A large manuscript choirbook compiled for the Burgundian Court Chapel (Brussels 5557) originally consisted of several separate gatherings of pages, containing Masses and Magnificat settings. As these were bound together into one anthology, possibly under the supervision of Antoine Busnois himself, several pieces by the famous Burgundian court musician were copied onto the blank pages between these fascicles. A little homophonic piece, whose text consists only of "Noel, noel, noel," copied thus between an anonymous Magnificat setting and the Busnois Magnificat, may have been intended to serve as a Magnificat antiphon for Vespers during Christmas or through Advent (as could be the case for the Busnois' Alleluia, verbum caro factum est, and the Noe, noe, noe of the younger Antoine Brumel). As another possibility, it may have been written as an occasional piece for the court visit of some visiting prince, who would be flattered by the comparison of his visit to the Advent of the Prince of Peace. The musical setting is simple, but quite well-proportioned, with four sets of three acclamations. (If a plainchant model exists, it has not been discovered yet.) All four sections are equivalent in duration, and move to cadences in a tonal arch G-D-D-G; the final cadence is more rhythmically active. Busnois invests even such a tiny, workaday piece of music with characteristic polish and vivacity.

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