THE BEGINNINGS OF “FUNCTIONAL” HARMONY?
As a marvelous summation of everything we have learned to identify as English, consider the motet
Thomas gemma Cantuariae/Thomas caesus in Doveria (“Thomas, jewel of Canterbury/Thomas, slain in
Dover”). Ex. 11-11 shows its beginning. Discovered by fortunate accident in the flyleaves of an English
(non-musical) manuscript from the fourteenth century that was acquired by the Princeton University
Library around 1950, it is a dual martyrs’ commemoration. The motetus celebrates Thomas de la Hale, a
monk from the Benedictine priory at Dover, the chalk-cliffed English channel port, who was slain in a
French raid that took place in August 1295, prefiguring the protracted conflict that became known as the
Hundred Years War. The triplum celebrates another Thomas, the most eminent of all English martyrs:
Thomas à Becket (1118–70), known since his canonization in 1173 as St. Thomas of Canterbury, who was
murdered in the Canterbury Cathedral at the behest of King Henry II. The two texts in conjunction draw
parallels between the two martyred Thomases, often sharing or paraphrasing each other’s lines.
As might be guessed, the triplum and motetus, each representing a Thomas, are “twinned,” sharing the
same range and indulging in frequent voice exchanges and hockets. And they are accompanied by a tenor
and a contratenor (the latter actually labeled “secundus tenor”) that are twinned in the same ways, thus