[999] Chérest, 35; Dreves, 576.
[1000] Liturgically a conductus is a form of Cantio, that is, an interpolation in the mass or office, which stands as an independent unit, and not, like the Tropes, Proses and Sequences, as an extension of the proper liturgical texts. The Cantiones are, however, only a further step in the process which began with Tropes (Nisard, op. cit. 191; Dreves, Anal. Hymn. xx. 6). From the point of view of musical science H. E. Wooldridge, Oxford Hist. of Music, i. 308, defines a conductus as ‘a composition of equally free and flowing melodies in all the parts, in which the words are metrical and given to the lower voice only.’ The term is several times used in the Officium. Clément, 163, falls foul of Dulaure for taking it as an adjective throughout, with asinus understood.
[1001] Wordsworth, Mediaeval Services, 289; Clément, 126, 163. Dulaure seems to have taken the tabula for the altar. The English name for the tabula was wax-brede. An example (†1500) is printed by H. E. Reynolds, Use of Exeter Cathedral, 73.
[1002] Appendix L; where the various versions of the ‘Prose’ are collated.
[1003] There are many hymns beginning Salve, festa dies. The model is a couplet of Venantius Fortunatus, Carmina, iii. 9, Ad Felicem episcopum de Pascha, 39 (M. G. H. Auct. Antiquiss. iv. 1. 60):
‘Salve, festa dies, toto venerabilis aevo,
qua Deus infernum vicit et astra tenet.’
[1004] Clément, 127, correcting an error of Lebeuf. A still more curious slip is that of M. Bourquelot, who found in the word euouae, which occurs frequently in the Officium, an echo of the Bacchic cry évohé. Now euouae represents the vowels of the words Seculorum amen, and is noted at the ends of antiphons in most choir-books to give the tone for the following psalm (Clément, 164).
[1005] Clément, 138, reads Conductus ad Ludos, and inserts before In Laudibus the word Ludarius. Dreves, Anal. Hymn. xx. 221, reads Conductus ad Laudes. The section In Laudibus, not being metrical, is not printed by him, so I do not know what he makes of Ludarius. If Clément is right, I suppose a secular revel divided Matins and Lauds, which seems unlikely.
[1006] I follow Dreves, Anal. Hymn. xx. 228. Clément, 151, has again Ludarium.