The Legacy of L’Homme armé

The Armed Man tradition widely impacted the composition of Masses and other music

in the late 15th century through transformations of the secular tune. This tune had unclear

origins and many speculations about where it came from however, it became a phenomenon in

the late 15th century. Many famous composers of the time such as Antoine Busnoys, and

Guillaume Du Fay started to take this mysterious tune and reset it to different voices and

textures making the tune their own. The most effective versions were composed sin such a way

that the Armed Man tune synthesized with the new work making one coherent whole rather

than a composed piece scattered with Armored Man quotations. Fast forward to the 21st

century, and the Armed Man tradition is still very much alive. The Orlando Consort and Perfect

Houseplants collaboratively created the album Extempore II and added a jazz twist to the early

music genre. Many of the pieces on this album employ the Armed Man tune and transform it to

fit the message of the newly composed song through the development of rhythm, form,

tonality, and texture. These developments enabled composers to create new compositions that

were based upon this tune. Looking through the scope of these musical criterium and Harold

Bloom’s theory of poetic influence, we can determine which of the three tracks on the album

that uses the Armed Man tune is most effective in terms of which track on the album integrates

the Armed Man tune the best while still having a sense of originality present.

In Joseph Straus’s journal article titled “Anxiety of Influence” he explains how literary

critic Harold Bloom’s theory of poetic influence can be applied to the practice of musical

borrowing as well as poetry. These points can be used to delve deeper into how the Armed

Man theme has been transformed in the tracks on Extempore II. Bloom’s theory has three
aspects that are relevant to the borrowing of music: intertextuality, anxiety, and misreading.

Because both poetry and music are art forms in which one builds upon another’s work, the

theory can be applied to the borrowing of music as well. Bloom’s idea of intertextuality means

that a work is “not a self-contained, organic whole; rather it is a relational event, embodying

impulses from a variety of sources.”1 Straus believes that intertextuality applies to music in

terms of the musical syntax. A composer can change and develop the form of an old piece while

still keeping a part of the old form present to juxtapose with the new showing the two ideas

“locked in conflict.”1 Bloom also talks about how “poets feel anxiety towards their towering

precursors”1 and how poems struggle to “clear space” for themselves.2 Like poems, music also

struggles to be noticed in a sea of thousands of other compositions. Straus emphasizes that

music is “disseminated by performance”2 and to clear space for itself according to Bloom’s

theory, it must find its way to the stage to be performed for audiences. The last point of

Bloom’s is the idea of misreading. Straus explains that a composer “will often misread their

predecessors in their compositions,”2 meaning that they will use other works for a purpose of

their own. Using Bloom’s theories, I will analyze the transformations of the armored man tune

on three tracks of the album, Extempore II.

The first song on the album that uses the Armed Man tune is the first track, Motet- “The

Man, the Man.” The song begins with plant drums and then adds a mixed meter ostinato

1of works: The Anxiety of Influence: A Theory of Poetry (Oxford, 1973), A Map of Misreading (Oxford, 1975),
Kabballah and Criticism (New York, 1983), and Poetry and Repression: Revisionism from Blake to Stevens (New
Haven, 1
2
Joseph N. Straus, “The "Anxiety of Influence" in Twentieth-Century Music,” The Journal of Musicology, Vol. 9,
No. 4 (Autumn, 1991), pp. 430-447
underneath to establish a duple and triple feel. This ostinato is in line with Bloom’s idea of

intertextuality. The use of triple rhythms takes the meter element from the old armed man

theme (originally in ¾) and follows it with a new duple addition making a mixed meter of 7/8.

Here, we see the meters juxtaposing each other because the composer has taken a new

element and added it to the old in order to vie with original and make it better than it was

before. We also see some anxiety come into play as we compare not only the style of both

pieces, but the texture as well. The new “Motet” has been put to a vocal group and jazz combo

performing in a back and forth style similar to that of a battling manner which parallels the

original armed man texts. The composer felt the need to set the theme to an obscure texture in

order to gain the interest and attention of audiences. This is a way that the pieces can “make

room” for itself among the many other Armed Man settings.

The next track that uses the Armed Man tune is track number five, Gloria- “Glory Be.”

The pieces use the overlap voices, tritones, and a Jazz ostinato that includes both duple and

triple rhythms to create an Armed Man Gloria. There is both intertextuality and Anxiety in that

the form of the piece and the characteristics are still true to a Gloria as it would be performed

in the mass ordinary with the plainchant sung first and then the Gloria in an ABA form. The B

section which would normally contain a melismatic solo passage now has been exchanged for

an improvisational solo making the piece a “Jazz Gloria.” The jazz version of a Gloria successfully

re-creates the Gloria and “Clears space” by putting a modern twist on it. In the A section, voices

alternate and repeat Armored Man tune fragments in succession while transposing up perfect

fourth and fifths. This potentially could be extrapolating on Hocket during the Ars nova and

Renaissance time periods in which the armed man song was flourishing during. The Perfect
Houseplants and Orlando Consort keep the integrity of the Gloria while using the armed man

tune as the cantus firmus. This is similar to how the armored Man tune was set to masses

during the renaissance. The piece takes ideas of renaissance mass settings and juxtaposes them

with jazz textures further strengthening Bloom’s idea of intertextuality.

The last track that uses the Armed Man tune is track 7, Epistle- “Prayer.” The piece has

taken the Armed Man tune and extended it in length making the Armed man tune a theme for

the rondo-like form of the track. Through the extension of the theme, the musical group has

tipped their hat to the Armed Man and vied with it making the tune even more grand than it

was before. The arranger has chosen to set this to a rondo or maybe even a variation on a

theme in which their anxiety shows. These forms which are extremely popular types of

audience gathering music that contain virtuosic variations on a catchy theme. The need for

their music to be listened to is the reason for this popular and canonic setting of the Armed

man tune. However, in this track the use of the tune at beginning doesn’t use the entire tune.

The only section used was the section that is texted “the man, the man, the armed man, the

armed man.” By arranging this in a way where they only took a section of the tune, The Perfect

Houseplants and Orlando Consort were able to purposefully misread and use the tune for their

own purpose. This truncated version of the tune literally takes the “fear” out of the piece

making appropriate and sensitive use of the armed man tune.

Although its origins are still debated, its impact is clear. The first track on the album,

Motet, changes elements of meter and time in order to instill a jazz feel. It also manages to

keep the battling theme of the Armed Man tune though the back and forth texture in which it

was composed. The fifth track, Gloria, instills a similar mixed meter time to the Motet but keeps
true to the form and composition of a Gloria slightly altering the traditional qualities of a Gloria

and incorporating improvisation and imitative counterpoint between voices. Both of these

tracks took traditional early music forms and added jazz elements to it in attempt to make an

effective and compelling musical work. However, because these two tracks followed the forms

in which they were based upon I believe that it takes away from the originality needed in order

for a piece to thrive. The works are most strong in terms with Bloom’s ideas of intertextuality

but lack in the realms of anxiety and misreading. Epistle- “Prayer” was most effective in my

opinion because the armored man tune provided inspiration for most of the work not material.

Because of this, Bloom’s concepts of Anxiety and Misreading are stronger within Epistle-

“Prayer” than in the first two works. The element of Anxiety shows the drive and effort of a

composer to create a work that is original despite it being based upon a preexisting melody

while misreading reveals how the borrowed work is incorporated into the newly composed

one. Of the three works, Epistle- “Prayer” is more evident in the effort to create a more whole

and unified work despite having a borrowed tune is present. Through the development of

rhythm, form, tonality, and texture the Armed Man tune continues a legacy while still managing

to keep the interest of audiences of many varieties.