ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses 'perfect' cadences, and other apparently familiar phenomena, but there is much evidence also of approaches very different from those of classical common practice harmony. The most impressive of John Taverner's large-scale works are the masses Gloria tibi Trinitas and Corona spinea, and the votive antiphons Gaude plurimum and Ave Dei Patris filia. Although the words of Gaude plurimum are about joy, both the Virgin's and the worshippers', the music may not strike present-day listeners as overtly joyful, partly because the basic tonality is minor. Each part matches the underlying triple or duple metre only sporadically, for syncopation is fundamental to the style. Robert Fayrfax's austere style influenced Taverner in parts of Ave Dei Patris filia and helped to form the refined and economical manner of Gaude plurimum. The length and complexity of the Latin constructions make it hard for the listener to follow the sense, but Taverner's subdivision of the text indicates that he understood its syntax.
