And the tenor is the same tenor as in Ex. 7-4, only cast like the other parts in the trochaic first mode,
with irregularities that only mensural notation could pinpoint with accuracy.
Though short and sweet, not to say trivial at first glance, this piece is very much a tour de force of
composing in the most literal, etymological sense (from componere, to put things together). The task
involved shoehorning into one harmonizing texture not one, not two, but three preexisting melodies, of
which one contained, as an additional hazard, many musical repetitions of its own. The audience would
have derived great pleasure out of penetrating beyond the first glance to recognize the three preexisting
tunes (all in different forms) and marvel at the skill with which they had been combined.
EX. 7-5 J’ai les maus d’amours/que ferai/IN SECULUM (Montpelier, Facultédemédicines H 196 (Mo), f. 188 ’)Such a piece was a triumph of literate contrivance, one whose craftsmanly intricacy depended utterly
on the written medium. Like the trobar clus of the troubadours, its meaning was “shut up and obscure,” so
that “a man is afraid to do violence to it” by casual oral delivery, as Peire d’Alvernhe (1158–80), one of
the late Provençal poets, had declared in defense of recherché, “difficult” art.^8