Caserta, Philippus de [Philipoctus, Filipoctus]

(fl c1370). Theorist and composer. He was active in Avignon c1370, and his residence at the Papal court there is confirmed by his ballade Par les bons Gedeons which pays homage to the antipope Clement VII (1378–94). The extent of his theoretical writing is disputed. Arlt has argued that the ascription of the Tractatus figurarum (or Tractatus de diversis figuris) to Egidius de Murino is incorrect; it also survives with ascriptions to Philippus de Caserta (I-FZc) and phillipotus Andreas (US-Cn). The doubtful suggestion by Strohm (following Pirrotta) that the two are identical is supported by the association of Caserta with the Visconti court of Pavia, where the latter manuscript was copied. If this is correct, there are five treatises that survive with dubious ascriptions to Caserta. (Four of these treatises occur in a manuscript from the second half of the 15th century. This source is closely associated with John Hothby's teaching.)

One of the best reasons for considering the treatise on note forms as a work of Caserta is his use of the types of note described there in his compositions. Apart from the relatively recent discovery of a Credo, all pieces are ballades, if we accept Apel's suggestion that the attribution of the rondeau Espoir is doubtful. In spite of their complexity, they do not use the more unusual note forms found in the treatise: only the minim, the dragma and less often the semibreve with a descending tail. The Ars nova treatise associated with the teachings of Philippe de Vitry expounded the basic principles of the ‘four prolations’, , C, and C, which correspond to the modern time signatures 9/8, 6/8, 3/4 and 2/4 respectively. Caserta wanted to combine these, and his solution was to create new note forms by adding tails, flags and dots to existing notes, or by subtracting values using red ink or hollow notes. Thus the dragma, a semibreve with ascending and descending tails, may be worth two minims, while a group of three hollow minims would be worth two black minims. This meant that nine hollow minims would introduce 9/8 into a prevailing 6/8 metre, or indeed into a prevailing 3/4, and three hollow dragmas would bring 9/8 into a prevailing 2/4. The technique of trayn or traynour, involving simultaneous as apposed to successive combinations of such opposing metres, is described as producing a more striking effect than syncopation (fortior modus quam sincopare); extensive syncopations in the top voice are found in most of Caserta's secular works.

Of Caserta's ballades, En atendant souffrir was written for Bernabò Visconti, since it includes his motto ‘Souffrir m'estuet’ in the cantus part (see Thibault). It involves numerous cross-rhythms between all three parts, as well as the duplets which appear often in Caserta's works. Though it is often considered to be by Johannes Galiot, the ascription to Caserta in I-MOe is confirmed in Ciconia's Sus un fontayne. En remirant is noteworthy for borrowing fragments of texts by Machaut: De triste cuer (the opening of a ballade by him) and Se Dieus e vous ne me prenez en cure (the refrain of his ballade Plourés, dames). De ma dolour also indulges in this. The technique of trayn as described in the Tractatus appears in Par les bons Gedeons, where nine dragmas in the cantus take up the time of two semibreves in the lower parts. The composer's liking for the Dorian mode is apparent in all his secular works. Musical rhyme is also extensive, particularly in De ma dolour. It is a striking testimony to Caserta's achievement that three of his ballades were borrowed for both text and music of important sections of Ciconia's virelai Sus un fontayne.

WORKS

Editions: French Secular Compositions of the Fourteenth Century, ed. W. Apel, CMM, liii/1 (1970) [A]Italian Sacred Music, ed. K. von Fischer and F.A. Gallo, PMFC, xii (1975) [F]French Secular Music: Manuscript Chantilly, Musée Condé 564, ed. G. Greene, PMFC, xix (1982) [G]

WRITINGS

Tractatus figurarum (or Tractatus de diversis figuris (E-Sco 5.2.25, I-FZc 117, etc.), CoussemakerS, iii, 118–24; ed. P.E. Schreur (Lincoln, NE, 1989)

De contrapuncto quaedam regulae utiles (I-Fl Ashb.1119, ff.75v–77v, etc.), CoussemakerS, iii, 116–18 [attrib. Phillipotus Andreas; see Sachs, 215 and 87, n.80]

Incipiunt regule contrapuncti secundum magistrum phylippotum de Caserta: Sciendum est quod contrapunctum est fundamentum biscanti (I-Fl Ashb.1119, ff.52–52v, etc.), ed. Wilkins, Scattolin, 237–43

Secundum magistrum Philipotum de caserta: Contrapunctus est fundamentum biscanti (I-Fl Ashb.1119, ff.74v–77v) [see Sachs, 209; overlaps heavily with Incipiunt regule contrapuncti]

Regula contrapunctus secundum philippotum de Caserta: Nota quod novem sunt speties contrapuncti (I-Fl Ashb.1119, ff.77v–78v), ed. Scattolin, 243–4 [overlaps heavily with Incipiunt regule contrapuncti]

BIBLIOGRAPHY

StrohmR

G. Reaney: ‘The Manuscript Chantilly, Musée Condé 1047’, MD, viii (1954), 59–113, esp. 68

R.H. Hoppin and S. Clercx: ‘Notes biographiques sur quelques musiciens français du XIVe siècle’, L’Ars Nova: Wégimont II 1955, 63–92

U. Günther: ‘Die Anwendung der Diminution in der Handschrift Chantilly 1047’, AMw, xvii (1960), 1–21

U. Günther: ‘Datierbare Balladen des späten 14. Jahrhunderts, II’, MD, xvi (1962), 151–74

N. Wilkins: ‘Some Notes on Philipoctus de Caserta (c1360?–c1435) with the Ballade Texts and an Edition of the Regule Contrapuncti’, Nottingham Mediaeval Studies, viii (1964), 82–99

G. Thibault: ‘Emblèmes et devises des Visconti dans les oeuvres musicales du trecento’, L'Ars Nova italiana del Trecento: Convegno II: Certaldo and Florence 1969 [L'Ars Nova italiana del Trecento, iii (Certaldo, 1970)], 131–60

K. von Fischer: ‘Eine wiederaufgefundene Theoretikerhandschrift des späten 14. Jahrhunderts’, Schweizer Beiträge zur Musikwissenschaft, i (1972), 23–33

W. Arlt: ‘Der Tractatus Figurarum: ein Beitrag zur Musiklehre der “ars subtilior”’, Schweizer Beiträge zur Musikwissenschaft, i (1972), 35–53

U. Günther: ‘Zitate in französischen Liedsätzen der ars nova und ars subtilior’, MD, xxvi (1972), 53–68

K.-J. Sachs: Der Contrapunctus im 14. und 15. Jahrhundert (Wiesbaden, 1974)

P.P. Scattolin: ‘Le Regule contrapuncti di Filippotto da Caserta’, L'Ars Nova italiana del Trecento, v, ed. A. Ziino (Palermo, 1985), 231–44

R. Strohm: ‘Filippotto da Caserta, ovvero i Francesi in Lombardia’, In cantu et in sermone: for Nino Pirrotta on his 80th Birthday, ed. F. Della Seta and F. Piperno (Florence, 1989), 65–74

GILBERT REANEY