‘The Issue of Ockeghem Donald Greig Tijdschrift van de Koninklijke Vereniging voor Nederlandse Muziekgeschiedenis, D. ATste, AMl. Iste/2de, [Johannes Ockeghem]. (1997), pp. 139-162. Stable URL: bhutp:flinks,jstor-org/sici?stci= 183-1079 28 1997 %2G47%3A1%2E2%IC1I9GIATIOO IED. 0.COEIBI-9 ‘Tiidschrift van de Koninklijke Vereniging voor Nederlandse Muctekgeschiedenis is curcently published by Koninklijke Vereniging voor Nederlandse Muziekgeschiedenis. ‘Your use of the ISTOR archive indicates your acceptance of ISTOR’s Terms and Conditions of Use, available at htp:sseww jstor org/aboutiterms.html. 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For more information regarding ISTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. hup:therwwjstor.orgy Tue Ape 25 15:26:24 2006Donald Greig, THE ISSUE OF OCKEGHEM. aNTRDUCTION 1997 is Ockeghem year For the industry chac promotes late medieval music, the 500th anniversary ofthe death of Johannes Ockeghem will provide che impetus and excuse for are-assessmentothis work. Books and articles wll be published, new recordings willbe released, music Festivals will feature his music and a special conference willbe held :t Tours Forthe singer of eatly music the main effect of this anniversary willbe thac they may ‘well find chemselves singing a lat more Ockeghem, As such they will bein a somewhat privileged position of access to che composer. What follows is something of an account of my expectations ofa year which will be spent performing this music, The recordings hhave been made and 1997 will be the year in which they will be released and reviewed. 1 will also be che year in which concerts are given and interpretations revised and revisited, Sn.muany ways what follows is response to the kinds af questions haut performance that musicologist migh ask. What I offer iss form of natzative ~reading, singing and hearing Ockeghem ~ which traces stages of the various procewes which lead ¢o a tecotded performance. The narrative is fictional insofar as che simple chronology offered represents a desived (though rarely achieved) level of organisation which ‘working lfe 2s performer simply does not allaw:? An imposed structure such as this is ‘hus more a direct resule of writing than an accurate account ofa real chronology. “This piece also raises the question of what Ockeghem means, ifanything. It springs from a cercain disitisfiction on my own part with the majority of writing on Ockeghem which, following a simple model af aucharial intentionality, hs promoted an image of Ockeghern with which all his music has been made co aceard, [ hope to trace the way that apy supposed meaning of his music is accually the result of the articulation of literary, musical and historical discourses, the focus of which is the construction of a coherent (credible) image of the composer. The space in which this formulation of an image of Ockeghem is played out is, initially at least, within, ‘musicolagical literature. For the listener who is neither musicologist nor performer (which F assume to be the majority) an image of the compaser is fits encountered not through the music but chtough the various discourses which accompany (and prefigure) access to the misic~ programme notes in concert, liner notes with a CD, reviews in ‘magazines and on radio. Such discourses play a major role in ‘anchoring’ the supposed ‘meaning of the music and ic is almost certainly in chi populist space that we aught find the received, dominant image of Ockeghem?> My facus here, then, is the received image of Ockeghem and che tole ofthe performer in the transiission and mutation of 139thar image. In this I wish co analyse he role ofthe performer asthe midale term in a process of exchange and reformulation ofan essendially erary image ofthe composer. {will goon to describe and outine some kinds of performance decisions that have to ‘be made, buc a the sarae ime ! hape to maintain a focus on the implications of those decisions. Throughout I will touch on the complex relationship between the mu- sicologistand the performer. I hope that what offer is of value to nusicologiss and also to performers. should take this opporeuniey, though, costes that I donor presume to speak forall performers 25 with musicologits, performers often hold radically diferent READING OCKEGHEM “There ae very Gw anecdotes about Ockegher, alc which is nat without conse- quences. Anecdote ate the simplest way to form personal mpresion of: compose. “They are mini-itions, concerned with the composers hmaniey, which ofr simple ‘deniieations based on stock figure (usally eevalving ound the notion of genius’) “They are alo, ofcourse, notoriously untrustworthy. as asveas urban mythoiogiesand about asschable, That doesnot, however, prevent then Goin being wied and re-used fn books and articles writen withina discipline which hasbeen criticised insome quarces foritsposivistic bent“ Inthe cat of Ockghem we have ao stores ofhis dealings ith singers, no amusing sores, no apocryphal le which is instanaly memorble, vty re-tellable, The ancedote is fist and foremost a description of 3 temporal event, 2 nara, in which che teller af the tale, even i unidentified, is presumed wo have been pocsent, Sich accounts, almost che ssf of gossip, pla no rle inthe descrincons we have of Ockeghem, Instead what we have ae 3 few squabbles about che spelling of his name and some atestations othe beauty afhis oie and hisalmos saintly character* In shor, che descriptions we have of Ocksghem ae too good to be tre We also have a literal image, a famous miniature which depicts the composer (varia spectacles) working with other singers* In many ways this picture hasbeen done to death, its presence wrealy de rigueur in any survey of Ockeghem (note its inclision in The New Grow).7 Asan anecdote tsa lacking, the moresa fo the fice thacit dates from some cwency yeasafeer Ockeghem’s death andischerefore more inthe nature ofa chute than 2 reminiscence. Aecouts oft end co rel us mare about the proces of the conscuction af 4 working image of» composer (and therefore of the pewon wring hou the image) chan about Ockeghem’ psychology Al this in seark contrast co Ockeghem’s more famous pupal Josqin, who seemed co sxcaceancrdoves and, furthermore, aneedotes which accord with 4 nineceenth- century image ofthe iraible genius Joquin’ greater Fame can doutelss be partially explained in historical terms wherein che recognition ofthe status of comport (8 duthor) is telatiely late developmens.® A musicological methodology of value judgement bas also accondedJouguin pride of pice within dhe canon of ate medieval 140