YEARBOOK OF THE ALAMIRE FOUNDATION

FROM VARIETY TO REPETITION: THE BIRTH OF IMITATIVE POLYPHONY
The sixth rule is that, in singing above plainchant, we ought to avoid repetitions
as much as we can, particularly if some appear in the tenor … And,
although these are also prohibited by rule from every part in composed
music, sometimes, however, in imitating the sound of bells and trumpets,
they are tolerated everywhere. ... As is seen in these examples, repetition is
nothing other than the continuous reiteration of one or many motifs (conjunctiones).
In the seventh rule Tinctoris explicitly contrasts repetition with variety, and warns
that successive perfections on the same pitch ‘must be completely avoided as the
opposite of variety’(varietati contraria): 14
Septima regula est quod super planum cantum etiam cantum etiam canendo
duae aut plures perfectiones in eodem loco continue fieri non debent, licet
ad hoc quodammodo cantus ipse planus videatur esse coaptatus, …
Quaequidem regula tam exacte a compositoribus est observanda ut nec
etiam huiusmodi tenorem conficere debent, qui bis in eodem loco duarum
aut plurium continuarum perfectionum dispositionem habeat. Talis enim
compositio cum redicitis evidentissimam contrahit affinitatem, unde
tamquam varietati contraria omnino est evitanda.
The seventh rule is that, in also singing above plainchant, two or more perfections
ought not to be made continuously in the same place, granted that
this plainchant is seen to be appropriate to this procedure. This particular
rule must be so exactly observed by composers that they should not make
a tenor of this kind, one which has the placing of two or more continuous
perfections twice in the same place. Since such composition shows a most
obvious affinity with repetitions, it must be completely avoided as an opposite
category.
The eighth and last rule ‘teaches that variety must be most accurately sought for in
all counterpoint’, and goes on to list all the ways variety can be achieved: 15
De octava et ultima generali regula que varietatem in omni contrapuncto
exquirendam accuratissime praecipit … si nunc per unam quantitatem, nunc
per aliam, nunc per unam perfectionem, nunc per unam proportionem, nunc
14 TINCTORIS, Liber de arte contrapuncti, Book 3, ch. 7, p. 154; translation from GALLAGHER, Models
of Varietas, p. 61, note 56.
15 TINCTORIS, Liber de arte contrapuncti, Book 3, ch. 8, p. 155; TINCTORIS, The Art of Counterpoint,
p. 139.
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