Pacilio 1

Score Identication: 14th Century Rondeaux

The piece at hand seems to be from 14th century France during the Ars Nova period.
The texture, which includes a tenor, cantus, and triplum point the style of polyphony
used throughout the 1300s. The use of duple meter also indicates the new sophistication
of rhythm that was prevalent during the French Ars Nova. The composers of the Italian
Trecento, the period that paralleled the Ars Nova, borrowed many stylistic attributes
from their French counterparts. However, the reverse is also true. The Landini cadence
in measure 20 seems to indicate the Italian Trecento but the composer, probably
Guillaume Machaut, chose to use a French text which identies the true origin of the
piece. It is doubtful that an Italian composer would ever choose to use a French text.
The form of this piece is what clearly illustrates its origin. The piece is a
polyphonic chanson, specically a rondeaux, one of the French formes xe. The
numbers in the score seem to indicate lines of poetry which expose the form of the
piece. The piece is strophic and follows the form ABa
1
Aa
2
bAB. Rondeaux were love
songs that consisted of two part refrains. The capital letters indicate verbatim repetition
of melodic material and text while the lower case letters indicate repeating strophes
with different text. The rst A section lasts from mm 1-20 and the B section lasts from
mm 21-40. When the rst section returns though, the text is altered but it is set to the
same music. This is indicated by using a lowercase a
1
. The rst section is repeated again
two times in a row, the rst time using the original text (A) and the second time using a
Pacilio 2
new set of text (a
2
). The second section then returns using the same melodic material but
a different set of text and so it is represented by a lowercase b. The piece then closes
with the original 2 part refrain heard at the beginning with sections A and B. The piece
is very melismatic which might seem to suggest music from an earlier period. The
rhythms though, which are well dened and written in duple meter did not exist in
earlier periods. The number of voices (3) also suggests the Ars Nova. The only voice
that is provided with a text is the Cantus, another stylistic attribute of the rondeaux.
With this much evidence, it is safe to assume that the piece is a rondeaux from 14th
century France. Given the fact that Machaut was very fond of writing pieces in the
French xed forms, I think he is a safe bet for this piece.