Writing, Reading and Memorizing: The Transmission and Resolution of Retrograde Canons

from the 14th and Early 15th Centuries

Author(s): Virginia Newes
Source: Early Music, Vol. 18, No. 2 (May, 1990), pp. 218-234
Published by: Oxford University Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3127810
Accessed: 12/03/2009 08:25
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless
you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you
may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use.
Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at
http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=oup.
Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed
page of such transmission.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit organization founded in 1995 to build trusted digital archives for scholarship. We work with the
scholarly community to preserve their work and the materials they rely upon, and to build a common research platform that
promotes the discovery and use of these resources. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Oxford University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Early Music.

http://www.jstor.org

Virginia Newes
Writing,

transmission

from

and

reading

the

and

14th

and

memorizing: the
resolution
of retrograde
centuries
15th
early

Musical symmetry seems to have held a special

fascination for late Medieval composers. The reshaping of non-repeating, rhythmically neutral melodies
into regularlyrecurringtaleae,the balancing of proportionally related sectional divisions and even of
symmetricallyorganized mensurations in motets and
secular songs all demonstratethat what we might call
the extra-auditorydimension of music was valued as
highly as what was heard. Retrogradeimitation, which
complements a forward-movingline with an identical
line stated in reverse, cannot be perceived by the ear
alone; it too belongs among those architectural
devices that seem to have originated in a desire for
formal symmetry. The ability to match rhythmic and
melodic patterns with their retrograde images was
more than a mere conceit; it demonstrated a composer's knowledge of mensural notation and counterpoint as much as it tested his skill at fashioning
canonic riddles.
Retrogradeimitation was described in Renaissance
and Baroque treatises by such writers as Vicentino,1
Morley2and Marpurg,3and found renewed importance
in the strict counterpoint of the Second Viennese
School; it does not seem to have been mentioned,
however, by theorists before 1500. Yet cancrizan
writing must have been well known to composers of
the preceding century and a half, judging from the
number and variety of retrograde pieces that have
survived.In this study, I shall focus on a small number
of compositions from the 14th and 15th centuries, all
of which feature retrogradeduplication in one or more
voices. I shall attempt to demonstrate, on the one
hand, the transmission of recurrentstructuralpatterns
in compositions that belong to separate but interconnected repertories, and, on the other, some ambiguities in notation and performance rubrics that touch
directly on the manner in which music was read and
performed in the late Middle Ages.
218

EARLYMUSIC MAY 1990

canons

Retrogradeduplication in a single voice

Retrogradeduplication of a single line can be traced at
least as far back at the late 12th century. Illus. 1 and 2
aretaken fromff. 150-1 50v of the Florence manuscript
of the Magnusliber,compiled for use at the cathedralof
Notre-Damein Paris. These folios represent the final
pages of a section of the manuscript containing twovoice clausulae based on excerpts from the Christmas
gradual Videruntomnes. Just underneath the tenor at
the beginning of the third system on f. 150vwe find the
curious word NUSMIDO.This is the clue to the tenor's
derivationfromthe melody DOMINUS,the basis of the
group of ten clausulae immediately preceding.4 The
setting of NUSMIDOactually begins at the end of the
second system, immediatelyafter the final note of the
last DOMINUSclausula. It then continues with a
mirrorimage of the DOMINUStenor melody, although
in a rhythmic configuration different from that
employed in the previous clausula, and without its
internalrepetition. Ex.1 is a transcriptionfromthe end
of the DOMINUSclausula and the beginning of the
NUSMIDOclausula.
Retrogradetenors in later compositions generally
had to be derived from a given voice according to a
verbal canon, often couched in deliberately obscure
terms. But the tenor of NUSMIDOwas actually written
out in its retrograde form, so that its realization
presented no riddles for the performer.Once the tenor
had been laid out, there was no particulartechnical
difficulty involved in the composition of the NUSMIDO clausula, since only the tenor was in retrograde
and a new upper voice was composed to go with it.
Furthermore,the thorny problems of alteration and
imperfection that were to be encountered in retrograde compositions employing mensural notation in
ternary metrical divisions do not obtain here.
NUSMIDOappears as an isolated occurence of

Ex. 1 Tenor of the final DOMINUSclausula and the NUSMIDO

clausula from the Magnus liber manuscript Florence, Biblioteca
Medicea Laurenziana Plut.29.1,ff.150r-150v
End of Dominus clausula

[Do]

jJ.

IJ. '

1.

mi

- [r

nus

Beginning of Nusmido clausula

8r
ls

l:

48 ?r dor I;
.8?
8

r' r
'll:
Nus - mi
l;

J.

I-

J.

recently been challenged, however, by Sarah Fuller,

who has demonstrated that the surviving versions of
the text attributedto him are more likely to represent
student reportsof Vitry'steaching than a treatise of his
own authorship.7 Even so, the motets cited to
exemplify the most novel facets of the new teaching
are probably his.8
New in Garritgallus, and therefore worthy of
mention in the three principal manuscript sources of
Vitry'steaching, is the use of red notes to indicate a
change of mensural organization, in this case from
ternary to binary metre in the tenor. In none of the
three accounts, however, do we find any mention of
the fact that the red notes in the tenor also markthe
centre of the doubly palindromic structure shown in
ex.2: in each talea,two ternaryred ligatures framing a
Ex.2 Outline of the tenor pattern of the motet Garritgallus-In
nova fert, by Philippe de Vitry

melodic retrogradein Parisianorganum.In fact, there

are no other known compositions employing melodic
retrogradeuntil a century and a half later. Rhythmic
retrograde, on the other hand, appears about two
generations earlier, in the tenor of a motet attributed
to Philippe de Vitry. Since both of its texts refer to
specific events involving political corruption at the
court of Philip the Fair,the motet can be dated quite
accurately in the year 1314.5 This work forms an
important conceptual link to later compositions
employing both rhythmicand melodic retrograde.Not
only is it based on a principle of palindromic
notational design that seems to have sprung from the
same concern for symmetry (see below); it also
exemplifies the difficulties composers and performers
were to encounter when they tried to reverse the order
of ternaryrhythmic patterns notated according to the
newly-codified mensural system.
The treatise purportingto be the Arsnovaof Philippe
de Vitry cites Garritgallus-In nova fert as an example

of red notation with mensural significance, and the

motet has long been accepted as a work of Vitry'son
the basis of this citation.6 The notion that a single
written treatise by Philippe de Vitry ever existed has

1I

IJ, J. I- J. l-1

-I = Red notes

BB

BB

I
L

BB

BB

J. IJJ1j IJ _l J I,j IJJ IJ.IG

central rest are themselves symmetrically framed by
two ternary black ligatures.9
Onlya desire for palindromicsymmetry,in fact, can
explain a notational anomaly in Vitry'stenor that has
been silently corrected in all editions to date.10Coordination with the upper voices requires 'alteration',
or doubling, of the second of the first two breves. This
is in violation, of course, of the rule that was stated by
the late 13th-centurytheorist Franco of Cologne and
that remained in force throughout the 14th and 15th
centuries: a breve can only be altered if it is followed
by a long, and not when it is followed, as here, by
another breve.
How can we explain this aberration (it occurs in
both manuscriptsources of Garritgallus) on the partof
a composer renowned as a master of the Ars nova
mensural system? It seems likely that Vitrywas aware
of the normal practice, but wanted the tenor's initial
ligature to read long-breve-breve in order to mirror
the succession of note designations in the final
ligature, correctly notated there as breve-altered
breve-long. (This hypothesis implies that Vitrybegan
by laying out the second half of his rhythmictalea,and
then constructed the first half to match its pattern in
EARLYMUSIC MAY 1990

219

Ct-I

gLqL'
N rnAMAL

. .~

- .... - r-'-

I
An '....
itPL~

/'

-'v. ,&_j.l

'

......,

.i

Trfi./~r-{
n--a

~el ~-~ ~,-

---

'
,i '

~ ,

.....^

..

'

.
-, - --.

~~~~~~~~-

;.:....::. ., ..-

reverse.) Were it not for the requirements of the

palindrome, the temporal values of the first ligature
could have been better expressed as perfect longbreve-imperfect long. As the transcriptionshows, the
realized values of the two halves of the talea do not
exactly mirror one another, however, since the
reversal of a ligature in ternary mensuration also
changes its mensural context. Palindromicsymmetry
in Vitry'stenor is expressed therefore in the succession of note designations (long-breve-breve; brevebreve-long) and in the notational picture itself, but
not in the realized note durations.
We can compare Vitry'spalindrome with the more
elaborate tenor design of a motet composed over a
220

EARLYMUSIC MAY 1990

hundredyears later, Dufay'sBalsamuset mundaceraIsti sunt agni novelli, outlined in ex.3." Here, too,
ligatures and single notes must have been arranged
with an eye to their visual symmetry.(Thecentre of the
palindromeis again a rest.) A verbalcanon directs that
the entire tenor be repeated in retrograde,completing
one melodic color, then repeated forwards and
backwardsagain but diminished by half for the second
color. When the melodic sequence is reversed, the
result, of course, is a changed series of pitches. The
palindromically arranged rhythmic symbols, on the
other hand, produce exactly the same note values in
their retrogradeas in their forwardversion, constituting in effect a talearepetition.Thus,while the melodic

-v.'.-I

.
,~~~~~'7

-a

'

ROM

1.2 Florence. Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana.Plut.29.1.ff.150-150v, showing the end of the section devoted to two-voice clausulae

Ex.3 Outline of the tenor pattern of the motet Balsamus et munda cera-lsti sunt agni novelli by Guillaume Dufay

* .I.1I

..,.

.."

1.1

BBL LBI

LBL BBBBBBBBBB

LBL

BBL

Tenordiciturde modo perfectoet temporeimperfecto,simili modo retrogradendo.

Tenordiciturpersemi et eodemnmodo retrograditur
accipiendopro fine nigras.

9F -r,

r-

olr
utionr
-9 t IIrrI
is

r r'

lr~

r Il

rf t

- I

-If

retrograderesolution
EARLYMUSIC MAY 1990

221

the musical context can providethe correct solution in

each individual case.
The tenor patterns of the two motets I wish to
discuss now are so similaras to suggest the possibility,
if not of direct emulation, then at least of the
transmission of retrogrademodels. Fromthe point of
view of actual realization, however, they represent the
two opposing approaches outlined above: on the one
hand, literal reversal of a series of note values; on the
other, rereadingof the note symbols in reversed order,
with a resultant change in mensural context. We can
describe these two methods of realization as 'literal'
versus 'contextual', requiring either memorization or
rereading of the given part.

retrogrademirrorsthe pitches of the given tenor, the

rhythmic retrograde,because of the changed mensural context of the ligatures, results in a repetition
rather than a reversal of the sequence of realized
values. Dufay must have taken a special delight in the
intricacies of this tenor design.
Reversing the order of a tenor melodic sequence
was a straightforwardenough procedure,involving no
special difficulties of interpretation. The primary
technical difficulty in reading retrogradetenors was
rhythmic and resulted from the contextual nature of
mensural notation in ternarydivisions. The value of a
particular note in ternary metre, instead of being
absolute, depends on its position within a ternary
grouping and on the value of the notes that precede
and follow it. Reversinga rhythmicsequence in one of
the ternarymensurationstherefore necessitated some
sort of compromise with literal retrograde.Eitherthe
notational symbols were read in retrograde,in which
case the resulting note values did not exactly mirror
those of the 'forward'version, as in the motets by Vitry
and Dufay I have just cited, or the realized note values
themselves were exactly reversed in the retrograde
version, without regard to the changed mensural
context of the notational signs. Nothing in the canonic
rubrics tells us which type of reading is desired; only

The motetAlpha vibrans-Cetus venit-Amicum querit

from the Chantilly manuscript was composed sometime after 1380.12 It has a complex tenor design that is
based on the alternation of forwardand reverse pitch
successions as well as of integral and diminished
rhythmic patterns. The single color,consisting of 36
notated pitches in all, has two statements of a very
elaborate two-parttalea, outlined in ex.4. This pattern
introduces changes from perfect to imperfect mensuration in 'reversecolouration'(rednotes for perfect,
black notes for imperfect modus) and must be
completed canonically according to the rubric from

Ex.4 Outline of the tenor pattern of the anonymous motet Alphavibrans-Coetus venit-Amicum querit, from the manuscript Chantilly,
Musee Conde 564, ff.64v-65
r
-1 = Red notes

I_

-1

o. 1
L

C O'

-]

Il

r
3:^

rf
LB

B B

Retrograde,diminutiodupla

diminutio dupla

? f rf
1
r1 ir
1 .1 1
s ..

9{-'s^ r
B

~r
:

*
L

B B

- rf
Ir I it

I 7r 1

Retrograde, diminutio dupla

f it

diminutio dupla
Rubric: Rubee dicuntur modo perfecto, nigre imperfecto. Et in qualibet talia antequam pausetur retroeatur per semi ab ultima ad
primam ipsius tallie notam. Et iterum eodem modo diminuendo a prima ad notam ultimam eiusdem tallie redicatur

EARLYMUSIC MAY 1990

223

two separate nine-note sequences. In each talea, a

nine-note segment is stated once in forwardsuccession and in integral values, followed by a repetition
with halved values and in reverse order;the nine notes
are then restated in the normal order but still in
diminution. The second part of the talea is based on
the next nine-note segment in a new rhythmicpattern,
subjected to exactly the same retrogradeand diminution manipulations as the first.
In reading the notation of the first segment of the
tenor talea backwards, we immediately run into
difficulties. The dot of division separatingthe two red
ligatures results in a forwardreading of long-breve/
breve-altered breve/long, adding up to a total of three
ternarymodus measures. When these two ligaturesare
reversed, however, we cannot, according to the rules,
lengthen either of the first two breves (or semibreves
in diminution) to fill out a ternary measure. Similar
problems arise in the retrograde rereading of the
second segment of the talea. In this case, it is not the
notational symbols themselves but the actual temporal values they represent that are to be reproduced
literally in retrograde and diminution, an interpretation that also produces satisfactory consonances
with the upper voices. The tenor, once he had read
through each nine-note melodic segment of his part,
had to reproduce its realized durations from memory
in reversed order and reduced by half; rereadingthe
notational symbols backwards would not have produced the desired rhythmic sequence.'
Exactly the opposite situation prevails in the tenor
Ex.5 Outline of the tenor pattern of the anonymous motet
Gratiosus fervidus-Magnanimus opere from the manuscripts
Padua, Biblioteca universitaria 1475, f.3 (olim 47) and Modena,
Biblioteca Estense, 5.24, f.64v-65

11

^'79 , ,

Io i i

111

1I - "-m

1
I m--1-

1= --71t

V
1 " 1- 'M I"
"9:i t=' T-i
3

>

Modusmaiorperfectus: restsareall longaeimperfectae.

Rubric:Tenoriste diciturter:primoeundo, secundo
redeundo,tercioa primoprincipioipsum resumendo
224

EARLYMUSIC MAY 1990

ii

of the motet Gratiosusfervidus-Magnanimus opere,

outlined in ex.5.13 Dedicated to St George, the patron
saint of the city, and preservedin the late 14th-century
manuscript known as 'Padua A', this work was
probably composed for or in Padua.14The Paduan
motet is not as complex as Alphavibransand, like most
motets of the Italian type, it has no subdivision into
taleae.s5Nevertheless, there are striking similarities
between the tenor structures of the two motets. Both
tenors are based on the number nine: nine notes in
each section of the Chantillymotet's talea, nine notes
in each color of the Paduamotet. Furthermore,like the
Chantilly motet, the Padua tenor states its nine-note
pattern first forwards,then backwards,then forwards
from the beginning again, although without applying
diminution in any of its repetitions.
Let us return now to the resolution of the Padua
tenor, shown in ex.5. Its mensuration is modus major
perfectus throughout. The rules of alteration and
imperfection must therefore be applied to the tenor at
the maximodus level of rhythmic organization, although the division is binary at all other levels. It is
apparentfrom the context of the other voices that in
this case, as with Vitry's and Dufay's palindromic
tenors, the retrogradeportion of the tenor is based on
a rereading of the notational symbols themselves
ratherthan on a reversal of their realized values. For
this reason, the actual durations in the retrograde
realization do not exactly mirrorthose of the normal
version, and because the retrogradestatement ends on
the first note of a modus maior perfection, there is a
furtherrhythmicdisplacement at the beginning of the
final 'forward'statement of the tenor pattern.
Retrogradechansons
Recurrent structural patterns based on retrograde
duplication can be found in polyphonic chansons
from the 14th and early 15th centuries as well as in
motets. Two important differences in retrograde
procedure, however, distinguish these two genres
fromone another.Firstof all, retrogradeduplication in
motets occurs only within a single voice, the tenor,
whereas all the known retrogradechansons use this
procedure in the realization of at least one voice in
addition to the notated parts. Secondly, in the motet
tenors we have just examined, retrograderepetition of
patterns in ternarymensurations was complicated by
such notational factors as coloration, diminution,
alteration and imperfection. The surviving retrograde
chansons, on the other hand, usually employed minor

prolation and imperfect time, generally avoiding the

difficult mensurations involving alteration and imperfection. Table I lists in order the retrograde chansons I
shall consider here.

i
.''I i.
LTr
t*^S^^^r Ili-,Si
-

-i1

I_

Table 1: Retrogradechansons discussed in this article

1 Machaut. Rondeau 14
Ma fin est mon commencement

rubric: in rondeau text

2 Dominicus de Ferraria
0 dolce compagno

F-Pn 1584, f.479v

F-Pn 1585, f.309
F-Pn 22546, f.153
F-Pn 9221, f.136
GB-Ob229 (PadA),
f.38

___ MO-US-;zi
f-4i ' --.U^t'

GB-Ob213, f.135
facs. in Apel, Notation.
p. 143

_ L-: 'L -!....

*--.
text
in Dadata
ruDric:
Contratenor: Et dicitur eundo et redeundo

3 Anon.
11vient bien

rubric: in rondeau text

F-Pn 6771, f.63v

Gunther, 'FourteenthCentury Music with
Texts Revealing
Performance Practice', pp.258-9 (facs.
an(d transcr.)

(Der Krepsgang)
rondeau

$t

uo1u-

ii-

4 Anon.
J'ay mis ce rondelet

. i_

- .I .

01

F-Sm 222. f.79

Apel CMM 53/3,
no.252

rubric: Tenor iste facit contratenorem retrograde reincipiendo ad morem cantus

5 Anon.
Tresdoulz amis Dame de pris
rondeau

F-Sm 222, f.78

Apel, CMM 53/3,
no.282

rubric: Tenor istorum duorum rondellorum facit contratenorem retrogrando.

at end of cantus II: Sciendum quod isti duo rondelli
suprascripti possunt dicilrel cum duobus. tribus, quatuor.
quinque vel sex retrogradandoipsos ad modum tenoris

6 Anon.
textless rondeau

I-TRmn90, f.357v
Loyan, CMM 38, no.
12

mnmtmn-t.
::,Teti- matn

I
i

mon wmnzatgr
i;?aefn ?tMo
(a
.F tnnurctMetiunr
a
tttd

ii

'

3 Guillaume de Machaut, rondeau 14, Ma fin est mon commence-

ment (Paris,Bibliotheque Nationale,fonds francais 22546 (MachG)},

f.153r
EARLYMUSIC MAY 1990

225

The earliest known piece based entirely on retrograde procedures, Machauts rondeau Ma fin est mon
commencement, was included in the Machaut manuscripts, A, B, Vogiue, G and E, and was also copied
into the Italian repertory manuscript Padua A; its
absence from the Machaut manuscript C may or may
not mean that it was composed after 1356.16 A
facsimile of the rondeau from manuscript G is shown
in illus.3. The complete text and translation follow:
Ma fin est mon commencement
et mon commencement
ma fin.
Et teneurevraiement
Ma fin est mon commencement.
Mes tiers chans iii fois seulement
se retrograde
et einsi fin.
Ma fin est mon commencement
et mon commencement
ma fin.
My end is my beginning
and my beginning my end
and the tenor [is sung] in the normal way.
My end is my beginning.
My third voice three times only
turns back on itself and thus ends.
My end is my beginning
and my beginning my end.
The refrain text, 'Ma fin est mon commencement, et
mon commencement ma fin', is the clue to the
retrograde realization of the cantus. The third line of
the text, 'et teneure vraiement', tells us that the tenor
has to read the principal melody in the normal way;
'mes tier chans' in line 5 must therefore refer to the
contratenor. Only the tenor is written out in full; the
cantus has to be realized by reading the tenor
backwards, while the B section of the contratenor also
has to be supplied by repeating the A section in
retrograde. The correct realization of Machaut's
retrograde rondeau thus requires both the complete
text, which serves as its canonic rubric, and correct
labelling of the voices.
With minor exceptions, the notation in all sources
of Ma fin est mon commencement is the same, but
discrepancies in texting suggest that the scribes of the
later manuscripts may not have completely understood the solution of the musical puzzle. In manuscripts E and Padua A, both of which were compiled
after Machaut's death,'7 the words 'tenor de ma fin'
appear upside down underneath the contratenor part,
where they make no sense. 18 Furthermore, in Padua A
only the text of the rondeau refrain, but not that of the
strophe, is given, leaving the canonic rubric incom226

EARLYMUSIC MAY 1990

plete. The compiler of manuscript E (or of his

exemplar) may have had some awareness of the
retrograde structure of rondeau 14, however, since he
placed it next to motet 5, a four-voice composition
whose tenor and contratenor (shown in ex.6) are
paired in a simple palindromic voice-exchange based
on rhythmic retrograde.
Ex.6 Outline of the tenor and contratenor pattern of the motet
Aucune gent-Qui plus aimme-Fiat voluntas tua (motet no.5) by
Guillaume de Machaut
Ct

FJ"

0-

-0

I?eo
TeI?'

- io

roI1- 1 1oI 1 o.

I?

Ihs1te

o--r

i pr

The contratenor has the tenor rhythmic pattern in

retrograde.
* The additional breve rests, found in all manuscripts, are
mensurally inconsistent.

By the same token, the scribe of Padua A might have

noticed a structural analogy between Machaufs
rondeau and the anonymous motet Gratiosus fervidus
from the same manuscript discussed earlier.19 I have
already pointed out the similarities between the tenor
of this motet and that of Alpha vibrans, a French motet
from the Chantilly manuscript. Although no copy of
Alpha vibrans has been found in an Italian repertory
manuscript, other motets of French provenance do
appear in north Italian manuscripts, and it is therefore
not inconceivable that a Paduan composer could have
had access to a copy of the Chantilly motet and set out
to emulate its retrograde structure.
Ma fin est mon commencement (transcribed in ex.7)
seems to have served either directly or indirectly as a
model for other retrograde chansons that circulated in
France, northern Italy, and southern Germany in the
late 14th and early 15th centuries. // vient bien sans
appeller (no.3 in table 1) is an anonymous rondeau
preserved only in the Reina manuscript (F-Pn 6771), a
collection of Italian and French secular songs copied
in the Veneto in the first decades of the 15th century.
Only half of each part is notated. In the cantus and
contratenor parts, the B section is realized by
repeating the A section backwards; this is the
retrograde pattern of Machaut's contratenor. The
tenor, on the other hand, has to start off by reading his

part backwards,reading it forwardsto complete the B

section. The solution to the puzzle is hinted at both by
the text line 'Commentqu'il soit retrograde'underlaid
to the tenor part, and by the three longs with fermatas
that frame each of the realized parts.20
IIvientbienmay have been composed in imitation of
Ma fin est mon commencement, but it does not entirely

follow Machaut'spattern of notation and realization.

A retrogradeschema exactly identical with that of Il
vient bien can be found in 0 dolce conpagno, a ballata by

the otherwise unknown composer Dominicus de

Ferraria(see the transcription in ex.8).21 The unique
source of this piece, Oxford,Canonici misc.213, was
copied in the same region as the slightly earlier Reina
manuscript, suggesting that the Italian composer
could have patterned his ballata on the French
rondeau.
Aside from the contratenorrubric'Et dicitur eundo
et redeundo' (and it is sung going and returning),the
key to the puzzle is once again to be found in the
poetic text:
0 dolce conpagno se tu voy cantare

Dyapasonpiglia senca demorare.

Et sel te piace fa che la doncella
Alquantodica con mii melodia
Perhoche tu or dirainovella
Consonantecon dolce armonia.
Talche per la fede mia
Ben potremobiscantare.
0 dolce conpagnose tu voy cantare
Dyapasonpiglia senqa demorare.
O sweet companion, if you would sing,
Take the diapason without delay.
And if you please, let the girl
Sing as much with my melody.
But now you'll sing it anew
Consonantly with sweet harmony,
Such that, by my faith,
Well shall we duet.
O sweet companion, if you would sing,
Take the diapason without delay.
Only the first two lines of the ballata, constituting
the ripresa, are underlaid to what appears to be a
continuous melodic line for the cantus. The remaining
lines of the ballata strophe are copied below the
music, and were probably not intended to be sung.

Although the text is somewhat ambiguous, the

following interpretation seems closest to the correct
musical realization.22

The cantus invites his companion (the tenor)to join

in the singing by starting an octave below him; since

the notated melody begins on g" and ends of g', the

tenor has to begin at the end and sing backwards
towards the middle. While the two friends sing, the
'girl'sings 'as much' (in other words, the same number
of bars in the contratenor part). The midpoint of the
melody where the two friends meet is markedby the
consonance of the fifth between cantus and tenor. The
companion now repeats his part going forwardfrom
the middle to the end, duetting in'sweet harmony'with
the cantus, who sings backwardsfrom the midpoint to
the beginning while the contratenor completes her
part by repeating it backwards.
If ligatures are broken up to accommodate extra
syllables, it is just possible to sing the piedi and the
volta to the realized cantus and tenor lines. In this
arrangement,however, a satisfactory cadence cannot
be found for the end of the ripresawhich completes the
ballata strophe. The rondeau form on which this piece
was modelled has a bipartite musical structure, with
its final cadence at the end of the B section. It cannot
easily be made to fit the form of the ballata,
which requires a final cadence at the end of the A
music to which both volta and ripresaare sung.23
Machauts rondeau was unique in combining two
different types of retrograderesolution within a single

....
Les

YOQK
MUSIC
EADLY
FESTIVAL

Plaisirs

de

Paris

From Gothic Paris to the Court of Louis XIV

Friday6th - Sunday 15th July 1990
Gothic Voices * London Baroque
Maggie Cole * Ensemble Organum
The Hilliard Ensemble
Nigel Rogers & Jakob Lindberg
The Gabrieli Consort & Players
Landini Consort * Catherine Bott
Sinfonye * The Companie of Dansers
Jaques Darass
Yorkshire Bach Choir & Yorkshire Baroque Soloists
Concerts in Castle Howard and other stately
homes near York with cheese and wine *
Candlelit Concerts * Lecture Series *
Children's and Family events * Exhibitions *
Coffee Concerts and much, much more !
Festival brochure available now from:
York Early Music Festival, De Grey House,
Exhibition Square, York YO1 2EW.
Telephone York (0904) 658338.

EARLYMUSIC MAY 1990

227

Ex.7 Rondeau Ma fin est mon commencement by Guillaume de Machaut, from Leo Schrade, ed. The Works of Guillaume de Machaut
(Polyphonic Music of the Fourteenth Century, vol 3). (Monaco, 1956)
Tenor

,?
Cantus

9):

fin

'I-F
r j'

I;

I
;N

;i o

J~-JL

.o

Fr t;'r r
ILFr,

est
ne

mon

chans

trois

corn
re
fois

IJ F' \

IO^

;,F F

r-7
IFm,4~ fIf~~r;

r0finrf'0-T'I

t Or r i?
~

1i

if. F If

1o

[*u

tFr[Lr- i

1
ce - ment.
e - ment.
le - ment

seu

1 Io

Io
I

,.,

iC rt :'dIr

2.8. Et
6. Se

moll

corn

if r

IrF
-

re - tro

FF
EARLYMUSIC MAY 1990

men

grade

- ce

et

ir
ment
ein

F F--:

21
IL

vrai

228

men

9:

--

t-r I- --1I

-i f

i ;r C;:

14

:r

-- te

IlrG

;Frfr

IrI FI I rI

tiers

Id

ji

}
i-j;- ^^^^JLT
l-w^-'

s 1.4.7. Ma
3. Et
5. Mes
Contratenor

9:

r I1

Frf

-,-----p-V;
t-

-jf---

ma
si

Ir F

io

fr

F J

28

~ j44
,
vtr?r

!,s'

I r OF
~

34-

-- -F -;,,C.:- ' --

;t r

Gi Ir

vI

r
Ir ~p

if

-14f

~-

i --,ic

34

+^:

IIN

9:9Ji

r ;r r J' I- ; do ?

5f j s^0fo
5r 5 if ^r

ir

I0?

r---!0'r f-

1-?

43~~

I~~~

l ^J^i

jrJ^jt

11

w~1
fin.
fin.

I0

o0

piece: one additional voice was supplied by reading dissonance, even if primarily at the minim level.
the given voice backwards,while the third voice was Moreover, while the tenor has no dots of addition,
completed by repeating its first half in retrograde.II there are dots of addition in the cantus, and these
vient bien and 0 dolce conpagno. as we have seen, are cannot be read correctly in retrograde.Writingabout
based entirely on the latter type of duplication, while retrograde canon in 1597, Thomas Morley warned:
only the first type of retrograderealization appears in 'Youmust not set any dot in all the song, for though in
the remaining chansons on our list.
singing the part forwardit will go well yet when the
The two retrograde rondeaux in the early 15th- other cometh backwardit will make a disturbance in
centuryStrasbourgmanuscriptwere copied by Cousse- the music, because the singer will be in a doubt to
maker before the manuscript's destruction in 1870. which note the dot belongeth'.25In fact, dots do not
appear in the three chansons I have discussed so far
They are listed as nos.4 and 5 in table 1.
that
are based entirely on retrograderesolutions.
Therondeau entitled DerKrepsgangis textless except
for the cantus incipit 'J'ay mis ce rondelet. The tenor
Perhaps we need to re-examine the rubric of the
rondelet.
Since no instructions are given for the
iste
facit
contratenorem
retrorubric reads: 'Tenor
cantus
ad
tenor
morem
cantus.'
partitself, there is no reason to expect the tenor
(This
grade reincipiendo
read
his own rubricwith reference to a non-existent
to
in
a
contratenor
retrogradebeginning again
produces
in the manner of the cantus.) The tenor combines rubricfor the cantus. 'Reincipiendoad morem cantus'
easily with its own retrograde,particularlysince the could, however, refer in a more general way to the
mensurationis tempus imperfectum,prolatiominor.A repetition scheme of the rondeau form itself, which
problem of interpretation arises, however, with the returns to its beginning several times. In this respect
words 'ad morem cantus'. According to Willi Apel's only, the tenor and contratenor could then be said to
readingof the rubric,the cantus, like the tenor, should be performed'in the same manner as the cantus'.
The Strasbourgmanuscriptalso contained a double
be doubled by its own retrograde.24Apel's solution,
however,is problematic.As may be seen in ex.9, which rondeau (no.5 in table 1), whose two refrain texts,
shows the beginning and end of the rondeau, the beginning 'Damede pris'and 'Tresdouls amis',like the
retrogradecantus makes a good final cadence with the triple text of Machaut's canonic ballade Sans cuer
notated tenor, yet it increases the overall level of m'envois-Amis dolens-Dame par vous. depict simEARLYMUSIC MAY 1990

229

I
1-

ICantusl 0

r7----.-,7

dol

ce

con

- --YF-T W-7
^i^c."C
Contratenor

f^Ir

Ifr

II

' G

con -

ce I

dol

[Tenor] O

IL

-I

r ^-tf ---tO==-+-^^- =-:r4 ^--

Ir
17

pag

si

no

tu

no

pa

r r 7 r

1r

rF r

se

fcI

can

voyl

CtJ

IGYr
r r Ir

_rLLU

IGr

---I

re

dya

pa

if ~

I~

son

pi

-r IU

r-'

'r

r Ir_ fI

V; r
dya - pa

Ii fr

~
~
i~~~l~~~-i-r_E

It

T: f

LLL

re

-._-U -- j

IF
r' j-T

ta

'
.S

ta

i L- tQn
:

ILL

tu

25

[can

voy

r Ir

ms. B6

f: 7 r

-J

<

>

GIj:rr
Ir

!j

I
TIms.

ILrC
:.:z~~~~~
Bb:

son

pi

-r: t --

T~---

~-

33 '

9P --Ir

sen - ca

glia

s-|f

de

---en~

mo

t
-1

rr-- j -- --

mo - ra

-1--.1

ra

a de--I mo-ra

sen i - ca de

glia

-- -- .,I

vf

re.]

II----

U
re.

of

t^- --

- -r-

Ir~ - : ~tr

Ex.8 0 dolce conpagno by Dominicus de Ferrariafrom the manuscript Oxford,Bodleian Library,Canonici misc. 213, f.135
230

EARLYMUSIC MAY 1990

-1

?
Ex.9 Bars 1-8 and 53-60 of the anonymous rondeau J'ay mis ce rondelet. From Willi Apel, ed. French Secular Compositions
Fourteenth Century (Corpus Mensurabilis Musicae 53, vol.3), (Neuhausen-Stuttgart.
1970)
Cantus retrograde

I ~N

Cantus

Ms:J

r I1l 'Ai

I.

.I

: 4
1
1

nIotext

of the

v:

I*

I
.

i i :,r
10

.'

I
I

,.

I I

n'JjIJ

N:i

D1.;

teh

UO4a

Contratenor

\v
I
I

it

Tenor iste facit contratenorem

retrograde

reincipiendo

ettc

r tI

ett

I
II

,
p,

ad morem cantus.

.53

I1 el

fu

,b

u0I

I
I ',

I
I

9:
ultaneously a lover's supplication and his lady's
answer. The tenor rubric, 'Tenor istorum duorum
rondellorum facit contratenorem retrogrando' (the
tenor of these two rondeaux produces a contratenorin
retrograde),is similarto that of Jay mis ce rondelet.The
only difficulty in its realization stems from the ternary
mensuration of tempus perfectum, prolatio minor. As
in the motet Alphavibrans,the polyphonic context tells
us that the retrograderealization of the contratenor
must be based on the actual durations of the tenor
notes, including the alterationsand imperfections that
have been applied to them, ratherthan on a rereading
of the notational symbols themselves. Here again, the
retrograderealization is derived not by reading the
note symbols backwards, but by memorizing the
realized values of the tenor and reproducing them in
reverse order.
The rubric that appears at the end of the second
cantus part is more problematic:'Sciendum quod isti
duo rondelli suprascriptipossunt dicire cum duobus,
tribus, quatuor, quinque vel sex retrogradandoipsos
ad modum tenoris.' (Know that the two rondeaux
above can be sung with two, three, four, five or six
reversing themselves in the manner of the tenor.)
Taken at face value, this tells us that the double
rondeau can be performedby as many as six voices by

r F rr

duplicating each of the cantus parts in retrogradein

the same manner as the tenor. A glance at this
realization, the beginning and ending of which are
given in ex.10, shows that the addition to the fourvoice texture of two more cantus parts in retrograde
adds a large number of dissonances to an already
imperfect contrapuntal texture, not to mention the
awkwardproblem of reversingthe dotted notes in the
two cantus parts. Perhaps the addition of retrograde
upper voices represents the attempt of an unskilled
composer (or of an editor-scribe) to match the
ingenuity demonstrated in Machaut's retrograde
rondeau or in pieces like it. Thereis also the possibility
that the rubric was added or altered in the copying
process. (Might it even have been supplied by
Coussemaker himself?) Hampered as we are by the
secondhand transmission of the Strasbourgsource in
Coussemaker'scopy, there is no way we can unravel
this particularmystery with complete certainty.
The tradition of the retrograderondeau continued
into the mid-15th century. Illus.4 shows a facsimile
from the manuscriptTrent90 of a textless piece with
only two notated voices in an unusually high range.
The clue to the realization of a third voice lies in the
single word 'Tenor'written upside down at the end of
the cantus part and circled in the third stave of the
EARLYMUSIC MAY 1990

231

Anonymous retrograde rondeau from the manuscript Trento. Museo Provinciale d'Arte90 f.357v

4"i

,..

u^n-I

-i-

I'
_t__I~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
.....
v

-l-a-

---Jf

IH

-- -

a<L

-..... -

.....

facsimile.26 As in 0 dolce conpagno, this part has to be

derived from the cantus by reading it backwards. The
contratenor, on the other hand, is freely composed.
The mensuration in all voices is tempus imperfectum,
prolatio minor; as we have seen, this is the metre that
lends itself most easily to retrograde solutions. That
the anonymous composer was well aware of the
rhythmic problems of retrograde canon is demonstra232

EARLYMUSIC MAY 1990

ted by the distinction he made between the canonic

and non-canonic voices. While the cantus voice
carefully avoids using dots of addition, they do appear
in the non-retrogradable contratenor part; they are
circled on the facsimile.
Like many French songs that were copied in areas
outside the French linguistic boundaries, the Trent
retrograde canon has survived without text. Neverthe-

Ex.10 Bars 1-4 and 31-34 of the anonymous rondeau Dame de

pris-Tres douls amis. From Willi Apel, ed. French Secular
Compositions of the Fourteenth Century (Corpus Mensurabilis
Musicae 53, vol.3), (Neuhausen-Stuttgart, 1970)
ctc

Calintuis I

Ex.I1 Bars 14-20 of an anonymous rondeau from the manuscript

Trento, Biblioteca provinciale 90, f.357v. From RichardLoyan,The
Canons in the Trent Codices (Corpus Mensurabilis Musicae 38). (n.p..

1987)
14 Cantus

j :0;-,-~

I J

i^

dlt
v

'r C

Co1ntratenor

1 Tres
Ctc

TeilorJ
a

1 Da

,t

Cl retrograde

lI,

rf
,ni
Mse:

C2 retrograde

',

Tensor

ITenoristorum dtiorui rondellorunl tacit dontratenorunl rel rogrando

Contratenor

c/c

Tenor

l9:

^,?

j j

t'tC

18

i J it
ctc I

I
ctc

t't

ri

zi

i4

^w*z:r

etc

r J -re

exception on our list, Dominicus de Ferraria's ballata,

appears to have been modelled on a French rond.
deau.) By the latter part of the 14th century, the
lour.
rondeau had increasingly come to be seen as a vehicle
0.
for erudite formal games in both the verbal and the
musical spheres. One has only to recall the punning
ri
St)ll .
ga
rhymes onguerredon nee,guerredonneeand guerre donnee
'
in Machaut's rondeau no.7, or the pan-isorhythmic
structure of the rondeau Se doit il plus by Johannes de
Alte
Curie from the Chantilly manuscript (F-CH564,
9: '
r
r
f. 15v).
I
e7l,
One of the unique features of the rondeau from a
.IN
N 9
formal standpoint is the bi-directional function, so to
99 j
11:1 speak, of the A part of the refrain. The best faiseurs of
rondeaux constructed their stanzas so that the return
I~ 0
iJ.l
of the first part of the refrain in the middle of the
less, rondeau form is clearly indicated in the manu- rondeau was felt not as a syntactical break, but as a
script, a fact that the modern editor seems to have cleverly contrived link between sections.27 Late
overlooked. An ouvert cadence at midpoint is indicated
Medieval composers, themselves often poets as well
both by a fermata in the cantus (circled in the second
as musicians, must have been well aware of this
stave of the facsimile) and by a signum congruentiae
Janus-like quality of the rondeau refrain, and have
in the contratenor (near the beginning of the fifth perceived its analogy to retrograde composition.
Finally, we can speculate on the possible symbolic
stave). The tenor's signum appears upside down in the
second stave just after the fermata; the congruence of intent behind compositions that return backwards to
the three signs in the realized canon can be seen in their beginnings. It seems likely that the clausula
ex. 11.
NUSMIDO, coming at the end of a series of polyphonic
It is probably not by coincidence that among the elaborations on the central word of the Christmas
three principal poetic formes fixes, the rondeau was Gradual, was intended as a concrete demonstration of
the one selected for retrograde treatment. (The only DOMINUS as Alpha and Omega, God made man and
el

I^

::

EARLYMUSIC MAY 1990

233

returned to the Father. Friedrich Ludwig suggested

that the text of Machaut's rondeau refrain might also
have a religious significance, noting that, some two
centuries after Machaut, Mary Queen of Scots
commissioned an embroidery of the motto 'En ma fin
est mon commencement'.28 Daniel Poirion has read in
these lines a reflection either of a metaphysical view
of death as rebirth, or of the ideal circle of the courtly
ethic.29 Whatever extramusical significance we may
attach to Machaut's text, however, a delight in
symmetrical design for its own sake and a love of
notational games were important elements in the
Medieval musical universe. The transmission and
emulation of retrograde canonic patterns and the
ambiguities involved in their resolution are part of that
world.
VirginiaNewes is an assistant professor of Music History
and Musicology at the Eastman School of Music, University
of Rochester. New York.
'N. Vicentino, L'anticamusicaridottaalia modernaprattica(Rome,
1555, R/1959), b4, ch.40, f.93v
2T.Morley,A PlainandEasyIntroduction
to PracticalMusic(2nd edn,
1608), ed. R. Alec Harman(New York, 1963/1973), p.288
3F. W. Marpurg,Abhandlungvon der Fuge (Berlin, 1753-4) in A.
Mann, TheStudy of Fugue(New York, 1965), pp.148, 158
4F.Ludwig,Repertorium
organorumrecentioriset motetorumvetustissimi stili, i: Catalogueraisonne der Quellen, I: Handschriftenin
(Halle, 1910, R/1964), p.80
Quadratnotation
'L. Schrade, TheRomande Fauvel;TheWorksof Philippede Vitry;
FrenchCycles of the Ordinariummissae, Polyphonic Music of the
Fourteenth Century, i (Monaco, 1956), Commentary,pp.31-2
6E. H. Sanders, 'Vitry,Philippe de', New Grove
7S. Fuller,'APhantomTreatiseof the FourteenthCentury?The Ars
Nova' Journalof Musicology,iv (1985-6), pp.23-50
8Fuller,'A Phantom Treatise',p.47
9R.Hoppin, MedievalMusic (New York, 1978), p.262
"?See,for example, the edition by Schrade cited in n.5, and R.
Hoppin, ed., Anthologyof MedievalMusic {(NewYork, 1978), p. 120
'"Transcribedin GuillaumeDufay:Operaomnia, ed. H. Besseler,
Corpus Mensurabilis Musicae, i/2, (Rome, 1951), no.2
12Transcribed in F. Ll. Harrison,ed., Motetsof FrenchProvenance,
Polyphonic Music of the Fourteenth Century, v (Monaco, 1968),
no.25; and U. Guinther,ed., TheMotetsof the ManuscriptsChantilly,
Musee Conde,564 and Modena, BibliotecaEstense, M.5.24, Corpus
Mensurabilis Musicae, ;xxix (1965), no.6
"Transcribedin Guinther,op.cit., no. 11, and K.von Fischer and F.
A. Gallo, eds., Italian Sacred Music, Polyphonic Music of the
Fourteenth Century,xii (Monaco, 1976), no.43
14GUinther, op. cit., p.xxxiv. The motet is also found in the
manuscriptI-MOe5.24 (ModenaA),an early 15th-centuryanthology
of French and Italian music.
"5SeeM. Bent, 'Ciconia and the Italian Motet, unpublished paper
delivered at the international conference 'L'Europae la musica del
Trecento', Certaldo,July 1984
16E.A. Keitel,'AChronologyof the Compositions of Guillaumede
MachautBased on a Study of Facsimile-manuscriptStructurein the
LargerManuscripts'(diss., Cornell U., 1976), p.43ff
7Onthe dating of MS E see M. Bent, 'The Machaut Manuscripts
234

EARLY MUSIC MAY 1990

Vg,B and E',Musicadisciplina,xxxvii (1983),pp.61-2. The substantial

portions of MS E that Bent found to have been copied from MS B do
not, however, include any of Machaut's canonic pieces.
"'The scribe of manuscript E (or of his exemplar) either
intentionally or unknowingly obscured the polyphonic realization
of Machaut'sother canonic works. He omitted all annotations such
as 'chace' and 'statimet sine pause' from the two canonic lais nos. 16
and 17, and notated the melody of ballade 17 only once ratherthan
three times, as in the other Machautsources. Similarly,he obscured
the polyphony in lais 23 and 24, notated monophonically but
actually for two and three voices respectively. See R. Hoppin, 'An
Unrecognized Polyphonic Lai of Machaut', Musica disciplina, xii
(1958), pp.93-104, and M. Hasselman and T. Walker,'More Hidden
Polyphony in a Machaut Manuscript, Musicadisciplina,xxiv (1970),
pp.7-16
"9Thispossibility was suggested by Anne Hallmark in 'Some
Evidence for French Influence in NorthernItaly, c 1400', Studiesin
the Performance
of LateMediaevalMusic,ed. S. Boorman(Cambridge,
1984), p.215
2'Fora transcriptionand analysis of this rondeau, see U. Gunther,
'Fourteenth-century Music with Texts Revealing Performance
Practice', Studies in the Performanceof LateMediaevalMusic, ed. S.
Boorman(Cambridge,1983), pp.253-61, and 'Sinnbezuge zwischen
Text und Musik in ars nova und ars subtilior',Music und Textin der
des 14. and 15. Jahrhunderts(Kassel, 1984), pp.257Mehrstimmigheit
63.
2'See L. Feininger, Die Fruhgeschichtedes Kanons (Emsdetten,
1937),p.21. Fora facsimile of the ballata, see W. Apel, TheNotationof
PolyphonicMusic,900-1600 (Cambridge,Mass., 1953), p.143
22This interpretation, which differs somewhat from that of
Feininger and Apel, was worked out in the course of preparing a
performanceat the EastmanSchool of Music. I should like to thank
my colleagues Professor PatrickMacey for assistance in solving the
musical puzzle, and Professor Massimo Ossi for his translation of
the ballata text.
23Aretrogradepuzzle in the lower voices of another French-texted
piece by a north Italian composer has recently been solved by John
Nadas and James Haar.The four-voice rondeau Voussoyez tresbien
venus by Antonio da Cividale (I-Las184, f.41) has an ostinato tenor
consisting of six repetitions of a short motive read first forwards,
then backwards;the complementarycontratenorpatternhas to read
backwards, then forwards. (John Nadas, 'The Lucca Codex:
Provenance and Dating of a Song Collection from Early 15thcentury Italy.' Unpublished paper read at New York University in
March 1989.
24French Secular Compositions of the Fourteenth Century,
Corpus Mensurabilis Musicae, liii/3 (1970-71), no.252
"Morley, A Plain and Easy Introduction,p.288
26R.Loyan, TheCanonsin the TrentCodices,Corpus Mensurabilis
Musicae, xxxviii (1967), no. 12
27H.Garey,'The Fifteenth-centuryRondeau as AleatoryPolytext',
Le moyenfrancais,v (1959), pp. 193-236
28F. Ludwig, ed., Guillaumede Machaut: Musihalische Werke
(Leipzig, 1926, R/1954), i, p.64
29LePoeteet le prince:levolutiondu lyrismecourtoisde Guillaumede
Machauta Charlesd'Orleans(Grenoble, 1965), p.322

EARLY MUSIC
Please note our new phone numbers
Editorial: 071-233 5466
Advertising: 071-352 6400
Subscriptions: 0865 882283