British Museum, Additional MS 29996 folios 158-178b contains a set of twenty anonymous pieces labeled with a heading indicating that they are compositions "on the faburden" of a piece of plainchant. "On the faburden" means that faburden, the improvisational technique of singing above a given melody (in this case plainchant) more or less at the interval of a third, was the genesis of the pieces. In these examples, the chant was then dropped, and the new composition was written using the faburden line as the middle voice. The notes of the plainchant and its text incipit are given at the beginning of each piece. The chants used are all hymns found in the Sarum Breviary, in services from Advent through the third sunday of Lent.

Index Classifications: 1500s

Contributed by: Nancy Kinsey Totten