Rhythm and Metre

Abstract Mensurations are not indicated in the Catalogue, partly because they are not always clear, and in the first half of the century are very often not specified, though their details can give surprising hints at the chronology of certain central composers. Then suddenly in the 1460s they are to be found for almost every voice of almost every song (as was to continue to be the case into our own century). But in the last half of the century the range of mensuration signs used reduces substantially in the song repertory (though not in masses or motets). Tempo is thus a far more variable matter in the songs than in church music. The chapter ends with a discussion of approximations in the rhythmic notation of certain songs and the evidence that the note-values are not always to be taken as literally as they may seem.