And that is why the tenor in Fig. 7-3 is notated in notae simplices (longs and duplex longs, now called
maximas) throughout. The three-note ligatures or ternariae that had represented spondaic or fifth-mode
ordines in the Notre Dame style could no longer represent a group of three longs since middle notes were
now breves by definition.
The remaining Franconian innovation was the division of the breve (or tempus) into semibreves, so
that three note values were available. For the semibreve, too, an existing grapheme was co-opted. It was
represented by the diamond shape that had originally been part of the climacus, the three-note descending
neume in Gregorian chant notation. (For an example see the peak of the “omnes” melisma in the Gradual
Viderunt omnes near the beginning of Fig. 6-3a in the previous chapter.) It had previously been adapted
by the Notre Dame scribes to represent currentes, long descending “runs” of quick notes. (For the all-
time champion run of currentes see the duplum voice in the organum on Viderunt omnes, right under the
illuminated capital in Fig. 6-3b.) Although the semibreve shape was derived, logically enough, from the
quickest notes in the Notre Dame sign-system, the use of the semibreve in motets was not simply a way of
speeding things up. Rather, the introduction of the semibreve made it possible to distinguish a third level
of rhythmic activity. As we shall see, this was something that the development of the motet demanded.
Theoretically, the division of the breve into semibreves was similar to that of the long into breves: the
longer value was assumed to be “perfect,” meaning divisible by three. In practice, the division of the
breve was duple from the first, and semibreves generally appeared in pairs. As the table shows, there
was even a ligature shape to represent a pair of semibreves. Therefore most scholars assume that the
notes in the pair were effectively equal in duration as performed, even though theorists called the first of
them the semibrevis recta (one third of a breve) and the second the semibrevis altera (two thirds of a
breve), implying a rather fussy lurching rhythm.
CONFLUENCE OF TRADITIONS
The motets examined thus far, all of them deriving from a specific clausula-protoype, demonstrate the
descent of the motet from the liturgical repertory of Notre Dame. That is only half the story, though. A
glance at another texting of the same Ex semine clausula will suggest the other half. Figure 7-4, allowing
for the minor copying variants one must expect to find when comparing manuscripts, is musically identical
to Fig. 7-3. The appearance of the notation, of course, is altogether different, but that difference should not
mislead us. Since it comes from a Notre Dame source (our old friend W 2 ), the notation in Fig. 7-4 is pre-
mensural. The motetus and triplum are laid out in score (although the tenor is now entered separately, to
save space, as in Fig. 7-3), and the notes are graphically undifferentiated as to rhythm. But by now we
know that the intended rhythm is the same one represented in modal notation in Fig. 7-2a and mensural
notation in Fig. 7-3.
The real difference between Fig. 7-3 and Fig. 7-4, and it is a huge one, is a matter not of notes but of
text. A different text to be sung to the same tune is called a contrafactum (or, in anglicized form, a
“contrafact”). This particular contrafact involves a change not only of words but of language. The Ex
semine clausula has been effectively transformed into a French song for two voices over a vocalized or
instrumental tenor. Its text, skillfully modeled to fit the irregular phrases of the original clausula, is as
follows: