Prenez Sur Moi Vostre Exemple Amoureux: A Canon Wrapped Inside a Puzzle

Album: Ockeghem: Missa "De plus en plus" & Chansons
Track: "Prenez Sur Moi Vostre Exemple Amoureux" (Track #7)
Composer: Johannes Ockeghem
Instruments: 3 vocals
Musical Form: rondeau cinquain
Year: ~1460

Long before quasi-psychedelic rock bands were syncing their LPs to Judy Garland movies and artists with postmodern aspirations were using backmasking to dodge censors, there was the puzzle canon. These deceptively simple pieces would be notated with only a single voice, but the composer would leave some clue that would indicate how the other voices were meant to be sung. For example, the other voices might sing the melody of the first voice in reverse or at half the tempo.

In the most well-studied example of this technique, "Prenez Sur Moi Vostre Exemple Amoureux," Ockeghem presents a rondeau and leaves the simple hint, "Take from me your example …" Using this and the form of the musical notation, the singers are to deduce that they sing the same melody as the first voice, but in different musical modes; that is, transposed up intervals of a fourth and a seventh. The result has an elegant, if somewhat bland, sound and illustrates how the juxtaposition of melody lines that are related to one another by a simple musical transformation can be pleasing to the ear.

These puzzle canons must have presented an intriguing game to early composers, as they would challenge themselves to find melody lines that could be transformed in simple ways to produce a pleasant harmony, much like a mathematician solving a complex equation. Indeed, the very relations that they sought were mathematical in nature. It would be interesting to see if any of the melodies that we are familiar with in the modern world could be self-replicated in such a way. Nevertheless, I have trouble seeing the lasting quality of this music. Despite its novelty, the music has little to offer our brains once we have "solved" -- that is, familiarized ourselves with -- the relationships between voices. One or two listens should be enough, then feel free to move on.

Related Links: Allmusic