One of the texts of Machaut's double balade, Quant Theseus/Ne quier (B34) is ascribed in Machaut's Voir dit to a certain Thomas Paien. The present article suggests that this Thomas was one of Machaut's peers, being like him a canon of Reims and a court secretary. Figures with similar names (and the pervasive idea that a character cited in a work of fiction might not be a real person at all) have confused earlier attempts at identification. A possible occasion for the composition of B34's texts – also involving a balade on the same refrain by Jehan Froissart – can be found in a shared patron–client link between Machaut and Thomas, both of whom had associations with John, Duke of Berry.

This paper considers contratenor parts in equal-cantus Italian motets found in the manuscript Bologna Q.15 from codicological, contrapuntal and stylistic perspectives. After establishing criteria for contratenor classification, the paper collates a lexicon of rules governing contratenor behaviour in fourteen motets by Johannes Carmen, Johannes Ciconia, Christoforus de Monte, Antonius Romanus, Matheus de Brixia, and Antonius de Civitate. Four paradigmatic motets are presented as case studies. Q.15 is the earliest (or only extant) source for many of these contratenors, several of which were probably added by a later composer, and they exhibit remarkably similar behaviour that we might term a ‘Q.15 style’. Finally, the lexicon is employed to distinguish between the features of an original contratenor and a later one, and the paper posits that studying contratenors can offer a unique window into fifteenth-century compositional thinking.

Following the Council of Basel in 1439, which initiated the papal schism between Eugenius IV and Felix V (Duke Amadeus VIII of Savoy), Guillaume Du Fay appears to have resumed his northern connections, leaving the court of Savoy and returning to the patronage of the Duke of Burgundy. This article sheds new light on the timing of the composer's move, and on his continued contact with the court of Savoy during the schism of the 1440s. Examination of liturgical sources from the cathedral of Cambrai and elsewhere brings to light a liturgical and musical anomaly in Du Fay's polyphonic settings of Mass Propers for St Maurice, composed during this period, suggesting that this cycle may have been commissioned from Savoy, although Du Fay seems to have had access only to Cambrai chant sources for its cantus firmi.

This article examines aspects of variation and transmission in the Office of Thomas Becket in the Diocese of Trier, Germany. Palaeographic evidence suggests that by the mid-fifteenth century, liturgical sources in Trier exhibited numerous transmission errors and disruptions in the modal scheme of the Thomas Office. However, a subset of late fifteenth- and early sixteenth-century manuscripts from St Florin and St Castor in Koblenz displays efforts to restore the theoretical modal scheme of the Office by composing new melodies for four items; the uniqueness of these items has been confirmed with the assistance of a large-scale electronic project cataloguing the Office of Thomas Becket across Europe, headed by Andrew Hughes at the University of Toronto. The present study provides a detailed melodic and modal analysis of the four newly composed items: the invitatory, Adsunt Thome martyris; the fourth responsory for Matins, Post sex annos; the ninth responsory for Matins, Iesu bone per Thome; and the fourth antiphon for Lauds, Ad Thome memoriam. Numerous melodic allusions to the Office of St Gorgonius – a martyr also venerated in Koblenz from the turn of the fifteenth century – have been uncovered in the four newly composed items. The re-ordering of the modal schemes of the Thomas Office and the colourful array of musical and theological echoes and allusions between the Becket and Gorgonius Offices suggests a desire to establish, reflect and cultivate a local liturgical identity within the community in Koblenz.

In 1910 the Premonstratensian Order acquired its own Graduale. Soon after the publication of this Graduale doubts were expressed about its authenticity. Still, to this very day the Premonstratensians stand by their ‘own’ chant and use the 1910 Graduale. In this article, I reveal that the Graduale is not a reconstruction of Premonstratensian chant of the twelfth or thirteenth centuries and I also attempt to explain why the Premonstratensians undertook the quest for their ‘own authentic’ Premonstratensian chant.

The basis of this study comes from the great responsory repertory in the twelfth-century French monastic manuscript, Paris 12044 from Saint-Maur-des-Fossés. A computerised database containing each component phrase was used to create a more accurate melodic taxonomy of responsories than has hitherto been available. Building on the research of W.H. Frere, H-J. Holman, and others, it is possible to obtain clearer insight into formulaic composition in an oral culture. This is achieved by comparing the use of recurrent, or ‘standard’, musical material in Paris 12044 to that found in several other manuscripts. The presence of standard material in a respond melody is found to be linked to the consistency of form and tonal structure.