ABSTRACT
THE art of vocal polyphony, as we have alrea.dy had occasion to remark, was of definitely northern provenance and character. Indeed, one might say that just as Gregorian chant corresponds with Byzantine architecture, so does the art of the Flemish composets and their successors constitute the musical equivalent of Gothio architecture. The stylistic analogies are striking and have often been pointed out before. The leading characteristic of Gothic style, in the words of an eminent authority (Moore, .. History of Mediooval Architecture "), consists in .. a system of balanced thrusts " and a ',' logical adjustment of parts whose opposing forces neutralise each other and produce a perfect equilibrium", and the same words might be used, without any alteration, to define the essential structural principle underlying the art of the great Flemish composers of the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. Another instructive and perhaps even closer analogy is to be found in the art or craft of tapestry, in which, as in contrapuntal music, separate threads of material are woven on a frame in such a way as to produce a complex tissue of lines and colours. Indeed, one could not hope to find a better definition of polyphonic music than that it is a tonal ta.pestry, or a weaving together of several voices into a definite formal design.
