EX. 18-9B Jacobus Gallus, Mirabile mysterium, mm. 16–28The other mode of Counter Reformation sensuality is well conveyed by Gallus’s setting of the Passion
narrative from the Gospel of John, a grandiose Easter motet in three long sections. Music for multiple
choirs, pioneered rather tamely by Willaert and some of his Venetian contemporaries for antiphonal
Vespers psalms, became a craze (in churches that could afford it) by the end of the century. Both the
spatialized effect and the multiplication of voice parts contributed to the “overbowling” or awe-inspiring
result, bypassing reason and boosting faith.
The Passion, the Gospel account of Christ’s suffering and death, is recited at Mass during the Holy
Week that precedes Easter: on Palm Sunday it is read from the Book of Matthew, on Wednesday from
Luke, on Thursday from Mark, and finally, on Good Friday, it is read from the Book of John. The Passion
reading was always specially marked by music: originally by the use of special recitation or “lesson”
tones, from the fifteenth century on by the use of polyphony. The earliest polyphonic settings were
responsorial. The narrative was chanted; only the lines given to the “crowd” (turba) were multiplied
polyphonically for chorus, usually in a simple style like fauxbourdon. Later the words of other characters