INSULAR FAUNA?
The examples given so far are enough to show that English polyphonic music pursued a somewhat
different line of development from the one we have traced on the European mainland. Indeed, it is
tempting to look upon England as a sort of musical Australia, an island culture inhabited by, and
sustaining, its own insular fauna—musical kangaroos, koalas, and platypuses. That, however, would be
very much to exaggerate England’s musical isolation or independence. It is also a considerable
exaggeration to view the English preference for thirds as something altogether alien or opposed to
continental practice, as if only in remote geographical corners (and behind closed doors, among
consenting adults) could harmonies unsanctioned by Pythagoras or the Musica enchiriadis be furtively
enjoyed.
We’ve seen plenty of thirds in music previously studied, and not even the English thought thirds so
consonant that they could be used to end a (written) piece—assuming that a piece has an ending, as a rota
does not. This very chapter, moreover, has already shown the British Isles to have been no isolated
territory but a site of repeated invasion and colonization, with substantive musical effect—and we have
not yet even mentioned the most momentous invasion of all, the Norman Conquest of 1066 that brought the
English into an intense, long-lasting, and all-transforming intercourse with French language, society, and
culture.