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The highest voice of an early part-book set.
Printed as the label of the highest voice in Renaissance part-books and on the top staff of modern editions; other prints call the same part Superius or Discantus.
In Renaissance polyphony the cantus is the top voice, often carrying a prominent melody but sharing imitative material with the other parts rather than dominating them. In editions, keep the original part names to show the source, and give modern clefs and voice types alongside them. When writing in the style, keep the cantus within its mode’s range and let it form the cadence with the tenor.
Cantus is one of 1755 terms in the Gradus musical dictionary: the words, abbreviations and instrument names that appear in printed scores, plus the vocabulary composers use to talk about them.
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