Topography and its metaphors have long dominated the historiography of towns and they continue to do so in the modern renaissance of what might be called ‘urban musicology’. Maps, plans and townscapes – likewise ‘soundscapes’ – have proved valuable in representing the diversity and disposition of activity, alongside the interplay of time and space and of private and public spheres. Yet at the same time a number of implications present in these constructs have yet to be fully explored, with consequences in turn for the ways in which we theorise the structures and dynamics of musical cultures. In this article we propose a redrafting of the institutional and historiographic ‘map’ of church music in English towns during the century or so before the Reformation. This serves as a preliminary to two larger questions, to be more fully investigated elsewhere but inevitably also touched upon here.

Machaut's balades Il mest avis (hereafter B22) and De fortune (hereafter B23), adjacent in the music section of the Machaut manuscripts, form a diptych on the theme of Fortune. In relation to each other, their poetic texts offer complementary perspectives on the power of Fortune: B22 is static, detached in tone, a clerk commentating in a public sententious statement upon the political manifestations of Fortune; conversely, B23 is personal and dynamic, a spurned lady's personal testimony to the power of Fortune to change happiness into sorrow. Despite these contrasts, the two poems share a diction markedly different from that of the twenty-one balades that precede them in the music section.

Historians of plainchant continue to puzzle over the existence of two monophonic repertories, each with claims to Roman origin.The ‘Gregorian’ chant (GREG) is spread throughout Europe: there are thousands of manuscripts and printed editions; the earliest, lacking neumatic notation, reach back to the late eighth century; with notation they date from the late ninth century; the repertory has remained in continuous use. The ‘Old Roman’ chant (ROM) is found in fewer than half a dozen complete manuscripts and a handful of fragments; they date between the eleventh and early thirteenth centuries, and nearly all are from the region of Rome. GREG and ROM are very similar in their verbal texts and liturgical provisions. But ROM has the more archaic Roman traits and clearly represents the city's usage, while there is little trace of GREG's use at Rome before the thirteenth century. As for the music, where there are corresponding liturgical texts, they tend to share some underlying musical substance. But the nature and patterns of the musical sharings are not clear, and how the relationships came about has not been satisfactorily explained.

On the abdication of his father Charles V from the Spanish throne in 1556, Philip II was to inherit probably the most important and prestigious court chapel in Europe. Its history, structure and musical eminence were well established during the time of the Burgundian dukes in the fifteenth century, under whose patronage some of the most prominent musicians and composers found their livelihood; as an institution, it was also partly indebted to traditions and an infrastructure inherited from the Castilian court of Ferdinand and Isabella which was passed on to Charles V following the death of Ferdinand in 1516. When Philip II came to power, the amalgamation of his own court and chapel with that of the Emperor resulted in an organisation of unheard proportions, even though many officers of the Imperial court were to accompany Charles V on his retirement to the monastery in Yuste, in Spain, and others of Philip's own train were to return independently to their homeland on periods of extended leave. This was evidently a time of considerable upheaval, during which membership fluctuated and the structural organisation necessarily underwent a period of some adjustment.

By piecing together fragments of diverse archival evidence, it is possible to document a large minstrel population in urban settings in late medieval southern France that was able to support itself through a multiplicity of freelance activities and complex working relationships. Information concerning the urban minstrel in medieval Europe is usually drawn from city accounts and contracts providing details concerning the duties, function and wages of civic musicians. In order to create a multi-dimensional image of the urban minstrel, however, a wide variety of archival sources needs to be explored. Such sources – accounts of confraternities, university statutes, city statutes, tax records, property listings, private notarial contracts, among others – have offered glimpses into aspects of the minstrel community that have tended to remain elusive. This essay first establishes the nature of freelance activities, which were central to the urban minstrel's livelihood. Second, the socio-economic status of minstrels will be investigated, to determine how successful musicians were at supporting themselves in the medieval urban environment.

This essay stems from the recent discovery of the cantus firmus of the motet O Maria et Elizabeth by Gilbert Banaster (d. 1487). The chant, which will be discussed in detail, is the respond Regnum mundi. Banaster's motet is known to the scholarly community on account of its unusual text, which concludes with a prayer for an unspecified king. It will be argued that Banaster chose Regnum mundi as his cantus firmus on account of its thematic relevance to the motet text, and that in so doing he collaborated in the appropriation of devotional means to serve dynastic ends.