with the works of Vitry that we have been examining.
It is found in a rotulus, a scroll-manuscript from about 1325. Little scrolls of this kind, of which very
few survive, were the sort of manuscripts from which the proudly literate singers of motets actually
performed, as opposed to the lavish codices, the illuminated presentation manuscripts, that preserve most
of what we call our “practical” source material (to distinguish it from “theoretical” sources like
treatises). In their day such codices were not practical sources at all, but items of wealth to be stored
away—which is why we have them now. Rotuli, meant for use, were used up.
In terms of dimensions and complexity of structure, Musicalis Sciencia/Sciencie Laudabili is a fairly
modest motet. It has no introitus. The tenor, which enters immediately, is the Christmas Alleluia, Dies
sanctificatus (“A hallowed day has dawned for us”), one of the most famous of all Gregorian chants,
which may be why the composer or the scribe did not bother, in this unassuming practical source, to
identify it. It is laid out in a single incomplete cursus, so that there is no color repetition. There is plenty
of talea repetition, though: seven in all, of which Ex. 8-4 contains the last two. The syncopation at the end
of each talea is produced, like the tenor syncopation in the previous example, by the use of red ink: the
final maxima and long are counted in “imperfect mode.” A second glance shows that the triplum and
motetus voices are likewise governed by an eight-bar talea, so that the entire piece is “pan-isorhythmic”
in seven rhythmically identical sections or strophes. Each of these strophes ends with a sort of cauda
consisting of a melisma on the last syllable, which is held through an especially blithesome—and because
of the melisma, an especially hiccupy—bunch of hockets, in which the singers have to emit single minims
on open vowel sounds, without any consonants to assist in articulation. The line between virtuosity and
clownishness can be a fine one.
FIG. 8-5 Lorenzo d’Alessandro, Musical Angels, a wall painting from the church of Santa Maria di Piazza, Sarnano, Italy. The
angel at right is reading from a rotulus, or scroll manuscript of the kind used by singers in actual performance during the late
Middle Ages.EX. 8-4 Musicalis Sciencia/Sciencie Laudabili, mm. 121–67 (Paris, BN, Coll. de Picardie 67,f. 67 ’)