ABSTRACT
The Old Hall Manuscript, known since its acquisition by the British Library in 19 73 as Additional MS. 579 50 , contains on fols. 22v-23 a Gloria by Pycard (fig. l a ,b) which is a rare and early example of double canon , published as no . 27 in the ed it io n .' Its only clear antec edent in that resp ect is the-likewise E n glish-'Su mer' canon in B L , Harley
MS. 978 , technically a very different piece , involving that sp ecial form of canon we know as round, over a simple two - voice rondellus ostinato . 2
Notwithstanding the o rigins implied by his n ame and in documents , Pycard was in English service in the 1390s; his music al style shows him to h ave been thoroughly assim ilate d as an E n gli sh cornposer. f His ascribed compositions are preserved m ainly in the Old Hall m anuscript. They include the Gloria no . 26 a4, with canon 2 in I at the fourth ; the present double canonic Gloria no. 27; the isorhythmic Gloria no . 28 a5 , al so with solus tenor ; the Gloria no. 35 a5 with canon 2 in 1;4 the C red o no . 76 a4 (non-canonic, but with an interesting t ransposed section) ; and the Sanctus no . 123 , with canon 2 in 1 and tenor , probably lacking on the missing facing page a contratenor an d fifth free vo ic e. In ad d it io n, an incomplete an d largely illegible Credo in Stratford is ascribed to Picart. 5 The conspicuous presence of canon among these works raises the possibility that two anonymous Credos with treble canons three in one, no . 71 and the four def orce no. 75, might al so be his work. I have suggested elsewhere , very tentatively , that Pyc ard might be the author of a cycle of five -part O rdin ary movements , unified by the shared technique of canon, by number of voices and general style , of which we have the Gloria no. 35 , C red o no . 75 (anonymous) , and Sanctus no . 123 (incomplete) .6 The Gloria under discussion, no . 27 , is also in a total of five parts; as a canon four in two, each comesfollows its dux at the unison and at five breves' distance , with an ad d it io n al, free fifth vo ic e in the sam e clef and range as the
upper canonic voices. The first half is given as ex. I. The procedure of the lower voices, that they called Juga and we call canon, is specified by the "canon" Tenor et contratenor inuno unuspostaliumJugando quinque temporibus. The upper-voice canon is signalled only by portions of double text underlay to the single notated top part. Oliver Strunk observed this as a symptom of canon in IIII several Old Hall compositions and was the first to identity this Gloria as a double canon.71t is a piece of full sonorities, including thirds above the bass line. It makes the most of its full five -voice texture which, together with its "major" tonality and lilting metre (6/8 in transcription), contributes to a characteristically English sound quite different from Machaut and his successors, despite the significant extent to which English composers had absorbed French mensural techniques by this time. 8 The upper parts are managed with considerable skill , including gentle proportional enlivenment and hockets. Although the opening presents a widely spaced imitative introitus, similar to that in Italianate motets of this period, the remainder of the canon is achieved without such extensive resort to echo and rests to facilitate exactness.
