Note 1000 — Chapter XIII · THE FEAST OF FOOLS

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.