Ne unquam obdormiat in morte anima mea

[fellmama]

I thought I was going to have a lazy weekend, but I have to read six articles and prepare a presentation for Kyra. There goes my sleep.
Speaking of which, I've been distressingly insommniac lately. I don't know if four-day screwed with my internal clock or what, but sheesh. Not being able to sleep sucks.
Under normal circumstances, I would probably never admit this, but I love music history. Grove sez: "Ockeghem and his contemporaries believed that as far as the ordinary listener was concerned, the perfect canon, like the perfect crime, must not even be suspected, much less detected.
Composers took a sly pleaure in concealed ingenuity, occasionally forcing performers into a kind of guessing game. The directions for deriving the second voice . . . are sometimes only hinted at in an intentionally obscure or jocular fashion. Thus 'Clama ne cesses' (Shout without ceasing) means that the musicians must ignore the rests."
Or as in the third Agnus Dei from Dufay's Missa L'Homme armé: "Cancer eat plenus et redeat medius." Roughly translated, it means "Thus far as a crab and return at the middle." Real clear, Guillaume. Real clear.
Do you know this motet, rootlesscosmo? I've completely fallen in love with it.
Edit 11:23 PM: I just got stood up by Will. How sad do you have to be to get stood up by Will?

Comments

[rootlesscosmo.livejournal.com]

I don't know it--recommendations would be welcome. Basically my knowledge of music tapers way down before Monteverdi. (Not that there aren't huge gaps in it after...)

[fellmama.livejournal.com]

My ignorance is woeful; hence this class. I'm really enjoying the Burgundian school.