A Utraquist approach to polyphony: the fifteenth-century Mass ordinary settings based on cantus fractus
Abstract
The practice of composing new Credo chants appeared around 1300 in Italy (Credo Regis) and found its expression in dozens newly composed tunes with mensural rhythm across Europe. The Bohemian contribution to this repertory in cantus fractus dates back to the late fourteenth-century and it can be characterized by preference of regularly constructed forms inspired by formes fixes.
Browsing through the repertory of polyphonic settings of Mass ordinary movements as preserved in the Bohemian Utraquist sources, we find several pieces which look at the first sight as free compositions but a closer investigation uncovers that they are based on a cantus fractus model. In my paper I would like to discuss this type of polyphonic repertory and focus on the question, how far the selection of a model influenced the compositional process itself.