27
8/18/2019 Lewis Lockwood: Aspects of the 'L'Homme armé' Tradition http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/lewis-lockwood-aspects-of-the-lhomme-arme-tradition 1/27  Taylor & Francis, Ltd. and Royal Musical Association are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Proceedings of the Royal Musical Association. http://www.jstor.org Taylor Francis, Ltd. Royal Musical Association Aspects of the 'L'Homme armé' Tradition Author(s): Lewis Lockwood Source: Proceedings of the Royal Musical Association, Vol. 100 (1973 - 1974), pp. 97-122 Published by: on behalf of the Taylor & Francis, Ltd. Royal Musical Association Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/766178 Accessed: 20-10-2015 04:17 UTC Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/  info/about/policies/terms.jsp JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. This content downloaded from 129.255.227.173 on Tue, 20 Oct 2015 04:17:58 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

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Page 1: Lewis Lockwood: Aspects of the 'L'Homme armé' Tradition

8/18/2019 Lewis Lockwood: Aspects of the 'L'Homme armé' Tradition

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/lewis-lockwood-aspects-of-the-lhomme-arme-tradition 1/27

 Taylor & Francis, Ltd. and Royal Musical Association are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to

Proceedings of the Royal Musical Association.

http://www.jstor.org

Taylor Francis, Ltd.

Royal Musical Association

Aspects of the 'L'Homme armé' TraditionAuthor(s): Lewis LockwoodSource: Proceedings of the Royal Musical Association, Vol. 100 (1973 - 1974), pp. 97-122Published by: on behalf of theTaylor & Francis, Ltd. Royal Musical Association

Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/766178Accessed: 20-10-2015 04:17 UTC

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/  info/about/policies/terms.jsp

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of contentin a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship.For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

This content downloaded from 129.255.227.173 on Tue, 20 Oct 2015 04:17:58 UTCAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Page 2: Lewis Lockwood: Aspects of the 'L'Homme armé' Tradition

8/18/2019 Lewis Lockwood: Aspects of the 'L'Homme armé' Tradition

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/lewis-lockwood-aspects-of-the-lhomme-arme-tradition 2/27

Aspectsofthe

'L'Homme

arm6'

Tradition

LEWIS

LOCKWOOD

THE TUNE

alled

'L'Homme

arme'

has

long

been famous as

the

structural

basis for more than

30

Mass

settingsranging

from

Dufay

to

Palestrina

and even

beyond,

ending anachronistically

with Carissimi. Yet many questions that were raised by

pioneering

scholars

40

and

50 years

ago

about the

melody

and

its

elaborations

are as

open

now as when

they

were first

proposed,

and

it

seems

likely

that a

review of

several

major

problems-in

so

far as

this

s

possible

within

a

single

paper-

may

serve

to redefine

the

boundaries of the

present

state

of

knowledge

and

perhaps

to stimulate

new

initiatives.

As

background

to

what follows

et

me

briefly

mention

some

of

the

primary

contributions to our

present

knowledge

of the

complex, taking as a starting point Otto Gombosi's book on

Obrecht,

published

in

1925-1

By any

standard

Gombosi's

book

was

a

challenging attempt

to come to

grips

with the

major

stylistic

currents

of

the second half of

the

fifteenth

entury,

adopting

as its

method

the

comparative

study

of ten

groups

of

polyphonic

elaborations,

each

group

made

up

of

works

by

various

composers

based on the

same

antecedent.

It

is

indicative

of

the

state

of

publication

at

that time

that for

'L'Homme arm6' Gombosi was able to list as many as twenty

Masses

written before

about

1500

but

had

access

to no

more

than six of these

in

complete transcription

plus portions

of

three

others.'

At

about

the

same time a

new

stimulus

was

provided

by

the

discovery

of the

Naples

manuscript

Biblioteca

Nazionale

MS VI.

E.

40),

announced

by

Dragan

Plamenac in

1925.'

This

important

source not

only

contains

a

cycle

of six

anonymous

cantus

firmus

Masses on

'L'Homme

arme'

but

provided

for

the

first

ime the

complete

text of

the

melody.

Its

1

Jacob

Obrecht:

ine

tilkritische

tudie,

eipzig,

1925.

2

p.

48.

Available

to

Gombosi

in

complete

formwere the Masses

by

Obrecht,

Josquin

(both),

Pierre

de la

Rue

(he

knew of

only

one),

Brumel,

ipelare,

nd Morales

five-part

ass); partially

vailable

were

those

by

Dufay,

Caron,

and

Faugues.

3

'La Chansonde

L'Homme

rmi

t e manuscrit I E

4o

de la

Bibliothbque

Nationale

de

Naples',

Annales

e

la

fidiration

rchiologique

t

historique

e

Belgique,

Congresjubilaire,

xv

(1925),

229-30o.

97

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8/18/2019 Lewis Lockwood: Aspects of the 'L'Homme armé' Tradition

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98

ASPECTS

OF

THE

L'HOMME

ARMEI

TRADITION

recovery

fired

an

exchange

of views

between

Plamenac and

Gombosi on the originsof the melody and the question of its

derivation from

a

monophonic

or a

polyphonic

source-an

exchange

that left the

question

inconclusive,

as

it

still

is.*

A

few

years

ater

appeared

an article of

fundamental

mportance,

both for

what it showed and what it

implied-Oliver

Strunk's

paper,

'Origins

of the L'homme

rme

Mass'.- The central

point

of this contribution

was its

startling

demonstration

of the

complete

structural

ependence

of the Mass

by

Obrecht

on

the

Mass

by

Busnois,

supporting

the inference that

the Busnois

Mass had in its time a special authorityand reinforcing he

remark

by

Pietro

Aron,

in his Toscanello

f

1523,

that Busnois

was

then

believed

to

have

been the

author

of the

melody.6

In

almost

40

years

since

the

publication

of

Strunk's

article,

scholarship

on the

subject

has

been

largely

directed

to the

further

ublication

of

transcriptions.

It

has of course received

substantial

attention

n

broad

surveys

f

the

period,

as well

as

4Gombosi, Bemerkungenur L'Hommermd-Frage',eitschriftfiirusik-

wissenschaft,

(1928), 6o9-12;

Plamenac,

ibid.,

xi

(1929),

376-83;

reply

by

Gombosi, ibid.,

xii

(1930), 378.

s

Bulletin

f

the

American

usicological

ociety,

i

(1936),

25-26. Reprinted

n

O.

Strunk,

ssays

nMusic n

he

Western

orld,

ew

York,

1974, p.

68-69.

6

Toscanello

n

musica, enice,

1523,Cap.

XXXVIII.

In

discussing

he

use

of

he

ymbols

f

dotted ircle nd

dotted emicircle

o mean

ugmentation

(cantar er

maggie

e)

Aron

ays

that this

procedure

s stillused

by

contra-

puntanti'

n

seigneurial hapels, specially

when

hey

mprovise

counter-

point

over

plainsong.

He

also

says

that

this

procedure

was

very

leasing

to

the antichi'

many

f

whom

used

t;

per

a

qual

cosa si

esistima,

he

da

Busnois

ussi

rovato

uel

canto

chiamato

ome

arm6,

notato

on

il

segno

puntato,& che da luifussiolto ltenore;& perche sso rabrieve,heda

lui

per

haver

campo

piu largo

senza

mutar

segno

futssi

rasmutata

a

misura

.

.

.'

('.

. .

it is

believed

that Busnois

invented

the

song

called

"L'Homme

arm6",

notatedwith

hedotted

ignature,

nd

thatthetenor

was

taken

from

im;

and

since

t was

short,

hat he

altered

he meter

n

order

o

fill ut

a

longer

nterval

without

hanging

ignature

..').

7

Especially

Father

Lawrence

Feininger's

eries

f

transcriptions

ublished

in Monurnenta

Polyphoniae,

iturgicae

anctae cclesiae

omanae,

eries

(Rome,

1948),

including

Masses

by

Dufay,

Busnois,

Caron,

Faugues,

Regis,

Ockeghem,

e

Orto,Basiron,

inctoris,

aqueras.

Among

he reviews

f

this eries

ee

especially

hat

by

M.

Bukofzern

The

Musical

Quarterly,

xxv

(1949), 334-40, and

xxxvi

(1950),

307-9.

Masses

published

since

1950

in

complete

ditions re those

by

Brumel,Dufay,

Morales,

Comphre,

nd

Regis;

as

well as

four

f the

Naples

Masses,

edited

by

Feininger,

965.

More

recently

were

ssued

the Mass

by

Pipelare

in

his

Opera

Omnia,

ii

(1957),

and

the

quodlibet

Mass

by

Festa

or De Silva

published

y

Knud

Jeppesen

n

Italia

Sacra

Musica,

ii

(Copenhagen,

1962).

An

important

contribution

rom

his ide

of the Channel

was the

publication

f

Robert

Carver's

Missa

L'Homme rm.

n

,Musica

Britannica,

v

(London,

1957),

30-

57;

see

also

K.

Elliot,

The

Carver

Choir-Book',

Music

&

Letters,

li

(i960),

349-57.

8

Especially

E.

Sparks,

antus

irmus

n

Mass and

Motet, erkeley,

963;

and

G.

Reese,

Music

n

the

Renaissance,

ew

York,

1954

(2nd

edn.

1968).

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ASPECTS OF THE

L'HOMME

ARME'

TRADITION

99

in

special

studies

of

individual

composers

such

as

Compare

and Josquin.1 But studies dealing with the complex itself,or

even

portions

of

it,

have

been few ndeed.

Apart

from

reviews

one

can mention an article

by

Willi

Apel

of

1950

on

imitation

canons

based on the

tune,

and

most

recently

Judith

Cohen's

study

of the

cycle

of Masses

in the

Naples

manuscript.1O

The

upshot

s that while the

materials

for

tudy

have

become

much

more

widely

accessible

since

the

mid-1930s,

many

of the

central

historical

problems

have

remained

virtually

unchanged.

Among

them

are the

two

main

questions

to

which

this

paper

is

addressed: first, he origins and possible significanceof the

melody

tself,

oth

in its

music and

text;

second,

the

problem

of

identifying, rouping

and

setting

in

approximate

order the

earliest

polyphonic

elaborations.

THE

'L'HOMME

ARME'

MELODY

A

basic

point

of

controversy

urns

on whether

the tune was

originally

a

popular

song-a

'folksong'

according

to some

writers-or was the tenor of a three-partchanson no longer

extant.

As

with

similar

controversies,

ome

observations about

terms

and

concepts

may

help

to

sharpen

the focus.

The

view

that

'L'Homme

arme'

was a

popular song

of

monophonic

origin

seems

to

be

based

mainly

on its

obvious

linear

clarity

and

relative

rhythmic

simplicity,

its

syllabic

declamation,

the

character

of its

text,

and its

manifest

devia-

tion

from the

formes

ixes

that

dominated

the

courtly

chanson

literatureof

the fifteenth

entury.

nherent

n such a

view

are

certainunderlying ssumptions bout thediffusion nd also the

origins

of

popular

song,

above

all

that

ill-defined

but

vastly

familiar

domain

that

we

conveniently

abel

'folksong'."

Yet

in

the

absence of

improved

terms

and

concepts

for

dealing

with

the social

and

geographic

stratification

nd

diffusion f

melo-

dies,

at

least

of this

period,

a

minimum

of

realism

compels

us

to

admit the

enormous

difficulties

we

face in our

quest

for

the

9

L.

Finscher,

oyset

omphre,ife

and

Works

Musicological

Studies

and

Documents, ii), Americannstitute fMusicology, 964;C. Dahlhaus,StudienudenMessen

osquin

esPres

unpublished

issertation),

niversity

of

Gittingen, 1952;

H.

Osthoff,

Josquin

Desprez,

2

vols.,

Tutzing,

1962-5.

10

W.

Apel,

Imitation

Canons

on

L'Homme

arm6',

Speculum,

xv

(1950),

367-73;

Judith

Cohen,

The

Six

Anonymous

'homme

rmd

asses

n

Naples,

Biblioteca

azionale

MS

VI

4o,

Rome,

1968.

xx

A

critical

historiography

f

this

deeply

rooted

erm

would

be a

valuable

guide

to the

formation

f

these

ssumptions.

beginning

as

been

made

by

Werner

Danckert,

rticle

Volkslied',

n

Riemann

usik-Lexikon,

2th

edn.,

Sachteil,

ainz,

1967,

pp.

1052-5.

See also

P.

Giilke,

Das

Volkslied

in der

burgundischen

olvphonie

des

I5.

Jahrhunderts',

estschrift

Heinrich

esseler,

Leipzig,

i96I,

pp.

179-94-

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I00

ASPECTS

OF

THE

L

HOMME

ARME'

TRADITION

'origins'

of a

given

melody,

as

opposed

to

tracing

its

circulation and

use. Howard

Mayer

Brown

mentions

'L'Homme

arm6'

as

an

early sample

of

what he

calls

the

'chanson

rustique',12

a

term

denoting

the

branch

of

mono-

phonic

popular

music

whose texts reflect

veryday

ife,

urban

as

well

as

rustic,

yet

which

carries no

implication

that such

compositions

circulated

exclusively

or

primarily

n rural

areas,

following

the

alleged

patterns

of

folksong.

Let us

assume,

then,

that for

L'Homme

arm&'

there

s

no

contradiction

between

the belief that it was

a

famous

and

widely travelledmelodyand thebeliefthat twas writtenby a

composer, possibly

Antoine

Busnois,

one

of the most subtle

musicians

of the

period.

The further

assumption

that it

originated

as the

tenor of

a

three-part

chanson

has

much to

recommend

it

on

both internal

and

external

grounds,

and

yet

this

thesis

s

entirely

ompatible

with the view

that

t

circulated

as

an

independent melody.

It

seems both

possible

and

reason-

able that both

traditionsco-existed.

That it

began

as a

tenor

part

would

fit

in

with what we can

piece together

from

contemporary

theoretical

writings

nd

settings:

these

nclude

its

ascription

to Busnois

by

Pietrc

Aron;

the demonstrated

importance

of

the tenor

of

Busnois's

Mass for the

Mass

by

Obrecht;

and the close structural

elationship

between

the Tu

solus

Dominus'

section of Busnois's

Gloria and the earliest

known

chanson

setting,

that

by

Busnois's

Anglo-Burgundian

colleague,

Robert

Morton.

This connection

was

also

pointed

out

for

the first

ime

by

Strunk.13

This thesis an also be supportedfrom therquarters,one of

which is

the

special

tradition

of its

use

in

the

repertory

f

the

quodlibet

or

combinative

chanson

with double

text.

This

sub-

tradition

for

L'Homme

arm&'

has

been

relatively

neglected

but

deserves

closer attention.

To

my

knowledge

the earliest

example

of

'L'Homme

arme'

as

part

of

a

quodlibet

is that

provided

by

Tinctoris

in his

Proportionale,vidently

written

shortly

before

1476.14

In

a

remarkable

passage

in the fourth

chapter

of this

treatise,

Tinctoris comes

to the

question

of

which voice in a

polyphonic

texture hould have the

propor-

12

Music n

the

rench

ecular

heater,

400oo-1550,

ambridge,

Mass.,

1963,

especially

pp.

105-13.

13

See

footnote

.

14

E.

de

Coussemaker,

criptorunt

e

musica

mcdii

evi

novam

eriem,

aris,

861-

76,

v.

173.

The

prologue

o

thetreatise

was

published

n

translation

y

O.

Strunk,

ource

eadings

n

Music

History,

ew

York,

1950,

pp.

193-6,

nd

a

complete

ranslation

y

A.

Seay

appeared

in

Journal

f

Music

Theory,

(x957),

22-75.

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ASPECTS

OF

THE

L'HOMME

ARMEI

TRADITION

IOI

tional

signature applied

to

it,

and

thus

to

the

question

of

determining

which

voice is

the

primary one. He concludes

that the

principal

voice is most

frequently

he

tenor

but

that at

times

this

role

may

be

assigned

to

the

cantus,

and

he

gives

two

examples.

The first s an

anonymous

chanson

in

which

the

cantus

is

original;

the

second is

a

two-voice

quodlibet

in

which

the

upper

line is

borrowed

from

a

pre-existent

omposition,

while the

tenor

combines with

this

a

series of

well-known

themes.

The

second

example

thus

llustrates he

durable art

of

combining

well-known

melodies."

The

upper

line is

made

up

of the first even bars of the superius of 'O rosa bella' in the

three-voice

etting

that

was

attributed

by

some

to

Dunstable;

against

this

the tenor

pits

the

beginning

of

L'Homme

arm&',

followed

by

a

fragment

of

the

tune 'He

Robinet'

and

by

another

tune

as

yet

unidentified

Ex.

I).

Ex.

1

O

rosa

ella

L'

ome

'

ome

'

ome

ar

-

-

m Et

Ro-

bi

-

-m

-t

net

tu

meaS

la mort don-

ni

quant

11

tr..:

vas

For

Tinctoris

the

juxtaposition

of 'L'Homme

arme'

and

'O

rosa bella'

is

surely suggestive,

since

the

presumed,

if

apocryphal, ascription

of

these

works fell

to

composers-

Busnois

and

Dunstable-who

played significant

roles

in

his

view of the

recent

development

of

music

in

his

time. A

few

pages

earlier,

in

the

prologue

to this

same

treatise,

Tinctoris

had

given

the

highest

praise

to

Dunstable

as chief

mong

those

English

musicians

of

about

40

years

earlier who

had transform-

ed the art ofmusic.

6

This same praise ofDunstable is restated

only

two

years

later

in

the

preface

to

his

counterpoint

treatise

as

On the

quodlibet

s a

genre

ee

especially

M.

Maniates,

Quodlibet

Revisum',

cta

Musicologica,

xxviii

(I966),

169-78.

he

components

f

the

Tinctoris

uodlibet

ere irst

dentified

y

M.

Brenetn

Monatshefte

fiir

Musikgeschichte,

xx

1898),

24.-7,

and

valuable dditions

eremade

by

A.

Raphael,

bid.,

xxi

1899),

161-4.

16

See

Strunk,

ource

eadings,.

195.

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102

ASPECTS OF THE

L'HOMME

ARMI

TRADITION

of

1477;17

in

both

writings

Dunstable

is

coupled

with

Dufay

and

Binchois,

all

three

being regarded as contemporaries

('contemporanei')

and

as

teachers of the

outstanding

members

of

Tinctoris's own

generation,

called

'moderni';

in

this

last

group

he

names

Ockeghem,

Busnois,

Regis,

Caron,

and

Faugues,

all

of whom

except

Faugues

are

also

named in the

Proportionale

s 'the

most

excellent of all

the

composers

I

have

ever

heard'.

It

may

be

pure

coincidence that

all

of these

composers

as well

as

Tinctoris

himself re

prominent

uthorsof

'L'Homme

arme'

Masses,

and

it

may

be

coincidence too that

the only one of his writingsthat was dedicated to a major

contemporary

composer

is the

treatise on

the modes

(i

476),

dedicated to

Ockeghem

and

Busnois,

who are

explicitly

n-

dicated

as

being

the

principal

musicians of the

French and

Burgundian

chapels.

Yet all

of

this

gives

us

at

least

a contextual

basis

for

ssuming

that

when

Tinctoris

quoted

in

his

quodlibet

a

famous

work that

was then

ascribed

to

Dunstable,

along

with

'L'Homme

armC'

as

tenor,

he

may

in

effecthave been

usingor have inventedan illustration fthequodlibet principle

that

would reflect n

microcosmthe

affinity

etween the

earlier

English generation

that he so

admired and

a

composition

attributed to

an

equally

admired

contemporary.

That

he knew

Busnois's 'L'Homme

arme'

Mass

thoroughly

s clear from wo

references o

it in

this

same

treatise on

proportions.18 hough

never

relegated

to the

category

of

folksong'

or

even

'popular

song',

'O

rosa

bella'

was also

immensely

popular

in the

fifteenth

entury,

s is

clear from

ocumentary

references,

rom

many manuscript copies and fromnumerouselaborations."' It

is

also

worth

noting

that in

the

Tinctoris

quodlibet

and

in

the

other

early

combinative

chansons in

which

it is

used

the

'L'Homme

arme'

melody

s

always given

as

the lowest voice

in

two-

or

three-part

ettings,

nd

as

tenor

or

bass in

four-part

textures-it

never

appears

as an

upper

line.

This

may

reinforce

the

assumption

that its

traditional

function

was

long

under-

stood

as that

of

tenor,

an

assumption

further

upported

by

its

17

Coussemaker, criptores,v. 76-77; translationn Strunk, ource eadings,

pp.

197-9.

1s

Coussemaker,

Scriptores,

v.

172, 175.

19

For

a

penetrating

iscussion

f

the

iterary

nd musical

traditions

f

O

rosa

bella'

see

N.

Pirrotta,

Ricercari

e variazioni

u

"O

Rosa

bella"

',

Studi

musicali,

/I

(1972),

59-77.

'O

rosa bella'

is

of

course

ascribedto

Dunstable

n

only

ne extant

ource,Rome,

Bibl.

Vat.

MS

Urb. lat.

141

I,

while t is

attributed

o

Bedingham

n MS

Porto

714.

Whatever

he true

authorship

fthe

piece,

t

suffices

or

my

uggestion egarding

inctoris's

quodlibet

that

there

did exist

n the fifteenth

entury

tradition or

ts

authorship y

Dunstable.

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ASPECTS

OF

THE L'HOMME ARME TRADITION

103

range

and

clef

n its

apparently

normal mode on G.

The other combinativechansonsusing L'Homme arm ' are

all

of the late fifteenth

entury,

and are

by Burgundian

or

French

composers

who were active in

Italy.

Probably

the

earliest

s

the

setting

n the Mellon

Chansonnier,

which

largely

corresponds

to

the

setting by

Morton in the Casanatense

Chansonnier;

as

recently

shown

by

Leeman

Perkins,20

the

Mellon

manuscript

was

copied

in

Naples

around

1475.

The

other

settings

re

the

one

by

Basiron,

who

combines

it

with the

cantus

of

Ockeghem's

'D'ung

aultre

amer',

and that of

Jean

Japart, who combines it with theupper line oftheanonymous

chanson

'II

est de

bonne

heure

ne'.*1

It is curious that these

double chansons

appear

exclusively

in Italian

sources;

they

belong

to

a

wave

of interest

n

the French chanson and its

elaborations that

arose

in

Italian courts n

the

I470s

and

I480s.

Additional

support

for

the

view

that

L'Homme

arm6'

was

composed

and not

merely

assembled

through

anonymous

channels

of oral

tradition

can

be found

n

its own

structure,

s

given in Ex.

2.

Its melodic cogencydoes not lessen the likeli-

Ex. 2

Ex.

a

b

c

b

L'ome

I'ome I'ome

r

-

m., 'ome

r

-mi

Pome r-md

doibt

n

doub-ter,

doibton

doub

ter

di d

/I

SOn

a

fait

par

tout

ci

-

cr,

quechas-

cm

seviegne

ar

mer

d'un au-

bre-gon

de fer.

a

~b'

c

L'

m

I'omeome

-

'

,

-ome

uar-

pome

t

mi dib

"

n

oubter.

hood that it functioned s

a

polyphonic

tenor,

and

though

ts

ternary

division

is somewhat unusual for a chanson

tenor,

other

examples

can be cited.

Plamenac called attention to

certain

resemblances

between

L'Homme

armr'

and the

tenor

of Ockeghem's chanson 'L'Autre Dantan', which has a

20

See the ntroduction

o

his

forthcoming

dition

of

the Mellon Chanson-

nier.

am most

rateful

o Professor

erkins

or

having

kindly laced

this

introduction

t

mydisposalprior

o

publication.

he main

points

n the

origin

of

the

manuscript

were contained

in his

earlier

paper,

'The

Provenance

f

the

Mellon

Chansonnier',

elivered

t

the Torontomeet-

ing

of

the American

Musicological ociety

n

November

197o.

s2

For a full

isting

f

early

ources nd

modern

ublications

f

the

Basiron

and

Japart

combinative

hansons,

ee

Brown,

Music n

the

rench ecular

Theater,

p.

21o

(No.

85k),

226

(No.

I65f).

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104

ASPECTS

OF

THE

L'HOMME

ARME

TRADITION

parallel

descending

fourth

figure

nd

a

similar

figure

follow-

ing

(Ex.

3)."

And

among

the

unpublished

chansons

of

Busnois

Ex.

3

ii~~~f~?~

there s

at

least one, 'Une Filleressede stouppes', in which the

entire

tenor

consists f

three

tatements

f

a

melodic

strain,

nd

in

which

the

first

nd last

statements

re

identical,

while

the

second

is

varied

(Ex. 4).23

Ex. 4

A

i,

-

-w -

:_"-~--,.

_

J

,

,

--~

While

these

points

of

similarity

re

scarcely

convincing

by

themselves,

hey

are

certainly

uggestive.

Yet

what

seems

most

striking

n

the

'L'Homme

arme'

melody

is

the

remarkable

clarity

of

its

intervallic

and

sectional structure.

The

original

mode ofthe tune is evidentlyG; mostelaborations are in this

mode,

at

times with

a

flat

signature,

at

times

without,

but

as

22

Zcitschriftfiir

usikwissenschaft,

i

(1929), 381

i

f.

A

different

ort

of

parallel

was

noted

by

Manfred ukofzer

Studies

n Medieval

nd

Renaissance

usic,

New

York,

1950,

p. 161)

between

he

opening

of

the

'L'Homme

arm6

tune and

the

English

arol

Princeps

erenissime'.

his seemsmore

ikely

a

coincidence

han the

Ockeghem

xample,

but

t

is

a moot

point.

This

may

be the

place

to note

that not

all

versions

f

the L'Homme

arm6'

tune

as

given

n

modern urveys

re

wholly

orrect.

he version

n

Reese,

Music n

the

Renaissance,

.

73,

s

said

to

follow

he

Naples

manuscript

ut

actually iffersnthese espects:i) theuse ofthe Da capo' and Fine' is a

modem

abbreviation,

nd

the

Fine

s

placed

two bars too

late;

(ii)

the

first ar

under

the

second

ending

n

the

Reese

versionhas

the

note e'

on

the

third

heat,

but n

the

Naples

version

his

note

s

g'.

23

The

tune Une

Filleresse'

s also used

as

part

of a

quodlibet

n

Petrucci's

Canti

,

and

Sarah

Fuller,

n

Musica

Disciplina,

xiii

1969),

95,

notes

he

use

of

the same

tune

in

the

chanson

abelled 'Vostre

amour'

in

MS

BolognaQ

16.

If

t

s a

popular

une,

s

Fuller

uggests,

ts

appearance

n

the

chanson

uoted

here

s

nevertheless

vidence f

Busnois's

se of

such

melodies

s

chanson

enors nd

corroborates

he dual

usage

of

tunes

of

this

type.

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ASPECTS

OF

THE

L'HOMME

ARMEI

TRADITION

105

the

chanson

settings

re in G with no

signature

this

may

well

be

theoriginal.With theexceptionofone auxiliarynote above the

upper

final,

the entire

melody

holds

to the

compass

of

an

octave.

The familiar

division of the modal

octave

into fifth

nd

fourth

rovides

the basic intervallic

unitsfor he entire

melody,

while

the

two main

sections contrast

decisively

in their

use

of

these

polarities.

Thus,

the

first

ection

s

wholly

restricted

o

the

lower

pentachord

of

the

mode

(g-d')

while the second

is

equally

restricted

to

the

upper

tetrachord

(d'-g'),

plus

the

upper

note

a'

in

segment

e.2'

Not

only

modal

clarity

but

inter-

vallic consistency s particularlyevident in the linear move-

ment,

of which

there

are

really

only

three

types:

(i)

the

leap

spanning

the modal

interval

of

the fourth r fifth-there

re

no

leaps

using

the

other

possible

ntervals

of

third,

ixth,

r

octave;

(ii)

movement

by

step

within

the

boundaries

of these

same

modal

intervals

of

fourth

or

fifth

segments

a, c,

e);

and

(iii)

returning-note

movement.

The contrast

between

the two main

sections

s

further

einforced

n

ust

this

way:

while

directional

stepwisemovement s mainlycharacteristic fthe first ection,

returning-note

movement

is found

only

in the second. These

elements contribute

to the

effect

f

directional

clarity,

motivic

consistency

nd

formal

balance

that make the tune as memor-

able now as

it

obviously

was in the fifteenth

entury.

At

the

same time its

carefully

wrought

alternation of modal

leaps

followed

by

immediate

conjunct

movement within these

spans

makes

it well

suited

for

the canonic imitation

that s

afterwards

exploited

on

a

grand

scale in

several Masses

of

the

tradition.

Finally, there is the difficult uestion of the text and its

possible significance.

The

tune

must have been

in

circulation

well

before

the

early

146os,

since

in

1462

the Mass

by Regis

was

copied

at Cambrai.2

If

we

agree

with Gombosi

that it

seems

unlikely

that

Regis

should

have written

his

work

before

the Mass

by

Dufay,

his master

and

employer,

the tune could

well

go

back

to the

1450s

or

even

slightly

arlier;

if

ts

author

was indeed

Busnois,

it

would

fall

into the earlier

years

of

his

service at theBurgundian court.

What

is

the

meaning

of

the

original

text?

Again

we are

reduced to

speculation,

but we

can

narrow down the

field

to

a

-'

For

a

more

general

view of

this

ype

of melodic

tructureee

the

mport-

ant

study

by

Leo

Treitler,

Tone

System

n the

Secular

Work

of

Guillaume

Dufay',Journal

f

heAmerican

usicological

ociety,

viii

(196.5),

3t1-69.

25

For

the

text

verifying

his ssertion ee

J. Houdoy,

Histoire

rtistique

e

a

cath/dralee

Cambrai,

ille,

i88o,

p.

245,

or,

more

conveniently,

. X.

Haberl,

Wilhelm

Dufay',

Bausteinefiir

usikgeschichte,

(1885),

50,

n.

4.

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io6 ASPECTS OF

THE

L'HOMME

ARM'

TRADITION

few

hypotheses.

Recently

the

stimulating

uggestion

was made

by Geoffrey

Chew that the

poem may

be 'a

popular outcry

against

the

soldiery

.

.

a broadside

describing

a

recruiting

campaign

in which the "armed man"

represents

he

enemy'."2

If

this ould be

verified

t

could

well fit

n with

far-reaching

nd

historic

changes

in

French

militaryprocurement

policies

that

took

place

under

Charles

VII,

beginning

in

the

1440s. By

means of

royal

edicts the

evying

f

troops

n

France was

put

on

a national

basis

and

regulated by

the

crown,

not left

s before

to

individual lords

in

their own

territories.27

n

1445,

for

the

first time, 'compagnies d'ordonnances' were formed and

assigned

as

garrisons

to

the

cities of

France,

the

soldiers

being,

billeted

upon

the citizens. One

purpose

of

this

standing army

was

to

put

an end to a

long

period

of well-documented

civil

lawlessness,

of

looting

and

pillaging

that

had

been

carried

out

in French lands

by unemployed

mercenaries

during

the last

decades of

the Hundred

Years'

War,

roughly

fromthe

siege

of

Orleans

in

1429

to

the

end of

the

war in

I453.

The

chaotic

conditions

of French

civic and rural life at

that

time

are

vividly

documented. A different

nterpretation

s thatthe man

in

armour'

is

not the

enemy

but is the civilian

citizen

who

may

be

imagined

as

the

voice of the

poem.

The verse

is,

after

all,

mainly

about

the

wearing

of arms and

the

arming

of

citizens;

thus

the lines

word has

gone

out

everywhere

hat

each

man

is

to arm

himself

with a

hauberk

of

mail'.

Another

military

innovation

of the

1440s

was the establishment

by

Charles

VII

of

the town militia

called the

francs-archers.

n each

town

men

wererecruitedfordutyin theseforces, eceivingtax relief nd

other benefits

n

exchange

for

ervice.

As the

military

historian

Charles

Oman

writes,

each man was bound to

provide

himself

with

light

armour-a steel

cap

and

a

brigandine',

that

is,

a

breast-plate.28

In

this sense

the line

'l'homme

arme

doibt

on

26

'The

Early

Cyclic

Mass as

an

Expression

f

Royal

and

Papal

Supremacy',

Music

&

Letters,

iii

(1972), 254-69.

In

this

onnection

we

may

note

that

the term

man-at-arms',

sed

at

times to

translate

l'homme

arm6',

is

strictly

he

equivalent

of

the French

homme

d'armes'

(Italian

'uomo

d'arme'),

denoting

mounted

oldier;

see

E.

Huguet,

Dictionnaire

e

la

languefranfaiseuseizidmeikcle,aris,1925, .

714.

27

See

G.

Crollalanza,

Storia

militare

i

Francia,

lorence, 861,

ii.

Io0-27;

J.

Calmette,France;

The

Reign

of

CharlesVII

and

the

End

of

he

Hundred

Years'

War',

TheCambridge

edieval

istory,

iii

Cambridge,

936),

54

f.

C. K.

Oman,

A General

istory

f

the

Art

of

War

n

the

Middle

Ages,

nd

edn.,

London,

1924,

i.

432-4;

P.

Caron,

The

Army',

Medieval

rance,

d.

A.

Tilley,Cambridge,

1922,pp.

16o

ff.

28

On

civil awlessness

n the

1430s

nd

i44os

see

especially

Calmette,

oc.

cit.,

pp.

235

if.,

iting

ontemporary

hroniclers;

lso

Oman,

op.

cit.,

i.

432;

on the

rancs-archers,

bid.,

i.

434

and The

Cambridge

edieval

istory,

viii.

658;

Caron,

oc.

cit.

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ASPECTS

OF

THE

L'HOMME

ARMEI

TRADITION

107

doubter'

might

mean

something

more like 'watch out for

the

man

in

armour', meaning

the citizen himselfnow armed

and

ready

forbattle. Since the

francs-archers

ad a

reputation

for

cowardice,

it

may

even

have

an

ironic

twist

of

meaning.

But taken less

literally,

the

song

need not be seen as

a

spontaneous

product

of

the

social

strata in

which

these condi-

tions

were

directly

felt

but

may

have

been

a

reflection

f such

conditions

from a

poetic-musical

circle removed from

the

immediate scene.

In view of the

partial

resemblance

between

the

'L'Homme

arm&'

and the

tenor of

Ockeghem's

'L'Autre

Dantan' itis instructive hatTinctoris, n thesame Proportionale

that carried

the

quodlibet,

refers o

L'Autre

Dantan' as

being

a 'bucolic

song'

('carmen Bucolica')29

thus

anticipating

the

term

'chanson

rustique'.

It

seems at

least

imaginable

that

'L'Homme

arme',

as

poem

and

setting,

could well have

originated

in

Burgundian

court

festivities

of

the

I440s

or

I450s

as

part

of

some

kind of

entertainment

r

farce,

possibly

in-

volving

representative

characters from both civilian

and

military ccupations.

Evidence

already

existsof

topical

theatre

in

Burgundian

towns

n this

period.

A

play put

on at

Dijon

by

ordinary

citizens

in

1447

contained

political

remarks

that

actually

led

to

a trial for

defaming

the

reputation

of

the

King

of

France,

with

whom

Burgundy

was

then

reconciled.

We

also

know of elaborate

entertainments

nd

representations

that

were

put

on

by

the

Burgundian

court

tself,

which

was renown-

ed

for

the

opulence

of its

festivities.30

THE EARLIER MASSES: PROBLEMS OF CHRONOLOGY AND STYLE

If

we

include the two

Masses

byJosquin

and the

two

by

Pierre

de La Rue but

exclude the

Mass

by

Mouton,

there are

some

eighteen

complete

Mass

settings

hat can

be dated

before

bout

I500;

these

are the

settings

by Dufay, Ockeghem,

Busnois,

Regis,

Caron,

Faugues,

Tinctoris,

Basiron, Obrecht,

Vaqueras,

Josquin,

Pierre

de

La

Rue,

Compare,

Pipelare,

De

Orto,

and

Brumel. When we realize

that we

have more or

less

positive

datings

for

only

two of

these

(Regis

and

Basiron),

based on

evidence that is

something

less than

conclusive,

it

becomes

clear

that

the

largest

and

most

intransigent

roblem

is that of

29

Coussemaker,

criptores,

v.

156.

This

is

the

only

such

referencen the

treatise.

30 On thedrama at

Dijon

see

L.

Petit

deJulleville,

Ipertoire

uthiatre

omique

en

France u

moyen

ge,

Paris,

1886,

pp. 330

ff.;

further n

theatre

t

the

Burgundian

ourt,

.

Cartellieri,

m

Hofe

er

Herzige

von

urgund,

asel,

1926,

J.

Marix,

Histoire

e a

musique

tdes

musiciens

e

a

cour e

Bourgogne,

Strasbourg,

939,

and

Brown,

Music

n

the rench

ecular

heater.

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io8

ASPECTS

OF

THE

L

HOMME

ARME

TRADITION

grouping

the earliest

Masses of the

tradition,

nd of establish-

ing a plausible chronology.To do this we are still obliged to

fall

back on

long-standing

assumptions

based on

general

historical

nformation

nd

on

inferences

rawn

from

the

very

approximate

biographical portraits

we

are at

present

able

to

construct

for most of

these

composers.

The

traditional view

is

that

the

Dufay

and

Ockeghem settings

re the

oldest,

and that

the

Ockeghem may

even be the earlier

of

the

two.

At

present,

however,

this last

hypothesis

is based

on little more than

Ockeghem's

use

of

prolatio

otation forthe

tenor,

requiring

the

doubling of its values in performance. This procedure is

evidently

derived from

English practice

of the

earlier

part

of

the

century, though

it

has Continental

antecedents

as well.32

On the

one hand

it

may

be

indicative

of an earlier

notational

practice

in the

work of

Ockeghem;

on the

other hand

it

may

reflect a

special

tradition

associated with this tune

and

its

elaborations,

since

the same

notation

for he tenorwas

presum-

ably

even more

out of

date when

it

was used

by

Busnois,

Vaqueras, De Orto,Josquin and even Palestrina.

If we

group

these

composers according

to

their

presumed

periods

of

first

maturity

nd

assume

that

these works

may

have

been

written

during

those

periods-perhaps

because

the

'L'Homme

arm6'

may

have come to be

regarded

as a kind

of

test

for

compositional

skill-we

may propose

a

grouping

as

follows:

(i)

an earliest

group, including

the

settingsby Dufay

and

Ockeghem,

presumably

written

by

not

later than

146o;

(ii)

a second

and

only

slightly

ater

group,

made

up

of Masses

by composers whose firstmaturityshould fall in the 146os,

especially

those known

to

have been

associated

with

Dufay

in

Cambrai

between

1454,

when

he returned to settle

there,

and

his

death in

I474.33

These include

the

settings

by

Caron,

Regis

(copied

there,

we

remember,

n

1462)

and

perhaps

the

Mass

by

Faugues,

about whom

virtuallynothing

s

known.

Just

possibly

the

Mass

by

Busnois

may

also

belong

to

this

early

layer

of the

tradition,

although

its

systematic

use

of

imitation

n

segments

between statementsof the tenormay argue a somewhat

later

date of

composition.

31

See

H.

Besseler in

Dufay, Opera

Omnia,

ii

(Rome,

1951), p.

vi.

32

On

the

English

background

fthis

use

of

prolation

otation

ee

Strunk's

review

f

Feininger's

ranscriptions

n

J.ournal

f

the

American

usicological

Society,

i

(1949), Io7-Io;

on the

earlier Continental

ntecedents

ee

Besseler,

Bourdonund

Fauxbourdon,

eipzig,

1950,

pp.

I32

and

154,

n.

7.

33

On

Dufay's

career

ee

Besseler

n

Die Musik n

Geschichte

nd

Gegenwart,

ii

(1954), 889-99;

also

his article

Neue

Dokumente

zum

Leben

und

Schaffen

ufays',

Archivfiir

usikwissenschaft,

x

(1952),

159-76.

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ASPECTS

OF THE L'HOMME

ARME'

TRADITION

109g

Beyond

this

we

have

very

ittle

basis for

more

than

specula-

tion. Among the other composers outside Cambrai and

Burgundy

whose

first

maturity

hould fall

around

1465-70

we

can

group

Tinctoris,Basiron,

Vaqueras

and

Josquin

(in

view

of

the new

chronology),

all

of whom

seem to

develop

in

Italy

or

eventually

settle

there. The next

comprehensivegroup

would

embrace those

who

seem

to

have

come

of

age

around

1470-75

and thus

nclude those

born around

1450:

Obrecht,

Compare,

Pierre de

La

Rue,

Brumel,

and

very

likely

also

Pipelare

and

De

Orto.

If we attemptto combine these approximationswith those

based

on

regional

or

local

associations

only

little more

can

be

said,

and the crucial need

for

further

actual

information

s

clear. Gombosi

posited

a

Cambrai

group

with

Dufay

as

its

Nestor,

which

seems

correct

in

principle

as a

guide

to

one

branch

of

the

complex.

But

in view of

the

importance

of

Burgundy

for

the

origins

of the

melody

and its chanson

elaborations,

we do

well to focus

on

that

domain

as

well.

After

the death ofBinchois n I460 the leading figure t theBurgund-

ian court

s

certainly

Busnois. In a

motet

dated about

1464

he

calls

himself

musician

of the Count of

Charolais',

the title held

by

the

young

Charles

the

Bold beforehis

succession

as Duke

of

Burgundy

in

1467.

Busnois's service

with

Charles lasted until

the latter's

death

in

1477.?3

Yet

it

would

be

hazardous

to

propose

an absolute

polarity

between

the

Burgundian

chapel

and

the

Cambrai

circle,

or

even

between

these two

major

centres and the court of

France.

Dufay

himself

had

close rela-

tionswithBurgundy n the I44os and I450s, and in one docu-

ment

is

actually

called

a

singer

of the

Duke

of

Burgundy,

although

he

is

not

so

listed

in official

ecords.

We also

know of

visits

by

Burgundian

musicians

to Cambrai.

In

view

of

Dufay's

manifest

mportance

for

the whole

development

of

the

cyclic

Mass and

especially

for the

extension

of its

tenors

to

include

secular

antecedents,

we

may suggest

the

hypothesis

that

the

34

On

Charles's substantialmusical nterests

nd abilities ee

Cartellieri,

AmHofederHerzgevon urgund,p. 166-8. His constantngagementn

military

ffairs

would make

him a

prime

candidate for dentifications

l'hommermi

himself,

f one

or another of these Masses was meant as a

dedicatory

omposition-but

at

present

this

is

pure

speculation.

The

Naples

manuscript

arries coat

of arms

bearing

s

crest

knight's

ead

with

a

crescent

n his

helmet

nd

with the motto

Que

par

Dieu

soit',

which

has not

yet

been

identified

see

Cohen,

TheSix

Anonymous

'Homme

Armi

Masses,

p.

I1).

Charles's

own

motto

was

'Je

l'ay

empris';

see

C.

Brusten,

Les

EmblRmes

e

l'arm6e

bourgignonne

ous

Charles

e

T6m&-

raire: essai

de

classification',

ahrbuch

es

Bernischen

istorischcn

useums

z957-58,

pp.

I

18-32;

alsoJ.

Dielitz,

Die

Wahl- nd

Denkspriirhe,

rankfurt,

1884.

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I

10

ASPECTS

OF THE

L'HOMME

ARME

TRADITION

'L'Homme

arme'

was

originally

a

Burgundian

chanson that

was first

laborated

in Mass

cyclesby Dufay

and

members

of

his cathedral circle n the ate

i45os

and

I460s,

spreading

early

to

musicians

of the court of

France

(chiefly

Ockeghem,

in-

stalled

there

by

1454)

and

circulating

back

to

Burgundy.

Thereafter the whole

tradition was

quickly

and

eagerly

absorbed

by

new

Italian

centres of

polyphonic practice,

from

which

came most of the

surviving

ources.

Cappella

Sistina

14,

one

of the oldest sources forthese

works,

not

only

contains five

'L'Homme

arme'

Masses

in

sequential

order,

but

these Masses

are theones by Dufay,Busnois,Regis, Caron, and Faugues. If

this

manuscript

was

assembled at the

time of

copying

of

these

works,

t

could well

represent

Cambrai

repertoire

with the

addition

of the Mass

by

Busnois.

There are

surprisingly

ew

sources for

the earlier

Masses

of

the series.

Sistina

14

is

generally

reckoned

among

the

oldest

extant

polyphonic manuscripts

of

the Sistine

Chapel,

and

is

evidently

from

the

period

1472-83,

the

boundary years

of the

Papacy

of Sixtus

IV.

Only slightly

ater

s

Cappella

?istina

35,

containing

the 'L'Homme

arme'

Masses

by

Ockeghem,

Tinctoris,

Philippon

[Basiron]

and

Compare;

this source

evidently

combines

material

copied

at

different

eriods

but

principally

within

the

papacy

of

Innocent

VIII

(1484-92).3"

Both

manuscripts provide

additional evidence of the

Italian

vogue

of the 'L'Homme

arm6'

referred

to

earlier,

which

principally

nvolves

those

centres t

which Flemish and

French

composers

were

chiefly

ctive:

Naples,

Ferrara,

and

the

Papal

chapel. To Naples about 1475 belongs the Mellon Chanson-

nier,36

dating

that

puts

t

quarely

nto the

period

of

Tinctoris's

activity

there.

An

even

stronger

ink

between

Burgundy

and

Naples

is the

cycle

of

L'Homme

arme'

Masses

in

the

Naples

manuscript;

a

dedicatory poem

addressed to

Princess Beatrice

of

Aragon explains

that the

works

in

the

manuscript

had

earlier been

enjoyed

by

Charles,

Count

of Charolais.

From

this

Judith

Cohen has surmised

that

both

the Masses

and

the

manuscript

tself

may

have

originally

been

written

n

Burgundyand

brought

to

Naples

as a

gift

to

Beatrice."3

At

Ferrara,

linked to

Naples politically

and

musically by

many

connecting

35

On

the

dating

of

Cappella

Sistina

14

and

35

see

F. X.

Haberl's

catalogue

in

Monatshejieiir

Musikgeschichte,

x

(1887-8);

and

J.

Llorens,

apellae

Sixtinae

odices,

atican

City,

g96o.

or

particulars

n

MS

35

I am

indebt-

ed to Richard

Sherr.

36

See footnote2o

above.

37

Cohen,

op.

cit.,

pp. 62-71.

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ASPECTS OF

THE L'HOMME

ARME

TRADITION III

threads,

we

find substantial

evidence of interest in

the

'L'Homme arm ' complex around 1480. The court singersat

this

time

included

Jean

Japart

(whose

combinative

chanson

using

'L'Homme

arme'

I

mentioned

earlier),

and

its

visitors

included Tinctoris

in

1479.38

The

Faugues

Mass

on

'L'Homme

arm6'

is

copied

into

a

manuscript

produced

for the

Ferrarese

court

that can be dated

about

1481,

contemporaneous

with

a

newly

discovered

fragmentary

ource for the Busnois Mass on

'L'Homme

arme'

that

was

written

at

Ferrara

by

the

same

workshop.3

These works form

part

of

the

repertory

of the

chapel ofDuke Ercole I d'Este, a chapel whose leading figure

was the

Fleming Johannes

Martini and for which

the collect-

ing

of Masses

was

an

important

diplomatic

and

musical

activity.

This

is

the

background

to

a letter

of

1484

in

which

Ercole

asks forthe new

"L'Homme

arme" Mass

by

Philippon'

[i.e. Basiron],

which

is

sent

to

him

with

remarkable

speed

from

Florence.40

Relevant too

is the

Casanatense

Chansonnier,

-3

Modena,Archivio i Stato,Archivio stense,Camera,Libri di Ammin-

istrazione ei

Singoli

Principi,

o.

23

(I479), f.

33,

contains

n

entry

or

7-11

May

in

payment

or he

lodgings

t Ferrara

of

misserZoanne de

intoris e

Borgogna

hantadore

e

la

sachra

magiestade

del re de

Napoli

...

con

quattro

chavali

et

quattro

boche'.

This

visitcoincideswith

the

beginning

f

work

n an

organ

for

new Ducal

chapel

at

Ferrara,

arried

out

by

the

organ-builders

ainaldo de Forli

and

Bartolomeo a

Cesena,

and withthe

production

t

Ferrara

fa

group

of

music

manuscripts

hat

include

Modena,

Bibl.

Estense

MS

a

M.

I.

13,

containing ighteen

Masses

and

including

ne

by

Vincinet,

reported

n

1479

to

be a

singer

t

the

court

of

Naples.

The links

between Ferrara

and

Naples

at this

period

include

the factthat Duke Ercole d'Este

had

spent

his

youth

nd

earlymanhood t theNeapolitancourt, nd that hiswifeEleonorad'Aragona

was

a

Neapolitan princess,

ister

f

Beatrice

of

Aragon.

"9

The source s a setof

hree

eaves

n

Modena,

Archivio i

Stato,

Biblioteca

dell'Archivio,

rammenti

Musicali,

Appendice.

They

are

clearly

by

the

same hand

and

of

he ame

period

nd

type

s

a

M.

I.

13

and

thedouble-

chorus

manuscript

M.

I.

II--2

of

the

Estense.

A brief

escription

s

given

by

Charles

Hamm

in Musica

Disciplina,

xvi

(1972),

I1o.

These

leavescontain

part

of he

Agnus

i of he

BusnoisMass and

portions

f

he

Credo nd

Sanctus

f

an

unidentified

ass.

The Busnois Mass bears

the

number XIV'

and was

thus ntended

o be

part

of

a

large

manuscript

f

Masses that would have

been

a

companion

o

a

M.

I.

13.

The

presence

of the BusnoisMass in a Ferrarese ourtmanuscript fabout 1480 is

highly

nteresting

n

viewof

Obrecht'svisit

o

Ferrara n December

1487;

see

B.

Murray,

New

Light

n

Jacob

Obrecht's

Development',

The

Musical

Quarterly,

liii

(

957),

500

f.

40

This

passage

s

traditionally

uoted

from

.

N.

Cittadella,

Notizie

elative

Ferrara,

864,

p.

716,

who

n

turn ited

A.

Cappelli,

n

Attie

memorie

ella

R.

deputazione

i

storia

atria er

e

provincie

odenesi

parmensi,

eries

,

vol.

i

(1863), 505.

The text

upplied

rom

he

original

ource

by Murray

n

The

Musical

Quarterly,

lii

(1957),

509,

is not

completely

orrect.

he

proper

text

s

Pretereavolemo he subito

faciati

rovare

ornelio

ne era

nostro

Cantore

l

qual

6

i,

e

che n

nostro ome

i

dicati,

che

subito

l

ne mandi

la

messa

del

homo

arm6 de

philippon

noua;

et

quando bisognasse

arla

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I

12

ASPECTS OF

THE

L'HOMME

ARME

TRADITION

made

at Ferrara

for

he

betrothal

of

sabella

d'Este

in

148o

or

forher marriage in

1490.41

The

missing

ink

n

the chain

of

evidence

of an Italian

vogue

of

the

'L'Homme

arme'

is

Milan,

where the

ducal

chapel

flourished

brilliantly

n

the

earlier

I470s;

its

membership

then

included

Josquin,

Compere

and

singers

from both

Cambrai

and

Burgundy.

We know

that n

1475

Josquin

himselfwas

paid

for

the

copying

of music

forthe Sforza

court,

but

exactly

what

he

copied

we do not

know.'2

At

present

we can

only say

that

there

s

nothing

n the

Missa L'Homme

rmd

uper

oces

musicales

that s incompatiblewith a datingin Milan in the 1470s,some-

time

prior

to his

departure

n

1479-yet

it is also

possible

that

it

could

have

been

written n

Ferrara

in

I48o

or

1481, fJosquin

accompanied

his

patron,

Ascanio

Sforza,

during

Ascanio's

residence

in

Ferrara

in

148o,

afterhis

exile from

Milan.43

This

would

certainly

have

been

a

plausible

occasion

for

the

writing

of

the

Missa Hercules

ux

Ferrarie,

hich

s in

its time

a

new

type

of musical

tribute

to

a

living

ruler,

and

which

is in

certain

respectsparallel to theL'Homme rmduper ocesmusicalesn the

rigorous

and calculated

symmetry

f its

structure.

With

regard

to matters

of

style

and structure s

a

potential

basis

for

he

chronology

f

the earliest

ettings,

shall offer

nly

some

brief

remarks.

n view

of

the

present

consensus

that

the

Dufay

and

Ockeghem

Masses

are the

very

oldest in

the

series,

it is

surprising

how

littleresemblance

there

s between

the two

works.

They

differ

harply

n

significant

ways:

in

their

entire

scale

of

composition,

n their

handling

of the

tenor,

n

their

mensural ayout, n theiruse ofcontrasting ectionswithout he

tenor,

and

even

in

certain

details

of the tenor

melody

itself.

The

Dufay

Mass is

laid

out on

the

grand scale;

it is a

long,

notare

&

pagare

qualche

cosa,

facetilo,

poi

avisatime

el

tutto,

ur

che

ce

la

mandiati

presto

.

.'

(from

etter

of

i6

March

1484

from

Duke

Ercole

I

d'Este

to Antonio

de

Montecatini,

is

ambassador

t

Florence;

Modena,

Archivio

i

Stato,

Camera,

Ambasciatori,

irenze,

.

3,

Minute

Ducali).

41

See

J.

Llorens,

El

Codice

Casanatense

2856

identificado

ome

el

Cancionerode Isabella d'Este (Ferrara)esposa

de

Franscesco

Gonzaga

(Mantua)',

Anuario

musical,

x

(1965),

161-78.

Llorensdoesnotconsider

the

possibility

hat

the

manuscript

ould

have been

compiled

s

early

s

1480,

the

year

of

sabella's

betrothal

o

Francesco

Gonzaga,

rather

han

in

1490,

the

year

of their

marriage.

42

Storia

di

Milano,

Milan,

1953-,

ix.

831.

43

On

the

relationship

f

Josquin

nd

Ascanio

Sforza,

see

E.

Lowinsky,

'Ascanio

Sforza's

Life:

a

Key

to

Josquin

Biography

nd

an Aid

to

the

Chronology

f

his

Works',

forthcoming

n

Proceedings

f

the

nternational

Josquin

estival-Conference.

or

some

evidence

fAscanio

at Ferrara

ee

my

paper

Josquin

t

Ferrara:

New

Documents

nd

Letters',

orthcoming

n

the same

Proceedings.

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ASPECTS OF

THE L'HOMME ARME TRADITION

113

expanded

setting

in which

the tenor

is not

only presented

in as

many

varied forms

and

lengths

as

possible,

but

is

elaborated

both

internally

and

by

means of free

extensions

at the

end of

several

complete expositions.

n

everymajor

move-

ment

and in

many

secondary

ections

Dufay

precedes

the

arrival

of

the

tenor

with

introductory assages,

some

of

extraordinary

length

n

proportion

to

the

length

of

the

tenor

or of the section

as

a

whole

(e.g.

the

'Et

incarnatus est' has

a

72-bar

introduc-

tion

for two

and

then three voices

before the

first

I6-bar

unit of the

tenor).

Dufay's

duos and

trios,

which

make

up

a

large proportionof the entireMass, are neither derived from

tenor

material

nor

based

on

imitation of

single

motives,

but

are

given

over

to

extended

flowing

passages

in

which

deli-

cately

structured

melodic

periods

dovetail

through

the

com-

plementary rhythmic

functions of

the

two or three

voices.

The whole

produces

an effect

of

freely

developing

linear

writing

without the

use

of

sequential

or other

repetitional

schemes,

yet

in

which,

especially

in

the

cantus,

the

time-

points

and

pitch-levels

for

the

conclusion of

one phrase

and

the

beginning

of

another,

are fashioned

with enormous skill

and

consistency;

a

sample

is

provided

in

Ex.

5-

Ex.

5

Kyric

o.=

t

W

Contus

_m

I

I P

..Id.

oI

...

The

Ockeghem

Mass

embodies

a

wholly

different

pproach.

The

entire

Mass is

on a

drastically

smaller

scale,

virtually

that

of

the

missa

brevis

of

a

later

time.

Far

from

having

extended or

even abbreviated

introductions,

t

makes

strikinguse ofthefull

complement

as

opening

sonority,

mbedding

the

tenor

n

the texture

from he

beginning;

in

nine

of the fourteen

sections of

the

Mass

that

have

the

tenor,

that

voice

begins

the

movement. While

the

melodic

motion is

freely

evelopmental,

as

in

Dufay,

it

makes

somewhat

greater

use

of

sequence

or of

parallel

melodic

units in

non-adjacent

positions (Ex.

6).

Contrasts in

the

Ockeghem

Mass

are

inherently

ess drastic

than

in

Dufay,

as

shown

by

his

use

of trios

rather

than

duos

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I

14

ASPECTS OF

THE L

HOMME

ARMk

TRADITION

Ex. 6

'Et in terra'

I&

II

q

Catos

['

39

-I

ew?.

ist7

M09

for

reduced

sections;

this

stands

sharply

apart

from the

two-voice versusfour-voicemeans ofcontrastused in the long

Dufay

introductions nd also in

whole

sections

of

the Masses

by

Caron and

Faugues.

Touches of

canonic

imitation are even

rarer in

Ockeghem

than in

Dufay,

although

canon is

really

incidental

in

both

works.

Finally,

a

most

striking

difference

in

the two

Masses is in the

version of the

melody

that

they

use in the

tenor.

In

the

segment

of the

tune labelled

d'

and

d'

(see

Ex.

2)

Ockeghem

seems to

fluctuate in

his choice

of

pitch

for the

penultimate note; in all movementsup to the

Sanctus

he

alternates so

that

segment

d'

has the

note

g'

while

segment

d2

has the

note e'-then in

the

last

two movements

both of

these

segments

of

the

melody

have

the

note

e'.

In

Dufay

all

movements

except

the

'Christe'

have the

note

g'

in

the

first

egment

and

eithere'

or

an

elaborated form

orthe

segment

d2.

Thus

Ockeghem

seems

to

alternate

between

two

versionsof the

tune,

making

use

of

both,

while

Dufay,

despite

his

occasional

elaborations

of the

melody,

sticks

almost

entirely o one version. Other composersshow similarprefer-

ences

for

ne

version

or

the

other.44

Broadly,

then,

it

would

appear

that

if

the

Dufay

and

Ockeghem

Masses

are

the earliest

settings-and

in the

absence

of

documentary

evidence

this remains a

largely

speculative

hypothesis-they

reflect

ivergent pproaches

to the form

nd

structureof

the

four-voice

cantus

firmusMass as

a

composi-

tional

problem.

Conceivably they

also

belong

to

different

liturgical traditions,

most

likely

those of

Cambrai

and

of

the

French

royal

chapel.

Besseler

regarded

Dufay's

Mass as

being

a

mature

work,

later than

the Missa

Se

la

face ay pale,

with

its

similar secular

tenor;

and

on the

basis

of its

notation

Charles

Hamm

assigns

the

'L'Homme

arme'

Mass to

the

last

period

of

Dufay's

career,

roughly

between

1454

and

44

See

Cohen,

op.

cit.,

p. 23.

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ASPECTS OF

THE

L'HOMME ARME TRADITION I

15

his death in

1474.45

Unfortunately

this

still leaves a

con-

siderable

span

for ts

dating.

The

Ockeghem Mass, however,

could

well

be a

comparatively

early

work forhim.

The Caron

and

Faugues

Masses,

on

the

other

hand,

are

strikingly

imilar

to one

another in

mensural

layout

and

are

much

closer to

the

Dufay

model than to that

of

Ockeghem.46

Despite

their

divergent techniques-the Faugues

Mass is

canonic

throughout,

the Caron is

non-canonic-they appear

to

represent

different

means of

working

out

implications

of

the

Dufay

setting

within

a

smaller framework.Thus Caron

elaborates the tenor even more freely than Dufay, while

evidently

imitating

the

introductory

duets of the

Dufay

setting

e.g.

Caron,

'Et in terra' and

'Patrem').

The

Faugues

Mass,

on

the

other

hand,

is

evidently

the earliest in

which

the

canonic

principle

is

applied systematically

to

the

'L'Homme

arm

'

melody

itself.

t is

also the firstMass of

the

complex

that is

written

entirely

n

canon,

and

is

perhaps

the

earliest of

all

completely

canonic Masses.''

As

for the

setting

byRegis,

it

is

in

several

respects special

kind

of

composition,

and

although

we

can

associate

it with

Cambrai in

I462

the

question

of

precedence

is

wide

open.

The distinctive feature

of

the

Regis

Mass

is its

combining

of

the

'L'Homme

arm6'

melody

with

chants

that

belong

to the

festival

of

Saint

Michael,

who is

thus

celebrated as the

armed

warrior

of the

heavenly

hosts.*8

n

this connection

it

is worth

noting

that

Saint Michael was the

patron

saint

of

France

and

especially

of

the French

military

forces;

in

1469

Louis

XI

founded

a

chivalric order of Saint Michael, imitating the famous

Burgundian

order

of

the Golden

Fleece

(the

Toison

d'Or).

We

know,

furthermore,

hat for the

ceremonies

of

the Toison d'Or

the

Burgundian

Dukes commissioned

Mass

settings.""

Could

this have been

true as well for the

Order

of Saint Michael?

Whatever

else the

Regis

Mass

may

mean,

it is

clearly import-

ant as

evidence

of

the

combining

of the

'L'Homme

arm&'

45

A

Chronologyf

the Works

fGuillaumeufay

based n a

Study fMensuralPractice,rinceton,

96o,

pp.

144

f.

46

The

most

prominent

imilarity

f

mensural

ayout

s in

the

Kyrie,

here

both

Masses have

the

sequence

of

signatures:

,

,

4.

Thereafter he

mensural

nd

structural

rganization

f

the

Faugues

Mass

is

strongly

affected

y

ts

use of

he

music

f

he

complete

Kyrie

I

to end

Gloria,

redo

and

perhaps

Sanctus

nd

Agnus

'Osanna'

II

and

Agnus

II not

set).

47

See

Reese,

Music n

the

Renaissance,

.

II

.

48

bid.,

p. 114.

49

See

S.

W.

Kenney,

Walter

rye

nd

the

Contenance

ngloise,

ew

Haven,

1964,

p.

37, citing

Marix, Histoire,

. 19.

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116

ASPECTS

OF

THE

L'HOMME ARME TRADITION

melody

with

other

melodies,

especially

liturgical

melodies,

at

an

early phase

of the tradition. And

whatever the

original

meaning

of the 'L'Homme

arme'

chanson,

it could

clearly

give

rise to

new and

changing

interpretations.

Thus

the

present

conclusion

on

the

chronology

of the

earliest

works

is

that the

question

is

almost

exactly

where

it was when

described

by Gombosi--open

to

speculation,

providing

much

food

for

thought;

but

yielding

no

conclusive

arguments

for the

priority

of

Dufay

or of

Ockeghem

or

the

younger

composers

surrounding

them.

NEW PERSPECTIVES

About ten

years

ago

some

melodic

similarities in several

'L'homme

arme'

Masses

apart

from the tune

itself

were

called

to

my

attention

by

Mr.

Michael

Kassler,

then

a

graduate

student

at Princeton.

Although

these

similarities

seemed

to me

striking

had no

opportunity

o

pursue

them

further,

nd

it

did

not

then occur to

me

that

they might

be

quotations

of

a

second

melody.

But

when I came back to

the

'L'Homme

arme'

complex

in the

light

ofstudieson fifteenth-

century

Ferrara

and the

diffusion

of Northern

music and

musicians

in

fifteenth-centurytaly,

I

returned

to

the

question.

50

In this

case

it is

not a cadential

formula

but

a

distinctive

melodic

segment

that

is

quoted,

always

in the

highest

voice

and,

in four

of

the earlier

Masses,

always

at the

beginning

of

a

section,

usually

within the

Kyrie

nd once

in the

Gloria.

The earliest example and perhaps the prototype is the

opening

of

the 'Christe' of

Dufay's

Mass,

which

begins

with

a

short

duet that is

really

a

solo

melisma

for the

cantus

part

(Ex.

7).

Ex.

7

A

'ii

..

.

I..

.etc.

l g

..

.

.j.

o

-

--

J'

i:

,0

After the

Dufay

Mass

the

firstwork

in

the

complex

that

furnishes

parallel

to this

passage

is

Josquin's

Missa

L'Homme

arme

super

voces

musicales,

n which

Kyrie

II

begins

with

a

50o

raise

the

matter

here with Mr. Kassler's

approval,

for

which I am

most

grateful.

While

the first

observation

of these

melodic

resemblances

in

several

of the 'L'Homme

arm6' Masses

was

his,

the

further esearch

into

the

possible

source

of the

quotations,

their context and

ramifications

has

been

my

own.

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ASPECTS

OF

THE

L'HOMME ARME

TRADITION

117

strikingly

imilar

line,

again

in the

cantus

and

now

with

a

partial

imitation in

the

alto,

combined

with the

'L'Homme

arm&' tune

in

the bass

(Ex.

8).

The resemblance

in the cantus

Ex.

8

lam

a dab.

,)

....

part

includes

not

only

the entire

pitch-sequence

for as

many

as eleven

notes

but

also

the

rhythmic

formulation

of

the

first

six of these; ifone accepts B-flat uper a in the Dufay passage

the modal

parallel

is

exact. This

prepares

the

way

for

the

third

example

of

the

subject,

in

Josquin's

other 'L'Homme

arm"'

Mass,

the Missa

L'Homme arme'

exti

toni,

n

the

cantus

at

the

opening

of the

Et

in

terra'

(Ex.

9).

Ex. 9

-A

-

U:

The

same

figure

is

found

once

again

in

the

five-voice

cantus

firmus

Mass

setting

by

Palestrina,

published

in

1570;

this

time

it

is

not

at the

opening

of a

movement

but

is

within

Kyrie

,

immediately

after

the first

oint

of mitation

Ex.

Io).

Ex.

0

r

r qr.,

n P~?

I

I

1"

~

F

-

"'"

This

appearance

in

Kyrie

I is the fullest

statement

of

the

figure,

but

the distinctive

opening

is used

in later

movements

as

well

(Gloria,

bars

I5-20;

Credo,

bars

81-84;

Agnus

dei

II,

bars 44-48).

Of

the

many

questions

raised

by

these thematic resem-

blances,

one

of

the

most

crucial

is

whether

they

are

restricted

to

the

'L'Homme

arm&'

tradition

or whether

the

same

thematic

idea

can

be

found

elsewhere.

Without

claiming

to

have

made

a

truly

exhaustive

search,

I can

nevertheless

report

that

I

have

indeed

found

other

uses

of what

seems

to

be

the

same

thematic

idea

outside

the 'L'Homme

arme'

complex,

along

with

a

plainsong

tradition

that

may perhaps

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118

ASPECTS OF THE L'HOMME

ARMIE

TRADITION

be related

to

this

segment.

With the

help

of

Bryden

and

Hughes's thematic index of the so-called standard chant

repertoire

the search

for

a

plainsong

antecedent

could

be

quickly

narrowed down

to

a

very

few

possibilities.51

or the

'minor mode'

version

only

three melodies

corresponded

in

initial

intervals,

and

none

presented

exactly

the

right

con-

tinuation.

This

seemed to

point

back

to

the

'major

mode'

version

as the

more

essential

reading,

and

for

this there

is

a

melody

that is

closely

related

to

the

melisma

quoted

in

these

works

though

probably

not itself

he

direct antecedent-

the KyrieVIII of the Roman Gradual, the so-called Kyriede

Angelis

Ex.

II).52

Ex. 11

-

-.,'

---I

This

was one of the

last-composed

of

all

the standard

Kyrie

melodies,

apparently

written

n

the

fifteenth

entury,

and was knownfromEngland to Hungary." We can observe

that in three

of these Masses

the

melisma

is

indeed

quoted

in

the

Kyrie

movement. Doubts

could

admittedly

be

raised

about

this

relationship-as

to whether

t

is

indeed

a

citation

or

merely

a standard melodic

formula

to

which

the

melody

belongs.

Sir

Jack

Westrup

has made a

particular

point

of the

resemblance

between

the

opening

of

the

Kyrie

de

Angelis

nd

those

of

a

number

of

early

melodies

from

various

repertoires.

6

On the other

hand it is

clear that

what

is

quoted

in

the

'L'Homme

arme'

Masses is more

than

a

brief

opening

figure-the parallels

seem to be

long

and

close

enough

to

suggest

that

these are

indeed

citations. t

is,

of

course,

entirely

possible

that the

Kyrie

e

Angelis

was

known

in

variant

versions

and

in secular melodic

contrafacta,

ut

we

do

not

yet

have

an

unequivocal example.

The

best

possible

control for this

enquiry

is

a

polyphonic

work

of

this

period

that

is

explicitly

based on

the

Kyrie

de

Angelis but not on 'L'Homme arme', conditions that are

satisfied

by

the

Missa

de

Angelis

of

Johannes Prioris,

written

51.j.

R.

Bryden

nd

D.

G.

Hughes,

An

ndex

f

Gregorian

hant,

ambridge,

Mass.,

1970.

52

See Liber

Usualis, . 37*

53

M.

Melnicki,

Das

einstimmige

yriv

es

ateinischen

ittelalters,

rlangen,

1954,

and

Bruno

Staiblein,

Kyrie',

Die

Musik n

Geschichte

nd

Gegenwart,

vii

(1958), 193

ff.

54

'Medieval

Song',

The

New

Oxford

istory

f Music,

ii

(London,

1954),

259-60.

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ASPECTS OF

THE

L'HOMME

ARME

TRADITION

119

about

1490o.5

Although

the

title

of this Mass

presents

the

surprisinganomaly of a polyphonic Mass that is based on a

Kyrie

melody,

it

turns

out

that,not

the

entire

Mass

but

only

its

Kyrie

Ex.

12),

Sanctus

nd

Agnus

re

based

on this

plain-

song,

while

the Gloria

and

Credo re based

on another

melody,

as

yet

unknown.

Nevertheless

t

must

be

admitted

that

while

Ex.

12

TeMr

A

the

Kyrie

de

Angelis

and

the

Prioris

Mass

both

present

the

unmistakable

opening

melismatic

rise,

they

differ

n the

next

melisma

by

leaping

down

from

the

upper

final

to the

sixth

degree

rather

than

descending

stepwise.

The

question

of the

Kyrie

de

Angelis

must

therefore

emain

open

for

the

present.

Both of

these

melodic

criteria,

on

the

other

hand,

are

absolutelysatisfied n two last examples I wishtopresenthere.

The

first

comes

from an

anonymous

and

unfortunately

textless

hanson for

three

voices

preserved

n

the

chansonnier

Banco

Rari

MS

229

(ff.

204-5),

copied

in Florence

around

1490 (Ex.

13).

6

The

second

comes

from a

work that

is far

Ex. 13

Uzi

_b

.

,

:b_

L-J

_

_

i.:A.-

'

_

_

.JL.F.:

"

~

?

i.. ..

55

For a score ofthe PriorisMass I am

greatly

ndebtedto

Mr. Conrad

Douglas.

Another

ifteenth-century

ork

based

on

this

plainsong

s

the

Kyrie

ttributed o

Binchois

and

published

by

Feininger

s

part

of a

composite

Mass

(Documenta

olyphoniae

Liturgicae

.

Ecclesiae

omanrae,er.i,

Nc.

5,

Rome,

1949).

The

Kyrie

s

transmitted

separately

from the

other

movements,

nd

only

he

Kyrie

ased on

this

ntecedent.

am

indebted

o

Leo

Treitler

or

alling

his

work o

my

attention.

56

A

complete

edition of

the

manuscript

s to

be

published,

y

Howard

Brown

in

the

series

Monuments

f

Renaissance

usic.

I

am

grateful

o

Professor

rown

or

dvising

me

that

as

yet

he

too

has

so far

been

unable

to

identify

he

composer

r

text

of

this

work,

r

any

concordances or

t.

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120 ASPECTS OF

THE

L'HOMME

ARMEI

TRADITION

_______

l J

_____

_

_

_.

,_

"

removed from

the

'L'Homme

arm6'

tradition,

yet

is

equally

famous

as

the

progenitor

of

a

series

of

elaborations written

long

after ts time: the well-known In nomine' section from

John

Taverner's

Mass

'Gloria

tibi

trinitas',

the

basis

for all

the

later 'In nomine'

compositions

of

the

sixteenth and

seventeenth

centuries.

For

the

first

1

bars

of

this section the

plainsong

is in

long

notes

n

the

alto,

while

a

strongly

rticula-

ted

contrapuntal

web is

spun

around

it,

using

systematic

imitation.

The four-voice

exture

s led

to

a

first

ull

cadence

on

D;

then,

at

the word

'Domini',

the tenor embarks on a

new melodic strain in F, reinforcedby a partial imitation

in

the

bass,

leading

to

a

cadence on

C and

preparing

the

further

course

of the

piece.

I

do not

believe

it

has

been

noticed

that

the

tenor

melody

of

this

passage

(Ex.

i4)67

Ex.

14

EDo-

- - -

-

ni Do-

- -

-

Do

Do

-

..

,ii

,,

So-i

is

identical

in all essential

respects

with

the

melody quoted

in

major

mode

by

Josquin

and

Palestrina

in

their

L'Homme

arm6'

Masses,

and

with

the

tune

in Banco

Rari

229.

In

Taverner's

composition

the

strategic

ocation

of this

melody,

its

role

as

temporary

eading

voice

beginning

a

subsection

of

57

The

Taverner

xcerpt

s

quoted

here

fter

Tudor

hurch

usic,

.

149,

with

redistribution

f

the

text

nd

withnote

values

halved.

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ASPECTS

OF

THE

L'HOMME

ARME

TRADITION

I2I

the

movement,

the

change

of

text

at the word

'Domini'-all

these contribute to the impression that this melodic resem-

blance

is not

an accident.

Whether

this

segment

was

observed

and

used

by

later

composers

of

In

nomine'

settings

do not

know,

but

the

point

could

be

pursued;

I

can

testify

hat it is

not used

by

the one

known British

composer

of a

'L'Homme

arm6'

Mass,

Robert

Carver.

For

the moment it

may

suffice

to

provide

a

small

link between

the

'L'Homme

arm6'

tradition

and

the 'In nomine'

tradition,

somewhat in

the

sense that two distinct but ancient

family

dynasties may

share a commonrelative.

In conclusion one

final

observation.

In

the

concluding

chapter

of his Bourdon und

Fauxbourdon,

Heinrich

Besseler

tried

to

set in new

perspective

the vast

development

of

Franco-Flemish

polyphony

from the

period

of

Dufay

to

the

death

of

Lassus. One of

his

cardinal

arguments

for

a

trans-

formation

of

style

around

1430

was

that

it

involves not

only

a

new

type

of

melody

but

the

rise of

a

new

consciousness

among composersof the importance of linear coherence and

of the

enrichment

of

polyphony

through

the

absorption

of

self-sufficient

melodies into

polyphonic

textures.

Obviously

the

'L'Homme

arme'

complex

represents

one of

the

largest

contemporary

developments

in

which

a

secular

melody

is

subjected

to

polyphonic

transformations

f

every

kind and

is

made

to

generate

polyphonic

structures

of

great

variety.

At

the

same

time,

while

more

effort han ever is

needed to

uncover the inner

complexities

of

these

works,

we

may

do

well to seek and follow thedelicate threadsthat connect them

to the

vast

melodic

repertoires

of

the

time,

both

secular

and

sacred. The

evidence at

hand

suggests

that

the

polyphonic

and

monophonic

domains

of

the

fifteenth

entury

are

even

more

interdependent

than we

have been

accustomed

to

think,

and

that new

explorations

may

yield

new

connections. It

also

suggests

the

continued

vitality

of an

ancient

critical

common-

place-that

while

the

analysis

of

individual

works

is

an

essential and fundamental task of musicology, it can only

be

enriched

and

deepened by

a

sense of

the context

n which

such works

were

created,

a

context

from

which

theymay

have

drawn sustenance

that we can

only

perceive

through

pains-

taking

historical

reconstruction.

POSTSCRIPT

Since

the

completion

f

his rticle have

come across ther

nstances

n ate

fifteenth-century

usic

fwhat

ppear

to

be citations

f his

till

unidentified

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I22

ASPECTS OF

THE LIHOMME

ARMI

TRADITION

melody.

One

of

these

occurs,

nterestingly

nough,

n

Kyrie

of the second

anonymous

Mass

based

on

O

rosa

bella',

as

a distinctive

ontrapuntal

ass

part (Trent,Castellodel Buon ConsiglioMS go, ff. 2ov-428; Denkmdler

der

Tonkunst

n

Osterreich,

xii

(Jahrgang

xi/I,

1904),

13).

Another instance

worthy

f

mention

s,

once

again,

in the

Proportionale

y

Tinctoris,

where

the

opening

fthe

melody

s

found n

complete

orm t the

beginning

fthe

upper

part

of an untexted

wo-voice

xample;

see

Coussemaker,

criptores,

iv.

159.