Josquin: details of the last cadence

[Superius]	I hardly understand the last symbols: breve, semibreve, ?, semibreve, longua?
[Altus]	Here again the symbol under the fermata is not obvious to me!
[Tenor]	If the symbol under the fermata is a semibreve, then this latter note is not an upbeat to the last longua, while it is probably the case for the two upper parts.
[Bassus]	Same symbols than in tenor part. Thanks to those who'd their hints or solutions, which, of course, won't be published without explicit allowance. See below the solution sent by Rick Arnest, and published here with his kind permission.

According to Rick, the symbols in this cadence are just a way to insist on the fermata ! Therefore, the end is, as usually, made of single long notes, held ad libitum. I've changed my MIDI file accordingly. Thanks to Rick - please tell me/us if you disagree !
(Rick also commented that in a liturgic performance one would repeat the first part, to take in account the Kyrie-Christe-Kyrie sequence).

However, I shouldn't have written the solution, since Jonathan Shull sent me another point of view (thanks to him)! I'm now quoting his remarks with his kind permission:
"While it is possible that Rick is correct about the insistence upon the fermata, I think he's over reading the information. As I see it, the peculiar figure is really just a decorative closing note. It is not uncommon to find final notes of a work or section that are decorated or ornamented in some fashion. It is simply a copyist's conceit.
I imagine that the fermatas in the score would have been adequate in themselves and would require no further emphasis. Of course, the ornamental nature of the note, if I am correct, would by virtue of that very nature reinforce its cadential or closing function, which would I suppose have the effect of reinforcing the fermatas. Still, I do think that it is really just a visual flourish more than anything else."
  Close window