One cannot solve the rhythmic riddle this piece poses on the basis of the notation itself, because the
notation has to be as it is regardless of the answer. But at least it is clear that the “fifth mode” or spondaic
appearance of the syllabic notation does not tell us what the composer’s intention may have been with
respect to rhythm. It is a default notation, and therefore an ambiguous one.
Consider another example. Dic, Christi veritas (“Say, O truth of Christ”), an angry screed against
clerical hypocrisy, was one of the most famous poems by Philip the Chancellor, the old rector of the
University of Paris. As a conductus it is found in the Carmina burana manuscript in a monophonic
version, and in all the main Notre Dame sources in an elaborate three-voice setting. The tenor in this
version is clearly related to the monophonic Carmina burana tune, but like the other voices it is
decorated with lots of caudae, with an especially lavish one at the end. The caudae, as usual, are in a
clearly notated first mode. The meter of the verse, however, is not straightforwardly trochaic. The final
cauda is given in Ex. 6-7.
EX. 6-6B Vetus abit littera, transcribed in fifth mode