Conductus

CONDUCTUS. - It is one of the most interesting musical forms of the Middle Ages, in which the composer had freedom of choice as to text and inspiration. A distinction is made between monophonic and polyphonic c.

The first is a Latin chant to accompany the procession of a person in a liturgical or extraliturgical function, such as the versus ante Evangelium cantandi of Hartmann of St. Gall, the c. ad tabulam, ad Iudus etc., and the office of Pierre de Corbeil. For extraliturgical functions there are known, among others, the c. reginae venientis ad regem, the c. referentium vous ante Danielens and others, preserved in the Beauvais manuscript of 1140, in which the word c. appears for the first time. The second was a chant for several voices on a single text, Latin and almost always metrical, in which the voices proceeded in concord. If the melody was simple or adorned, one had the syllabic c. and the melismatic c. Medieval theorists also speak of c. habens caudam, with a long melisma at the beginning, in the middle or at the end. As with all medieval compositions, the composers of the c. are unknown: it is known only that Perotinus Magnus composed many of them, monophonic and polyphonic. The Latin texts have a varied content, both religious and secular.