Ranges and Textures

Abstract Ranges are obviously the first pre-compositional decision. In the early years of the century, the tenor and contratenor were normally in the same range, a 5th below the discantus. The contratenor developed into a lower voice after about 1440. In the earlier years there is a large proportion of songs in only two voices, whereas after about 1450 this texture was almost entirely confined to works that borrow a voice from a known earlier song. Four-voice textures are rare in these years, but include some of the loveliest and most original songs of the time, including Ockeghem’s Je n’ay dueil. In that context the crucial importance of the ‘drive to the cadence’ is outlined, since it will be central to much of the following discussion.