The dominance of rhythmic texts in the twelfth-century sequence, conductus, versus, and related genres imposed a structural framework on their musical settings which was crucial to the development of "rhythm" in Notre-Dame polyphony. In the sequence repertory, it was not uncommon to borrow the text and melody from another source and use them as a basis for the composition at hand. The high level of sophistication possible using this technique is illustrated by the use of the hymn Ave maris stella as both a textual and melodic source for the sequence O Maria stella maris, where the music of the sequence is a theme with variations upon the original hymn melody.

Index Classifications: Monophony to 1300

Contributed by: Randal Tucker