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See the other Enigmas:
Cessac: 2. Messe à 8 voix,
H. 3, Tome XV, cahiers VI-VII-VIII, f. 6-40 Exemples [pour
jetter du jour sur la datation de la Messe]:
Messe à 8 voix H.3 Paper: Cahier VI is made entirely of the Jesuit Paper that Charpentier used during his employment by the Jesuits. In other words, the notebook as we know it today seems to have been copied out after the fall of 1687. Although most of the staves have turned brown in the notebooks containing this mass (cahiers VI-VIII), those on fol. 20 of cahier VII (into which the score of the Messe à 8 voix continues) have remained black. These same black staves are found in cahier 5. In other words, the mass appears to have been recopied around the same time as cahier 5 (which, we have seen, likewise seems to have been recopied during Charpentier's years with the Jesuits). Staves: The paper used for most of this mass is hand-drawn, but the staves of fol. 20 are printed by the form called PAP-70. Clefs:
Like the Dies irae of cahier 5 (which has a single sheet of Jesuit Paper in it), these clefs, on a piece of Jesuit Paper, presumably date from 1688 or later. The notebook seems to be more or less contemporaneous with cahier 5. But the exact year? How long did a supply of printed music paper last? Messe à 8 voix, cahier VI, fol. 6
But can one argue that the clefs in cahier VI were made during the same weeks or months as those in cahier 5? Dies irae, cahier 5, fol. 35
Inferences: Although much of the Jesuit paper that Charpentier used 1688-1698 had hand-drawn staves, some of the staves were printed with an ink that has remained black. We see that he apparently recopied (and reworked?) a mass he had written back in 1671-72, just as he recopied (and reworked?) music written for Guise funerals, 1671-72. This recopying did not prompt him to file the pieces among his works for the Jesuits: he put them back among his compositions of 1671-72. Finally, were cahier 5 and cahier VI recopied more or less at the same date, while Charpentier was employed by the Jesuits? The Tenebrae music (H. 105) that Charpentier composed for the Abbaye-aux-Bois in early 1680 Paper: Fols. 41/42 of cahier 27 are made of Jesuit Paper. Fol. 41 is an outer sheet that differs from the rest of the notebook, as does the outer sheet of cahier 2, illustrated in Enigma 1. All the remaining pages of the notebook are made of Paper F. (Paper F is also found in cahiers XXIII-XXIV, a collection of preludes written between 1677 and 1680. Those two notebooks are made of a mixture of papers, but there is not a single sheet of Jesuit paper in them.) In other words, fol. 41 (and its other half, fol. 52/53) probably was copied out after 1687, to replace the damaged outer sheets of cahier 27. Staves: Fol. 41 is printed with the form used to create PAP-70. The next sheet in the cahier, fol. 42, is printed with the form that produces the staves of PAP-81. Clefs:
As these illustrations show, the C-clefs are not the same on these two successive folios.
cahier 27, fol. 41, Première leçon du Vendredy saint
Since this music was performed at the Abbaye-aux-Bois during Lent of 1689, we can assume that --- with the exception of the outer sheet --- cahier 17 was copied out during the winter of 1679-80. (Indeed, the treble clefs on fols 44-46 and fols 48v-51v --- not reproduced here --- have the S-shape that Charpentier used throughout the 1670s.) In short, the clefs on fol. 42 provide us with a reliable example of the composer's hand, circa December 1679. By contrast, the clefs on fol. 41 can be presumed to date from the Jesuit years.
cahier 27, fol. 42, Première leçon...
Inferences: The outer sheet of cahier 27 was recopied after 1688, but the Tenebrae lessons in this notebook (and in the abandoned Réponses of cahier 28) written for performance at the Abbaye-aux-Bois in early 1680, clearly were copied out around the time of performance. Thus the inner pages of cahier 27 provide a datable model of Charpentier's handwriting in late 1679 and early 1680. Once again we see that some of the paper provided by the Jesuits had printed rather than hand-drawn staves. TAKEN AS A WHOLE, WHAT DO THE EXAMPLES IN ENIGMA 2 TEACH US? We see that Charpentier recopied --- and perhaps revised for the Jesuits? --- a mass he had written in the early 1670s. Yet he did not consider the recopied version to be a new work. We once again find him recopying the outer sheet of an earlier notebook, apparently to replace damaged pages. In addition, these examples show us that some of the Jesuit music paper was printed. Finally, researchers can use cahier 27 as a reliable example of Charpentier's musical hand in 1679 or early in 1680.
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