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Music and Letters 2003 84(4):527-556; doi:10.1093/ml/84.4.527
© 2003 by Oxford University Press
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Striking Ornaments: Complexities of Sense and Song in Aquitanian ‘Versus’

Rachel Golden Carlson1

1 The University of Tennessee Knoxville

Representing some of the earliest examples of polyphonic song, the twelfth-century Aquitanian versus feature rhymed, regular, Latin sacred texts, utilizing a wealth of biblical allusions and metaphors. Some of these references are contextualized within the contemporaneous Marian cult and the monastic traditions of lectio divina. The discussion demonstrates how arresting textual features prompted correspondingly gestural musical settings that emphasize the text through ornamentation, pitch climax, cadential gesture, and musical elaboration. Both textual and musical features serve as ‘striking ornaments’ that help to arrest the ear and attract the mind towards theological contemplation and devotion.


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