Sufficiebat nobis paupertas nostra (Jean Richafort)

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• (Posted 2019-03-16)  CPDL #53583:     

Editor: Andrew Fysh (submitted 2019-03-16).   Score information: A4, 6 pages, 479 kB   Copyright: CC BY SA

Edition notes: At original pitch. Original note values retained in Superius part only (note values halved in other parts - see Editorial Notes in score).

General Information

Title: Sufficiebat nobis paupertas nostra
Composer: Jean Richafort
Lyricist: Tobit 5:24–26 and 10:4^{create page}

Number of voices: 4vv   Voicing: ATBB

Genre: Sacred, Motet

Language: Latin
Instruments: A cappella

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Description: Many sources of this work pre-date Attaingnant s 1534 collection, suggesting that Richafort might have composed it while serving in the French Royal Chapel in the 1510s. The marking Mon souvenir in Attaingnant\'s Superius partbook acknowledges Richafort\'s having employed the Tenor line of Mon souvenir me fait mourir by Hayne van Ghizeghem, a prolific chanson composer of the late 15th century. Set in augmentation, the resultant slow-moving cantus firmus in the uppermost voice — almost certainly representing Anna, berating her husband (Tobit) and bewailing the absence of her son (Tobias) — creates an unusually inverted soundscape.

The text (from from the deuterocanonical Book of Tobit) is a Responsory for Ember Friday of September. The only other known setting, by Jacquet of Mantua (1483–1559), also appears in the Rusconi Codex [1518] and is based on the same chanson. This cannot be mere coincidence. Richafort is known to have visited Bologna in 1515 when the French Royal Chapel accompanied Francis I on his visit to Pope Leo X, and Jacquet is known to have been in nearby Ferrara, possibly employed in the House of Este, in 1516–17. Were these works the product of musical one-upmanship (Jacquet\'s setting adds a fifth voice and repeats the cantus firmus in diminution), or was there a political message in the setting of this obscure biblical text about the perils of pursuing material wealth by two composers contemporaneously serving wealthy ruling houses?

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