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Chelys, vol. 7 (1977), article 1
Ex. XIV
It is interesting to note that such a contrapuntal piece as De la court
should have been arranged for mixed consort—a medium one would tend to
associate with much more chordal music. A further source of the piece is
worthy of individual comment. In a copy of the Cantiones Sacrae (1575)
now in Trinity College Dublin (Press B.1.32) has been scrawled the top part
of the first section of the piece, together with some curious words,
presumably penned by the scribe:
Lament O wretched, the widow Babylon, I say. Lament thy fall and learn
at me to sing, down [etc.] For now the Kings of the earth that were made
drink with the wine of thy fornication, are quite departed and have left thee
naked . . . [etc.]
[Punctuation is editorial]
While the underlay is poor and the text itself doggerel, this source
certainly adds weight to the theory that pieces such as De la court were
vocalised as well as played on instruments. 28 Certainly, compared with the
two pieces by Parsons which are actually entitled [18] ‘A song’, the top part
has a strong melodic quality at times, although it never predominates unduly
in the contrapuntal whole.
As previously noted, when the two halves of the piece are compared, it is
clear that they are based on the same pattern and use much the same
thematic material:
28 See Edwards: op. cit.