This article traces the history of chants associated with the Adoration of a replica of the cross. It describes the development of an antiphon series for Good Friday afternoon found in Ordines Romani XXVII–XXXIII and selected northern French, German, Aquitanian, Spanish and Italian sources dating from the eighth into the twelfth century. Using illustrative tables, rubrics and facsimiles, the study compares liturgical features of the Adoratio crucis with its related Offices of the cross, the Exaltatio and Inventio, in a survey of the principal titles' texts and melodies.

Taking the Boethian understanding of the relation between the musicus and cantor as his point of departure, Jacobus – the author of the Speculum musicae – develops this relation in light of new ecclesiastical realities and the Aristotelian understanding of the relation between theory and practice. Without entirely abandoning an allegiance to the priority of theory over practice and the corresponding embodiments of these categories in the musicus and cantor, Jacobus redefines these terms to create a new threefold taxonomy: the Boethian musicus who understands but does not perform or compose, the practicus musicus who both understands and practises within an ecclesiastical context (and is the equivalent of the peritus cantor), and the cantor who sings without understanding. These developments within the Speculum musicae follow attempts by earlier authors to negotiate the relation between the heritage of antiquity and the cantus tradition of musical practice within liturgical contexts. Jacobus's solution also differs from solutions offered by contemporary and later authors.

Guillaume de Machaut's Hoquetus David represents the only extant hocket of the Ars Nova. Although the Hoquetus is among Machaut's most commercially recorded compositions, it has received relatively little scholarly attention: while Daniel Leech-Wilkinson has focused on its rhythmic characteristics and Anne Walters Robertson on its possible raison d'être, many of the Hoquetus's unusual musical features remain unexplored. In Part I of this article, I compare the Hoquetus with Machaut's motets, as well as with thirteenth-century double hockets, in order to shed light on several of the work's anomalies. In Part II, I turn to matters of syntax, concentrating on Machaut's use of the dissonant seventh. I discuss and illustrate Machaut's surprisingly frequent use of the seventh to fifth progression in several passages from the Hoquetus, his motets and the Messe de nostre dame, and in turn demonstrate that the progression indeed constitutes a salient element of his compositional praxis. In Part III, I briefly address the question of method of performance. By inspecting the vocal ranges and melodic activity of the Hoquetus itself, I demonstrate that the Hoquetus David is indeed conducive for vocal performance, and in turn speculate how it might be performed despite its lack of text.