A new reading of Binchois's Mon seul et souverain desir. Issue 2 (25th September 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: COOK, KAREN M.
• Is Part Of: Plainsong and medieval music. Volume 24:Issue 2(2015)
• Page Start: 167
• Page End: 188
• Publication Date: 2015-09-25
• Subjects: Gregorian chants -- Periodicals; Music -- 500-1400 -- Periodicals; Music -- 15th century -- Periodicals; 782.292
• DOI: 10.1017/S0961137115000121
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0961-1371

Abstract

<abstract abstract-type="normal"> <title>ABSTRACT</title> <p>The copyist of the manuscript Oxford, Bodleian Library, Canon. Misc. 213 was detailed and well versed in numerous notational styles, and as a result, examples of unusual notation in this manuscript have drawn a critical eye. Yet the unique transcription of Binchois's rondeau <italic>Mon seul et souverain desir</italic>, in which the copyist alternates between the two common note shapes for the semiminim in the cantus voice, has thus far gone unexplained. This notation has no rhythmic significance; as such, it appears to be a superficial anomaly. In this article, I lay out a rationale for a reading of the notation of the semiminims in this piece as potentially deliberate and meaningful. Over the course of compiling the manuscript, the copyist increasingly aligned semiminim shape with prolation: the full-black shape is used exclusively in minor prolation, whereas the void flagged shape becomes more frequently restricted to major prolation. Since the rondeau is in minor prolation, I suggest that the copyist might have used the void flagged figure in order to suggest a momentary shift into major prolation. In so doing, the copyist might have left to us a witness of a performance practice in which the mensural and rhythmic possibilities inherent in the built-in tension between <private-char><inline-graphic xlink:href="ark:/27927/pgkg3fq1mg" xlink:type="simple" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" /></private-char> and <private-char><inline-graphic xlink:href="ark:/27927/pgkg3fq1wm" xlink:type="simple" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" /></private-char> were explored.</p> </abstract>