But meaning is never entirely inherent. It is also relational. The textural intricacy of the climactic
stanza offsets the really stark homorhythm of the concluding prayer (Ex. 14-6e). The starkness comes
about by virtue of the entrance of all four parts together on a “hollow” or “open” perfect consonance on
“O.” Everywhere else, four-part homophony implied triadic harmony. Here the four voices are absorbed
into the perfect consonance so as to sound like an amplification of a single voice. And once again, the
motivation is textual: for the one and only time in this composite text, the first person singular pronoun
(mei, “of me”) replaces the plural (nostra, “our”). There can be no question that the composer of this
motet saw himself as the “performer” of the words, a musical rhetorician par excellence.
EX. 14-6D Josquin des Prez, Ave Maria ... Virgo serena, mm. 28–35EX. 14-6E Josquin des Prez, Ave Maria ... Virgo serena, mm. 36–end