Gematria, Marriage Numbers, and Golden Sections in Dufay's "Resvellies vous"

Author(s): Allan W. Atlas

Source: Acta Musicologica, Vol. 59, Fasc. 2 (May - Aug., 1987), pp. 111-126
Published by: International Musicological Society
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 111

Gematria,Marriage Numbers, and Golden Sections

in Dufay's "Resvelliesvous"
ALLAN W. ATLAS (NEW YORK, N. Y.)

ForSiegmundLevarie,
who would have
enjoyedthewedding.
One of the most dazzling of Guillaume Dufay's early works is the ballade
Resvellies vous et faites chiere lye.' Written in 1423 for the wedding of Vittoria di
Lorenzo Colonna, niece of Pope Martin V, and Carlo Malatesta of the Pesaro line of
that family (the nuptials were celebrated on 18 July at the court of the Malatesta of
Rimini),2 the piece is extraordinarily rich in its melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic
materials. It is, as David Fallows so aptly puts it, "as though Dufay ... was intent on
proving that he had more musical invention than any other composer living. No
other piece of its time contains such a plethora of musical ideas; and it is all the
more astonishing that the work should hold together as a musical entity."3 There is,
however, another feature - a silent one - that makes this work remarkable: number.
For beneath the "sumptuous"4 audible surface, there lies a three-tiered system of
number and proportion that draws on gematria, Pythagorean number symbolism,
and the linear ratio known as the Golden Section, all of which work together in the
service of symbolic, structural, and aesthetic ends.
We may consider the gematria first, which Dufay employs by assigning a
continuous series of ciphers to the Latin alphabet.5 The first instance occurs in

1
The unique source is Oxford, Bodleian Library,Can. misc., MS 213, fol. 126v.A modern edition appears in
GuillelmiDufay: Opera omnia, VI, ed. H. Besseler (Rome 1964), p. 25-26, and is reprintedin C. V. PALISCA,
ed., Norton Anthology of Western Music, I (New York 1980), p. 211-12, where there is also an English
translationof the poem. All subsequent referencesto the piece, as well as the music examples from it, follow
Besseler'sedition.One should note, however,that Besseler'sedition containsan errorin the tenorat measure39/
note 2 (excluding the note that is tied over the barline); here the manuscriptclearly calls for c', which makes
better sense - harmonically and melodically - than the d' printed in Besseler (and thus in the Norton
Anthology). Besseler's"CriticalNotes," p. xxix, are silent on the matter.
2 A brief accountof the celebrationappearsin C. CLEMENTINI,Raccoltoistoricodella fondazionedi Riminoe
dell'originee vite de' Malatesti, II (Rimini1627), p. 105. Pertinentdocumentsconcerningthe marriageare given
in H. BESSELER,Neue Dokumentezum Lebenund SchaffenDufays, in: AfMw 9 (1952), p. 162-63; see also, D.
FALLOWS, Dufay (London 1982), p. 32.
3 FALLOWS, Dufay, p. 22.
4 The adjectiveis from CLEMENTINI,Raccolto,II, p. 105, and FALLOWS,Dufay, p. 22, who use it to describe
wedding and music, respectively.
'
Briefly, gematriawas customarilyappliedin eitherof two ways: (1) to the Hebrew or Greekalphabetswith a
three-placesystem of numbers that accountedfor units, tens, and hundreds,or (2) to the Latinalphabetwith a
single series of numbers. In the first system, three letters were added to the twenty-four letters of the Greek
alphabet, the first nine being assigned the values 1-9, the second nine, 10-90; the third nine, 100-900. For an
exceptionallyclear and concise discussion, see R.A. PECK, Number as Cosmic Language,in: Essays in the
Numerical Criticismof Medieval Literature,ed. C. D. Eckhardt(Lewisburg,Pennsylvania,1980), p. 62-63. A
fine exampleof the second system appearsin a fourteenth-centuryEnglish"numericalmaxim"in Oxford,Balliol
College, MS 354: "8 is my trewe love; do beffore 9; put thereto 5, so well it will beseme; 18 twyse told, 20
betwen... ", to which the scribehas added the appropriatelettersaboveeach number,thus spelling out the name
"JHESUS";for an edition and discussionof the poem, see R. HOPE ROBBINS, SecularLyricsof the XIVthand
XVth Centuries,2nd ed. (Oxford 1955), p. 253, and PECK,Number as Cosmic Language,p. 64.

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112 A. W. Atlas: Gematria, Marriage Numbers, and Golden Sections in Dufay's "Resvellies vous"

connection with the total length of the piece, which runs for seventy-three breves.6
Significantly, the number 73 will produce the letters needed to spell out the name
"COLONNE" (3+14+11+14+13+13+5=73). And whether Dufay had in mind the
plural form of the name or was thinking of it in Gallic terms, the reference to the
bride's family seems unmistakeable,7 and the seventy-three breves set the durational
framework for the composition as a whole.
There are at least five other instances of gematria, these appearing in terms of the
number of notes that comprise the three distinct phrases into which the first, or a
section of the ballade is divided. Example 1 shows the boundaries between phrases I
and II and II and III.

a) 6 b) tU .r.
r Pp
I3V7 .t.
ir 1 iiurrl
i
i,..•
t ff

' K "- V.
L"#,
e

&III
.
"-.. .A d
I
II .I.-
-. #I I J r r
,1 P .
"
. I
:,• . .
.. V. . '- ,.• g I .' ,.'IW

Example 1. a) measures 6-8; b) measures 14-16.

Phrase I, an untexted prelude of sorts, contains a total of seventy-three notes, thus

reinforcing the reference to the "COLONNE" and thereby integrating the family
into the series of names that appears in the subsequent parts of the a section. Phrase
II, the only one in the a section to carry text, consists of seventy-one notes, which I

6 I have counted all longs, including the series of four with coronas that sets the words "Charlegentil" at
measures50-53, as being imperfectand thus equal to two breves.I am awareof Johannesde Grocheo'sstatement
in his Ars musiceof circa1300 that the genrethat he calls cantus coronatuswas made up entirelyof perfectlongs
("ex omnibus et perfectis efficitur"); see E. ROHLOFF,Der Musiktraktatdes Johannesde Grocheo (Leipzig
1943), p. 50, and CH. W. WARREN, Punctus Organi and Cantus Coronatusin the Music of Dufay, in: Dufay
Quincentenary Conference,ed. A. W. Atlas (Brooklyn 1976), p. 134-36. However, a century and a quarter
separatesGrocheo'streatisefrom Dufay's Resvellies vous, and to insist that the crownedlongs in Dufay's piece
must be countedas ternaryseems not to rest on any discernibleevidence.We might note that Besseleralso treats
the crownedlongs as being duple, transcribingthem with the time signature2x3/4 within the tempusperfectum
mensuration. For a different view on the value and computation of crowned longs in Dufay, see M. V.
SANDRESKY,The ContinuingConceptof the Platonic-PythagoreanSystem and its Applicationto the Analysis
of Fifteenth-CenturyMusic, in: Music TheorySpectrum,1 (1979), p. 120. I am also aware that the final long of a
piece was consideredultra mensuram,and did not, therefore,ordinarily get included in the count of breves.
Thereare two such longs in Resvelliesvous, one at the end of the piece as a whole and one at the end of the first,
or a section. However, as will become clear presently, the long that concludes the a section must be included
when counting the numberof notes in that section (its being ultra mensuramwould certainlynot prohibitthat);
and so as not to count that note on one plane (quantity) but to omit it on another (duration),I have included
both it and the final long in computing the total numberof breves in the piece.
7 MS Oxford 231 offers the name as "Columpne".

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A. W. Atlas: Gematria, Marriage Numbers, and Golden Sections in Dufay's "Resvellies vous" 113

take as an allusion to "MARTIN", that is, Pope Martin V, uncle of the bride.8 And
that Dufay should have chosen this particular phrase in which to embed Martin's
name is consistent with the text that it will set in the second stanza of the poem,
where, with the poet having now turned his attention to Vittoria,9 the second and
third verses of that stanza read: ""Carelle vient de tres noble lignie / Et de barons qui
sont mult renommes". And the Colonna of greatest renown in 1423 was the pope,
who, though not present at the ceremonies, had only a month earlier issued the
dispensation that permitted the distantly related Vittoria and Carlo to marry.1'
Moreover, during the five years just prior to the wedding, Martin had been
especially kind to the Pesaro branch of the Malatesta, renewing their papal vicariate,
on which they depended for the legitimization of their power (1418), lowering their
census (1419), and permitting Carlo's father, Malatesta di Pandolfo II, to divide his
lands among his sons (1422).11 Nor should we rule out the possibility that Dufay
himself had thoughts about future papal employment (he would join the papal
chapel in 1428), in which case this small act of homage to the pope was at least in
part somewhat self serving.12
The third instance of gematria in the a section occurs in phrase III, whose seventy
notes give us "ARIMINI", as the city was often called,13the main seat of Malatesta
power, the actual residence of the groom (according to the papal dispensation cited
above), and, of course, the site of the wedding itself. The fourth and fifth rounds of
gematria span phrases II and III and become apparent only when we separate -the
superius from the tenor and contratenor, a plausible enough procedure in a piece
whose texture, despite some instances of short-lived imitation, is primarily treble
dominated. Thus the superius, with its fifty-four notes, gives us "DUFAY", while
the tenor and contratenor fill the same two phrases with eighty-seven notes, or
"MALATESTA".'4
Finally, there is another possible instance of gematria, one that Dufay spreads
across all three sections of the ballade. I use the qualification possible because there
is an element of ambiguity in it. One of the two most memorable features of
Resvellies vous must surely be the three virtuoso-like roulades of semiminims'5 that
appear in the superius at measures 5-7, 33-36, and 56-60, in the a, b, and c sections,
respectively.

8 Again, Dufay might have been thinking in terms of the Gallic form of the name, though "Martin"was also
used in Italy, as witness, for example,an entry fromMarch 1428 in a Venetianchroniclethat states that the King
of Portugal "andavaa vixitar Papa Martin"; see H. SCHOOP, Entstehungund Verwendungder Handschrift
Oxford, BodleianLibrary,Canonicimisc. 213 (Bern and Stuttgart 1971), p. 120.
9 BESSELER,Neue Dokumente,p. 162, suggests that Dufay wrote the poem.
10 The documentis published in BESSELER,Neue Dokumente,p. 162; see also, FALLOWS,Dufay, p. 22.
11 P. J. JONES, The Malatesta of Rimini and the Papal State (Cambridge 1974), p. 166.
12 It is hard not to suspect that Dufay was aware that Martin's chapel master and tenoristain 1423, Bertoldus
Dance of Beauvais,had himself been in Malatesta service before entering the papal chapel; see my article, On
the Identity of Some Musicians at the Brescian Court of Pandolfo III Malatesta, in: CurrentMusicology 36
(1983), p. 14.
13 The Romans had called it Ariminum.
14 MS Oxford213 gives the name as "Maleteste";documentsof the periodoffer a numberof differentspellings
for the name.
15 Actually notated as minims precededby a sign of diminution.

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114 A. W. Atlas: Gematria, Marriage Numbers, and Golden Sections in Dufay's "Resvellies vous"

22 notes
- I i F F
IF.I--__w_ , .

28 notes

3le 33

37 33 notes
notesOR,

Lae Ma-tztes-

Example 2. a) measures 5-7; b) measures 33-36; and c) measures 56-60.

The uncertainty centers about the beginning of the third statement. Can we - and
did Dufay - consider the four notes that set the syllables "de Ma-la-tes..." as part
of the final passage of semiminims ? For if we can, then the three semiminim units
together contain a total of eighty-seven notes, thus providing another reference to
the "MALATESTA". There are arguments for and against including the four-note
figure. On the negative side, one notes that neither of the other two passages shows
any signs of such segmentation or contains any syllabic declamation (and the text
underlay in the manuscript is explicit and thoroughly convincing). On the other
hand, it is inviting to include the segment on the grounds that (1) the ear easily
bridges the semiminim pause, (2) the four-note segment fails to complete the name
"Malateste", and thus avoids any sense of textual closure (but, to be fair, so does the
roulade as a whole, if the seemingly careful text underlay of the manuscript is
followed), and (3) the reference to the "MALATESTA" in the semiminim passages
sets up a parallel with the two-fold reference to the "COLONNE", in that each of
the families is thus cited twice, once within the self-contained phrases of the a
section, and once over the course of the ballade as a whole. Finally, it is possible -
perhaps even probable - that both interpretations are valid; and we shall see that
the three semiminim flourishes will have an equally important symbolic function -
perhaps an even greater one - if we omit the four-note segment and consider the
three passages as consisting of only eighty-three notes. And that Dufay would
engage in such symbolic ambiguity - we shall encounter another riddle, both
symbolic and structural, presently - is perfectly in keeping with the aesthetics of the
period. As Russel Peck points out in connection with the medieval approach to myth
and symbol: "One does not ask ... 'What does it mean'? Rather one asks 'What can
it mean'?"16

16 R. A. PECK,Public Dreams and PrivateMyths: Perspectivein Middle EnglishLiterature,in: Publications

of the Modern LanguageAssociation 90 (1975), p. 466.

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A. W. Atlas: Gematria, Marriage Numbers, and Golden Sections in Dufay's "Resvellies vous" 115

Gematria has its critics. They contend that it is speculative, that any number can
spell out a wide variety of names, and that those who do the counting often begin
and end at points that suit them." To take up the points in reverse order: (1) At least
in so far as Dufay's Resvellies vous is concerned, counting has been limited to
clearly bounded, self-contained units - the piece as a whole in terms of the number
of breves (and the dependence of the total length of a work on some symbolic
number was a tried-and-true technique of medieval and Renaissance literature18),
or well-defined internal phrases (clearly audible as such) with respect to numbers of
notes; (2) it is true that a given number can spell out a vast assortment of words
and names;19but when the names derived from the numbers of important structural
frameworks are time and time again those of the main players at the event for which
the work was written, one must concede the possibility that the composer intended it
to be so; and (3) as for our speculating in connection not only with gematria, but
with the numerological analysis that follows, what else can we do when faced with
the lack of hard documentary evidence? In all, alien as gematria - and numerologi-
cal analysis in general - may seem to us today, it had a centuries-long tradition,
especially as applied to Biblical exegesis, and formed part of the standard Christian
education, with the Franciscans in particular playing an important role in its
dissemination. In fact, a fourteenth-century "curriculum forma" from Merton
College, Oxford, includes gematria among the sub-divisions of mathematics, and
shows that the students devoted twelve days to its study.20 Thus, to cast gematria
aside is, in a way, to say that we know more about Dufay and his contemporaries

17 See the discussion in M. S. BATTS, Numerical Structure in Medieval Literature, in: Formal Aspects of
Medieval German Poetry: A Symposium, ed. S. N. Werbrow (Austin 1969), p. 95-112, which considers not only
gematria,but numericalanalysis in general.In the recentmusicologicalliterature,one finds the usual skepticism
- expressed almost condescendingly - in M. R. MANIATES, Applications of the History of Ideas, in:
Musicology in the 1980s: Methods, Goals, Opportunities, ed. D.K. Holoman and C. V. Palisca (New York
1982), p. 44-45: "... the current spate of studies on number symbolism is fraught with perils. Considering the
cryptic nature of the symbols, one is not surprised to find that the musical contexts erected by such scholars as
Henze, Heikamp, van Crevel, Elders, and Vellekoop are highly hypothetical. The situation is not improved by
displays of cabalistic virtuosity or by indiscriminate concatenations of gematria, puns, and cabala. Even if critics
were to discount those computations they deem fortuitous or fantastic, the remaining instances cannot be so
easily dismissed. As things stand, neither can they be so easily accredited as intentional." It is hard to know
what to make of the twist in "... the remaining instances cannot be so easily dismissed." Is the door being left
open after all? Forthe studies by the authorscited, see note 8 in Maniates'sarticle,to which might be added the
extremelyconvincing (to my way of thinking) articlesby B. TROWELL,Proportionin the Music of Dunstable,
in: PRMA 105 (1978-79), p. 105ff., which notes Dunstable'sfrequentuse of the number152 both as a structural
device and as a referenceto "MARIA", and J. VAN BENTHEM, ConcerningTinctorisand the Preparationof
the Princess's Chansonnier, in: TVer 32 (1982), p. 24ff., who offers an ingenious explanation for various aspects
of Tinctoris's motet O virgo, miserere mei.
18 See E. R. CURTIUS, European Literature and the Latin Middle Ages, trans. W. R. Trask (New York 1953;
original German edition, Bern 1948), p. 506-7, who discusses this tradition in connection with a poem by
Walafrid Strabo, in which the poet himself remarkedthat there were "as many lines [eighty-four] ... as the
prophetess Anna had lived at the time of Christ's birth." In other words, as Curtius points out, had Anna been
eighty-three, the poem would have had that number of lines. Curtius's "ExcursusXV," entitled "Numerical
Composition,"is, perhaps,the classic expositionof the way in which symbolic numberwas used as a structural
frameworkin medieval and Renaissance literature.
19 I cannot resist pointing out that the number 87, so significant in Resvellies vous for its association with the
name "MALATESTA",will also spell out "ALLANATLAS".
20 See H. RASHDALL, The Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages, III, ed. F. M. Powicke and A. B. Embden
(Oxford 1936), p. 482, and PECK, Number as Cosmic Language, p. 22, 62-63.

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116 A. W. Atlas: Gematria, Marriage Numbers, and Golden Sections in Dufay's "Resvellies vous"

than they knew about themselves, an attitude that is not only highly patronizing,
but stubborn in its refusal to meet the medieval-Renaissance composer or author on
his own terms. In the end, it is simply counter-productive.
Assuming that the numbers and names in Resvellies vous are intentional, can we
even begin to fathom how they were understood by the initiated listeners (if there
were any) present at Rimini in 1423? One possibility is that they "heard" this aspect
of the ballade much as they would have read a marriage contract: it names the
newlyweds, identifies the place, bears the blessings of the pope, and carries the
signature of a witness - Dufay. And if we allow the possibility of such an admittedly
hypothetical interpretation, it may be that Dufay's use of gematria sheds at least a
small amount of speculative light on one of the nagging questions concerning his
biography. Although there is no solid documentation that attests to Dufay's
presence at Rimini or Pesaro in the early 1420s, Besseler argued that Dufay must
have been in the service of the Malatesta and present at their Adriatic courts on the
grounds that during the period 1420-1426 he wrote at least three pieces for various
members of the Malatesta family of Pesaro.21Some years later, though, Pirrotta took
issue with Besseler's conclusions, speculating that Dufay need not necessarily have
undertaken an Adriatic sojourn, since the composer could just as well have fulfilled
the Malatesta commissions from afar, after having possibly crossed paths with
Pandolfo Malatesta (Carlo's brother), whether, Pirrotta continues, at the Council of
Constance, at Coutances (Pandolfo's bishopric from November 1418), or, most
likely, at Paris.22The latest word on the question is Fallows's speculation that Dufay
"must surely have been [at Rimini] for the wedding ... if only because the ballade
Resvelli6s vous is of such complexity that the composer's presence was probably
necessary for its performance."' If to the "stylistic" evidence that Fallows discerns
we add that offered by Dufay's use of gematria - admittedly, a shaky wall on a soft
foundation - then the Besseler-Fallows position is perhaps the stronger of the two.
For if Dufay's fifty-four-note signature is analogous to that of a witness on a
marriage contract, then he is likely to have fulfilled the commission on the spot.
Moreover, the musical tribute to Martin V is most convincing if we assume that
Dufay knew of the special role that the pope had played in issuing the dispensation,
and such knowledge - even if the pope's intention to issue the document was known
long before its actual signing just a few weeks prior to the wedding - would far more
easily have been gained at Rimini or Pesaro (or Rome) than it would have across the
Alps. Thus, hypothetical though it must be, the evidence gleaned from the virtuoso
complexity of the ballade, the personalized intimacy of the gematria, and the fact

21 BESSELER,Neue Dokumente,p. 165. To the threeMalatestaworks known to Besseler- Vasilissa ergogaude

for Cleofe, Resvellies vous for Carlo,and Apostolo glorioso for Pandolfo- FALLOWS,Dufay, p. 30, 165ff., has
added at least a fourth,the work traditionallyknown as the Missa Sine nomine (see below), and possibly a fifth,
the ballade Mon chier amy, which Fallows suggests may have been composedfor Carlo Malatesta of Rimini in
order to commemoratethe death of his brother,Pandolfo III, Lordof Fano (on whose activities as a patron of
music, see my article cited in note 12).
22 N. PIRROTTA,On Text Formsfrom Ciconia to Dufay, in: Aspects of Medieval and RenaissanceMusic:
A
BirthdayOfferingto GustaveReese, ed. J. LaRue(New York1966), p. 676-78, wherehe also objectsto Besseler's
dating of Vasilissa ergo gaude from circa 1420 as being too early.
23 FALLOWS,Dufay, p. 26.

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A. W.Atlas: Gematria,MarriageNumbers,andGoldenSectionsin Dufay's"Resvelliesvous" 117

that Dufay also supplied a musically related Mass for the occasion (see below),
seems to point toward Dufay's having been present at the ceremony.
If Dufay's use of gematria in the a section and across the chanson as a whole has
something of a parlor-game atmosphere about it - the musical equivalent of what
Curtius calls "literary trifling"24- his use of number in the b section is more serious,
drawing on numbers that had philosophical-symbolic meaning according to the
centuries-old tradition of Pythagorean numerology. And it is in this section that
Dufay most succinctly expresses the "meaning" of the piece.
The b section, in triple meter, opens with a phrase that cadences strongly on its
seventh breve (measures 23-29) and is so square rhythmically as to be almost
stodgy. But there is good reason for this seemingly slow start. For while each of the
next two phrases also cadences on its seventh breve (measures 29-36 and 37-43), there
is a noteable increase in the amount of surface activity in each successive phrase.
Whereas the superius of the first phrase contained twenty-one notes that moved in
breves, semibreves, and minims and fell into two clear segments of eleven plus ten,
the superius of the second phrase spins off forty-two notes, in segments of fourteen
plus twenty-eight that now introduce semiminims, while the third phrase more than
compensates for its falling back to twenty-two notes by its introduction of
syncopation and continuous, non-segmented movement from the beginning of the
phrase to the end.25
The increase in tension through the first three phrases sets the stage for the fourth
and final phrase (measures 43-49, and see Example 3), in which we reach not only the
musical climax of the b section in terms of the intensity of surface activity, but the
symbolic crux of the ballade as a whole. The superius now bursts into sesquialteral
minim triplets, picking up rhythmic momentum as it moves along. And though the
uneventful harmonies and the somewhat meandering quality of the melodic contour
act as a brake on the energy of the triplets, it appears as though Dufay is finally
going to break through the confines of the now almost predictable phrase length of
seven breves. Instead, just the opposite happens, as a harmonically unsynchronized
fauxbourdon-like passage tumbles quickly - almost disappointingly - to a cadence
on the sixth breve:
A

A :P.1
M . i, L

I
Nil.i

~3~'va
ALM

iw
.&8 3 v,3
- ste, Pourlite grig - niera belle compagny e;
_
-r1I 0 4 I i-,F

Example 3. Measures 43-49.

Example 3. Measures 43-49.

24
CURTIUS, EuropeanLiterature,p. 505.
25
Again, Dufay seems to have had number in mind. Thus the second phrase has exactly twice as many notes as

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118 A. W.Atlas: Gematria,MarriageNumbers,andGoldenSectionsin Dufay's"Resvelliesvous"

Why the sudden stop, with its emphasis on six? I believe that the answer lies
within the tradition of Pythagorean number symbolism, which weighed heavily on
the Middle Ages and Renaissance, and in which the number six was one of the two
so-called "marriage" numbers (the other was five, which will also figure in Dufay's
thinking), being the product of the first female number (two) and the first male
number (three).26 Moreover, Dufay reinforces the significance of the six-breve
phrase by having the superius sing a total of thirty-three notes, a number that can be
split into its individual digits to produce 3+3 (or 2x3) = 6.27 And while the superius
sings its thirty-three notes, tenor and contratenor fill out their parts of the six-breve
phrase with a combined total of thirty notes, that is, the number obtained by
multiplying one marriage number by the other (5x6 = 30). Thus Dufay thoroughly
imbues this phrase, which, as we shall see, falls at a crucial point in the overall
structure of the piece, with symbolic meaning: marriage, the numbers five and six
representing the carnal and fruitful aspects of marriage, respectively.28
Although it is the fourth phrase of the b section that contains the highest
concentration of marriage number symbolism, there are other references to marriage
numbers scattered through the piece. First there is the reference inherent in the
length of the outer sections of the ballade, the a section and the refrain (C), each of
which runs for a total of twenty-three breves, a number that can be reduced to the
marriage numbers five and six by adding and multiplying the individual integers.
Still better hidden is the allusion to the marriage numbers in the three roulades of
semiminims that punctuate the three sections of the piece (see Example 2). We have
already noted the possible ambiguity of meaning in these passages. If we count the
four-note segment that introduces the third passage, the three flourishes together
contain eighty-seven notes and spell out "MALATESTA". If, on the other hand, the
four notes are excluded, the three passages are reduced to eighty-three notes, or
twenty-two plus twenty-eight plus thirty-three, so that the second group of
semiminims exceeds the first by the fruitful marriage number (six), while the third
is longer than the second by the carnal marriage number (five),29with the thirty-
three notes of the final flourish echoing the same number of notes as had appeared in
the superius in the final phrase of the b section and being themselves an expression
of the marriage number six.

the first, with both numbers, twenty-one and forty-two, being multiples of seven, the total length of each phrase
in terms of breves. Moreover, the seven breves worth of forty-two notes in the second phrase are split into
segments of fourteen and twenty-eight notes, thus producing still another play on the number seven. We shall
return to the significance of the sevens presently. Finally, though the third phrase lacks any significant use of
seven except for its seven-breve length, its twenty-two notes double the eleven notes that made up the first
segment of the first phrase.
26 See V. F. HOPPER, Medieval Number Symbolism: Its Sources, Meaning, and Influence on Thought and
Expression (New York 1938), p. 43; C. BUTLER, Numerological Thought, in: Silent Poetry: Essays in
Numerological Analysis, ed. A. Fowler (London 1970), p. 7; PECK, Number as Cosmic Language, p. 24.
27 License for such a procedure is given in Hugh of St. Victor's Exegetica, Ch. XV; see C. BUTLER, Number
Symbolism (London 1970), p. 29-30; CURTIUS, European Literature, p. 508-9. For a skillful demonstration of
this technique in order to determine the borders of the "central frame" of Dante's Divine Comedy, see CH. S.
SINGLETON, The Poet's Number at the Center, in: Essays in the Numerical Criticism of Literature, p. 79ff.
(see note 5).
28 PECK, Number as Cosmic Language, p. 61.
29 Again, Dufay may well have intended both the eighty-seven- and the eighty-three-note interpretations.

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A. W.Atlas: Gematria,MarriageNumbers,andGoldenSectionsin Dufay's"Resvelliesvous" 119

Still another reference to marriage - or, more precisely, to the fruitful production
of offspring - comes about through the web of sevens that Dufay spins in the first
three phrases of the b section: (1) each of the phrases runs for seven breves; (2) the
first phrase has twenty-one notes, thus matching in notes the number of breves in
the three phrases as a whole; and (3) the second phrase has forty-two notes (the
product of seven and the fruitful marriage number), with its two segments
consisting of fourteen and twenty-eight notes, respectively. Now, quite aside from
its many scriptural associations, the number seven possessed contradictory sexual
attributes within the Pythagorean tradition. On the one hand, such commentators as
Martianus Capella (in Book VII of his De nuptiis philologiae et mercurii) and his
follower one millenium later, Pietro Bongo (Mysticae numerorum..., first pub-
lished in 1585), called the number seven "virgin" on the grounds that it neither
generates nor is generated within the decad (that is, it is not the product of any two
smaller numbers, nor can it be multiplied by any number to produce a larger
number that does not exceed ten).3? On the other hand, a second tradition, extending
from Macrobius's influential fifth-century commentary on Cicero's Somnium
Scipionis through Cornelius Agrippa's De occulta philosophia (completed in 1510)
to Saluste Du Bartas's Sepmaine of 1578, saw the number seven as containing
sexual attributes by virtue of its being the sum of the first male and female "real"
numbers, three and four.31 Agrippa explains as follows (to cite the English
translation of 1651):
The numberseaven,therefore,becauseit consists of threeand four, joyns the soul to the
body, and the vertueof this numberrelatesto the generationof men ... Forwhen the genitall
seed is receivedin the wombof the woman,if it remainsthereseavenhoursafterthe effusion
of it, it is certain that it will abide there for good ... and the new-born child "after Seaven
dayes casts off the Reliquesof the Navell".32
Thus not only the final phrase, but the b section as a whole is pregnant with the
symbolism of marriage numbers and the hope for a fruitful union.
Up to now, all the instances of marriage number symbolism have appeared in
connection with various aspects of duration, whether in terms of numbers of breves
or numbers of notes. However, I should like to suggest that Dufay's interest in the
marriage numbers five and six might also be responsible for the most daring
harmonic touch in the piece, the jolting move from an implied triad on G to one
whose "root" is an augmented fourth away, on C-sharp, a progression that occurs
twice in the course of the piece:

3o BUTLER,Number Symbolism, p. 34, 72.

31 BUTLER,Number Symbolism,p. 43, 63, 69; PECK,Numberas CosmicLanguage,p. 24. "Real"numbersare
those that, when arrangeddiagramaticallyas points, contain or enclose space and volume. Thus, whereas one
representsa single point, and two, a line, three and four can form a triangle (space) and pyramid (volume),
respectively.See BUTLER,Number Symbolism, p. 3-4; PECK,Number as Cosmic Language,p. 23-24.
32 BUTLER,Number Symbolism, p. 69.

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120 A. W. Atlas: Gematria, Marriage Numbers, and Golden Sections in Dufay's "Resvellies vous"

mift i• . .. I
a.
Nia tat,
it
Char_ 9U,1_
R1 "G
INO \

---1v I A' Char- le gen _ tit,

L'~ m• s J I Char - le gen , tit,

•

Example 4. a) measures 1-3; b) measures 50-53.

Since Dufay would obviously not have thought of the progression in terms of
"chords" whose "roots" were an augmented fourth apart, perhaps we can explain
the harmonic movement at measures 1-3 as resulting from the horizontal-vertical
intersection of minor thirds, the ratio of that interval, of course, being 6:5. Thus
within the context of the ballade, this bold juxtaposition of harmonies also takes on
pertinent symbolic meaning.
In all, Pythagorean marriage numbers, primarily five and six, but also seven,
permeate Resvellies vous from beginning to end. And their constant presence can
best be understood in terms of Dufay's having sought to impress upon the piece a
symbolic significance that was most appropriate to the occasion for which it was
written.
I should like to return now to one of David Fallows's comments about the piece,
first to voice basic agreement with it, and then to offer a possible explanation for it.
Fallows notes that despite the "plethora" of musical ideas - and, I would add, the
almost mosaic-like fashion in which they are joined - "it is ... astonishing that the
work should hold together as a musical entity."33 There is, of course, a certain
underlying unity owing to Dufay's use of number. Thus, such entirely disparate
features as the harmonic progression at measures 1-3 (and 50-53), the number of
breves and notes in the fourth phrase of the b section, the length in terms of breves of
the outer sections, and the number of notes in each successive flourish of
semiminims (omitting the four-note segment at measures 56-57) are, as we have
seen, all governed by Dufay's use of the Pythagorean marriage numbers five and
six. And as such, Resvellies vous can stand as an analogue to what Curtius calls
"numerical composition" in medieval literature, that is, a work that (1) lacks "unity
of subject" (Resvellies vous has a "plethora" of thematic material); (2) partakes in
"digression ... which was regarded as a special elegance" (in the chanson, the

M. MILA, Guillaume Dufay, I (Turin

33 FALLOWS, Dufay, p. 22. To Fallows's "plethora" and my "mosaic",
1972), p. 74-76, adds such descriptive terms as lack of well-defined themes and use of arabesques, small motives,
elastic variation, and ornamental "rockets." It seems that we have all heard the piece the same way.

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A. W.Atlas: Gematria,MarriageNumbers,andGoldenSectionsin Dufay's"Resvelliesvous" 121

recurring flourishes of semiminims); and (3) possesses "a substitute for the modern
technique of composition in an entirely different principle ... 'numerical composi-
tion'."34This I am sure, though, is not the kind of "entity" that Fallows had in mind.
For while the numerical unity is there, it is not only unheard, but psychologically
unperceived, and no doubt intentionally so.
There is, on the other hand, a number of the more customary - and audible -
unifying features: (1) the daring harmonic touch at measures 1-3 recurs at measures
50-53, while measures 54-56 present what is an obvious recollection of the opening
measures, but now reinterpreted, the superius this time moving from the high d"
down to g'-natural, so that the progression finally "sounds right"; (2) the parceling
out of the semiminim roulades, one to each section; (3) the entire polyphonic fabric
at measures 60-67 repeats measures 15-22 in a literal note-for-note manner, thus
fashioning a lengthy melodic rhyme that unifies the end of the a section and the close
of the refrain.35
But beneath these readily audible surface features there is still another element at
work, a finely honed sense of structural proportion through which Dufay works out
a delicate and complementary balance between bilateral symmetry, on the one hand,
and a series of multi-level "Golden Sections," on the other.
The bilateral symmetry takes shape as the outer sections (a and the refrain), each
consisting of twenty-three breves, frame the central b section, which runs for
twenty-seven breves.36But even here there is an element of structural ambiguity that
does not clear up until we have heard the second stanza of the poem. The ambiguity
involves the problem of just where the refrain really begins. In his edition of the
chanson, Besseler placed the indication "C" at measure 54, thus implying that the
refrain begins at that point and that the four measures (50-53) that set the words
"Charle gentil" belong to the b section (an analysis that would destroy the bilateral
symmetry). In part, the problem stems from the manner in which we perceive the
function of measures 50-53. Because the triplets in the fourth phrase of the b section
had pulled up short, so to speak, before they could fully build up and resolve their
energy, it is in measures 50-53, where the four homophonic chords with crowned
longs lack all rhythmic impulse, that the rhythmic drive of the fourth phrase is
finally grounded. At the same time, however, the harmonic movement of the four
chords, with their direct juxtaposition of "roots" on G and C-sharp and final arrival
on the "dominant" D, builds up an energy of its own, which is only resolved with the
return to G (the "tonic") at measure 54. And since measures 54-56 recall and
reinterpret (and "tonicize") the opening bars of the chanson, they do have the effect
of sounding like the beginning of a new section, an effect that is further reinforced
by the return to the original mensuration. Indeed, we might even hear measures
50-53 and 54-56 as retransition and recapitulation, respectively. Besseler, then, was
following his very accurate ear.

34 CURTIUS, European Literature, p. 501-2.

35
36
Dufay uses this last techniquein all the ballades except Se la face ay pale.
Resvellies vous appears to be the only one of Dufay's ballades to display precise bilateral symmetry.

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122 A. W. Atlas: Gematria, Marriage Numbers, and Golden Sections in Dufay's "Resvellies vous"

But the overall form of the ballade is determined as much by its poetry as it is by
its music. And when, in the course of the second stanza, we hear the four crowned
chords sing "Charle gentil" a second time, we come to realize that that is where the
refrain begins, and we recognize the structural ambiguity that Dufay has planned so
well. The bilateral symmetry, then, is present.
Against the bilateral symmetry there tugs a series of multi-level "Golden
Sections," the highly prized linear ratio whose history stretches across the millennia.
Known to the architects of ancient Egypt and Babylonia, described by Euclid (as the
"extreme and mean" ratio), and later praised for its magical and divine qualities by
the likes of Leonardo da Vinci ("sectio aurea"), Luca Pacioli ("divina propor-
tione"), and Johannes Kepler ("sectio divina"), the Golden Section may be defined
as the proportion or ratio obtained "when a line is divided in such a way that the
smaller part is to the greater as the greater is to the whole."37In practical terms, the
Golden section of a given length may be arrived at by multiplying the whole (=
1.000) by 0.618. And though the resulting proportion will always be expressed as an
irrational fraction, its equivalent in rational numbers can be approximated by means
of the number sequence devised by the thirteenth-century mathematician Leonardo
da Pisa (Leonardus filius Bonacii) in his Liber abaci of 1202 (revised 1228) - (1) 1 2
3 5 8 13 21 34 55 89 144 233 377 ...- which more and more closely approximates the
Golden Section as it approaches its higher terms.38As for the source through which
the Golden Section came to be known to medieval and Renaissance musicians, there
is every reason to agree with Newman Powell, who points to the likelihood of their
having become familiar with it through the "10th proportion" of Nichomachus's
Introduction to Arithmetic, which was widely disseminated in the Middle Ages
through Boethius's De institutione arithmetica.39
Dufay employs the Golden Section as a means of structural articulation at three
levels: the piece as a whole, each of the three sections, and, at times, the individual
phrase. Resvellies vous is 438 minims long;40 the point of division between the
longer and shorter parts of the Golden Section, then, is 270.684, or, more practically,

37 J. and F. GIES, Leonardof Pisa and the New Mathematicsof the MiddleAges (New York1969), p. 79-83. The
literature on the Golden Section and the related Fibonacci series (see below) is vast. In the musicological
literature- particularlythat dealing with fifteenth-centurymusic - one might begin with N. W. POWELL,
Fibonacciand the Golden Mean: Rabbits, Rumbas, and Rondeaux, in: Journalof Music Theory 23 (1979),
p. 233ff., and M. VAN CREVEL,JacobusObrecht:Operaomnia,Missae, VII: Mariazart (Amsterdam1964), p.
cviiff., both of which contain extensive bibliographicalcitations. Lately, sometimes controversialclaims have
been made for the significant use of Golden Sections in the music of Bart6k and Debussy; see T. and P. J.
BACHMAN, An Analysis of Bila Bartok'sMusic ThroughFibonaccianNumbers and the Golden Mean, in:
MQ 65 (1979), p. 72-82; E. LENDVAI,Bela Bart6k:An Analysis of his Music (London1971), passim, and The
Workshopof Bart6kand Koddly (Budapest 1983), passim; R. HOWAT, Debussy in Proportion;A Musical
Analysis (Cambridge1983), passim. See also the debate in R. HOWAT, Bartok,Lendvaiand the Principlesof
ProportionalAnalysis, and E. LENDVAI,Remarkson Roy Howat's "Principlesof ProportionalAnalysis," both
in: Musical Analysis 2 (1983), p. 69-95, and 3 (1984), p. 255-64.
3 GIES, Leonard of Pisa, p. 79-83 and passim. No doubt, Dufay and his contemporarieswould have
determinedthe Golden Section not by multiplying by 0.618, but by means of an algebraicequation.
39 POWELL,Fibonacciand the Golden Mean, p. 236.
40 I have countedin termsof minimsnot only in orderto obtain the most accurateplacementof the ratio,but also
because the minim is the common denominatorbetween the two mensurationsin the piece: imperfecttempus-
majorprolationand perfect tempus-minorprolation.

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A. W.Atlas: Gematria,MarriageNumbers,and GoldenSectionsin Dufay's"Resvelliesvous" 123

the 271st minim, and thus falls on the downbeat of the forty-sixth breve (measure 45).
And this coincides precisely with the first - and strongest - cadence of the fourth
phrase of the b section, as well as with its melodic peak. The significance seems
clear: Dufay marks the structural point that is determined by the Golden Section of
the piece as a whole with the melodic and articulatory high point of the very phrase
that contains in a nutshell the symbolic meaning of the work. In addition, this same
point marks the Golden Section of the distance (fifty breves) between the smaller
Golden Sections of the self-contained a and C sections, points that are themselves
structurally significant, while the longer span of the ratio approximates the
combined lengths of the outer sections (see below and Diagram 1, p. 124).
The division of the Golden Section of each of the three individual sections of the
ballade falls at a similarly important point: (1) Section a: the Golden Section divides
the 138 minims at 85.284, and it is on the eighty-fifth minim (or downbeat of the
fifteenth breve) that we reach the cadence of phrase II (meas. 15), the point from
which the a section will be repeated literally in the refrain; at a still smaller level,
Dufay emphasizes the lengths of the Golden Section in the forty-two-minim
phrase I (25.956) by placing the beginning of the first of the three important
semiminim roulades squarely on the twenty-sixth minim (meas. 5); (2) Section b:
the Golden Section divides the 162 minims at 100.116, and laying out the proportion so
that this time the smaller segment precedes the larger one, we find that this
"reverse" Golden Section coincides exactly with the minim rest that sets off the
beginning of the second flourish of semiminims (meas. 39), while the first phrase of
the b section has a structurally significant Golden Section of its own, as its twenty-
sixth minim marks a point of articulation that is followed immediately by a melisma
of ten notes (meas. 27-29) that foreshadows in "slow motion" the semiminim group
that will punctuate the next phrase; (3) Section C (refrain): as in the a section, the
two parts of the Golden Section intersect at 85.284, that is, on the eighty-fifth
minim, precisely the point at which the refrain begins its extensive melodic rhyme
with the end of the a section (see measures 60-67 and 15-22).
In all, many of the most important features of the piece - the melodic peak of the
final phrase of the b section, with its symbol-laden marriage numbers; two of the
three semiminim roulades;41 the phrase that forecasts the second of those semiminim
passages; and the articulations in the a and C sections that mark the beginning of
the extended melodic rhyme - fall precisely on points of articulation that form
Golden Sections at one or another of the three hierarchical levels. And one can only
conclude that Dufay - whether through conscious planning or through sub-
conscious intuition - laid out the musical and symbolic highpoints of Resvellies vous
with the proportions of the Golden Section very much in mind.42

41 Significantly,perhaps,the groupof semiminimsthat does not figure here is the third and final one, which, as
we have seen, was symbolically ambiguous.
42 On Dufay's use of the GoldenSection in anotherof his works for the Malatesta of Pesaro,the motet Vasilissa
ergogaude for Carlo'ssister Cleofe, see M. V. SANDRESKY, The GoldenSection in ThreeByzantineMotets of
Dufay, in: Journalof Music Theory25 (1981), p. 291-95.

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 Golden of ba
Section
fromGolden S
Sectionof a
-Golden - S iI
. . "Golen

of PhraseI/ I \ in
rI i

I 0I

I
SI

3
?kf 0 e,•
1,,

•- 1. "'" -•
,-

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A. W. Atlas: Gematria, Marriage Numbers, and Golden Sections in Dufay's "Resvellies vous" 125

Finally, Dufay's extensive use of Golden Sections as a guide to the proportional-

structural placement of important landmarks in the ballade may shed some light on
the nature of the relationship between Resvellies vous and another work that he
wrote at the same time, the composition published by Besseler as the Missa Sine
nomine,43 but now convincingly identified by Fallows as a Missa Resvellies vous.44
Although I cannot add to the list of melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic relationships
that Fallows has already established between Mass and ballade, I should like to
point out a small but interesting element in the structure of the Gloria of the Mass
that serves to strengthen the bond between the two works. As Fallows has noted
with respect to the Mass, its single most obvious point of contact with the ballade
appears at the beginning of the "Qui sedes" section, where there is almost a note-
for-note correspondence with the opening of the ballade, instantly recognizable
because of the striking harmonic progression (Ex. 5):

a)
Example 5. a) Resvellies vous,
measures 1-5; b) Missa Resvel-IF--
lies vous, end of "Qui tollis ...
suscipe deprecationem nostram" A
andbeginningof "Quisedes,"ld1sI
measures 61-69 (the numbers in
parentheses refer to the length of
the Gloria in terms of breves).4
K II IF

Now, the Gloria in its entirety is 222 breves Ilong. The

(138-39)I I division of the Golden
'Mrq
. . .. . .
) comes
Qithen,
(..straion,
.. se des adowexteratof. the 138ri,th

'
r dI
oU

i
. .. -Or--,
T Ii.'
___ __ __ __
____,"_II

Now, the Gloria in its entirety is 222 breves long. The division of the Golden
Section, then, comes at 137.196, or, more practically, on the downbeat of the 138th
breve. And, as Example 5 makes clear, this breve not only marks the single strongest
internal articulation in the entire Gloria, but is followed immediately by the striking
passage that forms the most important motivic link with the ballade. Mass and

4 Guglielmi Dufay: Opera omnia, II (Rome 1960), p. 1-14.

44 FALLOWS, Dufay, p. 165-67.
4 After BESSELER, Guglielmi Dufay: Opera omnia, II, p. 5.

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126 A. W. Atlas: Gematria, Marriage Numbers, and Golden Sections in Dufay's "Resvellies vous"

ballade, then, not only share surface features, but, at least in so far as the Gloria is
concerned, a common concern for placing important musical events - perhaps the
most important - at structural points determined by the Golden Section.
This structural relationship reopens, perhaps, a question addressed by Fallows:
which work was conceived first, ballade or Mass? Fallows opts for the Mass: "...
the ballade Resvellids vous probably grew from ideas that arose in the course of
composing the [Mass] cycle. In the song we see the distillation of various ideas that
had worked well and had evidently pleased Dufay."46 Plausible though Fallows's
conclusion may be, it is not the only one possible. If I am right that the harmonic
progression with which the chanson (and the "Qui sedes") opens came about
through Dufay's conscious use of intersecting minor thirds that stand as a harmonic
symbol of the Pythagorean marriage numbers six and five, then we might argue that
Dufay, in composing the Mass, borrowed that harmonic motive from the chanson,
where its symbolic significance had already been established, and placed it at the
juncture of the Golden Section of the Gloria in order to give that aesthetically
favored structural point an appropriate symbolic meaning. Since the Gloria seems
devoid of any other readily apparent symbolism, it appears unlikely that the
harmonic progression itself would have had any such significance had it originated
as part of the Mass. And that Dufay would have adopted the "Qui sedes" motive for
the symbolically rich ballade because he recognized the presence in it of the
marriage numbers after the fact seems less likely still. In all, the question of which
came first - ballade or Mass - remains unresolved (at least in my mind), but I
would suggest that the placement of the most striking harmonic motive in either
work right on the division of the Golden Section of the Gloria came about only after
the symbolic meaning of the harmony had already been established in the ballade.
If I have interpreted the coincidence between number and ceremonial occasion
correctly, then Resvellies vous is rich not only in its musical materials, but also in its
symbolic content. Indeed, certain features of the musical surface that seem to puzzle
us at first - the flights of semiminims, the thirty-three notes in triplet motion that
cadence prematurely, and the harmonic shock in the opening measures - fall into
place when viewed as expressions of numerological thought, while the rambling,
mosaic-like progress of those features takes place within a very orderly framework.
Resvellies vous, then, is a very complete piece: a joy to the melody-oriented, early
Quattrocento Italianate ear, and a treat for the ultramontane scholastic intellect; a
musical allegory of the wedding that it celebrates, and a fitting tribute to the
aspirations of the then upwardly mobile Malatesta of Pesaro. In all, the piece is one
of the young Dufay's most extraordinary accomplishments, and it can take its place
alongside Nuper rosarum flores as one of the composer's virtuoso displays of
"numerical composition."47

46 FALLOWS, Dufay, p. 168.

4 On the use of numberand proportionin Nuper rosarumflores, see CH. W. WARREN, Brunelleschi'sDome
and Dufay's Motet, in: MQ 59 (1973), p. 92-105.

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