Music from the Earliest Notations to the Sixteenth Century

FIG. 6-7A Last line of Dic, Christi veritas, beginning at bottom left and continuing at top right; from Flo, fol. 203 v–204 (cf. final
tenor melisma in Ex. 6-7).
The last line of the tenor part from the Florence version of Dic, Christi veritas, including the big first-
mode cauda, is shown in Fig. 6-7a. But now look at Fig. 6-7b. It contains a monophonic conductus, Veste
nuptiali, found in the last fascicle of the Florence manuscript, far away from Dic, Christi veritas. It is
written, as music cum littera has to be, in what look like perfect longs. Compare it with Fig. 6-7a.
Although the notation differs radically, it is the same melody exactly. Is Veste nuptiali a “prosulated”
version of the cauda? Perhaps; but then again, perhaps not: the first two phrases of the melody are an
ouvert/clos pair, suggesting that it may be a disguised love song. By now the fluidity of medieval genres
should be no surprise to us. This is one of the most piquant instances in the repertory.