van der Werf, Hendrik, and Wolf Frobenius. “Cantus coronatus.” In Handwörterbuch der
musikalischen Terminologie, ed. Hans Heinrich Eggebrecht. Wiesbaden: Steiner, 1971–. 12 pp.
(1983).
CANTUS FIRMUS
. A preexisting segment of music, usually extracted from Gregorian chant, upon which a
new polyphonic composition is based. The use of a cantus firmus provided the earliest
means of constructing polyphony and remained important as a compositional procedure
in France throughout the Middle Ages. Cantus firmi extracted from Notre-Dame organa
of the late 12th and early 13th centuries provided the foundation voice for the earliest
motets, the most progressive polyphonic form of the 13th century. The cantus firmus was
subjected to strict rhythmic patterning, and the preexisting segment of music lent the
authority of the sacred chant to new compositions based on it. By the latter part of the
13th century, composers occasionally employed secular cantus firmi. Often, the texts of
the upper voices of a motet were related to the word or words identifying the cantus
firmus in a complementary or ironic fashion. Use of a cantus firmus continued in
isorhythmic motets of the 14th and 15th centuries, as well as in the unified cyclic Mass of
the 15th century.
Lawrence Earp
[See also: CYCLIC MASS; ISORHYTHMIC MOTET; MOTET (13TH CENTURY);
NOTRE-DAME SCHOOL]
CAPETIAN DYNASTY
. The Capetians, called in the Middle Ages the “third race” of French kings, coming after
the Merovingians and Carolingians, ruled France in unbroken succession from 987 to
1328. (The first kings from the lineage had already ruled briefly a century before Hugh
Capet’s accession in 987 on the death of Louis V: Eudes [r. 888–98] and his brother
Robert I [r. 922–23].) The term “Capetian” was coined in the French Revolution, but the
“third race” was a recognized entity 800 years earlier; the epithet “Capet,” meaning a cap
or cape, was attached to Hugh Capet in the 13th century. Although the Capetian line is
considered to have ended with the advent of the Valois in 1328, in fact the Valois and all
succeeding French monarchs through Louis XVI were descended in the male line from
Hugh Capet.
For the first century or so of Capetian rule, the kings exercised little authority outside
the restricted area surrounding their capital at Paris. The counts of Blois and Troyes,
whose counties flanked royal Francia, were more powerful in many respects. Yet the
Capetians had succeeded the Carolingians with an almost theocratic aura as God’s
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