Harmonice Musices Odhecaton

The Harmonice Musices Odhecaton (One Hundred Songs of Harmonic Music, also known simply as the Odhecaton) was an anthology of polyphonic secular songs published by Ottaviano Petrucci in 1501 in Venice. It was the first book of polyphonic music ever to be printed using movable type. (Printing plainchant with movable type had been possible since the 1470s.) The Odhecaton was hugely influential both in publishing in general and in dissemination of the Franco-Flemish musical style.

Seeing the business potential for music printing, in 1498 Petrucci had obtained an exclusive 20-year license for all printing activities related to music anywhere in the Venetian Republic. Three years later, in 1501, he brought out his first anthology, 96 secular songs, mostly polyphonic French chansons, for three or four voice parts, calling it the Harmonice musices odhecaton. For this work he printed two parts on the right-hand side of a page, and two parts on the left, so that four singers or instrumentalists could read from the same sheet. The type was probably designed, cut, and cast by Francesco Griffo and Jacomo Ungaro, both of whom were in Venice at the time. The collection included music by some of the most famous composers of the time, including Johannes Ockeghem, Josquin des Prez, Antoine Brumel, Antoine Busnois, Alexander Agricola, Jacob Obrecht, Hayne van Ghizeghem. Many of the works contained in it (as is often the case in manuscripts and early printed collections) are anonymous.

The book was edited by Petrus Castellanus, a Dominican friar who was maestro di cappella of San Giovanni e Paolo. Inclusion of composers in this famous collection did much to enhance their notability, since the prints, and the technology, were to spread around Europe in the coming decades.

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