Ecce nomen domini és Isti sunt due olive: Stílus és szimbolika Guillaume Du Fay két "koronázási" motettájában

The article is an attempt at a comparative analysis of two significant isorhythmic motets by Guillaume Du Fay, Ecclesie militantis/Sanctorum arbitrio/Bella canunt/Ecce nomen/Gabriel (1431) and Supremum est/Isti sunt (1433). (The respective structures of the pieces are shown in Figures 1 and 2.) Ecclesie militantis, composed for Pope Eugene IV, probably for his coronation, is perhaps the most complex among the surviving fourteen motets of Du Fay (all listed in Appendix 1). Supremum est, based on a freely composed tenor with occasional fauxbourdon sections, was most probably composed for the coronation of Sigismund as Holy Roman Emperor in 1433. The two compositions seem to represent stylistic contrasts that might have something to do with their contrasting basic poetic themes, "war" in Ecclesie and "peace" in Supremum est. At the same time, however, both motets use liturgical quotations to bow before the addressee(s), Pope Eugene (born Gabriele Condulmer) in Ecclesie by a combination of the beginning of two antiphons that read "Ecce nomen Domini: Gabriel" and Pope Eugene together with the King Sigismund in Supremum est by referring to them through the antiphon "Isti sunt due olive.". Ecclesie is also compared to Du Fay's earliest known motet, Vasilissa ergo gaude/Concupivit rex decorem. (Music examples 2, 3 and 10 show different possible tonal interpretations of the same passages.) In support of the idea that the composer was probably provided with the text and that perhaps even the liturgical and theological references could have been prescribed or suggested to him Du Fay's only known letter to Piero and Giovanni de' Medici in Florence, is quoted, and also given here in Appendix 2 in the author's Hungarian translation. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]