CYCLIC MASS
. The term “cyclic Mass” generally refers to polyphonic settings of most or all of the five
principal items of the Ordinary of the Mass (Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus-Benedictus,
Agnus) as a musically unified entity.
The cyclic Mass became an important musical form only in the 15th century, but its
roots can be traced back to the 13th, when the diverse chants of the Ordinary began to be
collected into cycles. In 14th-century France, and possibly Italy and Spain as well, this
practice was extended to the assembling of independent polyphonic Mass movements
into cycles (Masses of Tournai, Toulouse, Barcelona, and the Sorbonne). However, only
one such Mass seems to have been conceived in its entirety by a single composer: the
Messe de Nostre Dame by Guillaume de Machaut (ca. 1300–1377). Even in this case,
there is no clear internal unity among its six movements (which include a final Ite missa
est), except that all are for four voices and are in Machaut’s characteristic style. These
movements fall into two distinct groups: the Kyrie, Sanctus, Agnus, and Ite employ
plainsong cantus firmi from the Ordinary and are structured by similar isorhythmic
procedures, while the Gloria and Credo are without cantus firmi or isorhythm, although
they are structurally and texturally related to each other.
The use of the same thematic material in two mass movements (usually Gloria-Credo
or Sanctus-Agnus) first appeared in England ca. 1400. Cyclic unification of such Mass-
pairs was achieved through a common “motto” opening and/or plainsong cantus firmus in
the tenor. Mass-pairs are not yet cyclic Masses, but the principles of musical unification
employed in them were soon extended to embrace most or all of the Ordinary. Thus, the
earliest true cyclic Masses, dating ca. 1420, are also English: the Missa Alma redemptoris
mater by Leonel Power (ca. 1375–1445) and the Missa Rex seculorum and Missa Da
gaudiorum by John Dunstable (ca. 1380–1453). All three masses are for three voices,
consist of four movements (lacking the Kyrie, not always set in English cyclic Masses, or
the Agnus), and employ the same chant in the tenor of all movements. It is this chant for
which the Mass is named. By 1450, English composers had also composed cyclic Masses
for four voices, many of which included the Kyrie. The most influential such work is the
anonymous Missa Caput (formerly attributed to Dufay but recently shown to be an
English work), which was taken as a model for like-named Masses by the later
Netherlands masters Johannes Ockeghem (ca.1420–1497) and Jacob Obrecht (ca. 1450–
1505).
Guillaume Dufay (1397–1474) was the first continental composer to write cyclic
Masses of the English type. His earliest masses, for three voices, include the Kyrie but
lack unifying themes. His later ones, however, are for four voices and are based on
unifying cantus firmi placed in the tenor. These borrowed melodies are not only sacred
(Missa Ecce ancilla, Missa Ave Regina celorum) but also secular (Missa Se la face ay
pale, Missa L’homme armé). Dufay was probably the first composer to base cyclic
Masses on secular themes. In his Missa Se la face ay pale, Dufay took as a model one of
his own chansons, while his Missa L’homme armé may have initiated the tradition of
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