Borrowed Materials

Abstract This chapter follows the growth of a genre borrowing a single line from an established song. It begins with duos built on Bedyngham’s O Rosa bella and dating apparently from around 1450. After discussing two misunderstood songs in the Montecassino manuscript, the chapter moves on to the combinative chanson repertory in the hands of Ockeghem, Busnoys, and Josquin but almost certainly originating with Ockeghem. This leads on to the ‘motet-chanson’ repertory, as seen in the hands of Compere, Agricola, Josquin, and in Obrecht’s most often copied work, a piece that we know only as Parce Domine populo tuo but must have had an entirely different text in the discantus.