The most elaborate piece of this type is a translated sequence from the late thirteenth century, Jesu
Cristes milde moder (from Stabat juxta Christi crucem, related to the famous Stabat mater). It is found
in a manuscript that otherwise contains Latin-texted music, mainly plainchant (Ex. 11-5). The two voices
in this case are really twins. They occupy the same range and constantly cross, so that neither produces
“the tune” or “the accompaniment.” What is heard as “the tune” in a situation like this is actually a
resultant of the constant voice-crossing. The voices are actually in a kind of “pivot” or “fulcrum”
relationship, radiating outward from a central unison (to which cadences are ultimately made, occursus -
fashion) through a third to a fifth; no larger interval is used. Although the F scale with B-flat is the
medium through which the whole piece moves, and although the third F–A is its most characteristic (and
normative) harmony, it begins and ends on unison G, the fulcrum-pitch between F and A (a true tone
“center,” in a curiously literal sense).
EX. 11-4A Edi beo thu, hevene QueneEX. 11-4B Foweles in the frith, beginning