{{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 Fren ...

style of ''

a cappella Music performed a cappella ( , , ; ), less commonly spelled acapella in English, is music performed by a singer or a singing group without instrumental accompaniment. The term ''a cappella'' was originally intended to differentiate between Rena ...

'' 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 In music theory, counterpoint is the relationship of two or more simultaneous musical lines (also called voices) that are harmonically dependent on each other, yet independent in rhythm and melodic contour. The term originates from the Latin ...

- 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 (, , ; from , plural: ''melismata''), informally known as a vocal run and sometimes interchanged with the term roulade, is the singing of a single syllable of text while moving between several different notes in succession. Music sung in ...

, special notation, known as

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

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 elongated section at the rear end of a bilaterian animal's body; in general, the term refers to a distinct, flexible appendage extending backwards from the midline of the torso. In vertebrate animals that evolution, evolved to los ...

. 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 A lingua franca (; ; for plurals see ), also known as a bridge language, common language, trade language, auxiliary language, link language or language of wider communication (LWC), is a Natural language, language systematically used to make co ...

. Two notable examples occur in ''Vetus Abit Littera'', a four-voice

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a Religion, religious and Culture, cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by coun ...

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

hypocrisy Hypocrisy is the practice of feigning to be what one is not or to believe what one does not. The word "hypocrisy" entered the English language ''c.'' 1200 with the meaning "the sin of pretending to virtue or goodness". Today, "hypocrisy" ofte ...

written by

Philip the Chancellor Philip the Chancellor, ( French: 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. H ...

. 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 sound or monophonic sound (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 reproduce sou ...

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 Oxford ...

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

See also

References