ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with evidence of a more familiar order by succinctly placing the current debate about the cappella performance of late medieval chansons in context. It explores the question of whether practical experiment by performers can ever be raised to the level of a research tool in the study of medieval music. The chapter suggests that it is possible to find a relatively objective way of describing certain phenomena in vocalization that were just as accessible to the ears of 14th-century singers as they are to theirs and just as likely to have influenced what was attempted. The vocalization of textless parts in medieval polyphony has been advocated by various scholars for at least 25 years so the time has come to explore this technique. The straight trumpet would have been a ceremonial and signalling instrument, possibly of some use in simple kinds of dance music; something similar may probably be said of the frame drum.
