The outstanding textural novelty here is the use of almost systematic imitation entirely confined to the
superius and the tenor, the voices that make up the structural pair. The incipits of both musical sections are
imitations at the octave at a time interval of two tempora. They could hardly be more conspicuous.
Thereafter, the alerted ear will pick up the imitation at the fourth on the final melisma of the second line of
the refrain, at the last line of the refrain (“Sans reconfort...”), and (more subtly) at the last line of the
second musical section, the very end of the music as notated. This final one is less pronounced not only
because it is shorter but also because it is covered up by the movement of the other voices. Elsewhere,
Ockeghem is careful to lay bare the points of imitation by having the second entering voice rest while the
first enunciates the motif that will be imitated.
This kind of superius–tenor imitation, in which the nonessential voice or voices do not participate,