composing Masses on this particular popular song that was followed by generations of
composers throughout the 15th and 16th centuries, including Ockeghem, Antoine
Busnoys (ca. 1430–1492), Firminus Caron (fl. ca. 1460–80), Guillaume Faugues (fl. ca.
1460), Johannes Regis (ca. 1425–96), Johannes Tinctoris (ca. 1435–1511),Obrecht,
Josquin des Prez(ca. 1440–1521), Pierre de la Rue (ca. 1460–1518), Antoine Brumel (ca.
1460ca. 1520), Jean Mouton (ca. 1459–1522), Cristóbal de Morales (ca. 1500–53),
Giovanni da Palestrina (1525–1594), and many others.
Following Dufay’s example in his Missa Se la face ay pale, many 15th-century
composers chose polyphonic models for their Masses, incorporating into them various
themes and even whole polyphonic complexes from those models. (Dufay had done this
but sparingly.) An outstanding example is Ockeghem’s Missa Fors seulement, based on
his own rondeau. This Mass stands on the borderline between the cantus firmus Mass and
what might be called the “parody” or “imitation” Mass, which were terms actually
applied to such works in the 16th century. It may be defined as a Mass based on the entire
polyphonic complex of a preexistent composition.
Ockeghem also pioneered a type of cyclic Mass based on procedures other than the
sharing of melodic material. His Missa Prolationum consists almost entirely of double
mensuration canons, only two voices of which are notated and which are to be read in
different mensurations (i.e., divisions of the measure, such as 3/4, 4/4, 6/8, and 9/8),
while his Missa Cuiusvis toni, musically unified only by a vague related “motto” in each
movement, is notated in such a way that it may be sung in more than one mode.
Jacob Obrecht specialized in Masses with multiple cantus firmi. His masterpiece in the
genre is his Missa Sub tuum presidium, which combines a principal cantus firmus (after
which the Mass is named) with cumulative additions, so that each movement is scored for
one voice more than the preceding. Thus, it progresses from a three-voice Kyrie to a
seven-voice Agnus that combines five different plainsongs.
The greatest master of the cyclic Mass in the 15th century, but belonging more to the
Renaissance than the Middle Ages, was Josquin des Prez, whose more than twenty
Masses range from strict cantus firmus types (including two Masses on L’homme armé)
to Masses based on free paraphrases of plainsong (Missa Ave maris stella, Missa Pange
lingua), on cantus firmi derived from sol-fa syllables (Missa La sol fa re mi, Missa
Hercules dux Ferrarie), on canonic procedures (Missa Ad fugam, Missa Sine nomine),
and at least one that comes close to being a full-fledged “imitation” mass (Missa Mater
patris, based on a motet by Brumel).
Other important continental composers of cyclic Masses in the late 15th and early 16th
centuries, besides those mentioned, include Johannes Martini (ca. 1450–1517), Loyset
Compère (ca. 1450–1518), and Johannes Ghiselin (ca. 1455–ca. 1511). Most of these
composers were French or Netherlandish (the Netherlands then being a dependency of
Burgundy and dominated by the reigning French culture). Despite its medieval, liturgical
origins, the cyclic Mass is the principal large musical form of the 15th and 16th centuries
and emblematic of the flowering of French musical culture at the end of the Middle Ages
and in the early Renaissance.
Martin Picker
[See also: CANTUS FIRMUS; CARON, FIRMINUS; DUFAY, GUILLAUME;
MACHAUT, GUILLAUME DE; OCKEGHEM, JOHANNES; REGIS, JOHANNES;
TINCTORIS, JOHANNES]
Bukofzer, Manfred. Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Music. New York: Norton, 1950.
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