Extract 2

This source shows one two-part piece presented in score layout. The two voice
parts presented both utilising the C3 clef. Only the part presented below the
other is texted, with a full underlay of a Latin text. There is no clear sense of one
part being consistently higher in pitch than the other, with frequent overlap, the
presented underneath the other however does begin and end below the upper
part.
The piece is written in Franconian notation. In his Ars cantus mensurabilis dating
from the second half of the thirteenth century Franco of Cologne theorised a new
notational style where the new shapes of the notes indicated their duration. The
difference between breves and longs can be seen clearly by the tails down to the
right. Another characteristic of Franconian notation is the use of semibreves most
often seen in groups of two or three, the only example of this in the source can
be seen in the upper part at the end of the final line. The sign of opposite
propriety (an upward stem at the start of a ligature) came into use as part of the
Franconian style of notation to indicate that the first two notes are semibreves.
This can be seen in both parts a number of times throughout the piece. The plica
also appears in the source with some regularity, not something which is
associated with Franconian notation. It can be seen on breves with stems already
meaning that this can be interpreted as semibreves as well.
The source most likely originates from the early fourteenth century or late
thirteenth century. This is because it is written in Franconian notation, it does
however have a number of characteristics of an early source in this style
because of the infrequent use of semibreve notation and the use of the plica.
This source could come from the Las Huelgas Codex, a source originating from
Spain.
Extract 4
This source shows one voice part for a polyphonic mass by Jacob Obrecht with
based upon the melody of Maria Zart as indicated at the top of the page in
writing. This could be an extract from a part book, as it moves straight from the
Kyrie into the Gloria (as indicated by the text underlay) therefore is extremely
unlikely to be in choir book layout. The clef employed for this is C3 and with this
coinciding with the long note values resembling a cantus firmus melody it can be
assumed this part is a tenor, although the voice part is unlabled. This most likely
dates from the start of the sixteenth century as Obrecht was active at the end of
the fifteenth century and beginning of the sixteenth. This complex form of
composition with mensuration canons was only possible because of the
notational style, so cannot date from before this time. Petruccis revolutionary
movable type printing dates from the beginning of the sixteenth century in
Venice. It is possible that this from one of the collections, although it is difficult to
determine. The notes and mensuration signs are uniform, the lack of stems
makes it difficult to be certain (as these are of identical length in Petruccis
publications).

This piece is uses the complex compositional technique of the mensural canon.
At the beginning of the first line two different mensuration signs can be seen.
Although no repeat mark is used (although it is on the second line) it can be
assumed that the passage is repeated first interpreted in tempus perfectum cum
prolatione perfecta then in tempus imperfectum cum prolatione perfecta. The
following section on the line is then sung in tempus perfectum cum prolatione
imperfecta as indicated. The same sung realisation applies for the mensuration
signs of the following lines. The christe eleison section is presumably silent for
this part, as indicated by the incipit written after the first Kyrie with no musical
notation above it. While the whole of the Kyrie text is given only small extracts of
the Gloria text are given. Rather than incipits, where the rest of the text is
implied it is most likely that only the text given is sung. There are simply not
enough notes for the entire Gloria text to be sung. The three lines of text given
apply to the three repetitions in different mensurations, the opening et in terra
given is presumably silent but are an indication of when the rests begin at the
start of the line. The cut tempus imperfectum cum prolatione imperfecta sign is
an indication that the durations are halved but the ratios remain the same. At the
end of each line which bears a two or three mensurations signs at the start,
someone has annotated the page with a realisation of how many minims each
breve is worth under each mensuration.