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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 1Aa2 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

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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.