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Dufay's Nuper Rosarum flores is an isorythmic motet, the two tenors of which are constructed from the plainchant Terribilis est locus iste . The most re

"Dufay's Synthesis of Ars Nova and Renaissance Techniques in Nuper Rosarum Flores" by Andreas Voellmy
Freedman 23 November, 1997 Music History I Use with MCD 86

Guillaume Dufay's motet Nuper rosarum flores holds an important place in history. It was performed on 25 March 1436, at the consecration of the Florence Cathedral by Pope Eugenius IV. The cupola of the cathedral, which became one of the masterpieces of Renaissance architecture, was engineered by Filippo Brunelleschi. The cupola's design, a great technical feat, took inspiration from the past - the Roman pantheon. In a similar fashion Nuper rosarum flores is also a technical masterpiece. The piece is an isorhythmic motet designed so that it's repeats are continually in different meters. Like Brunelleschi, Dufay reaches to the past for inspiration. Dufay looks to both the Ars Nova of 14th century France and to the Greek ideal of music's emotional powers. It is precisely Dufay's ability to synthesize the traditions of the Middle Ages with ideas of the Renaissance and ancient Greece that allows this motet to straddle both eras. It is this progressive sense, rather than the formal structure, that is the greatest accomplishment of the piece. Throughout the structural analysis of Nuper rosarum flores several themes will be present. The progressiveness of Dufay will be seen through his attention to contrast and the free isomelic design of the triplum and motetus voices, thereby creating a sounding object whose structure can be heard. A note about syntax: To specify events in this motet while preserving the structural implications, measures will be referred by two different names. The tenor measures will be denoted "primary measures" while the metrical divisions of the triplum and motetus parts will be denoted "secondary measures". Primary measures will be used to describe the tenor isorhythmic structure, while secondary measures will be used in discussing the upper voices. The most remarkable structural aspect of Dufay's Nuper Rosarum flores is its rhythmic structure. Nuper is a mensuration canon, i.e. the talea repeats each time in a different meter. The talea repeats four times and is always 28 primary measures long . Talea 1 is in 2 * 3/2, talea 2 is in 2 * 4/4, talea 3 is in 4/4 and talea 4 is in 6/4. These proportions are 6:4:2:3. It was believed that these proportions represented the structure of the cathedral for which this motet was written. Recently, however, that theory has been hotly contested.

Figure A - Tenor taleae

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Dufay's Nuper Rosarum flores is an isorythmic motet, the two tenors of which are constructed from the plainchant Terribilis est locus iste . The most re

Figure B - Tenor II taleae

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Dufay's Nuper Rosarum flores is an isorythmic motet, the two tenors of which are constructed from the plainchant Terribilis est locus iste . The most re

Each of the two tenors have different rhythmic patterns. Each, however, retains it's Talea and repeats it's talea exactly every repetition. It is apparent that tenor II has 14 measures of rest, while the tenor has 14.5 measures rest at the beginning of each talea. Although these rests are formally part of the isorhythmic design, effectively, this sounds like repeated introiti. The contrast of the upper voices singing in duet is marked by the absence of the tenor structures and thus, in actuality, the duets are heard as a relief from the isorhythms of the tenors. In these repeated introiti is seen an interesting development in the music of the early Renaissance. Dufay is displaying a use of contrasting textures. He contrasts the faster moving duet between the upper voices with sections with the tenor voices' slow moving, isorhythmic structure added in. In fact, there is an exact balance between these sections: the duets last 14 primary measures and the full voices last 14 primary measures. Here Dufay shows the beginnings of the use of contrasting textures that comes to full fruition in the music of Compere and becomes an essential development of the Renaissance and Baroque periods. In fact, Howard M. Brown, in his book Music in the Renaissance, calls the full voiced sections "tutti" (Brown 40). The word "tutti" here is significant because it is usually used to describe music of the 17th century and beyond. Brown's unusual use of the word here reflects this progressive quality of Dufay's music. This use of contrast also signifies a change in musical philosophy in the care for the audible effect of the music. It is the Renaissance that revived the Greek idea of the emotional power of music. Here Dufay constructs his isorhythmic structure with the sounding object clearly in mind. the stark contrast that the duet provides allows the ear to actually hear the isorhythmic structure of the motet. The color of both tenors is taken from the plainchant Terribilis est locus iste . The colors of each tenor are identical, but the tenor II is transposed a fifth above the tenor. The tenor II begins on D, while the tenor begins on G. Thus the tenors interact in a free canon of different rhythms and different pitch levels. The color and the taleae
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Dufay's Nuper Rosarum flores is an isorythmic motet, the two tenors of which are constructed from the plainchant Terribilis est locus iste . The most re

coincide in a one to one relationship. The color repeats with the repeat of the talea. Listen to one color.

Figure C - Tenor Color

Figure D - Tenor II Color

While the triplum and motetus voices do not follow an isorhythmic design, they do reuse the same thematic material during each repetition of the talea. The triplum, for example, repeats its theme, with large amounts of ornamentation each talea. An analysis of the first six secondary measures of the triplum in each talea is shown in figure E. There is a definite similarity of contour among these repetitions. Repetitions 1, 2 and 4 all rise to D, fall to the G, rise to the B, fall to the A and then rise to the C. Repeats 1 and 4 cadence on G while repeat 2 goes on to cadence on C. Listen to the first six measures of Talea 1, Talea 2, Talea 3, Talea 4. The repeats of the triplum share motivic similarities as well. In the diagram, the strong recurrence of motive A (BC-D motive) is shown throughout all four repeats. Likewise, motive B (C-A-G motive) is also reflected in most repeats. The motive C (C-B-G-F#-G motive) is evident in repeats 1 and 4 while repeat 2 has a modified motive C, denoted C'.

Figure E - Triplum part for the first six secondary measures of each talea

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Dufay's Nuper Rosarum flores is an isorythmic motet, the two tenors of which are constructed from the plainchant Terribilis est locus iste . The most re

The motetus voice is constructed similarly. Figure F shows the first six secondary measures of the motetus part for each of the four taleae. There are clear structural similarities among the four repetitions. In repeats 1,2 and 4 there is an initial emphasis on G. After this there is an emphasis on C. Repeats 1 and 4 continue to cadence on G through a common B-flat - A - G pattern, while repeat 2 continues to cadence on C. Listen to the first six measures of Talea 1, Talea 2, Talea 3, Talea 4.

Figure F - Motetus part for the first six secondary measures of each talea

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Dufay's Nuper Rosarum flores is an isorythmic motet, the two tenors of which are constructed from the plainchant Terribilis est locus iste . The most re

It is for these characteristics of the motetus and triplum voices are described as being isomelic. They are not ruled by an unyielding isorhythmic structure, rather they freely repeat the same thematic material. The isomelic design allows the upper voices to move freely and be more flexible. Most significantly, this free isomelic design allows Dufay to construct lines that relate in ways that the ear can perceive. For example the motive below can easily be heard in the first talea (secondary measures 50 - 56), the second talea talea (secondary measures 105 - 112), and the fourth talea (secondary measures 165 - 168). A modified version of the same motive can be heard in talea 3 talea (secondary measures 137 - 139).

Figure G - Repeated Triplum Motif

The emotional quality of the music and its emphasis on structure that can be heard is also evidenced anecdotally in the account of the music by Giannozzo Manetti, a witness to the consecration of the Florence Cathedral: "But at the Elevation of the Most Sacred Host, the whole space of the church was filled with such choruses of harmony and such a concord of divers instruments that it seemed (not without reason) as though the symphonies and songs of the angels and of divine Paradise had been sent forth from the heavens to whisper in our ears an unbelievable celestial sweetness. Wherefore at that moment I was so possessed by ecstasy that I seemed to enjoy the life of the Blessed here on earth; whether it happened so to others present I know not, but concerning myself I can bear witness. " (Weiss 82) The beginning of the third talea motetus and triplum parts as shown in Figures E and F bear far less resemblance to the themes in the other taleae of the upper voices. The third talea is texturally very different from the other talea. The duet is an exact canon, with the rhythms and pitches of the voices identical to each other, except that the pitches are at an interval level of a fourth. The triplum begins on A while the motetus begins on D. The motetus follows behind the triplum by one quarter note (with the exception of the first note of the duet). The exact canon lasts until the primary measure 11 of talea 3. Furthermore, there is a continual use of a specific motif in this duet. Dufay uses a pattern of leaping down by thirds, usually connected with seconds moving upward in between, throughout. Listen to the third duet. This odd third talea is another instance in which Dufay uses a freer sense of melodic activity to display contrast among sections of the motet. This duet, with its energetic, canonic texture follows with great effect the end of the heavy, isorhythmic structure of talea 2 that directly precedes it. Listen to the second tutti and the third duet. The text is divided in a more complicated manner than the color and the talea are. It is, in any case, more complicated than Brown claims. Brown erroneously claims that each talea corresponds with a strophe of text (Brown 40). This is untrue. The first talea contains the first strophe and almost the entire second strophe, up to the word "liquoribus". The second talea contains the last line of the second strophe and the entire third strophe. The third talea contains the first three lines of the fourth strophe, up to the word "carnem". The fourth talea contains the
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Dufay's Nuper Rosarum flores is an isorythmic motet, the two tenors of which are constructed from the plainchant Terribilis est locus iste . The most re

rest of the fourth strophe. This odd division of the text is due to the motet's structure as a mensuration canon. The amount of text contained in a given talea is directly proportional to the length of the meter of that talea. For instance, the talea with longest metric value, talea 1, contains the most text, while the talea with shortest metric value, talea 3, contains the least text. Dufay's motet Nuper rosarum flores is thus situated at a historical crossroads. Dufay manages to successfully synthesize medieval musical techniques with a Renaissance sensibility about the music's sounding order and its emotional impact. In this sense it is quite fitting that it was composed for an event so central to the renaissance as the consecration of the Florence Cathedral.

Works Cited Brown, Howard. Music in the Renaissance. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1976. p. 40. Weiss, Piero and Taruskin, Richard. Music in the Western World. New York: Schirmer Books, 1984. p.81-82.

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