1. Barbara Haggh-Huglo: Cantus fractus in CA 6 and 11 and the Council of Basel
Channel: SMNF cz
Date: 2020-12-23

Cantus Fractus 2020 conference
http://www.smnf.cz/en/news/Virtual-conference-Rhythm-in-Music-and-the-Arts-in-the-Late-Middle-Ages/


Cantus fractus in CA 6 and 11 and the Council of Basel
Barbara Haggh-Huglo, University of Maryland, College Park





At the end of two choirbooks used at Cambrai Cathedral with Marian content one finds an anonymous Credo in mensural notation and alternating polyphony and monophony, another anonymous Credo only in cantus fractus, and solely in CA 11 an anonymous Sanctus and Agnus in cantus fractus. As the only monophony in the manuscripts, apart from later compositions added to the flyleaves, they stand out. All of the other compositions are mainly by Binchois and Du Fay and found in the Aosta manuscript, Bologna Q15, and the Trent codices. The choirbooks are thought to have been copied in 1436 and 1442 or afterwards and correspond to Du Fay’s two returns from the Savoy court, where he served as master of the chapel. These cantus fractus compositions, which have no known concordances, could be the key to the origin of the repertory in the manuscript, which Du Fay logically must have brought back from Savoy. Was this a repertory from the Council of Basel or from the Burgundian court in Dijon? Without a database of cantus fractus compositions, it is hard to know how to pursue this further, and these compositions also raise the question of the cantus fractus technique itself. Where and why did it come to be used? Does it have a particular meaning? Is that meaning Marian? In Cambrai, it is also used for the Marian sequence Mittit ad virginem, which is even given the time signature 03 in Cambrai 12. I will present these cantus fractus compositions and their historical context.