Euphony in Dufay: Harmonic 3rds and 6ths with Explicit Sharps in the Early Songs

by Mark Lindley and Graeme M. Boone

Many scholars have described Dufay's sense of harmony and tonal structure, but almost no one seems to
have noticed that some of his early music contains 3rds, 6ths and major 10ths used in a remarkably salient way
as harmonic intervals between a natural and an explicit sharp. This is shown in Examples 1-17; very little equi-
valent use can be found, in Dufay's early songs, of the corresponding harmonic intervals among the naturals or
between a natural and a flat.

Ex. 1. From "Je me complains"

Ex. 2. From "He compaignons"
Exx. 3-5. From "Vergene bella"
Ex. 6. From "J'ai mis mon cuer"
Ex. 7. From "Vergene bella"
Ex. 8. From "He compaignons"
Ex. 9. From "Resvellis vous"
Exx. 10-11. From "Je me complains"
Exx. 12-13. From "Pour ce que veoir"
Exx. 14-15. From "Helas ma dame"
Ex. 16. From "Vergene bella"
Ex. 17. From "Mon chier amy"

We shall consider this aspect of the music in the light of (a) some inferences about chronology which have
been drawn from paleographical analysis of the manuscript in which nearly all the early songs have come down
to us, (b) 15th-century monochord theory as to the exact acoustical structure of the chromatic scale and (c) an
hypothesis the centre-piece of this essay that Dufay's concept of the scale may have been influenced by
listening to keyboard instruments with the intervals prescribed in that theory.
The manuscript Oxford, canonici misc. 213 is our main source for all of Dufay's songs that can be attributed
securely to the 1420s, and paleographical study has shown that the chronological order of the gatherings in
which his music occurs is, in the main, as follows: 6, 8, 10, 2a, 9, 3, 4, 2b, 1. (There is only one Fascicle 2; our
distinction between 2a and 2b is due to the fact some of the songs in it were copied significantly later.)

================================
Excursus 1

Close analysis of the manuscript has shown that it was written entirely by one (anonymous) scribe over an extended period sometime
between the mid-1420s and late 1430s, and that in the course of writing it he rearranged some of the fascicles and added songs or parts
of songs (voices, textual stanzas) where blank space permitted.
Proof of the single copyist and of the sequence of his copying is found in the gradual evolution of the forms of the letters, musical
symbols and decorative elements. Only one hypothetical chronological ordering of the various parts of the manuscript makes sense of
that evolution; other orderings would fail to account for the complex of evolving characteristics.
Here are a few of the traits which indicate how the copyist's hand changed and show that the manuscript's ten fascicles were
prepared in the order 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 2a, 9, 3, 4, 2b, 1:

1. The custos changes from a relatively "closed" form ( ) to a more open one ( ) in the middle of Fascicle 6, and thereafter remains in
the open form. In the course of later fascicles, some of the letters evolve more gradually from "closed" to "open" forms for example "s"
at the end of a word ( ).

2. The symbol indicating supplementary text gives way, beginning in Fascicle 10, from an elaborate "chapter" sign ( ) to a simpler one or
none at all.

3. The semibreve and minim note-heads change, after Fascicle 10, from bayleaf to rhomboid shape ( ___ ). Then in the course of
Fascicle 2 this gradually flattens out on the right side, finally becoming a thorn shape ( ___ ) which in turn gradually sharpens on the
left side and then remains relatively stable for the rest of the manuscript (Fascicles 9, 3, 4, 2 b, 1).

4. The prominent tops of the letters "s" and "f" (except when they occur at the end of a word) change gradually, from Fascicle 2 onwards,
from a horizontal or slightly upward stroke to a downward-tending one.
5. The letter "g" changes from a 9-like form ( ___ : Fascicles 5-10, 2, 9) to an 8-like one ( ___ : Fascicles 3 and 4). It then changes back
to a 9-like shape at the end of Fascicle 4 and in Fascicle 1. (There are very few such reversals of habit.)

6. The redaction of the letter-pair "de" becomes bitten (i.e. condensed) in the course of Fascicle 3 ( ___ ), and the superscript
abbreviation gradually shifts from a relatively deliberate, right-leaning curve ( ___ ) to a more relaxed, left-leaning one ( ___ ).

Fac. 1. "Belle plaissant", cantus, fol. 91' (Fascicle 6)

Fac. 2. "Mon chier amy", cantus, fol. 134' (Fascicle 9)
Fac. 3. "Or pleust", cantus, fol. 71' (Fascicle 4)

Fascimiles 1-3 illustrate these changes. The following tabulation shows how points 1-6 can be observed in these facsimiles. Numbers
in parentheses refer to lines of text.

Facsimile 1 Facsimile 2 Facsimile 3

custos: closed open open

final "s": closed (corps, 1) open (qu'aves, 1) open (puis, 2)
text suppl.: elaborate sign simple sign/none no sign
noteheads: bayleaf thorn with bulge thorn, no bulge
"f"/"s" tops: horizontal/up horizontal/downish often rather down
"g" form: 9 (gracieuxse, 1) 9 (compagnie, 2) 8 (gente, 1)
"de" cluster: (de, 1) (de, 1) bitten (desir, 5)
abbreviations: right (amans, 1) right/even (bien, 5) left (mon bien, 2)

Throughout the manuscript, the style and ink-color of the sharps suggest that they were not entered at a later time or by another
hand.
===========================

In Table 1 (below), which includes all of Dufay's French songs from Fascicles 6, 8, 10, 2a and 9, we have put
an asterisk next to the title of each one containing remarkably salient harmonic 3rds, 6ths or 10ths between a
natural and an explicitly indicated sharp. The last column of the table refers to Charles Hamm's chronological
grouping of Dufay's works, based on technical aspects of the mensural notation. (Hamm distinguished nine main
groups, some of which overlap.)

Table 1

Examples 18-20 show the most salient (in our opinion) uses of other major 3rds, 6ths and 10ths as harmonic
intervals in these songs. Dufay seems to have been more cautious here than in most of the previous examples
and yet Examples 21-24, from somewhat later songs, show that after the 1420s he would use these same
intervals (3rds, 6ths and major 10ths among the naturals) in more salient positions and as more stable sonorities
than before.

Ex. 18. From "Je me complains"

Ex. 19. From "Pour l'amour"
Ex. 20. From "Mon cuer me fait"
Ex. 21. From "Or pleust a dieu"
Ex. 22. From "Las que feray"
Ex. 23. From "Navr je sui"
Ex. 24. From "Je donne"

Two of the songs singled out with an asterisk in Table 1, "Ma belle dame souveraine" and "Par droit", are not
cited in Examples 1-17, because the contrast with Examples 21-22 is rather subtle, the prominence of the A-
major triad in these songs being due as much to its recurrences as to the mere duration or salient placing of any
one of its occurrences. Example 25 is from "Ma belle dame souveraine"; a similar though less compelling
example could be taken from "Par droit".

Ex. 25. From "Ma belle dame souveraine"

If Table 1 were expanded to include works with Italian texts, three additional pieces, all from Fascicle 9
(representing the last of our first five chronological layers), would be listed: "Vergene bella", "Invidia nimica" and
"Passato il tempo". Examples 3-5, 7 and 16 are from "Vergene bella". On the other hand, a remarkably salient
use of a G-major triad is to be found in "Passato il tempo" (Example 26).

Ex. 26. From "Passato il tempo"

The sharps in the manuscript may be due to someone other than the composer; we have no clear evidence
either way. And of course some unnotated sharps or flats may well have been sung or played.
These possibilities should not deter us from inquiring, however, whether the seemingly distinctive status of
the imperfect consonances with a sharp has to do with the implications of 15th-century monochord theory as it
relates to the structure of the chromatic scale. Most of that theory implies the use of untempered 5ths for the
notes of musica recta, with any additional chromatic pitch classes extending the chain from B b. (Thus the G#'s in
Examples 32-33 would make an untempered 5th and 4th with the E b's in Examples 14-15.) In late 15th-century
Italy it became customary to refer to this disposition of the chromatic notes by saying that they lie in the lower
half of the whole tones they divide. This is where they lie in the mid-fifteenth-century keyboard schemes of
Georgius Anselmi (1534), Johannes Keck, Henricus Arnault (see Facsimile 4) and Johannes Gallicus (see
Facsimile 5, where each semitone to the left of a chromatic key is labeled "semitonium minus", and each to the
right "semitonium maius") and in the clavichord depicted in intarsia in the studiolo of Federigo da Montefeltro at
Urbino.
No fully chromatic monochord prescription is extant from before the 15th century, the closest to it being the
schemes for eleven pitch classes, making a chain of untempered 5ths and 4ths from E b to C#, in treatises by
Odington (c.1315; see Hammond ed., 82-84) and Hugo of Reutlingen (1332\42; see Gmpel, ed., 117-22).

Fac. 4. A pair of diagrams by Henricus Arnault of Zwolle.

Fac. 5. From Johannes Gallicus (Jean Legrense), Ritus canendi vetustissimus

et novus (GB-Lbm add. 22315, fol. 15).

When used as sharps, these lowish chromatic notes happen to make pure (untempered) or nearly pure (only
slightly tempered) 3rds and 6ths with the diatonic notes, whereas the 3rds and 6ths among the diatonic notes
themselves, and between a diatonic note and a flat, are more than half again as impure as in equal tempera-
ment and therefore beat quite nervously. This would explain the various uses of 3rds and 6ths shown in Exx.
1-20, if Dufay's concept of the chromatic scale can be considered to have been influenced in the 1420s by
listening to keyboard instruments tuned in this way. Having played his songs on keyboard instruments tuned in
various ways, we find that this kind of tuning sounds most apt for the songs listed in Table 1, whereas a mean-
tone temperament sounds more apt for the later songs. We therefore wonder if, perhaps as a result of Dufay's
having moved to Rome in 1428 (to remain employed there for nearly five years), his concept of the scale some-
how changed in such a way that he would more readily treat the harmonic 3rds and 6ths among the diatonic
notes as being just as euphonious as those between a diatonic note and a sharp.

===========================
Excursus 2

The nervous quality of the beating of a harmonic 3rd or 6th between notes linked in the scale by a chain of three or four pure 4ths
or 5ths can be explained as follows. Beating is a periodic throbbing of intensity in an impure unison for instance a unison between
overtones of different notes as two sound waves reinforce and weaken each other at a rate equal to the difference between the
frequencies. Beating much slower than about once per second may be impossible between pipes near each other on the same organ
wind-chest, or between strings adjacent on a clavichord bridge, because the sound waves may lock into phase. (Such slow beating
would hardly be noticeable anyway except between very long notes.) Beating between one and six times per second ("surging") is likely
to be noticeable, and at some three per second is rather pleasantly vibrato-like, because we perceive clearly the rise and fall of intensity
which comprise each beat. Beating between six and some 20-25 per second (the upper limit varies according to the psycho-acoustical
context) makes a nervously "intermittent" effect: the intensity seems to change in a sudden, on-off way which disturbs the ear just as
strobe lights disturb the eye when they blink at similar rates. Beating at even faster rates is difficult to perceive and hence innocuous (just
as the blinking images of a cinema are innocuous to the eye).
It is easy to show that the beating of the major 3rd, F-A, nearest to middle C will be intermittent in a scale with F-C-G-D-A making a
chain of pure 4ths and 5ths. The fractions in Figure 1 show how the pitch frequencies of the various notes involved will differ, and the
calculations show that the pitch frequency of the A in such a scale will be 1/80 more than that of a pure major 3rd above the F. Figure 2
shows that the impure unison from which the beating in the impure 3rd actually emanates is two octaves higher. The unison is between
two overtone A's whose frequencies at the pitch standard of 1939 (with concert A at 440) would be approximately 880 per second (we
say "approximately" because the whole point is that the frequencies of these two overtone A's differ slightly). To reckon that 1/80 of 880 is
11 is easy; and 11 per second is an "intermittent" rate.

Figs. 1-2

Moreover, if F-A beats 11 times per second, then G-B a whole-tone higher will beat 9/8 x 11, and middle C-E will beat 3/2 x 11; and
beating at these rates is also intermittent. Of course Dufay's music was probably performed at pitch levels differing somewhat from the
1939 standard taken for granted here, but for our present purpose which is merely to show that the beats are characteristically faster
than six and slower than some 20-25 per second it is adequate to reckon in terms of that standard.
By another reckoning of this kind it could be shown that the nearly pure major 10th at the end of Example 17 should beat about once
per second. If a musician tuning the instrument were instinctively to refine such intervals by making them pure, and in order to do this
tempered all the 4ths and 5ths by the same intervallic amount, one could reckon a beat rate of about four per minute for the 5th, D-A, at
the end of Example 17. Since that would be impossibly slow for anyone to notice, it is legitimate to call such 4ths and 5ths pure and to
suppose that musicians when tuning this kind of scale might sometimes inadvertently have used them in order to render pure the 3rds
and 6ths which in any case would be nearly so (that is, the ones between a sharp and a natural).
Anyone who probes the music on keyboard instruments tuned in this way will find that the qualitative distinction between pure and
quite impure is more telling in the case of major 3rds, 6ths, 10ths and triads than of minor ones. Examples 18-26 have been chosen
accordingly.
===========================

Regardless of whether the 3rds and 6ths with a sharp were absolutely pure or only nearly so in the older kind
of scale, their distinctly euphonious character must sooner or later have shown up the impurity of the 6ths and
3rds among the naturals. To render these latter 6ths and 3rds pure or nearly so would require making the dia-
tonic 5ths beat perceptibly, a procedure described in Schlick's organ treatise of 1511. It has been shown that this
was an accepted procedure among keyboard musicians by 1480 (though not yet described explicitly by
theorists). Did Dufay encounter such a keyboard scale i.e. tuned in a meantone temperament of some kind
at Rome when he made his career there? (Our hypothesis does not require it, as a change in Dufay's concept of
the scale might have involved merely the fading of an earlier influence from a keyboard instrument.)

Ex. 27. I-FZc 117, "Benedicamus"

Ex. 28. D-Mb Cim 352b, no. 155, "Ultimum Kyrie eleison"

There is musical evidence suggesting that the older of the two main kinds of chromatic scale discussed
here (in which the musica ficta notes make a chain of pure 5ths with F) was used on some 15th-century church
organs:

Examples 27 and 28 are from the Faenza and Buxheim manuscripts. But very little of Dufay's liturgical music
is like this: one Kyrie (see Examples 29-31) and the Gloria which became part of the so-called "Missa sine
nomine" or "Missa Resvellis-vous" (see Examples 32-36). Thus the hypothesis in regard to Dufay is untidy
inasmuch as it seems to be a matter of genre but not in a very straightforward way. On the one side we have the
songs listed in Table 1 (which can reasonably be attributed to the period around the mid-1420s), most but not all
of the early Italian secular pieces, and just two of the many liturgical ones; on the other side we have not only
the later songs but also at least one of the early Italian ones, and most of the liturgical music. And yet the hypo-
thesis can draw strength from the context suggested by Examples 37-53 (which is not to say, however, that the
composers of Examples 37-48 fit the hypothesis in a tidier way than does Dufay) and from the fact that the kind
of chromatic scale in question was described by a series of theorists in Italy from Prosdocimo de' Belde-mandis
(1410) onwards.
Exx. 29-31. From a Kyrie by Dufay
Exx. 32-36. From a Gloria by Dufay
Ex. 37. Landini, "O fanciulla giula", first ending of the second section
Ex. 38. Andreas de Florentia, "Donna, bench'i' mi parta", conclusion
Ex. 39. Andreas de Florentia, "Pianto non partir", beginning of the second half
Ex. 40. Matteo da Perugia, "A qui fortune", end of the first section
Ex. 41. Matteo da Perugia, "Le grant desir", end of the first section
Ex. 42. Matteo da Perugia, "Pour bel acueil", end of the first section
Ex. 43. Matteo da Perugia, "Helas Avril", end of the second section
Ex. 44. Matteo da Perugia, "Dame de honour", (a) beginning; (b) end of the
first section and beginning of the next one
 Ex. 45. Matteo da Perugia, "Pres du soleil", end of the second section and
beginning of the last one
Ex. 46. Andrea Stefani, "Morte m'a sciolto", last section
Ex. 47. Arnold Lantins "Or voy je bien", beginning
Ex. 48. John Dunstable (attr.), "O rosa bella", end of the first section.
Ex. 49. D-Mb Cim 352b, from no. 127, a setting of Dufay's "Mille bonjours",
beginning (aligned with the beginning of the chanson)
Ex. 50. D-Mb Cim 352b, from no. 31, a setting of Dufay's "Par le regard", excerpt
(aligned with the corresponding excerpt from the chanson)
Ex. 51. D-Mb Cim 352b, from no. 144, a setting of Binchois' "Adieu ma tres
belle", excerpt (aligned with the corresponding excerpt from the chanson)
Ex. 52. D-Mb Cim 352b, from no. 180, a setting of a German song otherwise
unknown to us, two excerpts
Ex. 53. D-Mb Cim 352b, from no. 242, "Preambulum", conclusion

===========================
Excursus 3

Prosdocimo's monochord treatise describes how to put all five chromatic notes per octave in the lower half of the whole-tones which
they divide, then describes how to put nearly all of them (except for the two musica-recta Bb's) in the upper half, and then recommends
combining these arrangements, i.e. for a scale with 17 pitch classes.
The more elaborate (and not altogether logical) discussion of this topic in Ugolino's monochord treatise, while along fairly similar
lines, implies in one way or another that (a ) contemporary musicians put each musica ficta note in the lower half of the whole-tone and
(b ) a musica recta interval which is unsatisfactory, for instance a minor 6th or major 10th cadencing by stepwise motion to an octave, can
be "perfected" by means of a major semitone or else "colored" by means of a minor one. With regard to the mini-examples transcribed
here in Figure 3, Ugolino says that:
Fig. 3

si ingenii subtilitate If we understand

comprehendimus with subtle minds,
nec consonantiae [then] neither the consonances
nec dissonantiae predictae nor the dissonances mentioned above
huius modi are [quite] perfected
semitoniorum additionibus by adding semitones
perfectae sunt.... In this way,
deficit enim ad earum for it falls short of their
integram perfectionem id quod complete perfection by that which
coma vocatur... is called the comma
excepto fa in F... (except for F-natural,
cuius quinta minor remissa whose minor 5th below
in b quadro at B-natural
per semitonium maius perficituris perfected by a major semitone).
Thus "perfecting" seems to be a matter of enlarging an interval until its ratio is 3:2 (for a 5th), 34:26 = 81:64 (for a 3rd), 33:24 = 27:16
(for a 6th) or 34:25 = 81:32 (for a 10th). It is tempting to infer that the major 3rds and 6ths with a sharp are, though not "perfected",
nevertheless appropriately "colored".
===========================

What are the alternatives to this hypothesis? One which might be associated automatically with the idea
of precisely intoned, all-vocal performance would be that Dufay and the composers represented in Examples
37-48 never had anything like an unequivocal concept of a twelve-note scale and they expected singers to ren-
der all the triadic sonorities pure. We think this alternative, though likely to be valid for some music, does not
necessarily follow from the idea of such vocal mastery. One wants to know to what extent, if at all, keyboard
intonation may directly or indirectly have influenced the composer's (or also the cantor's) concept of the scale.
A premise which most people nowadays seem to take for granted is that all the music is somehow adequate-
ly represented in a scale of equal semitones. This is problematical (to say the least) from an historical point of
view, as it flouts nearly all of contemporary theory.
A more feasible alternative to our hypothesis a variant, really would be that while Dufay was not influ-
enced by a keyboard tuning with all the 5ths pure except B-F #, someone who was influenced by it is responsible
for the sharps in the Oxford manuscript and, mutatis mutandis, in Examples 29-36, just as someone other than
Dufay is clearly responsible for the sharps in Examples 49-50. This might explain away some untidy implications
of our hypothesis.
This variant and our hypothesis offer in common some engaging or provocative implications. Chief among
them is that some composers and/or copyists of vocal music were influenced now and then by the nuances of
intonation on keyboard instruments (whether or not they would countenance the use of such instruments in per-
formance). Musicians intimately familiar with chromatic keyboard instruments, for instance Landini and Andreas
de Florentia, would presumably be more palpably influenced. Some other implications might be the following:

Someone may have been content for the 5th (B-F#) on the word "plours" in Example 54 and on the word
"Donna" in Example 55 to sound sour.

Ex. 54. Dufay, "Helas ma dame", excerpt

Ex. 55. Andreas de Florentia, "Donna, bench'i' mi parta", beginning

Someone may have intended that the second and fourth chords in Example 56, which set weak syllables,
should sound distinctly more pure and therefore (in this context) more relaxed than the first and third chords,
which set strong syllables; and vice versa in Example 57.

Ex. 56. From the same Gloria as Examples 32-36

Ex. 57. From "Resvellis vous"

The Gloria of the "Missa sine nomine" was composed independently of the other movements. (This idea is
compatible with the fact that the movements are adjacent in only one of the eight extant manuscript sources of
one or more of them.)
Perhaps the main question raised alike by our hypothesis and by its "someone-else-is-responsible" variant is
how the implications might be integrated into a general account of contemporary developments in harmony. The
premiss that the sharps are due to Dufay would oblige one to ask if he played keyboard instruments as well as
listening to them (Facsimile 6 shows him standing next to a chamber organ), and if so, in what other ways that
experience may have influenced his composing. Without attempting to answer these questions here, let us con-
sider briefly the status of harmonic 3rds and 6ths in his harmony.

Fac. 6. F-Pn fr. 12476, Martin Le Franc, Le champion des dames,

the upper part of fol. 98.

One result of the consolidation, in the course of the 15th century, of the preparation-suspension-resolution
habit in contrapuntal practice is that harmonic 3rds and 6ths are more obviously treated as consonant in late
15th- than in 14th-century harmony. They did not change status from dissonant to consonant on one fine day,
however, but gained their new status gradually. Dufay's use of several parallel 3rds and 6ths just before a
cadence on an open-5th sonority might be, and has been, explained as an extension of the use of a few such
intervals in succession as described by Johannes Boen in 1357:

sicut tres tertias Just as three 3rds

se invicem sequi licet, may follow one another in turn,
ita et tres sextas, so also [may] three 6ths;
hoc ideo statuentes, ut and therefore
cantus ille, qui that song [passage] which
per tertias et sextas because of 3rds and 6ths
imperfectus consetur is to be considered 'imperfect'
non tamen nevertheless not [really]
discors discordantly
aures trahat et alliciat, ut draws and entices the ear so that
perfectionem cantus, the [moment of] perfection in the song
qui per quintam sequetur which comes afterwards in a 5th
vel octavam, quarum [and]/or an octave (to which
tertie et sexte sunt the 3rds and 6ths are
nuntie et ancille, announcers and hand-maidens),
expectatam diutius being awaited longer,
indicent dulciorem, ut hic: is rendered sweeter. Thus:

Fig. 4
 A different explanation is needed for some of the 3rds and 6ths with a sharp in Examples 1-17. The premise
that Dufay's concept of the intervals was influenced by listening to them on keyboard instruments may be help-
ful in explaining not only those uses but also should such help be wanted why the 3rds and 6ths amongst
the naturals are treated in a more gingerly way in his early counterpoint 3 than in contemporary English poly-
phony; one need only assume that the English composers were less affected by any such influence.
No one would yet use the kind of diatonic progressions which are commonly associated today with the term
"harmony" and which became common practice only after it had become routine to improvise triadic accom-
paniments on a keyboard or fretted instrument. Such progressions characteristically exploit the latent fact that
in any kind of meantone scale (as well as in modern equal temperament or any fairly close approximation to it) a
chain of three or four perfect 5ths and 4ths, such as F-C-G-D or F-C-G-D-A, makes an unequivocally consonant
3rd or 6th. (The mutual identity of the notes forming a major 3rd at the beginning and end of a vi-ii-V-I progress-
sion, for instance, depends on this, as is illustrated in Figure 5: here vertical brackets connect notes a 5th apart,
dotted lines connect notes in the same pitch class, and their combined path is from A at the beginning to F at the
end.) In contrast, in the kind of scale which according to our hypothesis may have influenced Dufay's style in
the 1420s, the 3rds and 6ths which can be gained via a chain of three or four consonant 5ths and 4ths are less
euphonious as harmonic intervals than those which cannot (B-F # being dissonant in that kind of scale: see
apropos Figure 6, where diagonal lines connect notes making a consonant 5th or 4th, light curved lines connect
notes making the less euphonious major 3rds, heavy ones connect those making the more euphonious major
3rds, and the last 3rd, F#-A#, is between the same pitch classes as the first one, G b-Bb). Let us examine in this
light one of Dufay's early songs in which an equation is exploited between a chain of 5ths and 4ths among the
naturals (F-C-G-D-A) and the resulting major 3rd (F-A).

Fig. 5
Fig. 6

Ex. 58. "Belle plaissant"

In Example 58, after the first three phrases (comprising the first of the two main sections of the piece) have
cadenced quite clearly on F, C and A sonorities in succession, the second section returns from A to F. The tenor
line in bars 15-25 is curiously like an 18th-century bass line, moving as it does through a series of rising 4ths
and falling 5ths (A-D-G-C-F) and then arpeggiating from F (supported by D in the contratenor) to A and then F-
C-F to conclude the piece. Yet with all this we never have an F-major triad as a vertical sonority. Even where the
tenor leaps directly from A to F, the sense of an F triad is less strong than is the sense of a C-major triad in the
final cadence where, however, the major 3rd (C-E) could be said to deputize for the more traditional major 6th
(G-E) as a tense harmonic interval requiring resolution by means of a melodic semi-tone. Thus even if we
consider the tonal structure to rely upon a harmonic relation between A and F (i.e. a relation more analogous to
that between C and F than to a neighbour-note relation), it seems that the composer has not regarded such a
relation as capable of sustaining a stable vertical sonority. The most salient harmonic interval between A and F
occurs in the second phrase of the piece, but this can readily be considered an unstable sonority impelling the
vocal part to move on to C (via G).

Ex. 59. From "Ce moys de may"

A similar analysis can be made of "Ce moys de may". The three most prominent cadences in the first half are
on F, G and A sonorities in succession, and each of the two ascending whole-steps involved is gained by way of
an intermediate harmonic octave or unison between the cantus and tenor on the linking 5th to make the chain F-
C-G-D-A. The role of A as mediant between C and F is then brought out at the beginning of the second half of
the piece (see Example 59). Yet even so, F-A is never treated as a stable harmonic interval like D-F# in Example
17 or C-E in Examples 21-23 and 60.

Ex. 60. From "Se la face ay pale"

While it is not our purpose to exaggerate the case for the hypothesis which we have introduced or for its
importance in putting together an adequate account of Dufay's tonal structures, we believe that it warrants
serious consideration and that it is one of those ideas about music history which can be properly assessed
only after attentive, comparative listening.
Appendix: Analytical Discussions of "Helas ma dame"

Here are extracts (some in translation) from publications by four modern scholars, our comments on each
extract, and some analytical remarks of our own about the song, drawing on the hypothesis described in this
article:

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Besseler (1950, 40-43):

...The harmony of Dufay's rondeau, "Helas ma dame", seems to come from a new world.... Dufay's strains lead almost always by way of
a Dominant leading-note tension to the following goal-chord, and these goal-chords themselves are in turn so linked to each other that
every verse of the rondeau builds a directly experienced musical unity. The new [kind of] unity tonality is apparent in Example 61 a,
where triads are designated in terms of their harmonic functions as T(onic), D(ominant) and S(ubdominant), with brackets indicating
secondary Dominants (D) and with + and o indicating major or minor 3rds [leaving without a superscript the signs for empty sonorities].
The three main kinds of triad (T,D,S) almost completely govern the piece. Apart from them there are only two occurrences of the sixth
degree (mm 3 and 21) and one of the third degree as rela-tive major to the tonic (m. 24). All the cadences have the succession D+-T,
except for three where the tonally equivalent [quasi-]"Phrygian" cadence So-D+ puts the [descending] leading note in the bass (mm.
9/10, 19/20, 26/27). Also the construction of the melody deals primarily in the D+-T-succession, which is so well observed that twice in
the context of G minor an explicitly indicated G-major chord appears as a secondary Dominant (mm. 16 and 28).

Ex. 61a

The settings of the four lines of the text comprise the heart of the composition. Verses 1, 3 and 4 end with the Dominant leading-note,
F#; Verse 2 with the Tonic g at the conclusion of the first half of the rondeau form. Thus the vocal line is obviously in G minor. Verses 1
and 2 define this key by means of Tonic-Dominant fluctuations with two uses of the Subdominant; Verse 3 modulates to the Subdominant
(mm. 16-17), Verse 4 to the relative major (mm. 23-24), in each instance reverting immediately to the prevailing G minor. A minor key
could hardly be more clearly presented in four verses of a song. They are framed by a [pair of] instrumental section[s] in C, which at the
beginning fluctuates once between major and minor (mm. 1-5), but in the end adheres to the minor (mm. 27-31). Therefore one must
take C minor as the main key. The relation of the vocal section to it is that of Dominant minor, as it were, set in contrast against the
framing key. Only one single modulation is alien to the otherwise so convincing flow of the harmony: the B-minor [in] m. 27 with the
sudden return to C minor. Here one is aware of a residue of the older triadic technique of the 14th century, which aims at the luminous
power of the individual sonorities without regulating their linkage in any V-I kind of tonality. Such places remind us that the new kind of
sound did not spring up by itself but through the path-breaking and liberating deed of a master.
In the manuscript the upper voice has no signature, whereas the tenor has one flat and the contratenor two. Since clarity [as to where
musica ficta was to be used] is nearly always achieved [in this piece] by means of accidentals, this rondeau sheds much light on the
problem of "partial signatures" which so often lent a distinct appearance to the individual voices of polyphonic music [of this era]. Maybe
it was difficult to resolve this problem with generally valid rules. In practice a feeling for tonality, which changed a lot in time and from
one place to another, may well have been decisive. Only after certainty about this is achieved can one assess the scope of rules for
the individual cases. Dufay merits particular attention since he bespeaks in many works a modern and pronounced V-I tonality which
reaches far beyond the average of the 15th and 16th centuries. Here we have a glimpse of one main pole of the harmonic configurations
of the Flemish era, against which, however, the tradition on the side of counterpoint, which was at least equally strong, worked....
The rondeau "Helas ma dame" furnishes proof that in the 15th century it was possible to compose music with strong voice parts [and
yet] on a chordal-harmonic basis. Bitonality is nowhere to be found [in this piece], since tenor and contratenor are just as strongly drawn
as the Cantus is to the [tonal] centre[s] G in the song-portion and C in the framing [untexted] portion[s]. The partial signature goes back
either to the copyist or to the composer. The latter possibility is suggested by the four accidentals for B b, three for F# and two for Eb
in the upper voice. Therefore, if Dufay himself adhered to the widespread way of notating [i.e. leaving some uses of musica ficta un-
specified], then it was anyway his will to act in full freedom in the absence of a cantus-signature and to have upper or lower leading notes
everywhere in keeping with the [musical] context. From this arises that rapid switching between major and minor 3rds which transforms
the initial C major to minor in m. 4, or, the other way around in mm. 14-16 from G minor to major (Dominant [to C]), or which causes a D-
major triad to follow immediately after a Bb-triad in mm. 24-25. We may call this harmony [a kind of] V-I tonality with free 3rds. It has to
do with a balance between the new tonal organizing principle and the traditional harmonic richness of the 14th century, which Dufay did
not wish to renounce.
From this arises the question of whether one misinterprets the major-minor contrast if one applies such a modern-day imagination
to medieval [music]. No doubt it felt different around 1430. The role which it actually played must be investigated with an abundance of
material. The rondeau "Helas ma dame" shows, above all, that the building up of tonal harmony had to do not only with the major scale,
as one might like to imagine. Dufay writes in this early G-minor setting just as tonally as later in the C-major antiphon "Alma redemptoris
mater".
Our comments:

We think an enthusiasm for his hypotheses led the author to force some conclusions, even though he won-
dered if applying a modern-day imagination to this music might lead to a misinterpretation, and he knew that the
"feeling for tonality ... changed a lot in time and from one place to another". A few of the alleged major or minor
triads contain only two pitch classes (e.g. in m. 21). If mm. 10, 20 and 27 are half-cadences in G, then it is an
oversimplification to say that the strains lead "almost always" by way of a Dominant leading-note to the following
goal-chord, since these cadences are each followed (i.e. in mm. 11, 21 and 28) by a sonority that cannot really
be called the expected goal-chord of a Dominant triad. We think there is no contemporary evidence to justify
many of the author's editorial flats, for instance on E in m. 29. (Dufay's songs in G or in C often have partial sig-
natures; to eliminate all the cross-relations that might ensue seems to us too reductive.) In the light of his con-
cept of free 3rds we think the author uses the terms "C minor" and "G minor" too loosely; and it seems odd to
suggest, in the concluding sentence, that this is a "G-minor setting" in quite the same sense as the last of
Dufay's Alma redemptoris mater settings is a "C-major antiphon".
However, the assertion that this piece "shows, above all, that the building up of tonal harmony had to do not
only with the major scale" fits in quite well with our own hypothesis, which attributes a more euphonious sound
to those triads that can be heard as Dominant in the Dorian on D or transposed by a 5th to G or A, than to those
which can be heard as Dominant to F or C.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Treitler (1965, 154):

Appendix-Fig. 1

[With regard to Figure 1 et al.:] The absolute range of each voice is that bounded by the extremes of pitch shown.... The pitch
following the range is that with which the part ends. In the summary of range ... the prevailing pentachord and tetrachord [are outlined].

Our comments:

The author has failed to see that the cantus part extends up to high D in most of its phrases, whereas only
the first note of the first phrase is lower than middle D. It seems clear to us that the tenor/cantus pair in mm. 6-
27 is oriented more to D and G than to C and G.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dahlhaus (1968, 74-79):

Dufay's three-voice chanson "Helas, ma dame par amours" serves as a paradigm of [alleged] tonal harmony in the early 15th
century.... The number of progressions by a 5th (to use [such] ... terminology) is twice as large as that of progressions by a 2nd. 6/3
sonorities and unsupported 6ths are rare (mm. 9, 13, 19, 21). The [scale-]degrees C, G and D appear as the primary ones, with the
seven segments of the chanson ending on C, D, G, D, G, D and C. The sonorities on secondary degrees, since they are exceptional,
present no obstacles to a reduction by means of the theory of functions. The B b sonority (mm. 13 and 24) and the Eb sonority (m. 21),
which occur only as incomplete triads (Bb-D and Eb-G), can be explained in G minor as Tp or Sp, or as fragmentary T and S. The tone
a under the octave c'-c" (m. 3) and the tone b under the 3rd, d'-f # ' (m. 27), appear as "sub-posed 3rds" and thus as exemplary realiza-
tions of the concept of a secondary degree (i.e. a degree dependent on a primary degree); and the F sonority f-c'-a' (m. 19) is a simple
"passing chord" between g-bb-bb' and eb -c'-g'.
Yet the thesis is questionable that "the new unity of tonality" finds its expression in "Helas, ma dame". Besseler's characterization of
the contratenor as the "bearer of the harmony" [Harmonietrager] lays itself open to the objection that it is an added, not a fundamental,
voice. The discant and tenor form a com-positional framework that can stand on its own as two-voice counterpoint. And irregular uses of
dissonance reveal that the contratenor the last voice to be composed is related in m. 4 only to the discant and not to the tenor, and
conversely in m. 9 only to the tenor and not to the discant.
One could object that tonal harmony and a conception of successively composed voices are not mutually exclusive that the plan
of a chord progression, as a compositional framework, could allow for a "linear" elaboration through voices composed one after the other.
[I answer that] a "music composed strictly by voice[-parts] on a chordal-harmonic foundation" is indeed possible, but it pre-supposes that
the notion of chords has become self-evident. Only when tonal chord combinations have stabilized as formulas can they constitute the
basis or guide for the successive composition of voice parts. The evolution from manifestly "chordal-harmonic" composition to works
based on a latent "foundation" is not reversible.
Of course the theory of functions in contrast to the theory of fundamental progressions can waive the requirement that the triad
be understood as a chord (i.e. as a directly perceived sonorous unity) and still make sense as a theory. It need only require that the
tones form a system which (1) is based on the tonal relationships of the perfect 5th and major 3rd, and (2) is related to a central point.
The C-major system consists of 5ths, F-C, C-G and G-D, and the 3rds F-A (or Ab-C), C-E and G-B. The A-minor system consists of the
5ths D-A, A-E and E-B, and the 3rds F-A, C-E and G-B (or E-G #). Besseler, however, characterizes Dufay's chordal technique in "Helas,
ma dame" as "Dominant[-Tonic] tonality with the free alteration of 3rds"; and the concept of "free 3rds" the alternating between major
and minor 3rds on C, G and D is incompatible with functional harmony.
The system of functions is conceivable without the concept of chords, but not with "free 3rds". Conversely, a chordal technique in
which the determination of 3rds is left open would have to presume the concept of a chord in order to be considered tonal harmony. And
inasmuch as neither the concept of chords nor the system of functions is realized in "Helas, ma dame", the thesis that Dufay established
tonal harmony must be set aside.
The technique of "cantilena setting" the method of supplementing a cantus-tenor framework with a lower-voice contratenor is
described in the Ars discantus per Johannem de Muris, and in the same treatise (which in spite of the reference to Johannes de Muris
probably dates from no earlier than 1400, since it permits the contratenor to descend as far as a 10th below the tenor) there is developed
a theory of interval progressions that seems useful in elucidating the compositional technique of Dufay's "Helas, ma dame".
The rules of the Ars discantus on the "perfecting" of minor 3rds or 6ths and the "imperfecting" of major 3rds or 6ths can be combined
into the single principle that if an imperfect consonance progresses to a perfect consonance without a half-step connection, then a whole
step should be changed to a half step:

Appendix-Fig. 2

The ubiquitous validity of this rigorous precept may be doubtful; certainly an attempt to use it to stylize entire pieces from the period
around 1400 would be mistaken. Yet it does permit inferences to be drawn about the way music was heard in the early 15th century. It
tells [us] that the progression from an imperfect to a perfect consonance through a half-step connection was perceived as an especially
compelling and convincing interval sequence as a "primary" progression determining and motivating the music's forward progress.
The concept of half-step connections is not to be separated from that of interval progressions. It [the concept of half-step connections
per se] must not, in the 14th and 15th centuries, be mistaken for an independent factor and turned into a "leading-tone principle" in
certain monophonic repertories the concept appears to have been a carry-over from polyphony.... The tendency of imperfect consonance
toward perfect consonance and the tendency of a leading tone toward its goal are two sides of the same coin.
In contrast to the function of chords in tonal harmony, the constructive significance of interval-progressions from imperfect to perfect
consonance with a half-step connection in one of the voices is independent of the key [Tonart].... Hence for [chromatic] alterations the
name "accidentals" is warranted insofar as it expresses [the fact] that the mode marked by melodic features and the disposition of
cadential degrees takes on a different hue but is not transformed; _____________________ is not a "Lydian" cadence.

Our comments:

The listing in the first paragraph of facts in support of Besseler's argument is a useful exercise, and the
author's division of the piece for analytical purposes into seven segments is perfectly sensible. If Besseler's
phrase "the new unity of tonality" means that the tonal structure involves triads and therefore the contratenor is
important to it, then the first three sentences of the author's second paragraph exploit nicely the fact that Bes-
seler has not speculated as to how Dufay's allegedly triadic thinking emerged in the context of his non-triadic
conceptual heritage. That the cantus and tenor could make a "correct" duo (albeit rhythmically rather plain) and
that one of the notes in the contratenor in m. 4 is not "related" to the tenor are good observations; they do not
prove, however, that Dufay's contratenor makes no contribution to the harmony or tonal structure. (The state-
ment that in m. 9 the contra-tenor is not related to the cantus makes us wonder if the author listened to mm. 8
and 9 in succession, as he has evidently taken the rest at m. 9 to mean that the G after it has nothing to do with
the one before it.)

Ex. 61b

Our idea that the F in m. 9 resolves an implicit suspension of G against A is not really incompatible with our
hypothesis that the relatively fleeting harmonic 3rds F-A and E-G sounded less stable than the ensuing and
longer-lasting D-F#. We need only allow that G-A as a harmonic interval was felt to be more dissonant than F-A.
The third paragraph begins with an insightful sentence and ends with daunting but unsupported assertions. 1
If harmonic tonality (in the sense that the author intends) was developed gradually, then why could not the first
steps towards its invention have been "latent" (or, as Besseler says, ahead of their time)?
(The fourth paragraph again begins with a disarming concession and goes on to some rather abstract and
dogmatic arguments that Besseler was wrong; the fifth paragraph recapitulates whilst suggesting that Besseler

1
We take as due to lazy thinking the pathetic fallacy in the statements that a certain kind of thing "presupposes" something
else and (in the next paragraph) that a theory can "waive" something.
said that Dufay in this piece "established" tonal harmony whereas in fact he was more cautious than to say
quite that.)
The author does not explain how the rules from the Ars discantus and his interpretation of them elucidate
Dufay's compositional technique in "Helas ma dame" (which is ostensibly the purpose for which he discusses
them). We are uncertain, for instance, as to what he considers to be in this piece the key that is independent of
the chromatic alterations, what he considers to be the mode which they fail to transform into something else,
and how he considers the rules from the Ars discantus to elucidate Dufay's part writing in mm. 7-9, 10-11, 20-21,
22-23 and 28-30.
The author has made a shrewd distinction between functions and chord progressions; we wish he had gone
further and sought a more substantial alternative to Besseler's musicianly analysis. The Terzfreiheit (as Bes-
seler calls it) does not vitiate the importance of 5th-related sonorities (a) in this piece and (b) as prerequisites to
the subsequent development of triadic harmony.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bashour (1975):

The method of analysis [used here] ... combines the melodic principles of Gregorian chant theory and the contrapuntal principles of
discant theory both disciplines undoubtedly understood by Dufay and his contemporaries with the concepts of prolongation, struc-
tural levels, and essential voice leading as expressed in the theories of Heinrich Schenker (1868-1935). In the analyses [Figure 3 et
al.] ... no attempt is made to discover a fundamental melodic line [or] structural harmonic cadence or, indeed, to show many of the subtle
tonal interrelationships Schenker located in the compositions of triadic tonality. Instead, since it will be demonstrated by the principles of
discant theory that vertical structure in this repertory is based upon progressions of dyads [between the cantus and the tenor], the reduc-
tive analyses show primarily the hierarchical tonal relationships present within these vertical intervallic progressions, and between the
structural cadences which delimit brief horizontal tonal areas....

Appendix-Fig. 3

Since Leo Treitler has previously demonstrated that the Dufay chansons can be tonally classified within four modal maneriae (F, C,
D, and G), the present study concentrates on the tonal relations which obtain within each maneria, and the specific patterns of usage
employed by Dufay throughout his compositional lifetime. It is discovered that each maneria possesses its own hierarchy of structural
pitches which organizes the composition's vertical and horizontal tonal structure. In addition to the modal finalis and cofinalis, each
maneria contains at least one other structurally important pitch class; all cadential pitch loci are explained on the basis of modal theory,
plainchant theory, or plainchant practice....
There is little doubt of a certain relationship between the presence, in Dufay's chanson repertory, of a C tonality, and the apparent
complete lack of works based on the E maneria.... Chant theory ... can shed ... light on this problem. C is the reciting tone in Mode III, the
authentic mode on E, as well as the termination of a differentia in the plagal Mode IV; G is the concluding pitch of differentiae in both E
modes. An examination of various medieval chants in modes III and IV reveals the strong structural importance of both C and G [and so
the E maneria may be associated with Dufay's songs in C]....
Dufay's eighteen C chansons exhibit two principal types of tonal movement. [That] half of the group [to which "Helas ma dame" be-
longs] ... exhibits a tonality containing both major and minor thirds, due to the presence of many manuscript e-flats; most of the members
of this sub-group possess flat signatures in their lower voices. This type of tonal movement has been explained [by the author] as a mix-
ture of interval species belonging to two modal maneriae those of the pair of modes on E, which typically governs [also] the "major-
sounding" members of the C group, and those of the D maneria, twice transposed [i.e. from D to G to C]....
Dufay's treatment of the D maneria is quite straightforward. Structural cadences are made principally to D and A, and, secondarily,
to E....

Our comments:

We think it worthwhile to focus, in the graphing, on the succession of dyads formed by the cantus and tenor. 2
The idea of positing a "15th-century modal C maneria" strikes us as interesting, but we think that if analysis of a
song centering tonally on C must rely on Medieval or Renaissance terminology, it is less far-fetched to suppose
(a) that a tonally coherent line which sounds as if it were in C minor would have been regarded by Dufay as in a
D mode trans-posed down a whole-step in the theoretical gamut, than (b) that a coherent line which sounds as if
it were in C major would have been regarded by him as in an E mode but with the finalis and reciting tone hav-
ing exchanged functions. (It would be less procrustean to explain the prominence of E in terms of a transposed

2
It is a further extension of Salzer's extension (1952, 15, 61, 204) of Schenkerian theory to include here the concept of
"contrapuntal-structural" triads. Bashour acknowledges an intellectual debt to Crocker (1962).
F mode, since A is structurally important in the traditional F modes.) Yet it seems to us that the author's use of
the concept of an E maneria implies supposition (b).
In the graphing we think it valid to have shown the cantus cadencing now and then to F #; but the author's
promise that all cadential pitch loci can be explained on the basis of modal theory, plainchant theory or plain-
chant practice is thereby frustrated. Nor does discant theory support his graphing of the F # in m. 20, which
represents it as merely embellishing D and not as cadencing to G. 3 The author says that each maneria has at
least three structurally important pitch classes, among which are the finalis and cofinalis. But while his graphing
suggests that in this song, C and G (which fit both of his alleged maneriae) and also D (which corresponds to E
in an untransposed D mode) are structurally important, it makes no case for E, which, being the finalis of the E
mode, should also according to the author's premisses be structurally important in the song.
The graph would have been more informative had it accounted somehow for the B in m. 28. (Does its omis-
sion mean that the author hears no harmonic relation between it and the F # a 5th above?)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Some additional remarks about the piece:

If we designate each sonority by the tenor's note in it, and add a subscript "p" or "i" for perfect or imperfect
consonance, we can say that the successive phrases begin and end as follows:

Phrase 1, mm. 1 - 5: Cp - Cp
" 2 " 6 - 10: Gp - Di
" 3 " 11 - 15: Ei - Gp (end of the first half)
" 4 " 16 - 20: Bi - Di
" 5 " 21 - 23: Ebi -Gp
" 6 " 23 - 27: Gp - Di
" 7 " 27 - 31: Di - Cp

Since all the voices cadence to C at the end of the first and last phrases, while the first one begins on a C-G
sonority and the first of the two main sections ends with a cadence to a G-D-G sonority, and since such hall-
marks of a unified tonal hierarchy characterize many songs by Dufay, it seems clear that he intended C (at least
as a pitch class) to serve as a tonal centre unifying the piece, with G as a closely related subsidiary. The partial
signatures (one flat for the tenor and two for the contratenor; none for the cantus) and the signed accidentals,
while they may raise questions about tonal colour in the song, do not affect its overall tonal unity: partial signa-
tures and accidentals tend generally to vary more in Dufay's songs than the underlying tonal framework, which
is usually quite stable (as here).
Putting in terms of scale degrees of C the phrase beginnings and endings shown above, putting an asterisk
over each stable cadential sonority (each one in which there is no rhythmic activity for an entire measure), using
bold-face numbers for perfect consonance, and linking the smallest phrases which most readily warrant it, we
obtain:
* * * * *
1 1, 5 2, 3 5; 7 2 5, 521

Given the prominence of 5 as a tonal goal in the middle of the song, one might consider it to be tonicized in
some way:
* * * * *
C: 1 1, 5 2, 3 5; 7 2 5, 521
G: 1 5, 6 1; 351

Yet in mm. 27-28, D-F# is resolved decisively by nearest linear approach to C-G. We consider the A in m. 28
a cambiata, and the contratenor's Eb as well. Thus the contratenor's traditional function of making a "double-
leading-note" cadence is exploited to highlight the cantus's resolution (F #-G) as ancillary to that of the tenor
(D-C) and thereby render the tonal area of G explicitly ancillary to that of C.
The three-measure interlude at mm. 21-23 disrupts nicely the five-measure periodicity established in the
preceding four phrases, and makes a last reference to G as a point of tonal arrival (albeit without a cadence).

3
To represent this F# as cadencing to the G in m. 23 would have been contrary to the premise that the structure is a matter
of dyads between the tenor and cantus. To link this F# to the one in m. 27 would have led to a more elaborate analysis than
the author might have considered it advisable to offer.
The remaining two phrases are of four measures each, and in them a squarish periodic flow is wrought by an
undulation between occurrences (in some voice part or other) of D and G on the one hand, and of G and C on
the other, as follows:

measure: 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
D DG DG D GD GD GD
C
CG CG CG

The restlessness of m. 28 defers the sense of cadential repose on C until the end of the piece. So in the fol-
lowing diagram, which shows the main points of tonal arrival in the piece, m. 28 is represented by the "1" in
parentheses. The "5" in parentheses represents the non-cadential repose on a G-D sonority at m. 23.

measure: 5 10 15 20 23 27 28 31
scale-degree: 1 2 5 2 (5) 2 (1) 1

It is notable that while the sonorities on 5 or 1 represented here are perfect consonances, those on 2 are
imperfect. This important aspect of the tonal structure can be explained in part by assuming that Dufay had
a clear sense of the chromatic scale along the lines described in this article in which case one reason for
putting the B-natural in m. 16 may have been to give the sonority a restless quality to compensate for the
cantus's being an octave lower than in m. 6.
The tonal remoteness of F# from C might, whatever the nuances of intonation, express the narrator's sense
of alienation, as the words in this song represent the urgent sighings of a lover far from his beloved and from his
homeland. Yet it seems to us feasible also after hearing the piece in the kind of chromatic scale in question
to suggest that distinctly pure D-F# sonorities on the last syllables of "helas", "amours" and "esgar" may
have been intended to evoke a sense of peculiar sweetness (nostalgic or erotic or both), and that in mm. 27-28,
not only the cambiatas but also the insistent use of the uniquely harsh 5th, B-F #, might well express sobbing
("plours"). In this context a modern analyst can profitably distinguish between a pure and an impure perfect
consonance as well as between the virtually pure imperfect consonances (D-F #-A-C#-E-G#-B-D#) and the
impure ones.
Equally notable is the fact that our suggested "tone-painting" interpretations, however subjective they may be
(and we forbear to attribute literary meanings to the cross-relations), remind one of the vital role of the contra-
tenor in this music, which is unduly ignored when too much is made of the point that in those days a beginner
would compose the voice-parts in succession. The hypothesis advanced in this article suggests that perhaps
the keyboard was a means whereby Dufay, while remaining aware of the cantus-tenor framework, could readily
probe, in advance of a proper performance, the sonorities to be yielded by his polyphonic designs. 4

4
Reinhard Strohm suggests (1993: 319) that in the 15th century, "The harp, and then keyboard instruments ... were used for
self-entertainment as well as for composition and theoretical meditations."
Works cited

Apfel, Ernst 1974 "Der mehrstimmige weltliche Liedsatz bei Dufay mit Exkurs ber neuere Verffentlichungen zur Vorgeschichte der
Oktavsprungkadenz und zu Fragen der Tonalitt", in his Grundlagen einer Geschichte der Satztechnik vom 13. bis zum 16. Jahrhundert
(Apfel, Saarbrcken), 193-198

Arlt, Wulf 1981 "Musik und Text im Liedsatz franko-flmischer Italienfahrer der ersten Hlfte des 15. Jahrhunderts", Schweizer Jahrbuch
fr Musikwissenschaft, Neue Folge i, 23-69

Arnaut: see Le Cerf

Aron, Pietro 1516 Libri tres de institutione harmonica (Bologna)

Bashour, Frederick Joseph 1975 "A model for the analysis of structural levels and tonal movement in compositions of the fifteenth
century" (diss., Yale University)

Bent, Margaret 1998 "The grammar of early music: preconditions for analysis", in Christle Collins Judd, ed., Tonal Structures in Early
Music (New York and London, Garland), 15-59

Berger, Karol 1987 Musica ficta: theories of accidental inflections in vocal polyphony from Marchetto da Padova to Gioseffo Zarlino
(Cambridge, Cambridge University Press)

---- 1989 "The martyrdom of St Sebastian: the function of accidental inflections in Dufay's O beate Sebastiane", Early music xvii, 342-57

Besseler, Heinrich 1950 Bourdon und Fauxbourdon (Leipzig, Breitkopf und Hrtel; 2nd edition, edited by Peter Glke, Leipzig: Breitkopf
und Hrtel, 1974)

----, ed. 1960 Guillaume Dufay, Opera omnia (= Corpus mensurabilis musicae 1), vol. 2, Missarum pars prior 1-6 (Rome, American
Institute of Musicology)

Bockholdt, Rudolf 1967 review, in Die Musikforschung xx, 221-22, of Hamm 1964

Boone, Graeme M. 1987 "Dufay's early chansons: chronology and style in the manuscript Oxford, Bodleian Library, Canonici misc. 213"
(diss., Harvard University)

---- 1997 "Tonal color in Dufay," in Jessie Ann Owens and Anthony Cummings, ed., Music in Renaissance cities and courts: studies
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Cusa: see Steiger

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Ugolino of Orvieto: see Seay

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