{{About, the musical feature The cauda is a characteristic feature of songs in the

conductus The ''conductus'' (plural: ''conducti'') was a sacred Latin song in the Middle Ages, one whose poetry and music were newly composed. It is non-liturgical since its Latin lyric borrows little from previous chants. The conductus was northern Frenc ...

style of '' a cappella'' music which flourished between the mid-12th and the mid-13th century. The conductus style placed strict rules on composition, and some such rules were devoted to the cauda, which came at the penultimate syllable of each verse. It takes the form of a lengthy section of counterpoint - where several simultaneous melodies are combined into one - slurred over the one syllable. The cauda was repeated in each verse. The significance of the cauda in conductus music is such that most conducti were divided into the categories ''conductus cum cauda'' and ''conductus sine cauda'' (conductus with or without cauda.) The latter made up less than a third of the repertoire. The writing of medieval music did not include strict rhythmic notation, but when multiple notes were given to one syllable, known as a

melisma Melisma ( grc-gre, μέλισμα, , ; from grc, , melos, song, melody, label=none, plural: ''melismata'') is the singing of a single syllable of text while moving between several different notes in succession. Music sung in this style is ref ...

, special notation, known as

rhythmic mode In medieval music, the rhythmic modes were set patterns of long and short durations (or rhythms). The value of each note is not determined by the form of the written note (as is the case with more recent European musical notation), but rather by ...

s, were used. As the cauda is a specific type of melisma, it contains this special notation. The word "cauda" is derived from the Latin word for

tail The tail is the section at the rear end of certain kinds of animals’ bodies; in general, the term refers to a distinct, flexible appendage to the torso. It is the part of the body that corresponds roughly to the sacrum and coccyx in mammals ...

. Conceptually, it is easy to see in the cauda, the root of the modern term, coda, which arrived when Latin was replaced by Italian as the musical lingua franca. Two notable examples occur in ''Vetus Abit Littera'', a four-voice

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world. A feast central to the Christian liturgical year ...

conductus from the Florence manuscript, and ''Dic Christi, Veritas'', a tirade against clerical

hypocrisy Hypocrisy is the practice of engaging in the same behavior or activity for which one criticizes another or the practice of claiming to have moral standards or beliefs to which one's own behavior does not conform. In moral psychology, it is the ...

written by

Philip the Chancellor Philippe le Chancelier, also known as "Philippus Cancellarius Parisiensis" (Philip, Chancellor of Paris) (''c'' 1160–December 26, 1236) was a French theologian, Latin lyric poet, and possibly a composer as well. He was the illegitimate son of Phi ...

. The latter is found in the

Carmina Burana ''Carmina Burana'' (, Latin for "Songs from Benediktbeuern" 'Buria'' in Latin is a manuscript of 254 poems and dramatic texts mostly from the 11th or 12th century, although some are from the 13th century. The pieces are mostly bawdy, irreveren ...

manuscript in a

monophonic Monaural or monophonic sound reproduction (often shortened to mono) is sound intended to be heard as if it were emanating from one position. This contrasts with stereophonic sound or ''stereo'', which uses two separate audio channels to reproduc ...

version and in the Paris sources in an elaborate three-voice setting, laden with caudae.

References

* New Grove Dictionary of Music *

Richard Taruskin Richard Filler Taruskin (April 2, 1945 – July 1, 2022) was an American musicologist and music critic who was among the leading and most prominent music historians of his generation. The breadth of his scrutiny into source material as well as ...

, ed.,

Oxford History of Western Music The ''Oxford History of Western Music'' is a narrative history from the "earliest notations" (taken to be around the eighth century) to the late twentieth century. It was written by the American musicologist Richard Taruskin. Published by Oxfor ...

(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005) Volume 1. Medieval music theory

See also

References