Discantus

Abstract Various different names have been given to this line already in the 15th century. Reasons are given for preferring ‘Discantus’. Some songs have a textless prelude, which is discussed, with some remarks on ensemble size in this music. Some songs have text-repetition—which is very rare, therefore itemized. That leads to an explanation of how often it is possible in this repertory to guess at the form with some confidence even when the sources contain no text. The chapter closes with a discussion of whether the texting in the sources can be treated as a guide to the texting in the ideal performance.