oa Nuns, Polyphony, and a Liégeois Cantor: New Light on the Las Huelgas ‘Solmization Song’

This article discusses the famous ‘solfeggio song’ from the Las Huelgas Codex, a piece whose lyrics consist of solmization syllables followed by an incomplete poetic text traditionally qualified as obscure. The recent discovery of two new concordances for the piece provides a radical change of perspective concerning its origins and meaning. The song was composed in Rocamadour by a cantor named John of Liège. It was a musical gift dedicated to the convent of nuns of Notre-Dame la Daurade, in Cahors. Rather than a solfeggio exercise, the wording, metaphors, and allegories found in the text take a clearly defined stance in the contemporaneous debate concerning the performance of polyphonic music in the liturgy, the beauty of female singing, and the eroticization of divine love. Most interestingly, this stance embodies the voice of a supporter, rather than a detractor, of female singing.