Students of fifteenth century Renaissance music must often act as archaeologists, working with fragments of historical evidence. Sometimes only a single trace remains of an entire musical composition. This is the case with Alexander Agricola's Guarde vostre visage. Only one manuscript contains the chanson, though it is a relatively strong witness to Agricola's music; the large songbook in question comes from Florence, where he briefly worked in the early 1490s. Unfortunately, most of the texts in this book are missing or fragmentary, and no other setting of Guarde vostre visage survives. From Agricola's musical form, it would appear that the French text was not one of the formes fixes, though he presents the music in six phrases. The text incipit "To see your face" combines with a bright C tonality; the composer somewhat darkens this through flat signatures in the outer two voices. As in many of his three-voiced chansons, imitation helps clarify the text-driven phrases. All three voices begin the piece with iterations of the same imitative motif; imitation then remains at the start of internal phrases between the tenor and superius voice (most evident in the second half here). Long contrapuntal melismas, with a hint of sequence, lead all voices to the final cadence. A vision of pleasant entertainment at the court of the Medici can emerge even from such a shard of evidence.

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