Rodericus (or S Uciredor) was a French composer of the 14th century. Rodericus is known through a single

ballade Ballad is a form of narrative poetry, often put to music, or a type of sentimental love song in modern popular music. Ballad or Ballade may also refer to: Music Genres and forms * Ballade (classical music), a musical setting of a literary ballad ...

attributed to him in the

Chantilly Codex The Chantilly Codex (''Chantilly, Musée Condé MS 564'') is a manuscript of medieval music containing pieces from the style known as the ''Ars subtilior''. It is held in the museum at the Château de Chantilly in Chantilly, Oise. Most of the co ...

as S Uciredor, which is "Rodericus" spelled backwards. The piece, ''Angelorum Psalat'', is in two voices and is an exemplary work of the Ars subtilior style, with many similarities to works of

Jacob Senleches Jacob Senleches ( fl. 1382/1383 – 1395) (also Jacob de Senlechos .e. Senleches'' and Jacopinus Senlesses) was a Franco-Flemish composer and harpist of the late Middle Ages. He composed in a style commonly known as the '' ars subtilior''. Life an ...

. ''Angelorum Psalat'' exhibits considerable rhythmic complexity and its text employs contrasting imagery of original sin and the harmony of the spheres, a common poetic device of the age. Nothing is known of Rodericus's life, although Gilbert Reaney suggested that he is

Rodrigo de la Guitarra Rodrigo de la Guitarra ("Rodrigo of the gittern") was a Spanish lutenist and gittern player, active primarily in the first half of the fifteenth century. Rodrigo was in the service of the House of Trastámara, and was a court composer for Ferdina ...

, since Rodrigo is the only known contemporaneous musician with the same name. However, this Rodrigo appears in Toledo as late as 1458, which would have made him extraordinarily long-lived, even assuming he composed maturely from a young age. No other supporting evidence had arisen since Reaney's conjecture. Crawford Young suggested in 2008 that Rodericus is the musician and clergyman Johannes Rogerii. Young argues that the author of ''Angelorum Psalat'' must have been an extremely well developed composer and musician. Rogerii is a plausible candidate, since his terms of service in various courts closely tracked with those of composers whose style resembles that developed in ''Angelorum Psalat''. He preceded

at the cardinal's court in Aragon and was contemporaneous or nearly so with composers such as Hasprois and Guido de Lange at the court of

Pope Benedict XIII Pope Benedict XIII ( la, Benedictus XIII; it, Benedetto XIII; 2 February 1649 – 21 February 1730), born Pietro Francesco Orsini and later called Vincenzo Maria Orsini, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 29 May ...

. Guido makes use of the semiminima very similarly to Rodericus. Young's main argument is the veiled reference to

Pope Innocent VII Pope Innocent VII ( la, Innocentius VII; it, Innocenzo VII; 1339 – 6 November 1406), born Cosimo de' Migliorati, was head of the Catholic Church from 17 October 1404 to his death in November 1406. He was pope during the period of the Western ...

, who appears in the last word of the ballade as "Innocui" (innocent) with an otherwise unmotivated first initial letter. In other sections of the ballade there are other letters "i" as initials, or an "in" aside from the meter of the poem, indicating that this "in" is a wild beast corrupting the unity of the world, or the papal world, since pope Benedict, for whom Rogerii worked, felt himself to be the true pope: "in retro mordens ut fera pessima" (in ...: retreat! biting wild horrible beast). Rogerii also named himself "Vatignies", apparently after a little northern French community until today (Wattignies), in the close vicinity of either Senlecques or Salesches, where the composer Senleches may have come from. Senleches was the main reference point for the new signs for subtle note values used in "Angelorum psalat". In his later years, Rogerii was a distinguished member of the papal chapel, which he reentered in 1396 earning the commendation "omnes et singule exemptiones, immunitates, franchisie ac libertates capellanorum et familiarum" Ursula Günther, p. 188 footnote.

References

{{authority control 14th-century French composers