Margaret BENT

Manuscripts referred to:

Brussels 5557

Brussels 9 126

Chigi

Jena 3 Lucca 238

Milan 2269

Old Hall

Qls

S. Pietro B80

Vienna 1783

B-Br5557; Brussels. Koninklijke Bibliotheek MS 5 5 57

B-Br9 126; Brussels, Koninklijke Bibliotheek MS 9 I 2 6

I-Rv234; Vatican City, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, M S Chigi C VIII 234

I-RV35; Vatican City, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, MS Cappella Sistina 3 5

I-RV5 1; Vatican City, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, M S Cappella Sistina 5 I

D-Ju3 ; Jena, Universitiitsbibliothek, Cod. Mus. 3 2

I-Las238; Lucca, Archivio di Stato, MS 238

I-Md2269; Archivio della Veneranda Fabbrica del Duomo, Sezione Musicale, Librone 1 (olim MS 2269)

GB-Lb1579 50; London, British Library, MS Add 579 50

I-Bc I 5; Bologna, Civico museo Bibliografico musicale Q 1 5

I-RV80; Vatican City, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, San Pietro B 8 0

A-Wn178 3; Vienna, Nationalbibliothek, MS 1783

SYNTAX AND STYLE

Rhythmic patterns in the masic of Orkeghem

and his contemporaries

Sean GALLAGHER

University of North Carolina

HE WORD syntax, taken in its broadest sense, refers simply to the T o r d e r e d arrangement of parts, or elements. Applied outside of purely

or grammatical contexts, however, the straightforward nature of this

can easily disappear, with the word itself left behind to serve as a

weak metaphor. When an art historian, for example, refers to the syntax of a

particular painting, or of a particular artist's works, no doubt something

more specific is intended than could be conveyed by the word 'style'. I t is dif-

ficult though to say just what that might be unless the writer should go on

to identify, however provisionally, both the elements in question and their

arrangement within the work. Otherwise, syntax and style can become mis-

leadingly synonymous.

At first glance, music (or at least, certain kinds of music) would seem

more promising than the plastic arts in this regard. Talk of syntax in con-

nection with music tends not to strike us as especially vague or surprising,

and not merely because of the frequency with which it is done. We intuitively

sense the orderly arrangement of elements that is a precondition of much

music - its invention, its notation and its realization in time. Moreover,

" I wish to thank Jaap van Benthem, Lawrence Bernstein, Don Harrin, and John Milsom for their helpful and stimulating comments after the presentation of this paper.

Sean GALLAGHER 682

through analysis we are often able to discern underlying organizational rules,

which in turn tend to draw discussions of musical syntax back closer to the

realm of grammar.

However if at a general level the weddlng of music and syntax appears

largely unproblematic, at the level of particulars we encounter numerous dif-

ficulties, some of them akln to the art historian's. Can we speak of the syn-

tax of a given work, or of syntactic details characteristic of a given composer,

without equating syntax with style? Or rather, should syntax be thought of

as a broader category of style, with the individual work representing a certain

collection of compositional choices?' Recalling the definition of syntax as an

ordered arrangement of elements prompts a further question, one which lies

behind the others: by which criteria do we define the musical elements that

are to be arranged?

These issues have led me to make a study of rhythmic procedures in the

works of Ockeghem and his contemporaries. I have limited the initial inves-

tigation to music composed in tempus perfecturn, because thls mensuration,

of those most commonly used, offered composers the widest range of rhyth- mic What follows, then, is based on a systematic examination

of rhythm in all music in tempus perfectum that is securely attributable to

Ockeghem, Du Fay, Binchois, Busnoys, Regis, Pullois, Faugues, Caron and

others. I will focus on rhythmic patterns, most of them occupying a single

perfection. These patterns underscore certain general rhythmic principles of

I A literary scholar might well reverse this ordering: a given author's style could be said

to result from both syntactic and semantic choices, thus making style the broader cat- egory for analysis. However the relative absence in music of precise referential mean- ing, and the resultant foregrounding of its syntactic qualities, would seem to justify using the term syntax to refer to the set of compositional rules and conventions oper- ative during a given period. Viewed in this way, it is the composer's decision to accept,

deviate from, or modify these syntactic rules that distinguishes in large part his/her style. As employed in this study, the relation of syntax to style thus bears some resem- blance to the distinction between langue and parole first posited by Saussure and later developed in structuralist approaches in a variety of fields (linguistics, literature, anthropology). The fruitfulness of Saussure's original idea continues to be felt, even while the limitations of structuralist elaborations of it are now widely recognized. Fer- dinand DE SAUSSURE, Course in General Linguistics, transl. R. HARRIS (La Salle, 198 3 ) ; for an introduction to the influence of Saussure's ideas on the works of Jakobson, Ltvi- Strauss, Greimas, Todorov, and others, see Terence HAWKES, Structuralism and Semiotics (London, I 977).

Syntax and Sple 68 3

the period and are at the same time contingent upon basic contrapuntal pro-

cedures, of which they are the temporal realization. The significance of such

rhythmic patterns for the study of musical syntax and style derives from two

things: ( I ) they occur frequently enough and are used in a consistent enough

fashion to have been perceived as rhythmic (and often, rhythmic/melodic)

units; and (2) as a result of being linked with melodic and contrapuntal elab-

orations, they are deeply embedded in the local, rather than the large-scale,

structuring of a work. With the possible exception of a rhythmic/melodic

motto in a Mass cycle, brief rhythmic patterns would hardly have figured into

whatever pre-compositional decisions needed to be made. O n the other hand,

such rhythmic/melodic formulas, which were no doubt a part of every good

singer's musical 'equipmenti, might well have been useful in mentally work-

ing out passages of polyphony.

In the case of Ockeghem, his use of certain rhythmic patterns, especially

in terms of their mensural placement and contrapuntal function, is common

enough among his contemporaries to allow the patterns to be considered

constitutive elements of a more general compositional syntax. Nevertheless,

in this, as in seemingly every aspect of composition, Ockeghem in some ways

stands apart. The appearance in his music of rhythmic patterns that are dis-

tidctive, either in themselves or through their context, helps illustrate how

thtp approach to rhythmic analysis, by refining our knowledge of Ockeghem's

style, can play a role in editorial decisions and even attributive research.

In the second book of his counterpoint treatise, Tinctoris describes some

of the ways singers rhythmicize a chant against which they wish to make

counterpoint: "Certain ones.. . make the first note of the plainchant three

semibreves of minor prolation, the second two, the third one, and, con-

versely, the fourth one, the fifth two, the sixth three, and so on up to the

end".' Part of Tinctoris's accompanying musical example is given in Exam-

ple I . This was doubtless a fairly standard procedure, and the alternation

between these two rhythmic patterns (an imperfect breve with a semibreve,

followed by a semibreve with an imperfect breve, with or without inter-

spersed perfect breves) is a fundamental rhythmic feature of tempus perfec-

2 "Quidam insuper primam notam plani cantus tres semibreves minorts prolationis, secundam duas, tertlam unam et e converso quartam unam, qulntam duas, sextam tres, et SIC de caeteris usque in finem efficiunt." Johannes TINCTORIS, Liber de arte contrapunctt, ed. Albert SEAY, CSM 22/2 (Rome, I975) , pp. 11 5-6; translated in J. TINCTORIS, The Art of Counterpoint, transl. A. SEAY, MSD 5 (Rome, 1961), pp. 108-9.

Sean GALLAGHER

EXAMPLE I

Johannes TINCTORIS, Liber de arte contrapuncti, Bk. 11, ch. 2, [SEAY, ed., p. 1161

Contrapunctus

Alleluia

tum music from this period. The sequential and simultaneous use of these

patterns permeates much fifteenth-century music. Within a single line, the

alternation provided greater forward motion than could the simple reitera-

tion of one or the other pattern. Sounding simultaneously, the two patterns

could be the temporal realization of equally fundamental contrapuntal pat-

terns (e.g., 7-6 suspensions at cadences).

The rhythmic/metrical ambiguity found in much of Ockeghem's music, what Clemens Goldberg has succinctly described as his with 'the pres-

ence and absence of a perceptible meter', features in most general accounts

of the cornposer's style.' Less often noted, however, is the frequency with

3 "Wahrend bei Ockeghem ein Spiel zwischen An- und Abwesenheit von fiihlbarem Metrum herrscht, spielt Busnois mit verschiedenen Metren innerhalb eines vorgegebe- nen Metrums." Clemens GOLDBERG, Die Chansons von Antoine Busnois: Die A'sthetik der h$s-

Syntax and Style

EXAMPLE 2

Johannes OCKEGHEM, Missa Caput, Gloria, bars 64-71 [ C W , vol. 21

which Ockeghem achieves this ambiguity within the type of standardized

rhythmic framework just described. Example 2 is a brief passage from the

Gloria of his Missa Caput. Beginning in bar 64, the alternation between the

two patterns (here marked 'x' and 'y') is first passed between voices, rein-

forced by the Superius in bar 66, and then outlined by all four voices in bar

67, In bars 68 and 69, though, the alternation, while still discernible, is

weakened in two ways. First, in the Superius, bar 68, the common dotted

sehibreve/rninim figure is changed to a much less frequently encountered

rhythmic sequence, dotted semibreve followed by another semibreve. Second,

Ockeghem introduces in the lowest voice a group of three breves in col-

oration. The net effect is a broadening of the rhythmic flow, a brief example

of rhythmic vatietas, made more subtle through its occurrence within a type

of normative rhythmic motion. The passage is far from unique in Ock-

eghem's music, nor is it restricted to early works like the Caput Mass; a sim-

ilar process can be seen in the Missa Mi-mi.4

then Chansons (Frankfurt am Main, I994), 16. For earlier discussions of Ockeghem's rhythmic style, see Wolfgang STEPHAN, Die burgundisch-niederlandische Motette cur Zeit Ock- eghems (Kassel, 1937, repr. 1973), pp. 3 6-9, 44; Edward HOUGHTON, 'Rhythm and Meter in Fifteenth Century Polyphony', Journal $Music Theory, 18 ( I 974), pp. 190-212.

4 Cf. Missa Mi-mi, Agnus I. Both Masses are edited in Johannes OCKEGHEM, Collected Works [hereinafter, CW] 11, ed. Dragan PLAMENAC (American Musicological Society, 1947; 2nd corr. ed., 1966). See also the more recent edition: J. OCKEGHEM, Missa Caput, ed. Jaap VAN BENTHEM, Mass and Mass Sections, fasc. I, 1 (Utrecht, Koninklijke Vereniging voor Nederlandse Muziekgeschiedenis, I 994).

Sean GALLAGHER

EXAMPLE j b

Johannes OCKEGHEM, Intemerata Dei rnatcr, bars 1-5 [CW, vol. 3 1

\ I 1 1 1 ~ - - t c - ) m e - r a - - - I r a D e - - - 1

EXAMPLE j c

Johannes REGIS, Clangat plebsfiores, bars 1-4; 28-3 1 [Opera omnia, vol, 21

q- --

3.&Bi%E Cum

Syntax and Style 687

Example 3a presents a standard full form of the dotted semibreve/minim

pattern just mentioned. Arranged thus, i.e., with the dotted semibreve at the

beginning of the perfection, the pattern appears nearly 250 times in Ock-

egheinls works and is equally common in the music of his contemporaries.

The formulaic nature of the pattern is reflected in the way these composers

sometimes employ it; namely, at or very near the beginning of a work or at a

significant shift in texture, but then virtually nowhere further on in the same

piece. Examples 3b and jc, the opening of OckeghemJs Intemerata Dei muter,

and two brief passages from Regis's Clangat plebs, respectively, are cases in

point. In Intemerata, the figure is bracketed, occurring in bar I of the vagans,

and bar 5 of the Superius. Though the melodic style of all the voices is

remarkably homogeneous throughout the piece, and though this pattern is

easily incorporated into alinost any contrapuntal texture, it never recurs in the

work. Similarly, in the Regis motet, the Superius (bar I) and Contratenor

bassus (bar 3 I ) begin or re-enter with this pattern. Again, though the inelodic

style is consistent throughout the piece, the pattern reappears only once, at

the contratenor's third prominent entrance. In many pieces, of course, the

pattern shows up both near the very beginning and also in later passages. But

from the two motets cited here, as well as many other such examples, it would

appear that this dotted pattern served as a standard rhythmic/melodic gam-

bit as formalized at times as the opening moves in chess. h

Number of occurrences in Ockeghemls works: 84

[tempus perfeccum sections o ~ l l ~ ]

The rhythmic pattern given in Example 4 - a dotted semibreve at the

beginning of a perfection followed by three minims - served as one of the

most common rhythmic formulations of the under-third cadence during the

fifteenth century. Here especially the rhythmic element seems to have devel-

oped out of the melodic gesture. While the rhythmic pattern persists in b c k -

eghem's music - I have found more than 80 examples of it in his works - in

only six cases is it utilized in an under-third cadence, three of them in the

688 Sean GALLAGHER

Missa Mi-mi alone.' Mostly the pattern appears in the course of long melis-

matic passages. This is not surprising in itself, for the under-third cadence

plays a much smaller role in Ockeghem's music than it does in either Bin-

chois's or Du Fay's, and when it does, it is most often set as a dotted minim

followed by three semiminims. What is worth noting, however, is the degree

to which Ockeghem maintains the mensural placement of the figure, even

while abandoning the melodic progression most closely linked with it. There

was nothing to prevent him from disposing the rhythmic pattern over two

perfections in one of the ways listed in Table 1. Moreover, the very simplic-

ity of the figure would have made it contrapuntally flexible. In short, it is pre-

cisely the kind of figure one would expect Ockeghem, the expert in asyrn-

metric rhythms, to be drawn to. But as the numbers in Table I reveal, he

rarely took advantage of these options. The same holds true for his contem-

poraries, suggesting that the rhythmic pattern and its particular mensural

placement together constituted an element of a more general compositional

syntax.

Mensural placement of no. of occurrences in

pattern OckeghemJs works [tempus perfecturn sections only]

g l J 4 J J J J = 11

1J I J J J = I

IJ. J IJ J = I 5

11. J J IJ = I

The last in this group of dotted semibreve patterns to be considered is

distinguished by the use of two semiminims, marked as pattern 'k' in Exam-

ple 5. This brief figure appears 130 times in the tempus perfecturn sections

of Ockeghem's works. Judging from the consistency with which it is trans-

-

5 The six instances of this pattern utilized as an under-third cadence are as follows: Missa

(Deplus en plus', GI, Sup, b. 12; Sanc, Sup, b. 49; Missa 'LJhommc armi', Ky 11, Sup, b. 3 1; Missa Mi-mi, Cr, Sup, b. 73; Sanc, Sup, b. 16; Ag I, Ct, b. 3 .

Syntax and Style 689

mitred in the sources, pattern 'k' should not be considered simply an orna-

mented form of the common dotted semibreve-minim figure (marked as pat-

tern 'm' in Example 5). Of the 100 occurrences of pattern 'k' for which at

least two sources exist, there are only seven cases where one source has 'k',

while another has 'm'.l I wish to look more closely at one such case in order

to demonstrate the implications of this type of rhythmic analysis for the

evaluation of source variants.

A special factor to bear in mind when considering source readings for pat-

tern 'k' is Ockeghem's tendency to use it frequently within a single work or

movement, or else not at all. For example, it appears eight times in the Credo

of his Missa Thomme armi', with no variants between the mass's two source^,^ while it occurs nowhere in the Missa Cuiusvis toni, the five-voice Sine nomine

Miss, the Credo Sine nomine, or the motet Intemerata Dei mater. What this dis-

crihpancy between pieces could possibly tell us about Ockeghem's composi-

tional process, the chronology of his works, or the status of various sources,

falls outside the scope of this paper. What can be said now, however, is that

it is extremely rare in Ockeghem's music for pattern 'k' to appear only once

in a given work.

One piece in which this does appear to happen is his motet Alma redemp-

toris mater, which is preserved in two sources, FlorR 2794 and VatS 46.8 The

6 The seven instances are: Missa 'Deplus en plus', Ky, Ct, b. 2; Cr, Sup, b. 62 (in both cases VatC 234 = 'm' while VatS I 4 = 'k'); Missa Z'homme armi', Sanc, Ct, b. 7 (VatC 234 = 'k', VatS 3 5 = 'm'); Missa Mi-mi, GI, Sup, b. 2; Ag I, Sup, b. 2 (in both cases VatC 234 = 'k', VatS 4 1 and VatS 63 = 'm'); 'Ma maistresse', T, b. 26 (of the work's six sources, all have k except SevC 5-1-43, which has 'm'); and Alma redemptoris muter, Ct, b. 3 5 (discussed below);

7 The Mass is found in VatS 3 5, f. 14.7~-I 57 and VatC 234, f. 3 5v-45. Pattern 'k' occurs in Sup, b. 158; Ct, bb. 41, 44, 140, 146; Bass, bb, 2, 14, 58.

8 Florence, Biblioteca Riccardiana, MS 2794, f. I lv-13; Vatican, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Cappella Sistina MS 46, f. I l6v-119. Edited in CW 111, 3-5.

Sean GALLAGHER

passage in question is given in Example 6a. The Collected Works edition

gives the reading in Sistina 46; I have provided the Florence reading above

the staff. The Sistina version of bar 1 5 , with pattern 'k', occurs nowhere else in the 5 I tempora of the work's prima pars, while pattern 'm', the Florence

version, appears eight other times, with no discrepancies between the

sources. Bar 3 5 marks the re-entrance of the Contratenor altus, and I have

already mentioned the frequent use of the full form of pattern 'm' at pre-

cisely such points in Ockeghem's works. In fact, there is an example of this

in Alma Redemptoris itself, the re-entry o l the Superius at bars 1 3 and follow-

ing, given in Example 6b.

EXP~VPLE 6a

johanneS OCXEGHEM, Alma reimptoris rnater, bars 11-7 (CW, vol+ 3 1

EXAMPLE 6b

Alma redelllptoris mater, bars 12-6 [CW, V O ~ . 31 - m y

( qua l p c r - - -

Syntax and Style 69 1

Turning to the two manuscripts, an evaluation of them as sources of Ock-

eghem's music would seem at first glance to come down strongly in favour

of FlorR 2794. In addition t o Alma Redemprotis, this manuscript contains

three other works by Ockeghem, and was probably compiled at the French

royal court during the composer's tenure there.9 VatS 46, by contrast, was

copied at Rome after Ockeghem's death and contains no other works by him.'' Such matters are rarely so simple, of course, and this case proves no

exception. As Wexler notes in his commentary to the edition, the Florence

copy of the motet contains a large number of errors, sufficiently serious in

nature to have prompted him to take Vats 46 as his main source." I agree

with Wexler's decision and do not wish t o argue for the Florence copy being

better than it actually is, particularly on the basis of this small detail. Nev-

ertheless, it is just these types of details that point to a larger issue; namely,

a consistency in small matters of rhythmic procedure in Ockeghemis music

observable over a large number of works and sources. Thc 'rhythmic profile'

that emerges from an awareness of this consistency could, when considered

with othcr factors, add another facet to the assessment of certain kinds of

variant readings.12

One part of establishing such a rhythmic profile would consist in the identification, whenever possible, of patterns characteristic of the given com-

P$ ser. This identif cation will naturally be more valuable where the patterns

are distinctive, both in themselves and in their combination with other com-

positional parameters. In the last part of this paper I wish to propose a pos-

9 The other Ockeghem works are 'D'un autre amer', 'Aultre venus', and 'Ung a~lltre I'a'. For more on this manuscript and its copying, see Joshua RIFKIN, 'Scribal Concordances

for Some Renaissance Manuscripts in Florentine Libraries', JAMS, XXVI (1973), pp. 305-26; id., 'Pietrequin Bonnel and the Ms. 2794 of the Biblioteca Riccardianal,JAMS,

Xxlx (1976), pp. 284-96.

10 The Salve regina on f. I19v-21of VatS 46, once believed to be by Ockeghim, is more

likely a work by Basiron. The case for the latter's authorship is summarized in CW 111, p. Iv,

1 I C W 111, pp, xli-xlii.

12 In turn, this assessment has implications for performance practice: Edward Wickham,

director of The Clerks' Group, informed me after the presentation of this paper that

although on his ensemble's recording of Alma rederptoris (Academy Sound and Vision Ltd., GAU 139) they sing pattern 'k' at b. 35, they have since decided that the Flo-

rence reading, pattern 'm', is more in keeping with the overall rhythmic character of the

piece, and so it is this version they now perform.

Sean GALLAGHER 692

sible candidate for such a distinctive pattern in Ockeghem's music, and then to test its relevance in the area of attributive research.I3

What I am calling pattern 'w' is given in Example 7a. Unlike the previous

patterns discussed, this one begins with a relatively brief note, a dotted

minim (or blackened semibreve in minor color), and is thus ill-suited to

serve as an initial melodic gesture. Furthermore, the dotted figure's potential

for generating momentum is undercut by the subsequent imperfect breve,

limiting thereby its value as part of an elaborative melodic line. Indeed, there

would be little motivation for recognizing this as a rhythmic pattern or ele-

ment at all were it not for the consistency with which Ockeghem uses it in

terms of mensural placement and melodic outline.

Whenever the pattern has its full duration, i.e., whenever the imperfect

breve is present (rather than, say, a semibreve followed by a semibreve rest),

and when the initial note of the pattern coincides with the beginning of a

perfection, it always appears with one of two melodic outlines: either (I) a

descending cambiata figure that encompasses the interval of a fourth, or (2)

an ascent by step, as illustrated in Examples 7b and 7c. This slightly unusual

rhythmic motive is thus linked with two, and only two, melodic gestures.

Ockeghem does not use this rhythmic-melodic pattern as the elaboration of

a final long, but rather incorporates it into the full contrapuntal flow.

Though it appears in both upper and lower voices, it rarely occurs in pas-

sages in reduced scoring.

It is worth stressing that this substantive description of the pattern is

valid without exception for Ockeghem's works, a rarity with any statement

about this composer. However, in attempting to carry out what Lawrence

Bernstein has called a 'processive analysis' with regard t o this pattern, it has

proven more difficult to make such general comments, since it serves a vari-

13 Some recent research on the music of Binchois has attempted to identify distinctive features of the composer's style with the aim of attributing anonymously-preserved works to him; see Walter KEMP, Burgundian Court Song in the Time o f Binchois, (Oxford, I99O), pp. 18-32. Dennis Slavin has demonstrated in.a series of studies the impor- tance of codicological research in determining whether these stylistic 'fingerprints' can be traced back to the composer or to scribal intervention; see his 'Binchois' songs, the Binchois fragment, and the two layers of Escorial A' (Ph.D. diss., Princeton University, 1987); id., 'Questions of Authority in Some Songs by Binchois,'JRMA, 117 (1992)~ pp. 22-61; id., 'Some Distinctive Features of Songs by Binchois: Cadential Voice ~ e a d - ing and the Articulation of Form', Journal o f Musicology, X (I9.92), pp. 342-6 I .

Syntax and Style

a. Pattern 'w' 0 b. 1. 0 + 1. IIr p 0 I

Distinctive features of pattern 'w' in Ockeghem's work (tempus perfectum sections only):

I . Occurs as one complete tempus; not spread over two tempora.

2. Always appears with one of two melodic outlines: a) descending cambiata figure encompassing the interval of a

fourth; b) ascending by step.

3. No t used as melodic elaboration of final long.

b. descending version of pattern 'w' C. ascending version of pattern 'w'

S E s - ety\of contrapuntal and sonorous functions in Ockeghem's music.14 In Inte- merata Dei muter (Example 8a), its appearance in the Bassus, bar 29, re-intro-

duces greater rhythmic activity after a series of sustained sonorities. At the

beginning of the Missa 'L'bomme arm? (Example 8b), i t is part of a chain of

dotted rhythmic figures, while at the same time its imperfect breve reinforces

the sustained pitches in the Tenor. In the Credo of the same Mass (Example

8c), it is fully integrated into the polyphonic intensification preparatory to

a final cadence. By contrast, in the Sanctus of the Missa 'De plus en plus' (Example 8d), the pattern functions as the simple prolongation of an inter-

nal cadence. A more striking use of it, often in its ascending version, is as

part of a rhythmic broadening towards the end of a phrase, as in the open-

ing passage of 'La despourveue' (Example 8e), especially bars 4-6. Here is a

different kind of prolongation, this time without a cadence, or at least a

I 4 Lawrence BERNSTEIN, 'Chansons attributed to both Josquin des Prez and Pierre de la Rue: A Problem in Establishing Authenticity', Proceedings ofthe International Josquin Sym- posium, ed. Willern ELDERS (Utrecht, I986) , pp. 143-8.

Sean GALLAGHER 694

strongly articulated one. Pattern 'w' in the Contratenor fills out the dotted

momentum of the opening bars, but at its breve f, there is a gentle harmonic

stasis and the phrase floats to a close without punctuation.

Johannes OCKEGHEM, Intemerata Dei mater, bars 27-3 1 [CW, vol. 31

- mur. T u scis, I vir - - I - - go de - cens, -

EXAMPLE 8b

Johannes OCKEGHEM, Missa Z'homrne arm?, Kyrie I , bars 1-4 [CW, vol. I ]

- r i e

arme 7 W :- L I I I -.

U 0 I /

Syntax and Style

EXAMPLE 8c

Id., Mtssa 'L'homme armi', Credo, bars 63-8

pro no - btr par - rus tr se - - - - puI - [us IS [

EXAMPLE 8d

Id., Missa 'De plus en plus), Sanctus, bars 25-7 [CW, vol. I ]

I I I.. ~i I..

EXAMPLE 8e

Id., 'La despourveue', bars 1-6 [CW, vol. 3 1

In all, pattern 'w' appears 28 times in Ockeghem's securely attributed

works, 14 times ascending, 14 descending.15 These are listed in Table 2.

occurs in pieces both early and mature, with a concentration in certain

masses, but also in the probably early chanson 'La despourveue' and the

dense polyphony of the motet Intemerata Dei mater. Through its continued and

consistent presence in Ockeghem's music, this rhythmic/melodic pattern

must be considered a salient feature of his works, one which contributes to

what should perhaps be called the style of certain pieces.

It is not, however, part of a more general compositional syntax of the

period, since examples of pattern 'w' in the works of other composers are

thin on the ground. Altogether it occurs only thirteen times in the works of

the following composers: Du Fay, Binchois, Busnoys, Pullois, Regis, Fau-

gues, Barbingant, Frye, Morton and Barbireau. Even this limited number of

examples might need to be reduced though: as can be seen in Table 3 , two of

these works have been attributed on less than solid evidence. The Agnus

'Custos et pastor' has been linked with Du Fay by various scholars on for-

mal grounds, but in its unique source, TrentC 92, it appears without attri-

bution.16 The popular 'Comme femme desconfortke' is attributed to Bin-

chois in one of the song's nine sources, the Mellon Chansonnier, but many

of its features seem at variance with what we presently know of Binchois's k ,

style.'7 'Pour prison', possibly a late song by Binchois, contains pattern w

in only one of its many source^.'^ Two of the examples in Pullois's Mass

15 Another possible instance of the pattern is Missa 'Ma maistresse', Ky 11, Sup, b. 3 8 (CW I, p. I I 8). In the Chigi Codex (VatC 234), the unique source for the Mass, the rhythm at this spot is b.1 1 ~ ; however this pattern, placed thus at the beginning of a perfection, is found nowhere else in Ockeghem's works. The rhythm here is likely to have been pat- tern 'w' originally, which a copyist later embellished. I am grateful to Michael Friebel for bringing this passage to my attention.

16 Trent, Museo Provinciale d'Arte, Castello del Buon Consiglio, MS 92, f. 208v-210; see Wolfgang NITSCHKE, Studien <u den Cantus-firmus-Messen Guillaume Dufays (Berlin, 1968)~ 3 5ff; David FALLOWS, Dufay (London, 1982; rev. ed. 1987); pp. 179-8 I.

17 Published in Die Chansons von Gilles Binchois, ed. Wolfgang REHM, ~usikalische Denkm~ler 2 (Mainz, 1957), no. 56; and Leeman L. PERKINS and Howard GAREY, eds., The Mellon Chansonnier, 2 vols. (New Haven, 1979), no. 27; see also, Reinhard STROHM, The Rise of European Music (Cambridge, I 99 3), pp. 442- 3.

18 Die Chansons von Gilles Binchois, no. 3 5. Pattern 'w' occurs in the T, b. I 6 only in Pavia, Biblioteca Universitaria, MS Aldini 362, f. 29-30 , a manuscript copied probably at Savoy in the late 1460s or early 1470s; see Henrietta SCHAVRAN, 'The Manuscript

TABLE 2

Occurrences of pattern 'w' in works by Ockeghem

Work Mvt.

Intemerata -

M. Caput Kyrie I

Gloria Sanctus

M. Ecce ancilla Kyrie I1

Gloria

Credo

M. De plus Gloria

Credo Sanctus

M. L'homme Kyrie

Kyrie I1 Credo

Sanctus

M. S. nom. .jvv Sanctus

Voice

B C T

T I1 S

CTA T T

CTA S B B

C T S S

C T B

C T C T

B C T

B C T

Bar ' Version (Descendin ) ( ~ s c e n d i n ~ 3

2 9 D 10 D 8 I A

3 5 A

94 A I00 A I04 D 2 6 A

5 5 D 52 D 8 0 A

6 3 D 41 D 2 6 D

3 9 A 2 D

3 5 D 66 D

163 D I 0 D 22 D 4 A

M. Mi-mi Gloria T 4 3 A Credo C T 10 A

C T 44 A T 47 A B 70 A

"La despourveue" C T 5 A

Total: 28 occurrences (14 descending; I4 ascending)

' Bar numbers refer to CW

Pavia, Biblioteca Universitaria, Codice Aldini 362: A Study of Song Tradition in Italy Circa 1440-1480' (Ph.D. diss., New York Univ., 1978). The seven other sources for the song all have the simpler semibreve-breve rhythm at this point.

Sean GALLAGHER

TABLE j

Occurrences of pattern ' w ' in works by other composers

1 Title Composer Mvt. Voice Bar Version Comment 1 Agnus 'Custos et (Du Fay?) - S 7 D Otherwise does nor occur in pastor' works securely attributed to

Du Fay

cornme femme (Binchois?) - T 2 6 D Appears in all sources; attrib. only Mellon Chansonnier

Pour prison' Binchois - T 16 A Pattern 'w ' found oldy in one

source, PavU 3 62

M. 0 crux lignum Busnoys Kyrie CTB I 0 A Only work by Busnoys in which pattern 'w' appears

M. Sine nomine Pullois Gloria C T 1 3 5 D C T I 5 I < D > descends by step, not leap

Credo C T 3 < D > descends by step, not leap C T 20 D

M. Virgo parens Barbireau Kyrie TI1 6 D Christi

M. Faulxperverse Barbireau Gloria T 6 2 D

Osculetur me Barbireau - S 3 4 A

M , Je suis en la ~ner Faugues Credo CTA 194 A

M. 'L'hornme arrni' Basiron Kyrie CTA 17 A

N. B.: Pattern 'w' does not appear in the works of Frye, Regis, Morton or Barbingant

deviate slightly from the nlelodic outline found in Ockeghem, but seemed

close enough to merit inclusion. What is surprising with Pullois, though, is

that pattern 'w ' does not turn up much more often in his works, given his

extreme iondness for dotted rhythms of all kinds.19 One last note about the

composers in this Table: Though Du Fay does not bse pattern 'w' in the

body of his works, and never with the melodic outlines found in Ockeghem,

he does employ a related pattern at the end of several mass movements as a

I 9 Johannes PULLOIS, Collected Works, ed. Peter GULKE, CMM 4 1 (American Institute of

Musicology, 1967), pp. 1-18. O n the style of the Mass, as well as a proposed rhyth-

mic/melodic 'fingerprint' of Pullois, see R. STROHM, The Rise. . . , op. cit., p. 242.

Syntax and Style

TABLE 4

Occurrences of pattern 'w' in works by Caron

Title Mvt. Voice Version Location [Collected Works, ed. J . Thornson]

M. Accuerlb m'a la belle Credo B A 1 before H (p. 16) B A 3 before N (p. 18)

CTA D I before C (p. 26) [temp. perf. dim.] Sanctus T A 2 after F (p. 28)

M. Clernens et bentgna Credo S D 4 before E (p. 58) Sanctus CTA D 4 after A (p. 61)

1 M. Jesus autern tvansiens Sanctus CTA A I before A (p. 88) I M. 'L'homrne armi' Kyrie B D 2 before B (p. 102) [temp. perf. dnn.]

Credo CTA A 2 after C (p. 112)

I M. Sanguis sanctorurn Sanctus CTA D 2 after H (p. 164) I N. B.: Pattern 'w' does not appear in any of Caron's songs

melodic elaboration of the final long - precisely the one thing Ockeghem

doec not do with this figure." ' r i

Table 4 lists the occurrences of pattern 'w' in the works of Caron, the

only other composer I have located who uses it with some frequency - ten

times in five mass cycles." We possess no motets by Caron, and the pattern

does not appear at all in his songs. Nevertheless, it is there in his Masses,

and though he uses it almost exclusively as a cadential figuration, its pres-

ence needs to be kept in mind in attempting to utilize the pattern as a stylis-

tic marker.

Andrea Lindmayr, in her thorough and valuable book on the sources of

Ockeghem's motets, has proposed a core of four motets which can be

20 Cf. the end of Ky I, Pleni, and Ag I of Du Fay's Missa (Se laface ay pale', where the Tenor

embellishes the concluding sonority with an ascending dotted figure (dotted m-sm-

long). Heinrich BESSELER ed., Gulllelmt D u f y : Opera omnia III (Rome, 1951), no. 7. 21 Philippe (?) CARON, Oeuvres compl?tes, ed. James THOMSON (Brooklyn, 1976). Despite

their unusual appearance, the references given under the 'Location' heading in Table 4

are intended to be practical; owing to the idiosyncratic system of barring in Thomson's

edition, standard citations would be all but useless.

Sean GALLAGHER 700

securely attributed to the composer on the basis of their sources alone: Alma ndemptoris mater, Intemerata, Ave Maria and Salve regina (I).22 According to her

rigorous criteria, all of the other motets which have at various times beell I

attributed to Ockeghem stand in greater or lesser proximity to this core. One

of the pieces which she places furthest from the secure works is the five-voice motet-chanson Permanent vierge/Pulchra es/Sancta Dei genitrix.23 I

From the standpoint of sources, an attribution of this piece to Ockeghem

is certainly not without its problems. Preserved anonymously in its sole I

I

source, DijBM 5 I 7 (copied ca. 1475) , Permanent vierge appears between two

works ascribed to Ockeghem in other manuscripts: the double-chanson i

'S'elle m'amera / Petite camusette', and the motet-chanson Mort, tu as navri i

(see Table 5). The possibility, though, that we have here a 'nestJ of Ock- 1 eghem works has been questioned by Lindmayr, who believes that the music 1

in this part of the manuscript was probably copied as it came to hand, with-

out any systematic arrangement. Thus, she points out, Permanent vierge could

just as likely have been written by any one of the composers, known or

unknown, whose pieces were included in DijBM 5 17.'~

i TABLE 5

Gathering XXI of Dijon, Bib. Mun., MS 5 I 7

Folio Title Composer Vv. Form

164v- 165 S'elle mJamera/Petite (Ockeghem) 4 Double chanson camusette (rondeau cinquain)

I 6 5v- I 66 Permanent vierge/Pulchra es/ (Ockeghem?) 5 Motet-chanson Sancta Dei gen~trix (rondeau quatrain)

1 6 6 ~ - 1 6 7 Mort tu as navrt/Miserere (Ockeghem) 4 Motet-chanson (ballade)

-

22 Andrea LINDMAYR, Quellenstudien <u den Motetten von Johannes Ockeghem (Laaber, 1 9 9 0 ) ~ PP. 26-34; 232-3.

23 Qid., pp. 234-5, where she groups the work with the so-called Salve regina (II), ~ r o b a -

bly a work by Basiron (see n. 10 above), and the 3 6-voice Deograttas.

24 Ibid., pp. 205-7.

Syntax and Style 70 1

Be that as it may, the motet's overall style prompted first Ambros and

later Wolfgang Stephan to support Ockeghem's authorship." More recently,

though, the work's stock seems to have gone down: it is listed as a doubtful

composition in both Leeman Perkins's New Grove article on the composer and

in the Collected Works edition.26 Lindmayr's final word on the piece is that

if one wishes still to include Permanent vierge in the composer's oeuvre, than

'the stylistic arguments for this must be exceptionally c~nvincing'. '~ This is

a tall order, one which I have no intention of trying to fill here. I wish only

to make a few brief observations about the work which I think strengthen the

case for Ockeghem's authorship, and by extension, illustrate the potential

value of rhythmic analysis of this sort as a component in attributive research.

First, in terms of rhythmic style, Permanent vierge most closely resembles

Ockeghem's securely attributed five-voice works, the Masses Sine nomine and

Fors seulement, and especially Lntemerata Dei mater. That Permanent vierge is rhyth-

mically quite unlike the motets of Regis, one of the very few composers

known to have written five-voice works before ca. 1475, demonstrates that

these similarities with Ockeghem's pieces are not simply a function of com-

posing in five parts.28

Second, the pattern 'w', in the ascending version found numerous times

in Ockeghem's pieces, appears in bar 20 of Permanent vierge (see Example 9, whhe the pattern is marked). Here some caution is called for, since DijBM

517 also includes three songs by Caron, the only other composer besides

Ockeghem who seems to have used the pattern with any regularity, However,

as previously mentioned, pattern 'w' shows up only in Caron's masses, never

25 August W. AMBROS, Geschichte der Musik, vol. 2 (Breslau, I 864), p. 3 54. Stephan relates

the style of the work to that of Intemerata: "Insbesondere erinnern etwa das wie zufal-

lige Eingleiten des Basses in T. 2, das Fehlen der Imitation und der deutlichen Zasuren,

die gleichsam ziellose, nirgends zur Ruhe kommende Melodik des Diskants, sowie

uberhaupt der gesamte rhythmische Habitus der Stimmen so auffallend an den ersten

Teil des 0 intemerata, dag man, auch Lei grogter Zuruckhaltung auf diesem gefihrlichem

Gebiet, diese Motette mit einiger Sicherheit dem Pariser Meister zuschreiben

darf." (Die burgundische-niederlandische Motette.. . , op. cit., P. 44). 26 Leemail L. PERKINS, 'Ockeghem, Johannes', N G ; CW 111, pp, cvii-cviii, pp. 96-7.

27 A. LINDMAYR, Quellenstudien.. . , op. cit., p. 207: "Will man 'Permanent vierge' nun doch

noch in die Reihe der Kompositionen von Ockeghem aufnehmen, dann mugten die

stilistischen Argumente dafur augerordentlich uberzeugend sein."

28 In his 1477 counterpoint treatise Tinctoris praises Regis's five-voice motet Clangatplebs

pores for its varietas (Liber de arte contrapuncti, op, cit., Bk.3, ch.8, CSM 22/2, pp. 15 5-6).

Sean GALLAGHER

\ - - 1.3.5. Per - ma-nenr virr - - gt. plus - di - - gnr

. me cou . . - - vet - e ne . - so - ne.

- grtr qer a r - - rn - 171. I,,, - - -

fi - li - 2

- lril dr ju - ar - - - - - c . ( 1 . 5 ) Chirf _

Syntax and Style 70 3

LO

1 r 1 1 I . -- I - ------ - - L -- D- -- L i d

ca - / - stro - - ( r u m 1:- - cn -

( a d Do - mi -Inurn

-- I -- d r

I

par dl - - - " i n or - t i - f z - - - It - Dt

as previously mentioned, pattern 'w' shows up only in Caron's masses, never

in his surviving songs.29

Third. pattern 'w' occurs in this piece within the type of rhythmic broad-

ening we have already observed in the Missa 'De plus en plus' and 'La

despourveue'. This change in rhythmic motion is signalled by the three suc-

cessive dotted semibreves in the beautifully arching cantus line, bars 20-1, at

the4words "par divin artifice".

Finally, leaving pattern ' w ' behind, and focusing on these successive dot-

ted semibreves, there is a comparable passage in Ockeghemis Awe Maria, one

of Lindmayr's four core motets (Example lo).'' The extraordinary sequence

29 The descending version of 'w' appears in three other anonymous songs in DijBM 517:

'Puis qu'ainsi est que tous' (f. 108v-log), Ct, b. 18; 'Depuis deux ou trois jours' (f. 1 3 0 ~ - 1 3 I ) , Ct, b. 23; 'Gardez le trait de la fenestre' (f. 159~-160) , Ct , b. 16 (as

embellishment of medial cadence). All three are edited in Charles E. BARRET, IA Criti- cal Edition of the Dijon Chansonnier; Dijon, Biblio. de la Ville, Ms. 517 (ancien 295)', 2 vols. (Ph.D. diss., George Peabody College for Teachers of Vanderbilt Univ.,

1981). In its ascending form, the pattern appears in two anonymous pieces in the Wolfenbiittel Chansonnier: 'Pour le mal', (f. 56v-57), T, b. 14; 'Las ay ie tort' (f. 39v-

40), Ct, b. 9 (in the copy of this song in Florence, Biblioteca nazionale centrale, cod. Magliabechi XIX. 176, the rhythm at this point is different, with the imperfect breve split into two semibreves). Both works are published in Der Wolfenbutteler Chanso~znier. Hercog August Bibliotek, Wolfenbiittel Codex Guelf: 287 Extrav., ed. Martella GU'TIERREZ-DE,N-

HOFF, Musikalische Denkmaler 10 (Mainz, I 988).

30 CW 111, pp. 6-7.

Sean GALLAGHER

EXAMPLE I0

J. OCKEGHEM, Ave Maria, bars 32-44 [CW, vol. 31

of gestures beginning in bar 3 5 stands out in part because of the regularity

and apparent simplicity of the Superius. The descent from a' to c in equal

semibreves, in bars 15-6, is intensified in bar 37, where the rhythm is

repeated, but at a higher pitch level and covering only the fourth from c" to

g'. There is a sudden move upwards to d" in bar 39, and having reached its

peak - both musically and textually (at the name "Jesus") - the line descends

and expands simultaneously through three successive dotted semibreves.

The prominent placement of more than two dotted semibreves in a row is

in fact fairly rare in minor prolation during this period, perhaps because it

could prove syntactically awkward in relation to some of the most common

Syntax and Style 70 5

underlying rhythmic patterns of tempus perfectum.31 I t is a 'special effect',

one which an accomplished composer could reserve for highlighting part of

a text.32 Finding such a figure in Permanent vierge, especially handled with such

grace, suggests it is the work of a master - perhaps even the one we are here

to celebrate.

3 I A slightly later example of a composer exploiting the metrical ambiguity of successive dotted semibreves is discussed in Klaus-Jurgen SACHS, 'Pierre de La Rues "Missa De Beata Virgine" in ihrer copia aus varietas und similitudo', Anahsen: Beitrage <u finer Prob- lerngeschichte des Komponierens. Festschrqt fur Hans Heinrich Egpbrecht cum 65. Geburtstag, ed. Werner BREIG, Reinhold BRINKMANN and Elmer BUDDE (Stuttgart, 1984), pp. 76-90, at 80.

32 One famous passage helps illustrate the point: Du Fay's lovely 'Adieu, ces bons vins de Lannoy', bars 25-9, where the composer's farewell to his friends ('adieu tous com- paignons galois') is set as six~successive dotted semibreves descending by step. Guillelmi Dufay: Oprra omnia VZ, ed. Heinrich BESSELER, CMM I (Rome, 1964), no. 27.