Fuller On Sonority in Fourteenth-Century Polyphony

Yale University Department of Music
On Sonority in Fourteenth-Century Polyphony: Some Preliminary Reflections

Author(s): Sarah Fuller
Source: Journal of Music Theory, Vol. 30, No. 1 (Spring, 1986), pp. 35-70
Published by: Duke University Press on behalf of the Yale University Department of
Music
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/843408
Accessed: 23-04-2020 14:14 UTC
REFERENCES
Linked references are available on JSTOR for this article:
https://www.jstor.org/stable/843408?seq=1&cid=pdf-reference#references_tab_contents
You may need to log in to JSTOR to access the linked references.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide
range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and
facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at
https://about.jstor.org/terms
Duke University Press, Yale University Department of Music are collaborating with
JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Journal of Music Theory
This content downloaded from 193.204.40.97 on Thu, 23 Apr 2020 14:14:20 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
ON SONORITY IN FOURTEENTH-CENTURY
POLYPHONY:
SOME PRELIMINARY REFLECTIONS
Sarah Fuller
Introduction. Harmonic aspects of Guillaume de Machaut's music

have long kindled the interest of music historians, as is evident from
such classic contributions as Gilbert Reaney's inauguratory essay on
fourteenth-century harmony, H.H. Eggebrecht's thorough analysis of
Motet No. 9, and Wolfgang D6mling's concise monograph on the secu-
lar songs.1 The last two in particular assign significant structural pur-
port to sonority in individual compositions. More recently, Ramon
Pelinski and Hellmut Kiihn have pressed the general thesis that sonority
assumes a structural role in Machaut's music, Kiihn extending it to the
fourteenth century at large.2
Invaluable as they have been in broadening musical perspectives be-
yond narrow confines of rhythmic pattern, motive, and reiterative form,
these studies are marred collectively, and to varying degrees individ-
ually, by insufficient grounding in a settled domain of primary theoret-
ical concepts. They lack consensus on such fundamental issues as
nomenclature and classification of sonorities, assessment of relation-
ships between sonorities, and designation of basic syntactical processes.
The individual authors (Kiihn excepted) tend to assume a shared under-
standing with the reader and neglect the admittedly tedious business of
justifying first premises. Some among their manifold observations
35
about contributions of sonority to structure in individual compositions
seem intuitively plausible, but others run contrary to intuitive musical
perception, or to fourteenth-century modes of thought, or to both. To
mention but two seeming misperceptions, H. H. Eggebrecht's claim that
Machaut's O livoris feritas (Motet No. 9) is isoharmonic in nature and
genesis rests on the unlikely premise that sonorities as diverse in inter-
vallic composition and pitch content as those shown in Example 1 were
thought to be, and will be perceived as, equivalent.3 Wolfgang Ddmling's
case for parallel construction between two sections of Comment peut
on mieus (Rondeau 11) depends largely on recognizing a cadence to a
D-sonority in m. 13, although the progression neither conforms to the
"double-leading-tone" .formula regarded as standard for the fourteenth
century nor coincides with a point of metric stability (Ex. 2).4 Indeed,
the D-sonority, far from effecting cadential closure, seems itself to re-
quire resolution and does move in the preferred way (major third to
fifth) on the subsequent breve.5
Both these descriptions of musical processes and the conclusions
consequent to them rest on unexamined assumptions about sonorities
and their syntactical relationships. Their dissociation from any nucleus
of elementary theoretical doctrine formulated for fourteenth-century
polyphony brings results that are at best idiosyncratic. Routine obser-
vations of similar nature about tonal pieces rely on a multitude of
shared assumptions about sonorities and their relationships that are
engrained in early training about Western tonal music. Informative
communication about structural and affective aspects of fourteenth-
century polyphony is impeded by lack of a comparable body of ac-
knowledged concepts and terminology. The want is particularly acute
where sonority is concerned, for it is less amenable than rhythm or mo-
tive to the channels of later convention.
To establish a bedrock of terms and concepts appropriate to dis-
course about sonority in fourteenth-century music is no simple task,
and the present endeavor should be regarded rather as a point of depar-
ture for future inquiry than as a definitive statement of a position. The
venture is complicated at the outset by two competing interests. On the
one hand, it needs to be firmly grounded historically, rooted in the
thought of the fourteenth century. On the other hand, it should respond
to twentieth-century concerns and deal with concepts about classifica-
tion, relationship, function and syntax that were not formally articu-
lated by fourteenth-century musicians, however much they may have
existed in an unarticulated, or at least unrecorded, complex of values
and practices. These two interests are complementary but not very con-
gruent, for the concerns of the fourteenth-century musician, insofar as
we are privy to them, overlap but slightly with those of a twentieth-
century music historian engaged in elucidating a musical language of
36
r. 17-18 47 62 77 92
Ud
Example 1 Motet No. 9 (O livoris feritas)

Sonorities on 6th breve of Talea Unit
m.12
Cantus
(A)- - - - - - -- - - - - - - ?- - . .
Contratenor -
Tenor
Example 2a Comment peut on mieus, mm. 12-14
Ar~
Example 2b Contrapunc
37
the past within the context of present modes of thought. Fourteenth-
century writings do not furnish, and should not be expected to provide,
a ready-made vocabulary geared to a twentieth-century conceptual view.
They do, however, supply indications of contemporary thought that
are indispensable to any modern attempt to fathom the arrangement
and functions of sonority in fourteenth-century polyphony.
Despite the silence of the theoretical and pedagogical sources on this
point, I share with others the opinion that sonority was a significant
structural resource in the advanced polyphony of fourteenth-century
France and, in particular, in the music of Guillaume de Machaut. Ars
nova rhythmic practices, based on a greatly expanded temporal domain,
engendered clear harmonic distinctions born of extreme differences in
duration coupled with precise phrase modeling. In fact, the tendency to
magnify selected sonorities is already apparent in motets associated
with Petrus de Cruce and his circle in which held chords stand out in
bold relief at phrase endings.6 An issue-oriented history of composi-
tional technique might indeed claim that a primary task of fourteenth-
century composers was to develop control over new harmonic resources
forced to the fore by novel rhythmic practices.
Some concrete indication of evolving consciousness about sonority
may be gleaned from changes in elementary teaching about the simplest
note-against-note two-part polyphony, a subject called discant in thir-
teenth-century texts. In the course of the fourteenth century, a new
name, contrapunctus, was attached to this subject and the series of
plain consonant intervals itself, the contrapunctus, was defined as the
fundamentum discantus, the foundation of florid polyphony or cantus
fractabilis. 7 This amounts to a differentiation in structural levels-a step
of signal importance in polyphonic theory-for the new terminology
distinguishes between the active surface of a polyphonic composition
and a skeletal frame of essential consonances, a fundamentum, that sup-
ports it. By contrast, in thirteenth-century thought external surface
and structure are one. Comparison of virtually any late thirteenth-
century motet with a motet by Philippe de Vitry or Guillaume de
Machaut will disclose the concrete phenomena, in particular the tem-
poral extension of individual sonorities, to which the fundamentum
discantus concept relates and from which it very probably germinated.
The other significant innovation is the doctrine of normal interval
succession promulgated in a number of fourteenth-century contra-
punctus manuals. In its most extreme manifestations, this doctrine
mandates specific sequels to imperfect intervals as well as their inflec-
tion, under specified conditions, by falsa musica. This new topic surely
relates to the emergence of a standard cadential formula (retrospectively
dubbed "double-leading-tone" cadence) that is already present in some
of the more advanced motets of the Roman de Fauvel (1316). 8 But it
38
relates also to more subtle aspects of the music: differentiation between
more and less biased, "weaker" and "stronger" progressions and creation
of anticipations that engage the listener in motion toward an expected
goal. A familiar example is Machaut's well-known rondeau Puis qu'en
oubli, where both first and second phrases close on poised, unsettled
sonorities that plainly require resolution and span the phrase break with
harmonic tension.9 These conspicuous changes in the pedagogy of dis-
cant and contrapunctus resonate sufficiently with distinctive traits of
ars nova polyphony as to afford some historical basis for a musical ap-
proach attuned to structural levels and syntactic processes.
As the repositories of contemporary doctrines about the sonorities
allowed and the progressions preferred in proper combinations of two
or more voices, the contrapunctus manuals are the natural foundations
on which to build a language about fourteenth-century sonority.10
Their status as sources of information is, however, problematic. Most of
these manuals are of uncertain date, provenance, and authorship. 1 In
consequence, their individual spheres of influence cannot be fixed to
any appreciable degree of precision. Claims that specific doctrines relate
to a particular repertory or cultural sphere rely (faute de mieux) on
rough consensus among those contrapunctus tracts that happen to have
survived to the present.
Troublesome also are issues of purpose and destination. The contra-
punctus works are elementary texts directed in the main toward boy
singers just ready to undertake part-singing, certainly not addressed to
experienced discantors or even apprentice composers of motets.12 Ex-
plicit references to written genres are infrequent and fleeting. No actual
compositions are cited as examples. Those treatises that deal with em-
bellishing a simple contrapunctus commonly proceed with schematic
exercises that would appear to be more suitable preparation for unwrit-
ten practices of spontaneous performance than for composition of no-
tated works. 13
To incorporate precepts of contrapunctus into a construct intended
for application to notated art works may seem, then, to be a willful re-
direction of contrapunctus teaching to purposes far removed from
those for which it was conceived. Although the redirection must cer-
tainly be acknowledged, it can be rationalized to some degree. The
composers who produced complex notated music were doubtless edu-
cated in the elementary principles of contrapunctus. They would have
possessed that learning as part of their cultural tradition and known it
to be shared by those who performed and heard their works. Whether
or not they explicitly invoked contrapunctus precepts in conceiving a
written piece, they surely knew them as the foundation of training
in polyphony.14 Moreover, empirical evidence supports the connec-
tion between contrapunctus principles and written composition, for
39
characteristic traits of contrapunctus, especially patterns of interval
progression and choice of sonorities, are evident in the notated works
of Machaut and his contemporaries.1s While the written practice is far
more rich and varied than that sketched in the contrapunctus manuals,
it is nonetheless closely affiliated with it. Such caveats have shaped my
approach to the theoretical sources and should be kept in mind during
the course of the succeeding argument.
Because of their very elementary nature, the treatises are most di-
rectly useful where general issues of nomenclature, classification, and
aural quality are concerned. Syntactic practices-what may loosely be
thought of as the grammar of usage-can only be deduced through direct
examination of compositional practice. The functions of sonority, its
role in the syntax of progression, closure, expectancy, and tonal focus,
constitute the domain of ultimate interest, but a considered approach
to this domain involves detailed preparation.16 Some of this prepara-
tion, based as it is on recognized aspects of contrapunctus teaching,
may seem excessive, and the informed reader may wish to skip directly
to the section on progression. Justification for the preliminaries resides
in the desire to connect modemrn nomenclature with fourteenth-century
precept, in the restriction of the pedagogical witness to fourteenth-
century documents, and in the special orientation imposed upon that
witness in the present context.
Nomenclature of Sonorities. The contrapunctus manuals define

sonorities solely in terms of a two-voice contrapunctus, the note-
against-note polyphony that a few among them explicitly recognize as
the foundation of florid discant. By unanimous consent, they limit
contrapunctus to consonant intervals. Their categorical exclusion of dis-
sonance (a legacy from the thirteenth century) amounts to a conviction
that dissonance is non-structural and cannot participate in a legitimately
formulated sonority. When licensed at all by the contrapunctus teach-
ers, it is only as a minor portion of a subdivided structural pitch."17 Al-
though the instruction is framed in terms of a given cantus/invented
discant pair, one fourteenth-century teacher cautions that any third
participant, if discanting below the cantus, becomes the guide to the
consonances above.18 The most solid fourteenth-century evidence for
the principle that the lowest pitch governs the sonority is found not in
the contrapunctus tracts but in the solus tenors provided for motets
a 4 which consistently adopt the lowest pitch of a tenor-contratenor
pair.9
The exact number and specific selection of admissable consonances
varies from treatise to treatise according to such factors as whether
intervals above the octave are granted independent status or are treated
40
as compounds of simple intervals, whether Greek or Latin names are
used, and whether the minor sixth is admitted to consonant status. The
core group from which selections are made consists of unison, octave,
fifth, minor third, major third, major sixth and their octave compounds.
Fourths are tacitly excluded from two-part contrapunctus, but minor
sixths gradually infiltrate, sometimes, as it were, by default, under the
Latin term sexta unqualified as to major or minor. 20 Whatever the con-
sonances selected, they are always placed within a two-rank hierarchy
and classified as either perfect or imperfect in nature."21 Those recognized
as perfect are drawn from the thirteenth-century categories of perfect
and medial consonance: unisons, fifths, octaves, and their compounds,
twelfths and fifteenths. Those considered to be imperfect are the thirds,
as in the preceding century, and the sixth (either major alone or both
species) and their compounds, tenths and thirteenths. That this division
reflected qualities of sound and was not blindly adopted on authority
will appear anon. For the moment, let us dwell on its implications for a
system of nomenclature for vertical combinations of intervals.
For purposes of study and analysis, sonorities are most usefully
identified in two ways: specifically, according to their particular consti-
tution, and generically, according to shared attributes of type. Specific
or proper names consisting of the lowest pitch and the intervals above it
have already achieved some currency and provide direct association be-
tween name and sound. Under this convention, FS and GS register
promptly as sonorities of identical interval structure situated on differ-
ent pitch degrees, G and G 6as sonorities of different interval struc-
ture based on the same pitch degree. (Hereafter, "+" or "-" indicates
whether the interval is major or minor, and "u" marks a unison.) The
8 +10
sonorities
+3 5
F s and F s might
porary doctrine of
sidered the same in
this nomenclature-t
salient properties o
but will be accepted
The specific names
alized observations
terns of use and con
type. The dual inte
contrapunctus teach
chord or sonority t
nances can be assign
perfect (P) or imper
ities encountered do
fication. A review o
41
in the three and four-voice motets and ballades and in the mass of
Machaut suggests a minimum of three different types (Ex. 3):23
(1) combinations of perfect intervals: unison, fifth, octave and their

compounds.
(2)combinations of perfect intervals with an imperfect interval:
unison or octave with sixth or third, fifth with a third.
(3)combinations of two imperfect intervals: the third and the
sixth.2?
Adopting contrapunctus terminology, sonorities of the first kind can

be classified as perfect in type (P), for they are the same in quality as
single perfect intervals. Sonorities of the second kind may be called im-
perfect (I) because of the imperfect interval they incorporate along
with one or more perfect components. Three-voice sonorities in this
category contain but one imperfect interval. Four-voice sonorities some-
times include the octave compound of their imperfect component, but
most commonly combine either third or tenth with octave and fifth.
There remains the third sonority-type consisting of two imperfect
intervals above the lowest pitch. For these I propose the label doubly-
imperfect (II) in recognition of the characteristic that sets them apart
from other sonority-types and contributes to their very special sound
quality.2s Three-voice sonorities of this type contain no perfect com-
ponent, but four-voice ones may include the octave of the lowest pitch.
Dissonant sonority-types are inadmissable in the contrapunctus do-
main. They do not occur as sustained sonorities ("scribal error" disposes
of them when they do) and if uncovered in elaborated discant can
usually be explained as displacements within a conventional contra-
punctus framework. Nevertheless, situations in which dissonance is
present at a first-reduction level do occur, so for practical purposes it
is useful to postulate a dissonant sonority-type (D), no matter how
sparsely populated (or controversial) this group may be.
The classification scheme just sketched is intended to be narrowly
descriptive in nature. The names correspond to objective features of the
sounds-constituent intervals, lowest pitch, nature of the components-
without reference to affective qualities or to potential functions. Yet
the scheme does correspond broadly to qualitative characteristics as
recognized by some among the contrapunctus masters and inferable
from the music of the time. Because distinctions in quality are of
cardinal importance to syntax and function, the fourteenth-century
attitude on this subject merits review.
Most of the contrapunctus pedagogues simply assert the dichotomy
between perfect and imperfect intervals without explaining its ration-
ale. All usually repeat the thirteenth-century requirement that discant
end with perfect consonance, but the anonymous author of Cum
42
Type i
a) b) c) d) e) f)
M18,19 MI7,100 M17,7 B18, 18 M21,39 M
SI
U *. ,W
-41- 4P *1
8 8 5 12 12 12
5 5 U 8 8 8
Type 2 5
a)M 18,b)M18,c)M 18,d)M 18,e)B32, f
52 32 38 76 16 179 194 45 Kyrie,53 Kyrie,46 Kyrie,58 Sanctus.17
5 5 -10 8 8 8 8 3
+10
5 +10
5 8 12
5 12 -10
+10 5
+3 -3 8 +6 +6 +3 -3 +3 5 -3 8 -3
Type 3
a)M 18, b)M 9, c) Ma d) Ma e)B 21, f) Ma g) Ma
28 146 Kyrie,65 Kyrie,88 20 Credo,30 Credo,32
+6 +10 +10 +13 +10 8

+3 + +6 +6 +6 8 +6
([+]3 +3 +3 +6 +3
S=tenor pitch
Example 3 14th-Century Sonority-Types
43
notum sit imbues the old rule with new force in declaring the reason for
perfect endings:
The ninth proposition is that just as a contrapunctus begins on a per-
fect consonance, so it should end. The reason can be that if the song
were to end on an imperfect consonance, then the [listener's] mind
would remain suspended, nor would it find repose since it would not
have heard a perfect sound, nor in consequence, would it be indi-
cated that the song ended there.
The dichotomy conclusive/inconclusive (or satisfied/expectant) pro-

posed in these lines is echoed elsewhere in attributes of tendency which
can be interpreted to mean stability as opposed to instability. Two
separate but kindred contrapunctus handbooks offer complementary
observations, one on the perfect, the other on the imperfect category of
consonance:
Three of these intervals [that is, those admitted to contrapunc-

tus] make perfect consonance, nor are they inclined to ascend or
descend.27
And the other intervals, that is minor and major third and major
sixth, produce imperfect consonance because they are inclined to
ascend or descend to the previously mentioned perfect intervals, so
the minor third to the unison, the major third to the fifth, the major
sixth to the octave when ascending or descending in series. 28
These two passages explain why parallel imperfect consonances are al-
lowed, parallel perfect consonances forbidden, but in doing so they
introduce wholesale characterizations that have potentially broader
significance. The anonymous mid-century English theorist echoes his
Continental counterparts in associating kinetic potential with interval
types:
The unison, because of its immobility, is called a perfect conso-
nance .... Imperfect consonances are chiefly named so by virtue
of their instability, for they move from one place to another and
possess in themselves no definite [numerical] proportion. 29
Broadly speaking, the qualities attached to intervals in the abstract

can be transferred to sonority-types in the abstract. If one imagines a
continuum tracing a path from immobile stability to volatile instability,
then perfect sonorities will congregate at the stable terminus, doubly-
imperfect ones at the mobile terminus, while imperfect sonorities will
occupy the middle ground. But in actual practice, the association of
objective types with specific qualities can only be considered loosely
normative, for multiple factors can act in a compositional context to
qualify the effect and function of a sonority.
The sharpest cleavage between abstract labels and perceived quality
44
or function occurs within the subgroup of imperfect sonorities com-
posed of a fifth and a third. A passage from O series summa rata (Motet
No. 17) shows how different in import two sonorities of this type can
be quality,
in (Ex. 4). aThe C+. sonority
shading sustained
of the preceding onfifth.
C-G brevesThe30-31 is quite B-s
neighboring stable
sonority on breves 34-35 is markedly different in quality: the thirds are
heard to pull toward their normal resolutions, so that the sonority as a
whole projects strong forward tendency. This mobile -3 sonority has
more in common with the doubly-imperfect penultimate sound of the
piece, with which it shares pitch-class content, than with its neighbor
of the same generic type (Ex. 5).
What is to be made of this unmistakable incongruence between de-
scriptive label and functional roles? Ideally the difference in quality
should be reflected in the system of nomenclature. In this particular
instance, the opposite qualities correspond with different constituent
thirds-major in the more stable, minor in the more unsettled sonority-
5
but -3 sonorities do not necessarily, or even usually, increase the har-

monic tension. Another distinguishing feature is the chromatic inflection
of the second of the two sonorities. Inflection is a more reliable index
to tension in such cases, for major sixths or minor thirds approaching
octave or unison D, E, G, or A normally require inflection in the four-
teenth-century diatonic system, that is, in musica recta, as do major.
thirds approaching C-G and often F-C.30 It is perhaps not entirely coin-
5 1-6
cidental that
sonority is m
and requires r
ities that are
others in the
to be indicat
generic descr
tions or qual
text. The cha
guides to nor
The ramifica
music are examined.
Syntax: Prolongation, Progression, Cadence. As already noted,

fourteenth-century contrapunctus teaching departs from thirteenth-
century discant precedent in the attention it directs toward norms
of interval succession.32 In some texts, as in Quilibet affectans, the
successions advocated seem based on no more compelling premise
than "proceed preferably from any interval, perfect or imperfect, to
the nearest adjacent consonance,"33 but in others the stipulations seem
45
I= A.
2629 32
Triplum
foy de fait es-prouvee,Tantque loy au - tes ju - re - e, Faitqu'el-le a
Motetus
(te)-nens li - ga - tu-ram, Ar - gu - men- tis de-mon-stra
Tenor m -"
34 37 40
ii s'ot - tri e Par si !i
ta. Non pa ti frac - tu ram
Example 4 0 series summa rata, mm. 26-42
125 127
tdenre)-e Le mar-cheant con - chi - e
(ge)-ni - tu - ram
r.e
Exampl
46
to recognize tendency in imperfect intervals as a class. This is so of the
oft-intoned rule that parallel thirds or sixths must terminate in perfect
consonance. 4 It is particularly evident in the distinction made by
Petrus palma ociosa (1336) between those intervals (unison, fifth,
octave) that may proceed unrestrictedly to any other consonance and
those (minor third, major third, major sixth) that demand a specific
sequel.3s Along with occasional statements directly associating imper-
fect consonance as a class with tendency, inconclusiveness, "suspen-
sion," with expectation of more to come,36 these observations on
preferred or mandated successions point toward a syntactic practice
based on directional tendencies of imperfect intervals, alone or in com-
binations. Insofar as falsa musica is mandated in certain situations to
effect major thirds and sixths, inflection too becomes an index of di-
rected motion.
An account of syntax cannot, however, find solid anchorage in the
perfect/imperfect dichotomy alone. In composition multiple factors be-
sides degree of perfection contribute to the effect of individual sonori-
ties or progressions. Voice-leading, duration, position within phrase or
mensural unit, pitch degree-all these contextual factors interact with
sonority-type to produce the results heard.37 Only in the context of
actual practice, through observation of concrete situations in which
sonorities appear can appropriate categories of syntax be worked out.
Machaut's works constitute the primary source material for the syn-
tactic categories proposed here. Because sonorities unfold relatively
slowly in the motets, permitting each to register fully, the illustrations
have been drawn from this segment of his works, but similar practices
may be observed in his secular songs. In keeping with the exploratory
nature of this undertaking, the discussion concentrates on just three pri-
mary procedures: prolongation, progression, and terminal punctuation.
The opening of one of Machaut's earliest and most transparent three-
voice works, the first talea of Bone Pastor (Motet 18), may serve to
introduce some basic concepts (Example 6a).38 Departing from the no-
tion that "contrapunctus is the foundation of discant," the surface
activity of the voices can be stripped away to lay bare a series of homo-
rhythmic consonant sonorities that can be said to represent the essen-
tial pitch structure of the passage (Ex. 6b). From the start, it must be
recognized that this procedure does not pretend to track the composi-
tional process in reverse, but is a patent act of analysis. The reduction
is an idealized distillation of a structural framework that exists beneath
the surface fluctuations of motivic figure and melodic line. Besides
being consistent with the fundamentum concept, this analytic process
renders a sharp image of the voice-leading and the principal sonorities
perceived when the music is performed and heard. In keeping with
the attitude that rhythmic and mensural factors bear significantly
47
4 7
Triplui________ ___
Bo - Ine pa-stor Guil - ler - me, P

Motetus ,___
Bo - ne pa - stor qui pa - -
Tenor -.
10 13 16
me Non est ti- bi da- F !n e r
sto - res Ce - te - ros vin - cis per mo -
19 22
va Vir - tu-tumestca- ter - va
ms Et per
Example 6a Bone
4 7 10 13 16 19 21 23
5 5 8 5 +6 8 5 8 -6 +6 8 +10 8 +10
+3 +35S +3 +35S +3 -3 +35
/ rest
Tenore =breve
=voice crossing
Example 6b Contrapunctus reduction, Bone Pastor, Talea I
48
on how sonorities are perceived, temporal proportions need to be pre-
served in a first reduction.
In considering what a contrapunctus reduction may reveal about
syntax, it is first necessary to distinguish between progressions-changes
from one sonority to another-and prolongations-continuation of a
sonority or integral constellation of pitches. To some extent this dis-
tinction operates in the very process of reduction, during which choices
about which pitches to preserve have constantly to be made, but it be-
comes especially critical in the interpretation of the structural scaffold-
ing, even at the most elementary stage of plain description.
An exemplary prolongation stands as the midpoint of the Bone Pas-
tor
12). talea whereholds
The tenor an Assteady,
sonority is extended
while over
the upper threeemphasized
pitches, tempora (br. by10-
duration and situated on main mensural subunits, are decorated. Despite
the exchange of pitches between triplum and motetus at the third breve
and their concurrent initiation of fresh phrases and text lines, the sonor-
ity is heard to persist through the entire perfect long. In contrast to this
prolongation, an obvious progression occurs between breves 18-19,
where all three voices move to new pitches and the sonority-type
changes from doubly-imperfect to perfect.
More problematic is the situation over the first five breves. Should it
be considered as a prolongation of one sonority, Cs with a sometime
third,
two or as a entail
descriptions succession of five different
vastly different sonorities:
conceptions of the music: Cs ?A u
in the 4. ? The
first instance an opening anchored on one principal sonority, in the
second an opening replete with harmonic change and movement. The
choice cannot be made on strictly rational, abstract grounds, but must
be argued contextually in terms of how these particular events unfold
and how they strike the ear in relation to surrounding events. My pref-
erence is to interpret the passage as a prolongation, for neither of the
imperfect elements within it really dislodges the central C-fifth. The A
(br. 4) is attached to the G of the fifth and ornaments it melodically in
the manner of a slow trill. The E enters within the vertical context of
the C-G fifth and is imbedded melodically within the fifths outlined in
both triplum and motetus. The major third it forms with the tenor C
generates no particular directional thrust. Indeed, the E remains fixed
and is absorbed as a stable element in the subsequent As sonority. The

E colors the fifth and effects a more dense, imperfect sound, but its
presence or absence does not produce progression. Besides the subordi-
nation of the E and the A relative to the persistent C-G, none of the
intervallic fluctuations over the course of the first five breves equals, or
even approaches, in impact the change in sound at breve 6 where a pro-
gression to a new sonority certainly takes place. To read the opening as
a series of progressions rather than a prolongation is to mask this
49
striking shift whose force derives in part from the preceding impression
of harmonic stasis.39
Similar arguments pertain to sonorities heard at breves 14-15 and
19-24, which are also shaded by introduction or elimination of imper-
fect elements. In both cases, the sound complexes are perceived as indi-
visible units despite momentary changes in the intervals above the
sustained tenor. This is not to say that such changes fulfill no functional
purpose. The introduction of a tenth at breve 21-22, after the strong
- phrase ending, interacts with the start of a new triplum phrase to
generate forward impetus into the new talea even though it does not
weigh strongly enough in the context to register as a progression at a
structural level. Similarly, the quality of the initial C-sonority-its limi-
tation within a fifth, its imperfect component-contrasts markedly with
the octave spread and open, perfect quality of the A-sonority following.
In this instance, the imperfect component has to do with timbre and
registral spectrum (open versus closed musical space) rather than with
tendency.
Contrary to what these examples might suggest, sustained tenor
pitches by no means always signal a prolongation. A change in sonority
telling enough to be called a progression occurs, for example, over the
tenor A of breves 16-17. Besides a shift in sonority-type from perfect
to doubly-imperfect, the constellation of upper-voice pitches changes
completely, from E-A to C-F. Moreover, the second group, A-C-F,
continues on to a G-sonority of parallel structure. Rather than being a
timbral adjunct to the initial octave-fifth, it becomes the first step in a
short chain of doubly-imperfect sonorities. These factors conjoined
create a progression over the held A. A similar change over a sustained
tenor pitch occurs at breves 8-9. Here the major third of an imperfect
sonority stands firm, while the fifth moving up to a major sixth pro-
duces a doubly-imperfect sonority. Both sixth and third subsequently
proceed in the preferred way to octave and fifth respectively. Because
of the whole sequence of events (and in contrast to breve 4 where a
sixth simply falls back to the preceding fifth) a significant change in
sound is perceived during the course of the tenor B b.
If any general hypothesis is to be suggested from this severely re-
stricted sample, it might be that shifts from perfect to imperfect sonor-
ity types during a sustained pitch register with less force than shifts to
doubly-imperfect sonorities, which normally initiate forward motion.
Changes in the lowest pitch are normally perceived as progressions and
spark fresh constellations of upper-voice pitches.
Progressions differ considerably in intensity, in degree of contrast
between the participating sonorities, and in the tensile force that in-
clines one sonority toward another. Among the factors entering into
such qualitative differences are the number of elements in common
50
between adjacent sonorities, specific voice leading, position with re-
spect to phrasing and main mensural units, preceding, and even subse-
quent, context. Amid the plethora of individual instances, the cardinal
principle to be kept in mind is a distinction between progressions that
are neutral in character and those that are inclined toward a specific
goal. Just as sonorities can be imagined along a continuum from un-
questionably stable to extremely unstable, so progressions can be posi-
tioned along an imaginary continuum from neutral or non-committed
to definitely directed. At the neutral pole stand progressions in which
the first sonority of a pair is stable in character and has no particular
tendency to move to the second. The relationship can be depicted as
X-Y, where X and Y represent different sonorities and the intervening
dash simply indicates their adjacency. Succession perhaps more aptly
applies to such situations than progression, insofar as it is devoid of
connotations other than sequence in time. At the directed pole cluster
progressions in which the first element tends in a particular direction
and creates expectancy for resolution of constitutent pitches and inter-
vals. This second type is functional in nature in that the first element
prepares the second. When specific sonorities are at issue, their relation-
ship can be indicated as X-Y, with the arrow indicating the directional
thrust from the first toward the second sonority. The type can be gen-
eralized as P-R, where P stands for preparation, R for its resolution, or
T-R, where T stands for a directed tendency.40
Within the first talea of Bone Pastor, neutral progressions or succes-
sions are represented by the C4 to AS at br. 5-6, and by the As to G+s

at br. 10-14. Both first elements in these pairs are sufficiently settled in
quality as to permit any appropriately constituted sonority to follow.
Some surface preparation takes place in either case, but it is decorative
in nature.41 In contrast to these, the progression at br. 18-19 from a
G6 sonority to an Fa stands out as rather definitely directed. The
doubly-imperfect first element has a considerable store of tension
which is resolved by the subsequent perfect sonority. Progressions of
this sort are sparsely meted out in this first talea. The only other one is
strategically located at the talea midpoint, br. 9-10. As conjoined with
textual and rhythmic articulations, both these progressions have strong
punctuating effects and in fact deserve to be called cadences. That four-
teenth-century musicians considered such progressions to be terminal
in effect was long ago deduced from the fact that most polyphony of
the time closes with an X+6 -YS progression known to present genera-
tions under the tonally-allusive rubric "double-leading-tone" cadence.
The terminal cadence of Bone Pastor echoes the progression at br. 18-
19, even reproducing the same voice-leading (Ex. 7 t4).42 The disposition
of neutral and directed progressions in relation to tenor or cantus mo-
tion, phrase and large sectional divisions, and tonal foci is a subject
51
T 17 Reduction
-ven - te sed Mi - net - va,
per mo - res,
. II II --P
T2
41
e) -dus de - mon ,.
T,
65
(Que) mi - tri - fer
174
po - ten - ter,
, ? 1 J I I - I
(D)
Tg
89
" ' ~I I----

est di-gna 'T- a cer-vix ut sig - na, Sint
pa - sto - r em ,
Example 7 Bone Pastor, E
52
t=
104
-ma par-te ba-cu- li, At-tra- he- re.
in -? seg ne.
P P I-.. P
t2
116
-tos par-te ter-ci- a, Scis pun-ge- re.
-si dig - ne.

o I I (I)-eP
(D)
t3
128
-mum e -ro-ga - mr ne, Sen-si bi- .
-bi re i.
w. " a* o , II I(D
-i I dg - (D).
-b o gr - gs.
II -II)--P
Example 7 (cont.)
53
worthy of detailed investigation. For the present, the phenomenon of
cadence, which so powerfully shapes perceptions of formal divisions,
tonal structure and sectional association, commands attention.
A great many cadences may be regarded as special cases of directed
progression: special because not accomplished by quality or structure
of the progression alone. Voice leading, position in the phrase and with
respect to mensural framework, rhythm, textural density all contribute
to the phenomenon. The cadential effect at br. 18-19 in Bone Pastor is
not due exclusively to progression and voice leading, much as they con-
tribute to it. The progression assumes the role of cadence because a) it
is positioned at the end of textual and musical phrases in both upper
voices and at the end of a distinct four-note segment in the tenor; b) the
second element, R, the resolution, is relatively long in duration and c) R
also falls at the beginning of a double-long, at the inception, that is, of a
major mensural unit. The same comments apply to the final cadence,
only there the metric impact is intensified by resolution of the mensural
clash between tenor and upper voices, which occurs simultaneously
with that of the doubly-imperfect sonority.43 These elements are by
no means incidental to what is grasped syntactically as "the cadence."
They are essential contributing factors.
Just as rhythm, phrase, and mensural position must coordinate with
a directed progression to produce cadence, so they can act to modify
degrees of cadential closure, or to confer cadential status on a progres-
sion that does not conform to the T-+R archtype, at least at a structural
level. The eight talea endings in Bone Pastor offer a convenient con-
spectus of cadential practice within a single, carefully constructed
composition.
Rhythmic and mensural periodicities define the seventh unit in every
talea as a point of closure or cadence (Ex. 7).44 Each is an agogically
stressed arrival and coincides with the beginning of a main mensural
unit. Each is articulated by phrase or verse endings in at least one upper
voice (frequently in both). Despite these definite punctuations, which
always coincide with a long tenor F approached from the G above,
Machaut adjusts rhythm, line and progression so that all are not uni-
form in effect. The conclusive force of at least half these terminations
is attenuated by modifications in preparatory or terminal sonority, or
in both. The first and final talea endings represent the archtypal "strong"
cadence, doubly-imperfect to perfect sonority (II-P) (Ex. 7 T1,t4). The
end of the fourth talea, by contrast, is plainly weakened, presumably to
prevent a sharp disjunction between integer valor and diminution sec-
tions (Ex. 7 T4).45 The triplum does not remain on the octave of the
tenor F but unexpectedly completes its text line on a semibreve E, dis-
rupting what at first seemed to be a secure arrival. The preceding G-
sonority does not announce a directed progression, for the major third
54
is joined with a prominent fifth in the triplum, rather than a sixth. At a
structural level, the passage might be interpreted as a standard II-P pro-
gression disrupted by syncopation (hence the untoward prominence of
the triplum E, br. 91) but this is not its surface effect.
The cadences ending the third talea in both sections are weakened
by what might be called "incomplete" preparatory sonorities that in-
clude but one imperfect interval, and by resolution not to perfect but
to imperfect sonorities (Ex. 7 T3,t3). Although both punctuations are
strongly marked rhythmically, the imperfect quality of their terminal
elements prevents them from sounding conclusive.46 At the end of
diminution talea 3, surface dissonance seems to take the place of, in-
deed to function as, a doubly-imperfect preparatory element. The same
may be said of the preceding talea ending as well (Ex. 7 t2), where pun-
gent dissonances preceding the terminal consonance contribute mate-
rially to the sense of resolution. Both preparatory elements can be
artificially construed as legitimate (that is, consonant) contrapunctus
sonorities by adjusting rhythmic disjunctions, but such regularization
perhaps obscures as much as it elucidates. To label the preparation a
dissonant sonority accords more with actual perception of the sounds
and the tension-resolution action. Such instances, where dissonance
does seem to function syntactically at the first reduction level argue for
a category of dissonant sonority (D), despite the strictures of orthodox
contrapunctus.
This group of closures illustrates the difficulties of defining cadence
solely in terms of progression. Although the desired qualities of arrival
and resolution are plain enough at each talea ending, the progressions
themselves range in abstract type from II-P, to I-P, to I-I, even D-P,
D-I. Just as the final elements differ in degree of closure, so the prepa-
ration elements differ in degree of tendency or preparative quality.47
All do include either a major third or a major sixth, and are based on
the step above the foundation pitch of the resolution. Yet what most
sets these progressions as a group apart from similar progressions within
phrases is their decisive rhythmic weight, a quality that must be recog-
nized as a necessary feature of cadence in this style.48
Terminations, Points ofRepose. In his essay on chords and structure

in Machaut motets, Roman Pelinski makes much of the fact that
the motets are punctuated by Ruhepunkte, moments of rhythmic
stasis on held sonorities. He calls these sustained sonorities Ruheklange,
sonorities of repose, and argues their structural importance as bearers of
higher-level chord progressions.49 Although the terms Ruhepunkt and
Ruheklang aptly convey the sense of momentary arrest and repose
produced by sustained sonorities, they do not convey differences in
weight and significance related to sonority-type and context. Not all
55
terminations (as I will call these held chords that close sub-phrases,
phrases, sections), are of equivalent nature or import either as local
punctuations or as elements within some synthetic web of higher-
level pitch relationships. To grasp their significance, it is necessary to
develop vocabulary through which their different qualities can be
communicated.s50
Terminations produce diverse effects and affective reactions accord-
ing to the manner in which they are approached as well as according to
the nature of the sonority3 held, its type, lowest pitch, registral distribu-
tion, and so forth. The two extreme types of progression postulated
above, neutral and directed, naturally generate a basic two-fold distinc-
tion between Ruhepunkte or resting points based on the approach to
the sustained terminal sonority. When the terminal sonority is prepared
and resolves a preceding tendency or dissonant agglomerate, the termi-
nation may be named an arrival, insofar as this term captures a sense of
anticipation and progress to a settled destination. When the final sus-
tained sonority is approached via a neutral progression, and is by no
means an anticipated goal, the termination may be designated a hold, a
neutral term intended to convey no more than the action of sustaining.
In practice, these two different modes of approach produce quite dif-
ferent kinds of punctuation. The prepared arrivals, in absorbing previous
tension, produce local closure and at least temporary tonal focus, for
the goal toward which they aim becomes a provisory point of reference.
The holds, on the other hand, freeze the music on a sound that is de-
tached without notice from its surroundings and brings no specific local
action to completion (though it may belong within some large tonal
pattern).
To the category of arrivals belong cadences whose resolution is sus-
tained long enough to become a point of repose. As noted above in
discussing Bone Pastor, cadences, although normally involving some
resolution of tendency, vary a good deal in degree of conclusiveness. In
keeping with this, arrivals may be qualified as relatively weak or strong,
according to the nature of the terminal sonority, the strength of the
progression leading to it, and the impact of contributing rhythmic fac-
tors. Holds are even more sharply differentiated in kind and must be
sorted into at least two quite separate categories. Some occur on a
sonority, perfect or imperfect in type, with no particular inclination
toward another group of pitches. These may be designated stable or
neutral holds. Others occur on a sonority, doubly-imperfect or inflected
in nature, that is unsettled and has directed tendency. They in effect fix
the music on the tendency element of the standard directed progression,
T-*R, which is thereby shortened to T- . The unsettled quality of such
terminations may be recognized by labeling them unstable or directed
holds. Not all terminations conform unambiguously to one or another
56
of these suggested types. The names account for certain important dis-
tinctions and syntactic devices but do not circumscribe a closed system.
Both the necessity for distinguishing among kinds of termination
and the difficulties of applying very rigorous terminology may be illus-
trated in the first talea of Faus Samblant m'a decu (Motet No. 15), a
motet with an unusual density of resting points (Ex. 8a). No less than
five of them occur within the first talea, at breves 7-9, 13-14, 16-17,
22-23, and 28-29. Their positions are indicated by brackets in the con-
trapunctus reduction (Ex. 8b). The strongest punctuation is the stable
arrival on a G8 sonority at br. 28. Not only does this sonority stand out
as a resolution when normal musica falsa is applied,s51 but it is strongly
led into by syncopation and dissonance in the triplum and a rhythmic
sequence (a fresh and striking minim-semibreve figure) in the motetus.
The preceding pause (br. 22-23) is not an arrival but a hold. The upper
voices slip into the terminal sonority by parallel motion, and the tenor
enters after a rest. The motetus C# has some forward tendency which is
not satisfied until the arrival at br. 28 when the motetus phrase con-
cludes on D. The inflection edges this hold toward the unstable end of
the continuum, but by no means to its extremity. The resting point at
br. 13-14 is difficult to classify. Insofar as the minor tenth between
tenor and motetus at br. 12 is heard to resolve to the octave F it is an
arrival; but as an arrival it is weakened by the triplum descent in parallel
with the motetus, the imperfect resolution, and the delayed entry of
the tenor. As if to compensate, another resting point follows immedi-
ately, this one on a perfect G-sonority (br. 16-17), but it is simply a
neutral sequel juxtaposed to the F(+'').
The most intriguing of the terminations in this talea, both aurally
and conceptually, is the one at br. 7-9. The preceding imperfect F so-
nority sets up no real tendency, yet on the smallest of time scales the
upper voices do move from a major third to a stable fifth, E-B, at br. 7.
The stability is but an illusion, even, taking a hint from the motetus
text, a deception, for the strong tenor G immediately produces a cluster
of imperfect intervals that should resolve and do so properly as the next
phrase begins, br. 10.s2 In terms of the vocabulary proposed above, this
termination might be described as a neutral hold that mutates into a di-
rected hold.
Although this first talea of Faus Samblant is heavily punctuated by
points of repose, no two of them are the same in quality. The passage
presents, as it were, a glossary of different possible effects: a strong
arrival (br. 28), a weak arrival (br. 13-14), holds with a directed ten-
dency (br. 22-23) and without (br. 16-17) and a hold-or perhaps a
very weak arrival-that shifts in mid-breath from solidity to forward
fluidity. It is not accidental, I believe, that the strongest and most con-
clusive gesture of the series is the last and that it comes at the end of
57
I1= -
A - mours
Faus Sam - - - blant m'a de - ce -
7 -:?- I rI ?
10 h I. 1 13
scu - re Ne ait par sa gra-ce a-voir A
u Et te - nu en e- spe - ren -
16 19
I,.I v . ,-wfl i
cu - re D
) t ,
ce De joie et
22 25 # 28
se
ser -
- vir li- sr
e-ment aiI-1.il
lSans pen ser lai - du - re. Ne
mer - ci a - - - - voir
Example 8a Faus Sam
A4 7r- 10 l3r-- 16r--1 19 22r--'r 25 28-
WW U b ' e b
v/
Tenor e = Breve
Example 8b Contrapunctu
58
the talea. The close juxtaposition of resting points on F and on G (br.
13-17) is noteworthy on two counts: 1) that the unprepared G-sonor-
ity, in the same disposition, becomes the main goal twelve breves later,
at the end of the talea, and 2) that the final F-sonority on which the
motet ends is approached from an imperfect G-sonority.
Such observations lead directly to the subject of pitch degree and
tonal relationships, which are inextricably linked with disposition and
treatment of individual sonorities. Directed progressions, communal
pauses on sustained pitches, prolongations all focus attention toward
selected sonorities within a musical texture. The sonorities so treated
become privileged by virtue of extended duration or status as a goal of
motion, or both, and stand forth in comparison with sounds that pass
by indifferently or without being especially singled out from their com-
panions. They become relative points of reference within the composi-
tion, places of special clarity and pitch focus. As such, these sonorities
and others that are emphasized through repetition or position at a
major phrase or section beginning, are obvious building blocks of any
structure of harmonic associations and tonal relationships that may un-
fold or materialize over the course of a piece. Because the degree of
emphasis, and hence prominence within any web of associations, de-
pends in large measure upon the particular manner in which emphasis
is conferred, it is well to consider the relative strength of some main
procedures by which sonorities can be brought into relief.
Doubtless the most effective way to attract the ear toward a sonority
is to treat it as an arrival, an end point in the formal structure as well as
a goal of resolution. By virtue of their position at the ends of phrases,
sections, or compositions, arrivals can be expected to take on special
weight, to impress themselves as reference points. A lesser degree of
prominence attaches to sonorities treated as holds, for they lack finality
and stability in comparison with goals reached through directed pro-
gression. A hold on a tendency sonority, however, can target its resolu-
tion as a significant goal. Prolongation, a third means of emphasis, can
also bring a sonority into relief, but its effects depend very much on
other variables. Position at the beginning, middle, or end of a formal
unit, consonance quality, and immediate context all influence interpre-
tation of a prolonged sonority. Local reiteration can work similarly to
prolongation. If the reiterated sonority keeps the same disposition on
recurrence, it will tend especially to stand out as a reference point.sa
Directed progressions embedded within phrases also accentuate their
terminal elements, those sonorities that resolve the preceding tension.
Because the rhythmic motion continues on through them, these resolu-
tions will not be perceived as principal goals, but they may well stand in
special relationship to primary goals of a phrase or section.
Table 1 summarizes these central means of spotlighting particular
59
O0
o TABLE 1 Sonority:
Name Types Position Quality M
1) Arrival, Cadence a) Strong, conclusive Terminal, end of Stable d

b) Weak, inconclusive piece, section, voice
phrase end of t
2) Hold a) Neutral Terminal inter- Stable duration
nally, end of activity
b) Directed, Tendency section, phrase. U
3) Prolongation Beginning, middle Stable or melodic
or end of phrase. Unstable o
4) Reiteration Internal to phrase Stable (normally) Recur

or section. por
5) Internal Directed Internal to phrase. Stable (quality) Res

Progression Unstable (rhyth- by prior impe
(non-cadential) mically) pitch in
sonorities and outlines characteristics of temporal position, quality of
sonority, and attendant means. Not definitive in nature, it is offered as
a suggestive guide to consideration of relationships among sonorities in
ars nova music. Pitch degree has been deliberately excluded as a means
on the ground that it plays no a priori role in imparting emphasis or sig-
nificance to a sonority, even though over the course of a piece it may
become an active factor in bringing certain sonorities to notice."
Matters of basic terminology have so dominated these remarks that
their purposes may have been lost to view. One primary purpose is to
direct attention toward pitch events that function structurally in Ma-
chaut's compositions along with periodicities of isorhythm and fixed
form. The attempt to understand syntactic processes and disposition of
sonorities can lead to perception of ordered patterns and what seem to
be carefully controlled harmonic designs. The familiar first talea of
Bone Pastor, for example, is organized not only by an obvious iso-
rhythmic pattern, but also by a not so obvious background harmonic
design.
As already noted, the talea divides into two main sections articu-
lated by a phrase division between breves 11-12. While their surface
features are quite dissimilar, the syntactic structures of the two sections
are closely parallel. Each starts with a neutral progression, returns to its
initial sonority, and proceeds via a directed progression to a goal whose
advent coincides with the phrase ending (Ex. 9a). Each moves by thirds,
the first from a C to an A-sonority, the second from that A-sonority to
an F-sonority. The medial pitch of the third is in each case the spring-
board from which the terminal directed progression is launched. Pro-
ceeding to a further level of abstraction (a distinctly twentieth-century
habit), the harmonic sense of the entire talea might be summarized as
three primary sonorities linked in two conjoint moves by thirds (Ex.
9b). It would be a mistake, I think, to select the end points and claim a
fifth framework, C-F, for the whole. The A-sonority is too forcefully
established with its own preparation, too clearly the site from which
the approach to the F-sonority is made (and the C-sonority too separate
from the F), for such a claim not to seem an arbitrary imposition of
tonal thinking on the passage. As for the move to the F-sonority, it is
essentially a voice-leading phenomenon, carried by the stepwise tenor
descent (Ex. 9c). Apart from the pattern in which it is involved, the F-
sonority is not an anticipated, much less an inevitable, goal of motion.
The tonal framework within which it belongs, and its own role as prin-
cipal axis of reference are only gradually defined over the course of the
motet.
Even so short an example as this raises questions concerning the re

ductive methodology, the proper domain of conclusions drawn from it
and the control of sonority within the repertory as a whole. Muc
61
a)
12
(c A8 C
A CS B I*
A+3A
A8GIAA8
G+5 ', G+6 F
4 A+3 C5 B 3 5 +3gA-5 - +3 5
N TR N T---R
b)
c)
Example 9 Background Syntax, Bone Pastor, Talea 1
62
remains to be learned about syntax between sonorities in the works of
Machaut and his contemporaries, and about tonal relationships engen-
dered from interactions among sonorities. Further investigation into
this facet of fourteenth-century music should not only promote his-
torical understanding of how composers of the ars nova dealt with new
resources of sound, but should also sharpen critical sensitivity to the
musical substance of individual compositions.
??~~; I? ?~r ?M L)3 ;L1 I

I
Ir r r rr? ?r ??
r r
~rJ ?~r
;r3-=~ r) r
r i(- Wr:
r \1 ~iF r, r
r
?lr
-~~C~3-? I~ll?V1~~ -i-?l-_ ??I
-
'I '11 \0\ ? ~PC~L ~LT, I

1~ I ~CL~LL~- - L\ ? I?~
r r
O
'C
r~~lW~- -C~ Ir tl~2~C~ ~ IIY
r~?LI ~~ ~C~?1C ?-~i~? I 1 ~u\-C-Y ~ - -L~ ?~ 'L '
IcIIl a~J~I'
r\ v r r L II I r IrIr
=--O o ~??
r
?5*
Ir jt? rl rcl; tt; rr Ir?
r r
) ~ il.' 111
63
NOTES
1. Reaney, "Fourteenth Century Harmony and the Ballades, Rondeaux and Vire-
lais of Guillaume de Machaut," Musica Disciplina 7 (1953): 129-146; Egge-
brecht, "Machauts Motette Nr. 9," Archiv fur Musikwissenschaft 19-20
(1962-63): 281-293 and 25 (1968): 173-195, especially 174-178; D6mling,
Die mehrstimmigen Balladen, Rondeaux und Virelais von Guillaume de Ma-
chaut, Miinchener Veri6ffentlichungen zur Musikgeschichte 16 (1970).
2. Kiihn, Die Harmonik der Ars nova, Berliner Musikwissenschaftliche Arbeiten
5 (1973); Pelinski, "Zusammenklang und Aufbau in den Motetten Machauts,"
Die Musikforschung 28 (1975): 62-71.
3. Example 1 is based on Eggebrecht's table of progressions, "Motette Nr. 9"
I1 (1968): 177. The sonorities represented sound on the sixth breve of various
talea statements. Their location within the composition is shown by the breve
(br.) count, which is equivalent to the upper-voice measure number in modern
transcription. Eggebrecht concludes that "It is confirmed [from the table] that
just as the notes or note-pairs g (bb) and a(f) respectively invariably alternate,
so also do the sonorities or chord-pairs G(Bb) and A(F), and the motet is iso-
harmonically composed." (Es bestatigt sich, dass, so wie die Tone bzw. Ton-
paare g(b) und a(f), auch die Kl'nge bzw. Klangpaare G(B) undA (F) bestdndig
alternieren und die Motette isoharmonisch komponiert ist. [p. 178]).
4. Die mehrstimmigen Balladen, pp. 31-32. In the musical examples, sharps or
flats in parentheses are assumed to carry through from an immediately pre-
ceding sharp or flat in the same voice line.
5. Context also speaks for this interpretation, for the D-sonority belongs to the
second member of a 3-fold sequence, each unit of which ends on a chromatic-
ally inflected sonority that resolves with the inception of the new phrase. For
the entire piece, see The Works of Guillaume de Machaut, ed. L. Schrade,
Polyphonic Music of the Fourteenth Century 3 (1956), p. 154.
6. See, for example, Au renouveler, Lone tans, and Solem justicie (following
14-century convention, I cite the motetus only) in Montpellier, Faculte de
M6decine H 196, f.270, 273, 328 respectively, ed. Y. Rokseth, Polyphonies
du XIIIe Sidcle vol. 3 (1936), pp. 77, 81, 160 and H. Tischler, The Montpellier
Codex Part III, Recent Researches in the Music of the Middle Ages and Early
Renaissance 6-7 (1978), pp. 61, 65, 130.
7. On the change from discantus to contrapunctus see K.-J. Sachs, Der Contra
punctus im 14. und 15. Jahrhundert, Beihefte zum Archiv fbir Musikwissen-
schaft 13 (1974), esp. pp. 24-56. A conspectus ofthefundamentum statement
as formulated in several sources is given on pages 84-85. The earliest dated
treatise on the subject, that of Petrus palma ociosa (1336) uses the term
simplex discantus for the note-against-note discant and flores musicae men-
surabilis for elaborated polyphony (ed. J. Wolf, "Ein Beitrag zur Diskantlehr
des 14. Jahrhunderts," Sammelbdnde der Internationalen Musikgesellschaft
15 [1913-14], pp. 506, 516).
8. For example, Alieni boni, Adesto Sancta Trinitas, In nova fert published Th
Roman de Fauvel, ed. L. Schrade, Polyphonic Music of the Fourteenth Cen
tury 1 (1956), pp. 35, 60, 68 respectively. In Quisecuntur (p.16) and OPhilippe
64
(p. 29) notated sharps in one upper voice imply musica falsa in the other that
would result in this type of cadence. Schrade gives editorial suggestions for a
great many more such cadences.
9. The Works of Guillaume de Machaut, ed. L. Schrade, PMFC 3, p. 161.
10. R. L. Crocker has argued convincingly that contrapunctus teaching concerns
sonority ("harmony") as much as voice-leading ("counterpoint") in "Discant,
Counterpoint, and Harmony," Journal of the American Musicological Society
15 (1962): 8-9 and 12-14.
11. Sachs is unable to substantiate any of the conflicting attributions for several
widely-circulated contrapunctus tracts (Der Contrapunctus, pp. 170-185). On
the discant manuals presented by Gerbert and Coussemaker (following manu-
scripts of mainly Italian origin) as works of Johannes de Muris see U. Michels,
Die Musiktraktate des Johannes de Muris, Beihefte zum Archiv fiir Musikwis-
senschaft 8 (1970), pp. 26-27, 40-50. Michels supports attribution of Quili-
bet affectans to de Muris in the absence of any compelling reason not to (p.
42). L. Gushee, on the other hand, describes the evidence for de Muris' author-
ship of the Ars contrapuncti (of which Quilibet affectans is the opening part)
as "relatively weak" ("Jehan des Murs," The New Grove Dictionary of Music
and Musicians 9 [1980], p. 588b).
12. Both the anonymous author of Volentibus introduci and Petrus palma ociosa
identify their prospective audience as youths (Der Contrapunctus, p. 170, line
1 of edition, "Ein Beitrag," p. 517. On the sphere of elementary music train-
ing at this time see M. Haas, "Studien zur mittelalterlichen Musiklehre I,"
Forum Musicologicum 3, pp. 352-371.
13. The samples in De diminutione contrapuncti are published by Sachs in Der
Contrapunctus, pp. 146-147. Apart from the diminution exercises, the con-
trapunctus treatises deal only with two- or three-step progressions, hardly ex-
tensive enough to serve as models for composition.
14. Prosdocimus de Beldemandis, whose Tractatus de contrapuncto dates from
1411/13, is apparently the first to indicate in writing that his instruction is in-
tended for both written and sung (scriptus/vocalis) music, (E. de Coussemaker,
Scriptorum de Musica Medii Aevi 3 (CS 3) (1869), p. 194a).
15. See, for example, W. Arlt's study of Machaut's ballade Je ne cult pas in "As-
pekte der Chronologie und des Stilwandels im franz6sischen Lied des 14.
Jahrhunderts," Forum Musicologicum 3, pp. 231-234.
16. By expectancy, I mean a musical condition that permits the hearer to antici-
pate some specific event to come. Expectancy can operate on many different
scales, from the small (two adjacent sonorities) to the large (entire sections).
17. Note, for example, Volentibus introduci, "The other[intervals are] discords
and we do not use them in contrapunctus except when a note is divided into
three parts, and then one of those parts-the medial one, of course-may
be discordant, or when the tempus is divided into numerous parts." (ed.
Sachs, Der Contrapunctus, p. 173). Sachs observes that the contrapunctus
teachers speak of dissonance only within the context of florid polyphony and
within a metric framework (Der Contrapunctus, pp. 140-141). Outside con-
trapunctus circles, dissonance sometimes receives more direct attention. So in
his Musica of 1357, Johannes Boen speaks of its prominence in syncopations
and even cites dissonant moments in specific motets, always, however, stressing
65
the ancillary relationship of dissonance to primary consonances (W. Frobenius,
Johannes Boens Musica und seine Konsonanzenlehre, Freiburger Schriften zur
Musikwissenschaft 2 (1971), pp. 68-69).
18. "When, however, you wish to discant below a cantus planus... you ought to
discant in the same manner of ascending and descending, and in the same way
as you would discant if you were above the cantus planus, only you will be
discanting below it. No one may discant above this unless he is an expert in
the position of the lowest pitches, for all higher pitches ought to refer to the
lower ones so that good consonance may be produced" (Anonymous I, CS 3,
pp. 360b-361a). This is apparently the earlier version of a treatise that sur-
vives also as the fourth of the Quatuor Principalia (CS 4, pp. 254a-298). The
author seems to be an anonymous English monk who wrote before 1351, the
date of the Quatuor Principalia.
19. On the solus tenor see S. Davis, "The Solus Tenor in the 14th and 15th Cen-
turies," Acta Musicologica 39 (1967): 44-64, emendations in "The Solus
Tenor An Addendum," Acta 40 (1968): 176-178; and M. Bent, "Some Fac-
tors in the Control of Consonance and Sonority: Successive Composition and
the Solus Tenor," International Musicological Society, Report of the Twelfth
Congress Berkeley 1977, eds. D. Heartz and B. Wade, pp. 625-33. For perhaps
the earliest notated solus tenor, preserved in an English source, see Motets of
English Provenance, ed. F. Ll. Harrison, Polyphonic Music of the Fourteenth
Century 15 (1980), pp. 1-7.
20. Sachs puts acceptance of the minor sixth into his Stadium IV, but it is unclear
to me how his idealized stages relate to actual chronology (Der Contrapunctus,
60).
21. Hierarchical distinctions go back to the thirteenth century. John of Garland
posits a three-fold division: perfect (unison, 8v), imperfect (-3, +3), and
medial (4,5) (De mensurabili musica, ed. E. Reimer, Beihefte zum Archiv fiir
Musikwissenschaft 10, pp. 67-74), as does Franco of Cologne (Ars cantus
mensurabilis, ed. G. Reaney and A. Gilles, Corpus Scriptorum de Musica 18
(1974), pp. 65-66. Petrus palma ociosa is an exception among 14th-century
writers in retaining a three-fold consonance division. He relegates the fifth to
a medial category, but accords it all the privileges of perfect consonance
("Ein Beitrag," p. 512). Other classification schemes exist outside the contra-
punctus realm. For example, Johannes Boen, perhaps inspired by Jerome of
Moravia's Tractatus de Musica, distinguishes between consonantiae per se
(thirds, fifths, sixths and octaves) and consonantiae per accidens (tone with
two minor semitones [diminished fourth], tritone, and fourth. Within the
category of per se, he characterizes octaves and fifths as more perfect than
thirds and sixths (Musica, ed. W. Frobenius, pp. 65-66, 74).
22. A clear statement of this doctrine appears in Quilibet affectans, CS 3, p. 59a.
23. The examples are identified according to genre (M=motet, B=ballade, Ma=
Mass), order number in the Schrade edition (or movement, in the case of the
Mass), and measure number in the same.
24. These chord types occur also in decorated contexts. I have limited the exam-
ple to sonorities that are not elaborated with melodic or rhythmic figures so
as to avoid problems introduced by reduction and to bond the abstract cate-
gories as closely as possible to the repertory.
66
25. Kiihn adopts a four-fold classification system and uses a different nomencla-
ture: perfect, semiperfect, imperfect, dissonant (Die Harmonik, pp. 75-78).
His semiperfect corresponds to my imperfect category, his imperfect to my
doubly-imperfect. Kiuhn derives his teminology from the treatise Ad haben-
dum artem contrapuncti (ed. A. Seay, Corpus Scriptorum de Musica (CSM) 9
(1964), pp. 30-39), a peculiarity of which is a four-fold classification of con-
sonances as perfect, semiperfect, imperfect, and semiimperfect. (CSM 9, p.
37). The semiperfect category has nothing to do with imperfect consonance
(although Kiuhn attaches it to sonorities with an imperfect component), but is
a means of separating fifth and twelfth from the more perfect unison and
octave. This four-fold consonance ranking is ill-suited to the use to which
Kiihn puts it and cannot, in any event, be said to represent a mainstream of
contrapunctus teaching in the fourteenth century.
26. Nona conclusio est quod sicut contrapunctus incipit per perfectam, sic etiam
debet finire. Ratio potest esse quia si fineretur cantus per imperfectam tunc
remaneret animus suspensus nec adhuc quiesceret cum non audiret perfectum
sonum, nec per consequens indicatur ibi finem esse cantus. (CS 3, pp. 62a-b).
27.Istarum autem specierum 3 faciunt concordantiam perfecte nec tendunt ad
ascendere vel descendere. (Sex sunt species principales, ed. A. Gilles, "Un
t6moinage in6dit de l'enseignement de Philippe de Vitry," CSM 8 (1964), p.
57, lines 5-7).
28. Et aliae species, videlicet semiditonus et ditonus, tonus cum diapente faciunt
consonantiam imperfectam quia tendunt ascendere vel descendere in specie-
bus praedictis perfectis, scilicet semiditonus in unisono, ditonus in diapente,
tonus cum diapente in diapason, ascendendo vel descendendo seriatim. (Sex
sunt species discantus, ed. M. Gerbert, Scriptores ecclesiastici de musica sacra
potissimum (GS) 3 (1784), p. 306).
29. Unisonus propter suam immobilitatem perfecta concordantia dicitur. . . . Pre-
sertim imperfecta concordantia ab instabilitate sua merito denominatur que
de loco movetur in locum et per se inter nullas certas invenitur proportiones.
(CS 3, Anonymous I, p. 356a. On the relation to Quatuor Principalia see note
18).
30. On musica recta see M. Bent, "Musica Recta and Musica Ficta," Musica Disci-
plina 26 (1972): 73-100. If Bb is recta, an approach to A will not require
inflection, but that to C will. Signs for inflection may even be introduced
gratuitously as in Machaut's ballade Phyton le merveilleus serpent where an
F-fifth is approached by G-B. Most sources preface the B with a natural, even
though the voice in question, the contratenor, has not been singing under Bb.
31. I am aware that in stating the relationship between a +6and a - sonority of
identical pitch-class content in this way I am opening up the theoretical prob-
lem of inversion. Rather than becoming diverted by it here, let this relationship
be provisionally regarded as a special case that carries no wider implications.
Note, however, that Johannes Boen associates minor third and major sixth by
virtue of their equidistance from unison and diapason respectively (Musica,
p. 66).
32. Der Contrapunctus, esp. pp. 57, 66-67, 122.
33. CS 3, pp. 59-60a, summary and excerpts in Der Contrapunctus, pp. 66-67.
Because of Sach's control of the sources his commentary and readings should
67
always be consulted along with the Coussemaker text. It should be noted that
some evidently popular texts, such as Volentibus introduci, do not deal with
preferred or natural interval successions but call only for a pleasant mix of
perfect and imperfect intervals.
34. Citations in Der Contrapunctus, pp. 68, 70. Goscalcus (1375) stipulates that
the terminal perfect consonance must be that sought naturally by the interval
at issue. R. L. Crocker has interpreted license for parallel imperfect intervals in
discant texts as a suspension of function ("Discant, Counterpoint, and Har-
mony," pp. 11-12).
35. "Ein Beitrag," pp. 508-511. This carries over into his teaching about falsa
musica in connection with thirds (pp. 513-14) and sixths (p. 516). Can Petrus
be considered a "representative" figure? Sachs places him in a special track
apart from the mainstream of more widely-diffused contrapunctus teaching
(Der Contrapunctus, pp. 70-74).
36. Quoted above, p. 44. Johannes Boen explains the dependent relationship of
thirds and sixths in terms of their role to serve (famulari) the more perfect
"proportions" (Musica, pp. 66-67).
37. I feel that Kiihn, in Die Harmonik de Ars nova, relies too much on the perfect/
imperfect distinction and applies it too rigidly, without sufficient considera-
tion of other operative factors.
38. References in the triplum lead scholars to believe that this motet was com-
posed for the consecration of Guillaume de Trie as archbishop of Reims in
January of 1325.
39. I conceive the first six breves in a fundamentally different way from Kiihn,
who explains the underlying structure as "a fundamental sonority to a ten-
dency sonority [meaning the C-E-G] and from this back to a chord of resolu-
tion" ("von einem Grundklang zu einem Spannungsklang, von diesem zurick
zu einem losenden Zusammenklang.", Die Harmonik, p. 131). Kiihn devotes
a section of his monograph (pp. 131-137) to harmonic aspects of this motet.
In general I find his approach too schematic and insufficiently attuned to the
context of individual sonorities.
40. There is a slight difference between the notions of tendency and of prepara-
tion, as will appear in the discussion of cadences in Motet 18. The general
idea of a two-step process finds support from the author of Cum notum sit
who recommends the sequence imperfect-to-perfect consonance for termina-
tions, citing euphony as the rationale (CS 3, p. 62a).
41. In the one case, upper-voice thirds slide smoothly down into the upper third
of the G-sonority (br. 13-14), and in the other, the triplum A (br. 4) and the
motetus E (br. 5-6) presage the A-sonority of br. 6. Such anticipatory prepara-
tions are frequently encountered in Machaut's music.
42. In the Schrade edition, the penultimate pitch of the motetus (br. 141) should
be corrected from G to B (on this the sources concur).
43. Throughout the diminution section, perfect breves in the tenor conflict with
imperfect breves in the upper voices, an effect intensified by hocket within
the talea. The barring in the Schrade edition obscures this conflict, but in the
Ludwig edition the conflict is plain (Guillaume de Machaut Musikalische
Werke v. 3, Publikationen Alterer Musik 4:2 (1929), pp. 65-67.
44. This unit is the long in the first, integer valor, section, the breve in the diminu-
68
tion section. In Example 7, T stands for integer valor taleas, small t for diminu-
tion taleas.
45. A textual link in the motetus also bridges the gap. Elegit, the first word of the
motetus' diminution text, echoes preelegit, its last word in the integer valor
section.
46. Kiihn labels the end of T3 (br. 64-67), which is parallel to t3, a deceptive ca-
dence (Trugschluss, Die Harmonik, p. 133). This terminology seems inappro-
priate, for the progression is neither analogous to the "deceptive cadence" of
tonal music, nor deceptive in the ordinary sense of the word. The preparatory
tendencies resolve properly, only the F-octave is joined by an imperfect inter-
val. I would rather term this an "inconclusive" cadence, after the weak degree
of closure it confers.
47. Tendency differs from preparation in being more patently directed toward a
specific goal, as major third-to-perfect fifth, or major sixth-to-octave. In this
style, dissonance may serve as preparation for subsequent consonance, but no
canons of voice-leading require it to resolve in a particular direction.
48. I deliberately refrain from introducing the notion of a priori tonal structure
into the discussion, and therefore do not claim that the talea cadences derive
their conclusiveness from an a priori F-mode or tonal center. The succession
of terminations on the tenor's F certainly contributes to the sense of satisfac-
tory conclusion at the end of the motet, but the F is not given as a center
from the start.
49. "Zusammenklang und Aufbau," pp. 64-65. Although Pelinski's remarks are
limited to the motets, sustained sonorities are also found in the secular songs,
where they can be considered main pillars of pitch structure.
50. In his discussion of Ballade 39 (Mes esperis), W. D6mling uses the term Kaden-
zierung globally for all punctuation points and sustained sonorities, despite
the differences among them (Die mehrstimmigen Balladen, p. 23). In the
interests of a more precise analytic terminology, I prefer to limit the meaning
of the term cadence more strictly.
51. In Paris, Bibliothbque nationale fonds frangais 1585 (Machaut Ms. B), f.272', a
sharp has been added before the triplum F br. 27. (The ink tone is the same as
that used by the original notator, but the symbol is scrawled in, apparently
written after the main act of copying.) Petrus palma ociosa's rules on musica
falsa mandate raising both the F and the C in this case ("Ein Beitrag," pp.
513-15).
52.This kind of unexpected redirection is infrequent in Machaut, and its exposed
position here lends credence to the impression of a deliberate musical meta-
phor. In his pioneering article on aspects of text-setting in Machaut's ballades,
D6mling calls attention to numerous cases in which factors of musical setting
seem explicitly connected with text, among them several musica-ficta-Klange
(my "inflected sonority") on especially significant words ("Aspekte der
Sprachvertonung in den Balladen Guillaume de Machauts," Die Musikfor-
schung 25 (1972): 301-307.
53. This does not necessarily imply a tonal center. In Bone Pastor, for example,
the recurrent A-sonority of br. 6, 10-12, 16 (Ex. 6) is not a center of gravity
but rather a stable medial plateau in the talea.
54. G. Reaney claims that Machaut's works are conceived modally, but his con-
69
ception sdems imposed from without as a classification system (catalogues of
final pitches, scale structure, and key signatures (sic)) rather than demon-
strated from within ("Mode in the Fourteenth Century, in particular in the
Music of Guillaume de Machaut," Organicae Voces Festschrift Joseph Smits
van Waesberghe (1963): 137-143; and "La tonalit6 des ballades et des ron-
deaux de Guillaume de Machaut," Guillaume de Machaut Colloque-Table
Ronde (Reims: 1978), Actes et Colloques 23, (1982), pp. 295-300. H.S.
Powers takes an opposite point of view, not only denying the relevance of
"mode" to fourteenth-century polyphony, but finding "tonal types" rather
than "modes" in sixteenth-century polyphony ("Tonal Types and Modal
Categories," Journal of the American Musicological Society 34 (1981):
428-470).
.
: I
??,-
''" Z :p:~?
-?
~:~~1:-.II--???
PIl ??-i?--?
.-..i
f:-- ?.----r .i:i. ?~

-???
" :.?
...,;.:iil?...,..
4 ???
~ ~?
??-- :;? "
??-;?~::~???
?-?-? --'
.'-'L.
:.r ?e~
?;i::?
ti'
;. ..
'?: :'?
. ?: ~' ??
.I?.1
:i -??c------?..
:?- ?:
?? ~:?:??:.::?:Ir ,Er
iiiii:'';? :I- FI,

?""
1 -????
LI : ?~ '':'?
r; r/
----
c:
.II
~
70

Fuller On Sonority in Fourteenth-Century Polyphony

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Fuller On Sonority in Fourteenth-Century Polyphony

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Yale University Department of Music

On Sonority in Fourteenth-Century Polyphony: Some Preliminary Reflections

SOME PRELIMINARY REFLECTIONS

Introduction. Harmonic aspects of Guillaume de Machaut's music

Example 1 Motet No. 9 (O livoris feritas)

Example 2a Comment peut on mieus, mm. 12-14

Nomenclature of Sonorities. The contrapunctus manuals define

(1) combinations of perfect intervals: unison, fifth, octave and their

Adopting contrapunctus terminology, sonorities of the first kind can

+6 +10 +10 +13 +10 8

Example 3 14th-Century Sonority-Types

The dichotomy conclusive/inconclusive (or satisfied/expectant) pro-

Three of these intervals [that is, those admitted to contrapunc-

Broadly speaking, the qualities attached to intervals in the abstract

but -3 sonorities do not necessarily, or even usually, increase the har-

Syntax: Prolongation, Progression, Cadence. As already noted,

foy de fait es-prouvee,Tantque loy au - tes ju - re - e, Faitqu'el-le a

(te)-nens li - ga - tu-ram, Ar - gu - men- tis de-mon-stra

ii s'ot - tri e Par si !i

ta. Non pa ti frac - tu ram

Example 4 0 series summa rata, mm. 26-42

tdenre)-e Le mar-cheant con - chi - e

Bo - Ine pa-stor Guil - ler - me, P

me Non est ti- bi da- F !n e r

sto - res Ce - te - ros vin - cis per mo -

va Vir - tu-tumestca- ter - va

Example 6b Contrapunctus reduction, Bone Pastor, Talea I

and is absorbed as a stable element in the subsequent As sonority. The

sions are represented by the C4 to AS at br. 5-6, and by the As to G+s

-ven - te sed Mi - net - va,

(Que) mi - tri - fer

" ' ~I I----

Example 7 Bone Pastor, E

-ma par-te ba-cu- li, At-tra- he- re.

-tos par-te ter-ci- a, Scis pun-ge- re.

-si dig - ne.

-mum e -ro-ga - mr ne, Sen-si bi- .

Terminations, Points ofRepose. In his essay on chords and structure

Faus Sam - - - blant m'a de - ce -

scu - re Ne ait par sa gra-ce a-voir A

Example 8a Faus Sam

A4 7r- 10 l3r-- 16r--1 19 22r--'r 25 28-

Name Types Position Quality M

1) Arrival, Cadence a) Strong, conclusive Terminal, end of Stable d

4) Reiteration Internal to phrase Stable (normally) Recur

5) Internal Directed Internal to phrase. Stable (quality) Res

Even so short an example as this raises questions concerning the re

Example 9 Background Syntax, Bone Pastor, Talea 1

??~~; I? ?~r ?M L)3 ;L1 I

'I '11 \0\ ? ~PC~L ~LT, I

f:-- ?.----r .i:i. ?~

iiiii:'';? :I- FI,

You might also like