In Baïf's measured verse (vers mesurés), the French verse was spelled out, using a specially devised phonetic alphabet (composed of ten vowels and nineteen consonants), that more closely approximated the actual sounds of the spoken language. All words were then broken down into syllables and divided into long and short feet. Stressed syllables were long, and unstressed syllables were short.
Vers mesurés were intended to be sung to measured music, rather than read. Sung verse was coupled to music as follows: Syllables with long feet were matched to notes of long duration, while short feet were sung to notes of short duration. In this way, the music was perfectly wedded to the meter of the verse (Yates,1947,pp.52-53).
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