The accompanying lower parts are rather languorous and plain, often in perfect or long-note counterpoint with the discantus, and only given tuneful phrases when the discantus is at rest or on long notes—rather than embellishing the main line, they seem to provide commentary on it, footnote-like. The key interval in the discantus is a rising semitone that receives emphasis by its placement, and is part of why this chanson seems to beg for a slow languorous interpretation.

What is especially different from other Binchois chansons, is the unmitigated heaviness of mood; the spider web-thin shafts of sunlight that almost always pierce the gloom are absent. This lament is entirely in colors of auburn and turquoise, thick, and the cadential points, although the music is beautiful, provide pleasant bits of rest, for breath-catching. Whatever mode this chanson is in should be renamed "the mode of choked sobs."

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