind: Dodekatonon musicum triciniorum (Erfurt, 1588) |
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J. Farmer: Divers and Sundry Waies of 2 parts in 1 (London, 1591); P. Vinci and A. il Verso: Il secondo libro de motetti e ricercari, 3vv (Venice, 15912a); S.F. Fritzius: Etliche deutsche geistliche Tricinia (Nuremberg, 1594), lost; G. Aichinger: Tricinia Mariana (Innsbruck, 1598); L. Viadana: Cento concerti ecclesiastici a 1, a 2, a 3 … voci … libro II (Venice, 1602); S. Calvisius: Tricinia (Leipzig, 1603); K. Hagius: Neue deutsche Tricinien (Frankfurt, 1604–10); Triodia sacra (Dillingen, 16051; A. Meltzer) |
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S. Faber: Cantiones aliquot sacrae, 3vv (Nuremberg, 1607); Johann-Jacobi Gastoldi und anderer Autorn Tricinia (Nuremberg, 160725; P. Kauffmann); C. Monteverdi: Scherzi musicali, 3vv (Venice, 160721); J. Jeep: Schöne ausserlesene liebliche Tricinia (Nuremberg, 1610), lost; M. Praetorius: Musae Sioniae … 9. Theil (Wolfenbüttel, 1610) [repr. as Bicinia und Tricinia, 1611]; M. Franck: Tricinia nova (Nuremberg, 1611); H. Dedekind: Neugezierte Tricinia (Erfurt, 1615); J. Dilliger: Decas 1 [–3] prodrompi triciniorum sacrorum (Wittenberg, 1621–3); H. Grimm: Tyrocinia (Magdeburg and Halle, 1624) |
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For other modern edns see Antiqua Chorbuch, i–ii (Mainz, 1951–2), as well as under individual composers and publishers. |
MGG1 (L. Finscher)
RiemannL12
A. Chybiński: ‘Polnische Musik und Musikkultur des 16. Jahrhunderts in ihren Beziehungen zu Deutschland’, SIMG, xiii (1911–12), 463–505
A. Adrio: Die Anfänge des geistlichen Konzerts (Berlin, 1935)
K. Ameln, C.Mahrenholz and W. Thomas, eds.: Handbuch der deutschen evangelischen Kirchenmusik, ii (Göttingen,1935)
K. Holzmann: Hieronymus Formschneyders Sammeldruck ‘Trium vocum carmina’, Nürnberg 1538 (diss., U. of Freiburg, 1956)
F. Noske: ‘C.J. Hollander en zijn tricinia’, TVNM, xviii/4 (1959), 170–80
L. Bernstein: Cantus Firmus in the French Chanson for Two and Three Voices, 1500–1550 (diss., New York U., 1969)
L.F. Bernstein: ‘The Cantus-Firmus Chansons of Tylman Susato’, JAMS, xxii (1969), 197–240
C.T. Gaines: Georg Rhau: Tricinia 1542 (diss., Union Theological Seminary, New York, 1970)
L. Bernstein: ‘French Duos in the First Half of the Sixteenth Century’, Studies in Musicology in Honor of Otto E. Albrecht, ed. J.W. Hill (Kassel, 1980), 43–87
T. Noblitt: Foreword to Georg Rhau: Tricinia … 1542 (Kassel, 1989)
For books with trio examples and later uses of the term ‘tricinium’ see Bicinium.
BRUCE A. BELLINGHAM