The improvisational technique, Agricola's own, used in this piece is called "contrapunto alla mente." Like the fauxbourdon it is a set of pre-written contrapuntal rules that the performers realize spontaneously around a pre-written part. Two features characterize the style, which is also called "chant sur le livre": an abundance of consecutive thirds (and tenths) and acrobatic vocal movement spanning up to two octaves.

The musical result in the best of these pieces, of which this is perhaps the crowning example, is dramatic to say the least. An unadorned cantus firmus, moving at a medium pace, continues through the whole work accompanying, and mingling with, two fairly wild lines. With incredible rhythmic energy, these accompanied lines, made up of short expressive motifs, cascade across each other, crossing ranges, and making sudden expressive leaps, and full of volatile up and down rocking across intervals and sudden runs, rather like keyboard or viol parts. It is heartrending.

For a long time, scholars fairly assumed that these pieces were instrumental, but the discovery of copies of some of them in choir books and or with lyrics has made it clear that, as with other secular compositions of the Renaissance, vocal or instrumental solutions were both acceptable. For the non-specialist listener hearing it sung a cappella is argument enough; nothing compares.

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