Plainsong and Medieval Music, 14, 1, 5988 2005 Cambridge University Press DOI:10.

1017/S0961137104000117 Printed in the United Kingdom

Tonal structure and the melodic role of chromatic inections in the music of Machaut*
JENNIFER BAIN

ABSTRACT.

The interpretation of chromatic content in fourteenth-century music has been widely debated. While most studies have focused on contrapuntal necessity, this study advocates an approach that begins from the perspective of melody. Using the ballades, virelais and rondeaux of Guillaume de Machaut as a central repertory, it proposes that not only are chromatic inections in Machauts monophonic songs derived melodically, but that many chromatic inections in Machauts polyphonic songs also arise from melodic rather than contrapuntal requirements. Because of their implied semitone motion arguably crucial to tonal organization they can have an impact on the denition of tonal structure by privileging the individual pitches they decorate, particularly but not exclusively in cadential melodic formulas or progressions.

Because the notational system of the music of the ars nova is so far removed from our own, decoding the musical surface is not always a straightforward task. Fourteenthcentury theorists do not provide us with absolutely clear textbook instructions about how to interpret the extant manuscript sources, especially in the area of chromatic inflections, and generations of debate have concerned the interpretation of the chromatic content of fourteenth-century song. Lucy Cross makes the insightful remark that If medieval performers had been faced with the same kinds of problems about ficta that we are, we should have a far more lucid legacy from them of answers to our questions than we do.1 Modern scholars and performers, anxious to determine where fourteenth-century performers would have interpolated inflections that are unsigned in the manuscript sources, have focused on contrapuntal requirements: causa pulchritudinis (the adjustment of thirds and sixths in order to lie closer to

Email: jennifer.bain@dal.ca *I presented earlier versions of this paper at the Medieval and Renaissance Music Conference at the University of Bristol in July 2002 and at the annual meeting of the Society for Music Theory in Columbus, Ohio in October 2002. Research for this article was supported in part by the Sarah Jane Williams Award from the International Machaut Society, as well as by generous fellowships from the Quebec governments Fonds pour la Formation de Chercheurs et lAide a la Recherche and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research ` Council of Canada. I would like to thank Sarah Fuller and my colleagues David Schroeder, Jacqueline Warwick and Steve Baur for their comments, and an anonymous reader for critiquing and engaging so deeply with an earlier version of this essay. 1 Lucy E. Cross, Chromatic Alteration and Extrahexachordal Intervals in Fourteenth-Century Polyphonic Repertories, Ph.D. diss., Columbia University (1990), 71.

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the fifths and octaves that follow), and causa necessitatis (the chromatic adjustment to make fifths and octaves perfect).2 Even Thomas Brothers and Lucy Cross, both of whom devote major studies to chromaticism in the fourteenth century, concentrate almost exclusively on the relationship between chromatic inflections and counterpoint.3 This issue of contrapuntal requirements is not trivial in the least: our understanding of notated inflections and biases about the interpolation of inflections can substantially alter the performance and analysis of individual works. Rather than using contrapuntal requirements as a starting point, however, I am advocating an approach that begins from the perspective of melody. Since chromatic inflections proliferate in both monophonic and polyphonic repertories, their appearance cannot be ascribed to contrapuntal usage alone. Although it might be possible to argue that contrapuntal thinking underlies melodic structure in Machauts monophonic repertory in the same way that Bachs solo cello suites project underlying harmonic progressions I would suggest that the opposite is true. Not only are chromatic inflections in Machauts monophonic repertory derived melodically, but many chromatic inflections in Machauts polyphonic repertory also arise from melodic rather than contrapuntal requirements. Acknowledging the melodic role of chromatic inflections may assist in the interpretation of particular contrapuntal passages. Melodic chromatic inflections, moreover, because of their implied semitone motion can contribute fundamentally to the projection of tonal structure in a song. The importance of semitone motion to the tonal structuring of a given song, however, can only be judged by its particular musical context. Melody, signature-systems and tonal structure One recent theory also stresses a direct relationship (albeit in a rather different way) between melody and the new chromaticism the conspicuous prevalence of chromatically altered pitches beyond bX/bZ of fourteenth-century French music.
2

Lucy Cross, Margaret Bent and Elizabeth Eva Leach, advocate that all thirds and sixths which are followed by fifths or octaves respectively should be adjusted chromatically to create semitone motion, whether or not semitone motion appears notationally in one of the voices. Although I agree that inflections sometimes must be interpolated, I do not support a default position in which all uninflected imperfect sonorities are systematically adjusted. See Bain, Theorizing the Cadence, for further discussion of my position, which follows that advocated by Klaus-Jrgen Sachs. Lucy Cross, Chromatic Alteration, see, esp. pp. 99 and 189; Margaret Bent, The Grammar of Early Music: Preconditions for Analysis, in Tonal Structures in Early Music, ed. Cristle Collins Judd (New York and London, 1998), 1559; Elizabeth Eva Leach, Guillaume de Machauts De toutes ours, Music Analysis, 19/3 (2000), 32151, esp. 326, and Elizabeth Eva Leach, review of Chromatic Beauty in the Late Medieval Chanson: An Interpretation of Manuscript Accidentals, by Thomas Brothers (Cambridge, 1997), in Music and Letters, 80/2 (1999), 27481, esp. 27981; Jennifer Bain, Theorizing the Cadence in the Music of Machaut, Journal of Music Theory 47/2 (forthcoming). Klaus-Jrgen Sachs, Der Contrapunctus im 14. und 15. Jahrhundert: Untersuchungen zum Terminus, zur Lehre und zu den Quellen, Beihefte zum Archiv fr Musikwissenschaft 13 (Wiesbaden, 1974), esp. 10310; and Sachs, Die Contrapunctus-Lehre im 14. und 15. Jahrhundert, in Die mittelalterliche Lehre von der Mehrstimmigkeit, ed. Frieder Zaminer, Geschichte der Musiktheorie 5 (Darmstadt, 1984), 161256, esp. 199205. Brothers, Chromatic Beauty in the Late Medieval Chanson: An Interpretation of Manuscript Accidentals (Cambridge, 1997), and Cross, Chromatic Alteration.

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With an explicit focus on the cantus line, Peter Lefferts (1995) proposed a theory of tonal types for fourteenth-century music, which was taken up and expanded by Yolanda Plumley (1996), the emphasis on melody apparent even in her title: The Grammar of 14th-century Melody: Tonal Organization and Compositional Process in the Chansons of Guillaume de Machaut and the Ars Subtilior.4 As Lefferts describes it, the cantus line had conceptual priority over the tenor, so the composer worked from the top down in making important choices about tonal behaviour.5 Lefferts and Plumley describe the system as a priori, i.e., a pre-compositional system used by composers. Tonal types are identified and labelled in each song by the signaturesystem of the song (XX, X, Z, Y, YY), and since the cantus has conceptual priority, tonal types are also identified by final cantus pitch. For instance, regardless of the final pitch in the tenor, if the cantus of a song ends on c, and an apparent BX signature appears in the tenor part, Lefferts would label the song c-X, or if a song ends on d in the cantus and there is no apparent signature in any voice he would label it d-Z. Although the theory has a certain attraction because it is so systematic and generates a grouping of songs into a quantifiable series of categories, I would suggest that it is fundamentally flawed for several reasons. Lefferts bases his approach on the studies of Siegfried Hermelink and Harold Powers, both of whom systematized sixteenthcentury sacred polyphony principally by cataloguing signatures (notated inflections at the beginning of a staff that govern the pitch content for that staff), finals and clefs.6 But unlike late sixteenth-century printed sources, fourteenth-century manuscript sources do not embrace a standard and consistent approach to signatures, and Lefferts does not address this distinction. Although Leo Schrades and Willi Apels twentiethcentury printed editions, on which Lefferts relies, give the illusion of systematic flat signatures in the music of Machaut, signatures are not a consistent feature in the music, and can only be assessed by examining the manuscripts directly.7 The distinction between a signature and an accidental is placement: a signature at the beginning of a line (or near the beginning of a line) might appear long before the first occurrence of the pitch it modifies, while an accidental will appear either immediately before, or within a few notes of the pitch it modifies. More often than not, however, the situation in the Machaut manuscripts is ambiguous. For instance, in the three-part Ballade 36, Se pour ce muir quAmours ai bien servi, perfect sonorities on BX (that is, combinations of perfect octaves and fifths above a BX in the lowest voice) figure prominently, occurring frequently at the beginning or end of phrases and concluding both sections of the song. Every B which appears in the tenor, high or low, has to be sung BX, whether notated or not, to produce perfect octaves with the
4

5 6

Peter Lefferts, Signature Systems and Tonal Types in the late Fourteenth Century Chanson, Plainsong and Medieval Music, 4/2 (1995), 11747, and Yolanda Plumley, The Grammar of 14th-Century Melody: Tonal Organization and Compositional Process in the Chansons of Guillaume de Machaut and the Ars Subtilior (New York and London, 1996). Lefferts, Signature Systems, 119. Siegfried Hermelink, Dispositiones modorum: die Tonarten in der Musik Palestrinas und seiner Zeitgenossen (Tutzing, 1960); and Harold Powers, Tonal Types and Modal Categories in Renaissance Polyphony, Journal of American Musicological Society, 34 (1981), 42870. Lefferts, Signature Systems, 131, note 24.

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contratenor or cantus. If signatures were used with any kind of consistency in the Machaut manuscripts, they would and should have been used in this song. Only MS E, however, uses consistent signatures for Ballade 36: all four lines of the cantus have bX signatures, while all three lines of the tenor and both lines of the contratenor have signatures of bX and EX.8 In contrast, in MS A, only two of five cantus lines use a bX signature, two of three contratenor lines use a bX signature, and the four lines of the tenor show no sign of consistency whatsoever. Line one of the tenor has no signature, line two has a high bX signature, line three has a low BX signature, and line four has an EX signature.9 Even when several Machaut manuscripts share the same approach to signatures in a given song, the others make it clear that there was no consensus on their usage. For instance, in the two-voice Ballades 1 and 14 (Samours ne fait par sa grace adoucir and Je ne cuit pas quonques a creature), although a bX signature appears at the beginning of each tenor line in MSS C, A and E, it appears much less consistently in MSS F-G and B. For Ballade 1, a possible signature occurs in only one of five tenor lines in MS F-G and in two of three tenor lines in MS B, while for Ballade 14 a possible signature occurs in only one of four tenor lines in MS F-G and one of two in MS B. Clearly, not all scribes thought about signatures in the same way. Moreover, when signatures do appear in the manuscripts, they usually are not consistent between the voices of an individual song, as Ballades 1 and 14 demonstrate: the X signature in MSS C, A and E appears only in the tenor, not in the cantus.10 This
8

10

Manuscript sigla follow the conventional designations for the Machaut manuscripts: MS A (BNF, fonds franais 1584); MS B (BNF, fonds franais 1585); MS C (BMF, fonds franais 1586); MS E (BNF, fonds franais 9221); MS F-G (BNF, fonds franais 2254522546); and MS Vg (New York, Wildenstein Collection, MS without shelfmark). A closer examination of the tenor in MS A raises more questions than it answers. The first of the three BXs in line one is notated, so perhaps it is supposed to be a signature even though it occurs later in the line rather than at the beginning. A bX signature seems to appear in the second line, although the first pitch is actually a b so it might simply be a coincidence, especially since the next b to appear in that line has a X notated again for it, which should not be necessary if a signature is really in force. The third line has a BX signature, but again it might be an accidental rather than a signature since the second note is a B and another X appears later on in the line for the third B. Line four has an apparent EX signature, but the only E in the short line is the fourth note, so again, it may not be a signature but rather an accidental. Numerous explanations have been given for partial or conflicting signatures, ranging from evidence of bitonality (Apel), to an indication of modal transposition (Hoppin), or hexachordal transposition (Bent; Hughes), to necessity for cadential progressions (Lowinsky) or varied cadential sonorities (McGary), to the sugesstion that the partial signature is meaningless (Christian Berger). See Bent, Musica ficta, and Moll Realizing Partial Signatures for summaries of these issues. W. Apel, The Partial Signatures in the Sources up to 1450, Acta Musicologica, 10 (1938), 113, and 11 (1939), 402; Margaret Bent, Musica Recta and Musica Ficta, Musica Disciplina, 26 (1972), 73100; Bent, Musica ficta, 3 (ii): Practical Applications: Signatures, The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 17 (New York, 2001), 4478; Christian Berger, Hexachord und Modus: drei Rondeaux von Gilles Bincois, Basler Jahrbuch fr historische Musikpraxis, 17 (1993), 7187; Richard H. Hoppin, Partial Signatures and Musica Ficta in Some Early 15th-Century Sources, Journal of the American Musicological Society, 6 (1953), 197215; Hoppin, Conflicting Signatures Reviewed, Journal of the American Musicological Society, 9 (1956), 97117; Andrew Hughes, Manuscript Accidentals: Ficta in Focus 13501450, Musicological Studies and Documents 27 ([Rome], 1972); Edward E. Lowinsky, The Function of Conflicting Signatures in Early Polyphonic Music, The Musical Quarterly, 31 (1945), 22760; Thomas McGary, Partial Signature Implications in the

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discrepancy between voices in terms of signature raises a serious issue for the theoretical premise of Lefferts tonal types, if the cantus line is to have conceptual priority. In his system of categories, often the final and the signature are taken from different voices, the final always from the cantus, and the signature usually from the tenor. His distinctions between tonal types are based on what appear to be regular inflections in only one voice, a conflict that he claims his signature categories describe:
Mapped against these signature-systems, the signatures of cantus and tenor are often conflicting, and if so, usually the upper voice has one flat less or one sharp more than the lower voice.11

Lefferts characterizes the signature-systems as overlapping hexachord systems in which upper and lower voices share two of three hexachords each, with the lower voice extending one hexachord flatwards of the upper voice, and the upper voice extending one hexachord sharpwards of the lower voice (see Table 1, after Lefferts).12
Table 1 Lefferts example 6, The signature systems as hexachords.

The implication of Lefferts proposed theory which he outlines for us is that within a certain signature category the voices will reflect the signature in a similar way, with the lower voices generally flatter than the upper voices:
the usual tendency is for composers to write so that cantus and tenor stay in the pair of overlapping hexachords common to both hexachord systems, with alternative recta choices between non-adjacent hexachords corresponding to points of tonal fluctuation. Taking the two-flat system for demonstration purposes, both voices would stay mainly in the BX and

11 12

Escorial Manuscript V.III.24, The Music Review, 40/2 (1979), 7789; and Kevin Moll, Realizing Partial Signatures around 1400: Lieberts Credo as a Test Case, Performance Practice Review, 10 (1997), 24854. Lefferts, Signature Systems, 126. The idea of overlapping hexachord systems comes from Andrew Hughes, Manuscript Accidentals and Margaret Bent Musica Recta, although Lefferts takes it much further and offers it as theoretical explanation rather than the practical application for interpolating inflections that Hughes and Bent propose. Hughes, Manuscript Accidentals, esp. 468; and Bent, Musica Recta, esp. 989.

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Table 2 Notated chromatic inflections in Helas tant (B2), manuscripts A and G.

Table 3 Notated chromatic inflections in Il mest avis (B22) and Une vipere (B27) and Tant doucement (R9), manuscript A.

F hexachords. The bifurcation of hexachordal pathways would fall around acute-register c; here and above the choice would be between bX and c hexachords (with eX and e as recta alternatives); in the lower register the choice would be between EX and F hexachords (with AX and A as recta alternatives).13

It is rare, however, for the music to behave as Lefferts suggests it does, as can be seen from an examination of the four Machaut songs in Lefferts c-X category. Ballade 2, Helas! tant ay doleur et peinne, is the only one to resemble Lefferts hexachordal scheme and distribution of recta and cta pitches. In Lefferts one-flat signature-system both voices should share F and C hexachords with bX and b as recta alternatives in the upper register and EX and E in the lower, and with cta pitches fY in the upper register and b in the lower. Although a signature appears in the tenor voice of just a single manuscript, MS Vg,14 in MSS A and G notated bXs do appear twice in the tenor (and bZ once), while in the cantus fY occurs three times (see Table 2).15 The tenor, and the lower register, could in this case be described as flatter than the cantus.
13 14

15

Lefferts, Signature Systems, 129. According to Friedrich Ludwig Guillaume de Machaut, Musikalische Werke, 1: Balladen, Rondeaux und Virelais (Leipzig, 1926), 2. Contrary to Schrades edition, no tenor signature appears in MS A. Leo Schrade ed., The Works of Guillaume de Machaut, Polyphonic Music of the Fourteenth Century 3 (Monaco, 1956), 701.

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The other three songs in Lefferts c-X category (Table 3), however, do not at all reflect this kind of distribution of chromatic inflections among the voices. In Ballade 22, Il mest avis quil nest dons de Nature, although bX is more frequent in the lower voices, no signature is found in any voice in any manuscript, and an eX (not EX) appears in an upper register, in the cantus.16 The upper register in this case would be flatter than the lower, rather than sharper. The pitch cY which for Lefferts is not a cta choice for this category as well as FY (both high and low) appear in lower and upper voices. In Rondeau 9, Tant doucement me sens emprisonns, both an upper and lower voice (the tenor and cantus) have bXs and both an upper and a lower voice (the triplum and tenor) have FYs (fY and FY respectively), which should be a cta choice for the upper register only. In the two-voice Ballade 27, Une vipere en cuer ma dame maint, bX appears once in each of the tenor and cantus parts (except in MS G where it appears in the tenor alone), and the only notated FY in the song occurs as an FY (not fY ) in the tenor; the tenor and the lower register would appear to be sharper than the cantus. From these four songs, grouped together by Lefferts, it cannot be generalized that lower voices are flatter than upper voices, or that shared signature-systems reflect a similar approach to chromatic content. To what extent, then, do the four songs constitute a type aside from their cantus endings on c? Although Lefferts theory is attractive because it is systematic and provides us with an a priori system akin to tonal key signatures, his application of signature-systems does not accurately reflect what happens in the music. Moreover, by extrapolating from the X signatures, which do sometimes appear in some voices in some manuscripts, hypothetical Z and Y signatures, Lefferts takes a questionable theoretical leap. Rather than describing chromatic content in other voices, on the few occasions when a signature does occur consistently in a voice part in a given song, the purpose of the signature is to provide performance information to the singer of that specific voice part about how to sing that specific pitch.17 The special role of BX (and EX) Although, as I will argue, notated chromatic inflections in the fourteenth century (such as BX, EX, AX, BZ, EZ, FY, CY and GY) can arise either contrapuntally or melodically as tendency pitches pitches which suggest continued motion and a particular resolution not all inflections are treated equally. Scholars have widely acknowledged that in relation to other notated inflections bX has a special designation as a member of the medieval gamut, and it is described as a recta pitch rather than cta.18 Indeed, often bX (and BX, also justified as a gamut pitch by the author of the
16 17

18

The eX appears in all of the complete works manuscripts. Hughes, Manuscript Accidentals, 446, and Bent, Musica Recta, 989, have posited that a X can signal a hexachord beginning on BX, which would make EX a recta pitch in the lower voice. Cross argues eloquently (and I would agree), that All the information we have indicates that flats were not to be understood as fixed, or even to imply their own duplication at the octave (as modern accidentals do), much less at the fifth or fourth. Such species duplication can only have a musical, not a systematic cause; Cross, Chromatic Alteration, 130. Andrew Hughes, Manuscript Accidentals, esp. 4152; and Margaret Bent, Musica Recta, 73100.

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Berkeley Manuscript) is handled differently from other notated inflections. Most obviously, it is the only inflection that is used as a final cantus and tenor pitch in a number of secular songs by Machaut and other composers in the fourteenth century.19 Sometimes bX or BX is used as a default pitch in a song instead of b or B, whether indicated by a signature or through accidentals throughout. Scholars grappling with this special treatment of bX or BX (as well as eX or EX) have dealt with it in a variety of ways. Schrade and Ludwig use BX (and EX) signatures in their editions, Bent and Hughes describe hexachord signatures and refer to transposition of the gamut, Leech-Wilkinson describes hexachordal shifts which are used as a temporary darkening of the harmonic field, Plumley transposes the gamut twice flatwards, and she and Lefferts use X signatures (among others) to designate various tonal types.20 Ultimately, whether or not transposition of the gamut or signatures or hexachords are invoked, all of these writers are trying to account for the central rather than temporary role that BXs can play. The notation of BX often follows the exhortations of those theorists (usually writing about plainchant) who advocate singing BX when descending from C (to A), or when ascending from F to B, and singing BZ when ascending through B to C.21 Sometimes this usage occurs in a contrapuntal situation as part of a directed progression (progressions from imperfect intervals to perfect intervals, for example bZ is indicated when part of an imperfect interval approaching an F/c or C/c octave), while other times it occurs more in a melodic context (i.e., not as part of the counterpoint). If melodic rules, however, were so fixed that the choice of BX or BZ was solely dependent on melodic direction, it would never be necessary to notate either sign (and our interpretative job would be much simpler!).

19

20

21

Machauts Rondeau 1 and Ballades 3, 8, 11, 16, 19, 25, 36, and 42/RF5 (Remde de Fortune). According to Lefferts also Ballades 34, 89, 105, 107, 110, 126, 133, 141, 164, Virelais 196 and 297, and Rondeau 70 from Willi Apel ed., French Secular Compositions, texts edited by Samuel N. Rosenberg, 3 vols., Corpus Mensurabilis Musicae 53 ([Rome], 197072); as well as Virelai 85 and Rondeau 58, from Gordon Greene ed., French Secular Music: Rondeaux and Miscellaneous Pieces, Polyphonic Music of the Fourteenth Century 22 (Monaco, 1989); and Ballade 77, from Gordan Greene ed., French Secular Music: Manuscript Chantilly, Muse Cond 564, 2 vols. Polyphonic Music of the Fourteenth Century 19 (Monaco, 1982). Hughes, Manuscript Accidentals, 4152; Leech-Wilkinson, Machauts Rose, lis and the Problem of Early Music Analysis, Music Analysis, 3 (1984), 18; Plumley, The Grammar of 14th Century Melody, 89; and Lefferts, Signature Systems. In Musica Recta, 98, Bent writes, If bXs can be freely applied to a part without a signature, what significance can a bX signature have? For Bent the signature represents a hexachord transposition which allows for recta pitches unavailable in the untransposed system. Karol Berger explains flat signatures as an indication of transposed mode, and argues against the recta-preference rule suggested by Hughes and Bent. Karol Berger, Musica cta: Theories of Accidental Inections in Vocal Polyphony from Marchetto da Padova to Gioseffo Zarlino (Cambridge, 1987), 58, 834. For example, in the first treatise of the Berkeley Manuscript, the author writes: note that whenever one ascends from (or from below) F-fa-ut to b-fa-Z-mi, indirectly or directly, or when one descends to F-fa-ut before ascending to C-sol-fa-ut, he ought to sing fa on b-fa-Z-mi (by b) . . . (Pro quo nota quod quandocumque ab vel de sub F-fa-ut ascenditur usque ad b-fa-Z-mi mediate vel immediate, et iterum descenditur usque ad F-fa-ut priusquam ascendatur ad C-sol-fa-ut, debet cantari fa in b-fa-Z-mi per b; ). Oliver B. Ellsworth ed. and trans., The Berkeley Manuscript, Greek and Latin Music Theory 2 (Lincoln, Nebr., 1984), 445.

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Ex. 1 Se pour ce muir (B36), bars 15.

Ex. 2 Se je me plaing (B15), bars 2935.

Some signed BXs in the repertory, however, do in fact rise to C and some signed BZs do descend to A. When BX is the default way to sing B, it may not have a tendency to move down by semitone to A, but rather will rise melodically to (or through) C. Melodic BXs rising to C are most prominent and easily identified in songs in which perfect BX sonorities play a pivotal role particularly as cadential goals, such as Ballade 36, Se pour ce muir quAmours ai bien servi (see the ascent from bX through c and d in the cantus bars 12 and in the tenor in bar 4 of Ex. 1). Similarly Ballade 15, Se je me pleing, je nen puis mais, which ends on a C sonority rather than BX, is saturated with BXs (and EXs), many of which follow the pattern of BX rising to C (see the tenor in bars 2930 and the cantus in bar 34 of Ex. 2). Particularly striking instances can occur in songs where BX plays otherwise a minimal role, as for example in the opening phrase of Ballade 28, Je puis trop bien ma dame comparer, in Example 3. Moving away from a unison a with the tenor, the contratenor stops momentarily on a very dissonant bX between the consonant a/e fifth of the tenor and cantus. Since the bX continues up to c, it does not serve the functional purpose of increasing the tendency to a. We might first hear it as an early suggestion (or foreshadowing) of BX playing a structural role in the song, but in fact it is the only BX notated at any pitch level in any voice in the entire song. As an available pitch in the

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Ex. 3 Je puis trop (B28), opening phrase.

Ex. 4 De desconfort (B8), bars 2530.

gamut, it is used here for aural prominence, a device all the more effective with each repetition of the A section of the song because of its singular use. Just as BX sometimes functions as the default way to sing B, EX sometimes functions as the default way to sing E. This usage is apparent by melodic approaches from EX to F (see for example the tenor in bar 31 of Ex. 2 above), and by the use of perfect sonorities on EX.22 In Ballade 8, De desconfort de martyre amoureus, for example, the first phrase of the B section ends on an EX/bX fifth (Ex. 4). EX, in fact, is most prevalent in songs (like Ballade 8) that end on a BX sonority. Outside this group of BX ending songs, Machaut uses EX as a notated pitch in only ten polyphonic ballades, virelais or rondeaux.23 Of these ten, five use the inflection only once or twice (Ballades 4, 12 and 22, and Rondeaux 3 and 8), while the other five, all of which end on a C sonority, have a much stronger EX presence (Ballades 15, 18, 31 and 41/RF4, and Rondeau 10).24 Daniel Leech-Wilkinson brings one of these songs
22

23

24

A feature that is particular to the pitches BX and EX; rarely will an FY or CY do the reverse, i.e., descend to E and B respectively. Ballade 9 bars 45 and 589 offers an exception to this observation (FY descends to E both times), and Rondeau 2, bar 26. I arrived at this count by examining the Ludwig and Schrade editions first, and then checking these ten songs against MSS A, B and C. The EXs in Ballades 15, 18, 31 and 41/RF4 and in Rondeau 10 are too numerous to list here. For those ballades and rondeaux which do not end on BX sonorities but which use an EX once or twice, the EXs can be found in the following bars in Schrades edition (manuscripts included only if the inflection is not

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(Rondeau 10, Rose, lis printemps verdure) to our attention as an especially lovely example. As Leech-Wilkinson suggests, Rose, lis printemps verdure incorporates both BX and EX as fundamental elements of its pitch content in some sections of the song, sections which figure all the more prominently because of their juxtaposition with sections that use EZ and BZ as default pitches (see bars 1417, 2225 and 3235 in Example 8 for the sections using BX and EX).25 In addition to its special role as a fundamental element of the basic pitch material, however, EX also serves a functional, contrapuntal role in Rose, lis, printemps verdure. In terms of the larger tonal structure of the song, where D sonorities and C sonorities mark points of arrival (indicated in Ex. 8 with arrows), signed EXs increase the tendency to D, while signed BZs increase the tendency to C.26 Twice, tenor EXs first are introduced as non-tendency pitches, fleshed out with cantus octave and contratenor/ triplum fifth and third, and then have a contrapuntal function a few notes later when the cantus forms an EX/c sixth, and the new sonority initiates a directed progression cadentially to a D octave (Ex. 9). This dual role of EX in Rose, lis, printemps verdure confirms that the only way to judge how chromatic inflections relate to tonal structure is to examine precisely their usage in particular situations. In contrast to Lefferts who suggests that signature-systems in conjunction with cantus finals determine tonal categories, I would suggest that even the presence of default BXs and EXs, indicated either through signatures or through accidentals, does not determine how an inflection will function in a given piece, or what its relationship to tonal structure will be. Melodic usage of chromatic inections One of the ways in which inflections can contribute to the tonal structuring of individual songs is through melodic usage. Little attention has been paid to the function of melodic (rather than contrapuntal) chromatic inflections. Melodic inflections can appear in monophonic songs plainly serving a melodic function, as well as in polyphonic settings, still serving a melodic function, but outside the frame of the contrapunctus. Since scholars have been particularly interested in harmonic syntax, the topic of melodic construction in fourteenth-century secular music has received less consideration in general, with the notable exception of Plumleys 1996 monograph, and Leech-Wilkinsons articles on monophonic virelais.27
found in all three of MSS A, B and C): Ballade 4, tenor bar 3 (MSS A and B only); Ballade 12, cantus bar 13 and tenor bar 15; Ballade 22, cantus bar 35; Rondeau 3, tenor bar 19 and bar 39 (in MSS A and C; MS B very clearly indicates an EZ inflection instead); and Rondeau 8, cantus bar 30 (in MSS A and B only). Leech-Wilkinson, Machauts Rose, lis, 18. In my Ex. 5, Triplum rhythms are according to Richard Hoppin, Notational Licenses of Guillaume de Machaut, Musica Disciplina, 14 (1960), 22. In a forthcoming article which surveys cadential progressions in the music of Machaut, I discuss the issue of semitone tendency at length. See Bain, Theorizing the Cadence. Yolanda Plumley, The Grammar of 14th Century Melody; and Daniel Leech-Wilkinson, Not Just a Pretty Tune: Structuring Devices in Four Machaut Virelais, Sonus, 12/1 (1991), 1631; and Leech-Wilkinson, The Well-Formed Virelai, in Trentanni di Ricerche Musicologiche: Studi in onore di F. Alberto Gallo, ed. Patrizia Dalla Vecchia and Donatella Restani (Rome, 1996), 12541.

25

26

27

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Ex. 5 Rose, lis (R10).

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Ex. 5 continued.

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Ex. 6 Reductions of bars 1417 and 225.

Correspondingly, because the topic of chromatic inflections has involved issues of performance practice, which mostly have focused on contrapuntal requirements, the melodic usage of chromatic inflections in fourteenth-century music has been less of a preoccupation.28 A new focus on melodic inflections, however, could have a significant impact on our understanding of the tonal structuring of songs. Central to the observations that follow is the proposition that by invoking strong expectations of linear semitone motion, chromatic inflections serve as one element that can establish focal pitches in the tonal organization of a phrase, a section or a song, in both Machauts monophony and polyphony. At least one scholar, Lucy Cross, disagrees. In her discussion of the role of chromatic inflections in fourteenth-century polyphony she says that:
Naturally it will happen that at most pauses, cadences or stops in polyphony there are penultimate sharps, since a stop requires a fifth, octave, or unison, and the rules of counterpoint demand the alteration. But sharps and flats in themselves do not function, as they do in later tonal music, as the determinants of focal pitches.29

But the oft-cited contrapuntal rule to which Cross refers that thirds and sixths should be major rather than minor when approaching perfect fifths and octaves respectively, reinforces the idea that semitone motion in one voice strengthens a progression and thus brings attention focus to the arrival sonority, and more specifically to the pitch emphasized through semitone approach. Although it may seem anachronistic to attribute to chromatic inflections a leading-tone function, much evidence from the
28

29

Taking melodic usage into account, moreover, may influence judgements about performance practice issues, such as how long an inflection has an effect on a particular pitch. Andrew Hughes, for example, makes a case for the once-only effect of inflections (as opposed to signatures), based on a contrapuntal argument: he suggests that in most cases where it appears that an inflection has a lasting effect, it can be explained by the rules causa necessitatis (unnotated inflections required to make imperfect fifths and octaves perfect) and pulchritudinis (unnotated inflections required to adjust sixths and thirds in their approaches to octaves, fifths and unisons). This argument implicitly suggests that melodic inflections in both monophony and polyphony would only ever have a once-only effect. Some of the examples that follow, I will argue, suggest otherwise. Hughes, Manuscript Accidentals, 69. Although describing music from later repertories, Peter Urquhart similarly suggests that melodic considerations are sometimes more important than contrapuntal when addressing the issue of chromatic adjustments. For instance, describing Karol Bergers suggested correction of mi-against-fa discords, Urquhart wonders how such correction was possible, given that a performer singing from only his own line could not tell whether a particular diminished fifth was acceptable or not, until after he had already sung the interval. Judging acceptability on the basis of correct resolution is possible for a score-reader, but not necessarily for a singer. Peter Urquhart, False Concords in Busnoys, in Antoine Busnoys: Method, Meaning and Context in Late Medieval Music, ed. Paula Higgins (New York, 1999), 36167, esp. 380. Cross, Chromatic Alteration, 189.

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music and the notation, taken together with commentary from coeval theory treatises, supports the notion that chromatic inflections which implicate semitone motion are crucial to the tonal organization of French music from the fourteenth century. Indeed the position of the semitone is critical to the notation and realization of medieval music in general, and hence to medieval pedagogical systems and explication. The earliest single or double staff lines, designating F and/or c, as well as the coloured lines within a staff, indicate to the singer the position of the semitones. The distinction between round and square b signs serves the same function, first to distinguish bX from bZ, and later to inflect other pitches, i.e., to sound a pitch as a fa (with a semitone below) or as a mi (with a semitone above). The non-staff based Daseian notation relies on the position of the semitone within a tetrachord as the key to its realization. Similarly, the pedagogical system of the hexachords serves to identify semitone placement, the three hexachords using mi-fa to designate e-f, a-bX and b-c. This acute concern in medieval notational and pedagogical systems with the placement of semitones suggests very strongly that they are important to tonal organization. I would argue that, along with other musical and textual elements, melodic semitone motion can contribute to the establishment of focal pitches. But I would argue further that the way in which semitone motion is important to the tonal structure of a particular song becomes apparent only through musical context. To examine the function of melodic chromatic inflections and semitone movement in the secular works of Machaut I will focus on specific musical situations: on cadences and the beginning of phrases in the monophonic virelais, and on two patterns that recur with the pitches, FY and CY in the polyphonic songs. Monophonic cadences and chromatic inections Fourteenth-century theorists do little to describe formal aspects of composition such as the musical-poetic structure of the fixed forms, or ouvertclos organization, or how to organize a song around one or more central pitches.30 Instead, they instruct readers to begin and end a polyphonic work with perfect consonances, and they describe basic rules of note-against-note counterpoint, and progressions of two or three intervals. Discussion of monophony is restricted to chant and its modal classification. But the music provides us with many clues. One can expect final cadences to be stable points of repose. The internal ouvertclos patterning, moreover, reveals an unstable/stable or weaker/stronger set of tonal relationships produced through various musical means, such as the generalized finding that ouvert cadences conclude a second or third higher than their clos counterparts in the fourteenth-century repertory.31
30

31

Aegidius de Murino specifies that there are open and closed endings in ballades, rondeaux and virelais, but he does not provide details about how open and closed endings are accomplished in terms of pitch organization. Aegidius de Murino, Tractatus cantus mensurabilis, Scriptorum de musica medii aevi nova series a Gerbertina altera 3, ed. Edmond de Coussemaker (Paris, 1869; repr., Hildesheim, 1963), 128. Lucy Cross, for example, indicates in relation to fourteenth-century ballades and rondeaux, that a brief inspection of that repertory bears out our expectation at this point that the overwhelming number of

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Table 4 Relationships between ouvert and clos.

Although some of Machauts secular songs follow this pattern, a close examination of both his monophonic and polyphonic fixed-form songs outlines a more complex situation (see Table 4). The ouvert and clos cantus pitches of Machauts monophony demonstrate the greatest consistency, always dropping by a second, third or fifth from ouvert to clos. In the ouvert and clos endings of the polyphonic songs, should the cantus end lower in the clos or the final, it is always by second or third. But frequently the cantus ends on a higher pitch at the clos cadence, by a semitone,32 a third,33 a fourth,34 and in single instances each, a sixth35 or a seventh.36 The cantus lines in the polyphonic songs clearly demonstrate a much greater variety in the relationship between ouvert and clos cadential pitches than the cantus lines in the monophonic songs, because the cantus line functions as only one part of a polyphonic whole. In the monophonic songs, in order to project an unstable quality at the ouvert and a stable quality at the clos, the relationship between ouvert and clos cantus pitches must be much clearer and more predictable. In the polyphonic songs an imperfect interval such as a third or sixth can create instability at an ouvert cadence, which might result in a less usual relationship between ouvert and clos cantus pitches. For example, in a polyphonic song the ouvert might end on a G/b third and the clos on an F/c fifth; the cantus moves up a semitone from ouvert to clos rather than down a second or third, but the weakstrong relationship is still clear.37 This weakstrong organization is described in fact very clearly as a hierarchical arrangement by one fourteenth-century author, Johannes de Grocheio.38 Johannes, who writes about musical practice in Paris at the beginning of the fourteenth century,
ouvert endings both in tenor and cantus parts (as these voices are usually an octave apart at the cadences) are a whole step above their respective clos, Chromatic Alteration, 148. Acknowledging that what may be true for Machaut, may not be true for the fourteenth-century repertory as a whole, I would suggest that my findings for Machauts output warrant a more thorough examination of the rest of the fourteenth-century French repertory. Significantly, all of the ballades which end a semitone higher in the clos cadence than the ouvert, end on a in the cantus at the ouvert and on bX at the clos. In Ballade 3 the cantus is the lowest voice of an a/c third, in Ballade 16 the upper voice of an FY/a third, and in Ballade 25 and Ballade 42/RF5, the fifth above D. The cantus of Rondeau 18 ends on G with the medial on FY. Ballades 29, 38, 40 and 41/RF4, and Rondeaux 1, 2, 4, 9 and 20. Ballades 4, 15 and 22, and Rondeaux 7 and 11. Ballade 30. Ballade 21. For an in-depth discussion of the role of imperfect sonorities as cadential goals see Bain, Theorizing the Cadence. For further discussion of the theoretical basis for hierarchical organization in medieval music see Bain, Theorizing the Cadence.

32

33 34 35 36 37

38

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Ex. 7 Cadences involving leaps of thirds and fifths.

Ex. 8 Three-note melodic cadential patterns.

describes the ouvertclos organization in ductia and stantipes (textless melodies) but without reference to specific pitch relationships:
The elements of the ductia and stantipes are commonly called puncta. A punctus is a structured collection of agreements producing euphony as they rise and fall, having two parts, similar at the beginning, different at the end, which are commonly called open and closed. I say having two parts etc. by analogy with two lines, one of which is longer than the other. The greater includes the lesser and differs from the lesser at its end.39

Johannes distinguishes between two phrases, which are related to each other but have different endings. He alludes to the quality of the endings describing a hierarchical arrangement, where the closed ending clearly comes in the second part. These points of stability and instability prove most useful in determining other elements of hierarchical tonal structure.40 A survey of ouvert, clos and final cadences in both refrain and couplet sections of all of Machauts monophonic virelais strongly suggests that semitone placement can contribute to the strength or weakness of a cadence. While four of the 71 cadences approach their cadential goals from above by some combination of third and fifth (Ex. 7), all of the other cadences surveyed can be grouped through reduction into three generalized types of melodic approach, summarized in Example 8: (a) a threenote rising figure, (b) a three-note falling figure, and (c) a three-note double
39

40

Christopher Page, Johannes de Grocheio on Secular Music: A Corrected Text and a New Translation, Plainsong and Medieval Music, 2 (1993), 33. Partes autem ductiae et stantipedis puncta communiter dicuntur. Punctus autem est ordinata aggregatio concordantiarum harmoniam facientium ascendendo et descendendo, duas habens partes in principio similes, in fine differentes, quae clausum et apertum communiter appellantur. Dico autem duas habens partes etc. ad similitudinem duarum linearum quarum una sit maior alia. Maior enim minorem claudit et est fine differens a minori. These other musical elements could in turn be very useful for examining cadential organization in motets and Mass movements, which do not use the musical and poetic schemes of the fixed-form songs.

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Ex. 9 Variations in semitone placement in the cadential patterns with tabulations according to Machauts usage in the monophonic virelais.

neighbour figure. When semitone placement within the three-note figures is taken into account a clear distinction arises between those figures used for unstable ouvert cadences, labelled OUV, and those used for stable medial or final cadences, labelled MED for the final cadence of the couplet and FIN for the final cadence of the refrain, which is also the final cadence of the song (see Ex. 9).

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Table 5 Continuum representing relative stability of cadential approach.

77

For the rising and falling figures, although statistically speaking the numbers are scanty, the distribution is remarkable. Of the ten cadences that employ a rising figure, only two ascend by semitone directly to the arrival pitch and both are stable medial cadences (Virelai 5 b-cY-d, and Virelai 22/25 D-E-F); all but one of the rest are ouvert cadences. Of the sixteen cadences that employ a falling figure, only three descend by semitone directly to the arrival pitch, and all three are unstable ouvert cadences (Virelai 3 c-bX-a, and Virelais 14 and 16 G-F-E); all but one of the rest are medial or final cadences. The double neighbour figure is much more prevalent (41 of the 71 cadences), and again distribution by placement of the semitone is impressively consistent. Of the twelve cadences that employ a double neighbour figure with descending semitone, ten are ouvert cadences,41 while all of the sixteen double neighbour cadences with ascending semitones and all of the thirteen double neighbour cadences with no semitones are medial or final cadences. The distribution of all of these cadences according to type and placement at weaker or stronger points within the structure of a song, suggests a continuum of stability in terms of the relative tonal strength of cadential figures (see Table 5). The evidence provides a strong indication that a descending semitone approach (in either a double neighbour or a falling tone/semitone figure) because it occurs almost exclusively at ouvert cadences renders a cadential arrival weak, while an ascending semitone approach (in either a double neighbour or a rising tone/semitone figure) because it occurs exclusively at final or medial cadences renders a cadential arrival strong. Approaches by tone/tone or semitone/tone appear to be generally less stable when rising and more stable when falling. Finally, the double-neighbour approach by whole tone from both above and below is on the more stable side. Since the double-neighbour approach appears to be stable both by double whole tone and by ascending semitone (but not by descending semitone), the common concern about whether unnotated inflections should be applied to convert what appear to be whole tones into semitones may not always be relevant. Certainly in most of the cadences I have identified in the double whole tone category, Ludwig
41

I should note here that the two exceptions are found in the same song, Virelai 11, a virelai that is perhaps exceptional in many ways. It is one of only two of all of Machauts secular songs that has a cantus ending on a. Daniel Leech-Wilkinson describes the virelai as perhaps the most difficult of a few virelais with little in the way of perceptible frame or structural descent. Leech-Wilkinson, The Well-Formed Virelai, 128.

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and Schrade suggest leading-tone adjustments in their editions, as for example in Virelai 4, Douce dame jolie.42 The virelai ends with a G-F-G figure, which occurs four times melodically in the song, and no FYs are notated at any point in any of the manuscript versions (Ex. 10).

Ex. 10 Refrain of Douce dame (V4).

Musical elements in the song (other than FY) set up G very clearly as a tonal centre. In Douce dame jolie the opening leap of a descending fifth directs the ear immediately, setting up two focal pitches that permeate the song, d and G.43 The first phrase continues by circling around G, and cadences on a with a descending semitone double-neighbour approach. Within the context of the opening leap, the circling around G, and the descending semitone approach from bX, the cadential a sounds unstable. The second phrase reaffirms the centrality of G and d with an ascending leap this time, and the phrase concludes with the same double-neighbour descending semitone cadential figure, again ending on an unstable a. The first four bars of the third (and final) phrase of the refrain are almost identical to the first phrase, except that G receives even more emphasis at the beginning, by its reiteration instead of d in the opening figure. Rather than cadence on a again, just as the third phrase reaches the a, a new textual line begins and stretches out the musical phrase by three bars to finally cadence on G. Although FY would enhance the sense of arrival of G, a whole tone double neighbour approach from F cannot undermine all of the other musical elements that have emphasized it.44 Although in Virelai 4 the structural significance of a penultimate FY would be minimal, in Virelai 10, De bont, de valour, the FY approach to the final G plays a critical role in the final cadence and in the tonal structuring of the song. In the first half of the refrain (with which the virelai begins), the rhythmic structure of the melody aligns neatly with the text to create three short (two-breve) phrases, cadencing on a, FY and a respectively (Ex. 11, cadence pitches marked above; Ex. 13 for the music and text together). The melodic repetition of the refrain (following the ouvert) creates some
42 43

44

Ludwig ed., Musikalische Werke, and Schrade ed., The Works of Guillaume de Machaut. Daniel Leech-Wilkinson aptly regards the G/d (and its octave g) as a chordal drone in the Background structure of the song. Leech-Wilkinson, Not Just a Pretty Tune, 20. Since there is no precedent in the song for an FY I would leave the F as written.

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Ex. 11 First half of refrain of De bont (V10), to the ouvert cadence.

Ex. 12 Second half of the refrain of De bont (V10), repetition to the clos cadence.

Ex. 13 The refrain of De bont (V10).

asymmetry when, corresponding to the reduced syllable count of the repetition, the second and third phrases elide to become one three-breve phrase rather than two two-breve phrases, ending this time on G (see Ex. 12, again with the cadence pitches marked). The double neighbour with descending semitone approach renders both cadences to a as weak (Ex. 13).

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The first cadential pitch, a, typically functions as an ouvert or secondary point of repose to either F or G. The cadence to FY in the second phrase, however, strongly implicates G as a tonal centre rather than F, an implication strengthened by the unusual approach to FY following an FZ, the two pitches separated only by a D to create a striking aural juxtaposition. The retained FY in phrase 3 adds to the destabilization of a in the rising semitone/tone figure that merges with the descending semitone double neighbour cadence. FY appears twice in the first half of the refrain, but has a similar function as an unstable cadential arrival point in phrase 2, and as a destabilizing agent of a in phrase 3. In phrase 5, however, FY takes on a new role. Rather than functioning rhythmically and textually as an arrival, it participates in an elision of two earlier phrases (2 and 3), to strengthen the doubleneighbour approach to the long-expected G arrival in phrase 5, its impact further highlighted by the striking F-D-FY figure. Chromatic inections as initiating device In addition to their usage in cadential situations, chromatic inflections can have a significant effect on the tonal structuring of songs as the initial pitch of a phrase, section or song, particularly when the initial pitch corresponds to the beginning of a mensural unit at the level of the semibreve or breve.45 In general, the initial pitches of larger musical sections function aurally and structurally as important points of reference, most significantly because they mark the beginning of large segments of the text, bringing attention to the musical-poetic structure. Virelai 12, Dame a qui, begins with a three-note ascending motif, F-G-a, heard many times, that outlines two key pitches in the tonal structuring of the song: a, frequently embellished with bX throughout, functions as the ouvert cadential pitch in both sections of the song, while F functions as both an initiating pitch and as a stable cadential pitch, approached by an ascending semitone at the clos of both sections. At the beginning of the couplet, however, a chromatic inflection appears, suddenly shifting the tonal orientation (Ex. 14). After the refrains stable clos cadence on F, a notated bZ at the beginning of the second section introduces through a stark leap of a tritone a phrase which circles around c. Although melodic tritones are generally avoided, this one seems to be used deliberately. It is particularly effective because it occurs not within a phrase but at the juncture between the end of one phrase (and one section) and the beginning of the next. The following phrase parallels the ouvert
45

Even when a chromatic inflection occurs as a minim pick-up to a semibreve or breve mensural unit, it can sometimes contribute to the tonal structuring of the song. For instance, the signed bZ that begins Tuit mi penser, Virelai 25/28, shapes the whole of the first section of the song (the bZ inflection is found only in MSS Vg and G). Although a c follows the initial bZ at the beginning of a breve and ostensibly resolves it, the repetition of the bZ at the end of a two-breve rhythmic pattern, leaves it standing unresolved until it is picked up again an octave lower at the end of the A section and finally cadences to C. Two polyphonic virelais 29/32 and 30/36 similarly begin with single pitches (b and E respectively), that resolve up by semitone to a perfect sonority, a fifth on F, although only Virelai 30/36 begins also as a pick-up. Only in Virelai 29/32 is the pitch actually inflected, and in MS A it is only the second time through in the manuscript, after the appearance of bXs.

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Ex. 14 Dame a qui (V12).

and clos cadences of the refrain and returns to an orientation around the F and a, introduced in the opening motif of the song. The initial cY of Virelai 2, Loyaut vueil tous jours maintenir, relates more directly to the larger tonal structuring of the song, although its role is complicated by the question of how long the inflection lasts. My editorial suggestions in Example 15 take into account the fact that the second phrase begins exactly as the first (the parallel is so apparent that surely a cZ would have been indicated if a cY was not intended), and the straightforward melodic contours: the cY remains to decorate the second d, but becomes cZ when part of a descending pattern, and the rise to the cadence pitch from G suggests a cZ rather than cY to avoid a sharply outlined melodic tritone at a cadential approach within a phrase. In immediate terms the initial cY of Virelai 2 highlights the d that follows. Rather than reinforce the principal tonal focus, however, in relation to overall tonal structure its main effect seems to be to destabilize the two cadential pitches of the song, c and F. Although the first phrase begins with the cY-d figure, in my reading of the inflections

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Ex. 15 Loyaut (V2).

it ends on c, approached by semitone from below. With a dramatic and unusual melodic augmented prime as a juncture between the phrases (separated by a brief rest), the second phrase immediately takes up the cY-d figure, destabilizing c and ending this time on F, also approached by semitone from below.46 The two short textual/musical phrases of the B section reassert the importance of F and c. The first phrase prolongs a high f through neighbour notes and descends by step to cadence on c, and the second phrase cadences on the low F again, this time in a direct approach by leap from c. Although chromatic inflections in the monophonic virelais typically confirm a tonal centre, when the cY returns with the repetition of the first musical phrase in Virelai 2 (now with new text), it shifts the tonal orientation of the song again and destabilizes c and F. Melodic chromatic inections in polyphony In addition to their role in monophonic contexts, melodic chromatic inflections can have a significant impact on tonal structure within the context of a polyphonic setting as well. These melodic chromatic inflections do not participate as functional elements of the contrapuntal framework, but contribute to the definition of tonal structure by emphasizing particular pitches. They may serve a syntactical function structurally by creating expectation of a goal tone through semitone movement, but contrapuntally

46

Lucy Cross discusses other (very rare) melodic augmented primes in fourteenth-century English, Italian and French sources, including examples from Marchettos Lucidarium and one other example from Machaut in the Credo of his Mass, bars 1924. Cross, Chromatic Alteration, 21424.

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Ex. 16 Final cadence of Plourez, dames (B32).

they do not have a syntactic purpose. The final cadence of Ballade 32, Plourez, dames, plourez vostre servant, for example, demonstrates clearly the structural significance of such inflections (see Ex. 16). At the final cadence of Ballade 32, the melodic cY in the cantus creates the expectation of and achieves a cantus d, a melodic expectation and resolution at odds with the F/c or C/c harmonic implication of the G/bZ third between the tenor and contratenor.47 These structurally significant melodic chromatic inflections recur throughout Machauts polyphonic repertory, and are particularly evident in two specific melodic formulas. FY often arises decoratively first and then becomes part of the counterpoint in a directed progression to G, while CY appears melodically only but through its implication of D weakens directed progressions or cadences to E. Both FY and CY formulas can significantly contribute to the tonal structuring of individual songs. For example, at the beginning of the B section in Virelai 31/37, Moult sui de bonne heure nee, the cantus fY first decorates g melodically (not harmonically since the tenor holds a long G), and then plays a role in two directed progressions, the second of which is also a cadence (Ex. 17). In the melodic context of the shaping of the cantus line, the fY in its emphasis of g, plays an important role structurally from its first appearance in bar 26. But contrapuntally the fY takes on structural significance only when it becomes part of a directed
47

The cantus e further supports the tenor/contratenor G/b in suggesting an F/c/f resolution, but rather than move up by semitone, the contratenor/cantus b/e move down by step to a/d, while the tenor, rather than move down by step to F instead moves down by leap to D. I discuss this passage at greater length in relation to the larger tonal structuring of the song in: Jennifer Bain, Ballades 32 and 33 and the res dalemangne , in Machauts Music: New Interpretations, ed. Elizabeth Eva Leach (Woodbridge, 2003), 20519, esp. 21011. The G/b third suggests a resolution to either an F/c or C/c sonority. Three other Machaut songs end with a G/b third to C/c octave progression between tenor and cantus: Ballades 22 and 27, and Rondeau 19. The contratenor in both Rondeau 19 and Ballade 22 sing an E below the G/b third, and forms a fifth in the cadential sonority; in Ballade 22 the triplum doubles the contratenor an octave above. Ballade 30 uses the same tenor/cantus contrapuntal progression but to a D/d octave (approached by a/cY), and the contratenor in similar fashion sings an FY below the a/cY third.

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Ex. 17 Moult sui (V31/37).

Ex. 18 Il mest avis (B22), bars 337.

progression in bar 27 and then again in bar 29, where it also participates in a perfect-sonority cadence. In Ballade 22, Il mest avis quil nest dons de Nature, the pattern appears in the triplum first as melodic elaboration, and then similarly participates in two directed progressions, the second of which is also a cadence (see Ex. 18). Another example occurs in Rondeau 2, Helas! Pour quoy se demente et complaint, in one of the very rare instances that a notated FY descends to E without immediately rising to G (Ex. 19).48 A high fY first appears in the song in bar 26, a dissonant seventh above the tenor G, as a melodic anticipation to the harmonically
48

As indicated in note 22 above, another occurrence appears in Ballade 9, bars 45 and bars 589 in the cantus.

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consonant a/fY sixth of in bar 30 that initiates two successive directed progressions to the G/g octave with which the phrase began.49

Ex. 19 Helas! pour quoy se demente (R2), bars 2632.

Melodic CYs contribute sometimes to the tonal structuring of a song as well. In contrast to its strengthening role in establishing a focal pitch in Ballade 32 (Ex. 14), a melodic CY can sometimes weaken directed and/or cadential progressions by undermining the arrival sonority. In cantus or triplum voices, cY sometimes functions as a melodic participant in a directed progression or cadence to E/e or a/e.50 By alerting the listener to the significance of the pitch d, cY effectively destabilizes the e arrival.51 In the first phrase of Ballade 13, Esperance qui massere, for example, cY appears both contrapuntally as part of an a/cY third to G/d fifth directed progression, and melodically when it continues despite the vertical augmented second that it creates through the bX/d to a/e cadential progression (Ex. 20). Within this cadence to a/e, the cY confirms the privileging of d, a significant pitch in the structure of the song.52 This cY melodic pattern occurs in monophonic contexts as well, and relates to the less stable semitone/tone rising cadential figure discussed earlier (involving FY-G-a and b-c-d). In the first cadence of the couplet in Virelai 17, Dame, vostre dous viaire, the melody ascends from cY through d to cadence on e, and alerts the listener to the focal nature of d, by destabilizing e and giving it an ouvert quality (Ex. 21). This first cadence of the couplet proves to be important in the tonal structuring of the song by
49

50 51

52

Other examples can be found in: Ballade 20 bars 910 in the cantus; Ballade 23 bar 9 in the triplum; Ballade 24 bars 268 in the cantus; Ballade 31 bars 201 in the contratenor; Ballade 34 bars 1920 in Cantus I (in bar 33 the pattern returns but this time it ends most likely on fZ (to agree with the tenor F) and no directed progression arises involving fY); and Rondeau 9 bar 16 and bar 51, very briefly in the triplum. Triplum examples can be found in Ballade 18 bars 67 and Rondeau 6 bar 2. In one occurrence of this melodic technique, the cY melodic motif appears in the context of a D/a/d perfect sonority (embellishing the cantus d) rather than in the context of an F/d or bX/d imperfect sonority that initiates a directed progression (Ballade 21, bars 610). The cY in the ouvert of Ballade 14 similarly begins contrapuntally and then continues melodically through a directed progression to an a/e fifth. Although primarily associated with cY, one example of this melodic technique can be found utilizing fY (rising to aa), and similarly starts contrapuntally but becomes melodic (Ballade 30, bars 305; the fY would likely continue to the end of bar 33).

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Ex. 20 Esperance (B13), bars 14.

Ex. 21 Dame, vostre (V17), bars 1322.

implicating d firmly as a tonal centre and establishing e as an unstable pitch.53 Indeed, the ouvert phrase that follows immediately concludes again on e, this time destabilized by a descending semitone double neighbour cadence, and the expected d does not arrive until the clos cadence at the end of the repetition. Understanding the derivation of a CY inflection as part of a melodic device could influence the chromatic rendering of particular passages. For instance, in Rondeau 6 (Ex. 22), both Ludwig and Schrade provide an editorial Y in bar 2 of the tenor (Ludwig tentatively includes a question mark beside the suggested Y).54 Ludwig and Schrade
53

54

In his discussion of Virelai 17 as one of five virelais in which the final is established convincingly only in Section B, Daniel Leech-Wilkinson argues that the final d cadence of the refrain sounds misplaced and unstable within the context of the a-centred refrain. He writes: scale degree 5(a) is composed out so strongly in Section A as to seem more final than the final, d arriving so late as to be hardly believable as the main pitch centre for the piece. I would suggest that, in this case, d is not the main pitch centre of the piece, but rather is one of two tonal centres in a song that serves as a fine example of a work with multiple tonal centres, a focal topic in my dissertation. Leech-Wilkinson, The Well-Formed Virelai, 131; Jennifer Bain, Fourteenth-Century French Secular Polyphony and the Problem of Tonal Structure Ph.D. Diss., State University of New York at Stony Brook (2001), esp. 11451. Ludwig (ed.), Musikalische Werke, 55; and Schrade (ed.), The Works of Guillaume de Machaut, 146.

Tonal structure and the melodic role of chromatic inections in Machaut

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Ex. 22 Proposed adjustment in tenor of Cinc, un (R6), bar 2, according to Ludwig and Schrade.

Ex. 23 Cinc, un (R6) without chromatic adjustment.

propose the FY causa necessitatis to correct the augmented fifth and make it perfect, which results in an unusual underlying progression (see the reduction in Ex. 22). The harmonic syntax becomes clearer, however, if the cY is understood as a melodic decoration and the F is left as it is to participate in the F/d sixth to E/e octave directed progression (Ex. 23).55 Conclusion Examining monophonic and polyphonic virelais, ballades and rondeaux, I have argued that melodic semitone motion is crucial to tonal organization to the establishment of focal pitches in the music of Guillaume de Machaut. The placement and direction of melodic semitone motion in three-note monophonic cadential figures relate directly to the projection of stability and instability at points of cadential arrival.
55

Lucy Cross and Lawrence Earp both also accept the F as it stands. Cross, Chromatic Alteration, 285; and Earp, Genre in the Fourteenth-Century French Chanson: The Virelais and the Dance Song, Musica Disciplina, 42 (1991), 133.

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Moreover, semitone motion as melodic decoration in a polyphonic context can suggest focal pitches that are unsupported by the contrapuntal environment. Although I have focused only on the music of Machaut, these conclusions could have far-reaching consequences for the understanding of fourteenth-century French music in general. Medieval singers had a range of possibilities and choices that affected many areas of performance, quite possibly including the frequency and degree to which they interpolated chromatic inflections in particular works. Perhaps some performances of notated songs were highly inflected while others were not. Cross statement that, we should begin with the attitude that there is only one correct reading, regardless of whether or not we are ourselves able to determine what that is, betrays a twentiethcentury Urtext mentality inappropriate to a pre-industrial era when no two versions of anything shoes, pots, jewellery, books were identical.56 In order to make sense of an individual song either through analysis or performance, however, it is necessary to make firm decisions about pitch content. Rather than focusing on contrapuntal requirements alone as a way to determine where and when medieval singers might have made chromatic adjustments to notated songs, I am suggesting that melodic considerations should be taken into account as well. Most medieval music, after all, appears in parts, not in score; we would do well not to underestimate the importance of the melodic line. In contrast to Lefferts, however, I have argued that, rather than signalling a systematic organization of pieces into set tonal categories, melodic chromatic inflections function as one of many elements in the tonal structuring of individual works. Tonal structure is not an inherent property of a piece that can be read from a code, but is rather something which can be constructed from a piece and how it actually proceeds.

56

Cross, Chromatic Alteration, 73.