as we have only to glance across the English Channel to discover. When last we looked, English church
music had already diverged significantly in style from the continental variety, and the stylistic differences,
it was already evident, indicated a difference in attitude. But if Josquin’s style and Cornysh’s already
made for a striking contrast, just compare two excerpts from the Sanctus of a Mass by John Taverner
(1490–1545), Willaert’s exact contemporary (Ex. 15-8).
The luxuriant melismatic cantus-firmus polyphony that characterized the Eton Choirbook antiphons has
continued its jungle growth. Neither textual declamation nor structural imitation play anything like the role
they had long since come to play in the humanistically influenced church music of continental Europe from
the Low Countries to Italy. None of the music examined up to now in this chapter sported anything so old-
fashioned as a traditional plain-chant cantus firmus in long notes. Taverner occasionally unifies the texture
with repetitions among the voices, but such imitations are still close to their conceptual origins in such
“medieval” devices as voice-exchange and hocket (see in particular the higher moving parts at “Domini”
in Ex. 15-8a).
EX. 15-8A John Taverner, Missa Gloria Tibi Trinitas, Benedictus, mm. 7–21