Johannes Ciconia, like a great number of musicians of his age, officially worked for the church, but also owed much of his support and sustenance to a powerful patron. Ciconia apparently owed both his appointment to the musical establishment of Padua Cathedral, and the various benefices that supplied much of his income, to the efforts of Francesco Zarabella. Zarabella was archpriest at the Cathedral and went on to become archbishop of Florence, and later a powerful cardinal and participant in the Council of Pisa. In turn, Ciconia rewarded Zarabella with musical compositions in his honor. At least twice, Ciconia's music even brought his patron some kind of immortality, because the music has survived to our own day. Despite a performance climate in which a piece such as Ciconia's motet Doctorem principem/Melodia suavissima/Vir mitis would quite possibly be sung once—on the occasion for which it was written—musicians kept copies for study, for adaptation, and for posterity.

Ciconia's Doctorem principem/Melodia suavissima/Vir mitis is a motet for four voices, with two more active melodic voices above, and an isorhythmic lower pair. Both upper voices sing Latin verses that praise Francesco Zarabella by name: Zarabella is named a "prince of teachers," the "glory, honor, and light of Padua," and "protector"; he has achieved a great victory and a meritous deed, for which all of the grateful world gives thanks and posterity itself will resound his praises. It has been suggested by scholars that Ciconia composed the piece in thanksgiving for Zarabella's efforts during the Council of Pisa (1409) to end the decades-old "Great Schism" between warring anti-popes within the Catholic Church.

The lowest (tenor) voice sings the melody of a plainchant, Vir mitis, which similarly (though with less exaggeration) praises the gentle qualities of a man. Upon this voice and the "contratenor" that complements it, Ciconia builds both the structure and harmony of his motet. Three times the pair sing their complementary melodies, each time changing the rhythmic organization of the same melody. The upper voices sing one stanza of their poetry to each tenor cycle, and together drive the musical interest of the piece, with frequent cadential passages, long-ending melismas marked with hiccup-like "hockets" (rests punctuating the rhythms), and highly audible rhetorical flourishes each time Zarabella's name is called out. Posterity is still resounding his praises, as set by Ciconia.

© Timothy Dickey, All Music Guide