bassus

Like Du Fay, Regis employed two musically and liturgically related chants; however, rather than presenting these successively in the tenor alone, he had them sound simultaneously in the tenor and bassus.

Archive 2009-04-01 Lu 2009

Catullus hath made of them one or two very artificiall and ciuil: but none more excellent then of late yeares a young noble man of Germanie as I take it Iohannes secundus who in that and in his poeme De bassus, passeth any of the auncient or moderne Poetes in my iudgment.

The Arte of English Poesie 1569

But around 1450, or even before, composers and performers started to use a contratenor bassus, derived not from the discantus but from the tenor, beneath which they sang alternate 3rds and 5ths, beginning and ending with a unison or octave, and with the cadential octave preceded by a 5th; to the resulting tricinium a new kind of contratenor altus might also be added, by singing alternate 3rds and 4ths above the tenor, beginning and ending with a 5th, and with the cadential 5th preceded by a 4th see exx.3 and 4 below.

Archive 2008-02-01 bls 2008

In the Staffarda Codex, Brumel’s composition, in the shape of a double canon like the four-part song by Josquin, appears only for two parts, bassus and altus; the other two voices, tenor and superius, proceed in canon over the bassus and altus respectively.

Archive 2009-04-01 Lu 2009