Note 241 — Chapter V · INTELLECTUAL RESOURCES

Ockeghem, it has been said, “breathes into his music the soul of song, envelops it in a vigorous harmonic body, and clothes it with a fine tissue of ingenious thematic developments, imitations more or less close and more or less extended. One finds in his pieces, often in their inner parts, phrases of great melodic beauty, and full of an extraordinary sweetness and depth of expression. His harmonies are often enough peculiar and archaic, but they are striking and rich. He also brings his pieces to a close in a manner sometimes surprising and odd, but certainly very interesting.” (R. Eitner.)