This type of composition is generally referred to as a cantilena, a freely composed piece in three parts based on a non-liturgical text, taking its musical style from the manner of chant elaboration favouring parallel first-inversion triads, the so-called descant style. Whilst some cantilenas are notable for their rhythmic flexibility, this early fourteenth-century piece contains an unusually high degree of chromatic writing. The eight strophes of text are set in pairs to four sections of music, the final two of which are the most intense. The third section features parallel root-position triads moving by semitone (C minor to B minor) and a sudden shift of focus towards the triad of A flat before a return to the home triad of F. Although the score leaves little room for ambiguity concerning the notes themselves there are two possible rhythmic interpretations of the music: the only published edition of the work (in Polyphonic Music of the Fourteenth Century, vol. xvii) presents the music in compound time, but Christopher Hodkinson’s edition favours duple time.

from notes by Geoffrey Webber © 2006