Missa L'homme armé super voces musicales
The Missa L'homme armé super voces musicales is the first of two settings of the
Background
Dating of the mass has been controversial, with some scholars proposing a mid-career date, for example during Josquin's Roman period (roughly 1489 to 1495), and other scholars, such as Gustave Reese, arguing for an earlier date, claiming that the contrapuntal complexity the mass shows is more typical of Josquin's early style, and that he simplified his method as he aged.[3] The earliest source containing the mass is the Vatican manuscript CS 197 (c. 1492–1495)[4] In his 1547 Dodekachordon, Heinrich Glarean wrote that Josquin "composed the two L'homme armé masses to show off his skill."[5]
Music
While usually classified as a
Like most settings of the mass, it is in five sections:
Showing off his contrapuntal virtuosity seems to be Josquin's aim,
The last of the three repetitions of the Agnus Dei, the section that closes the mass, is the longest, and is accompanied by a direction in the score: "Clama ne cesses" ("cry without ceasing", from Isaiah 58:1), which in this context means to sing the tune without any of the rests. The cantus firmus is pitched on A, the highest note of the hexachord, and is in double augmentation. The length, and the sustained notes of the cantus firmus, refer both to the "cry for mercy" aspect of the Agnus Dei text, which cries to the Lamb of God to take away the sins of the world, and to the trumpet motif and text "On a fait partout crier" from the original L'homme armé tune, calling the listeners to arms.[6]
In addition to the canonic complexities, Josquin adds variety by beginning the L'homme armé tune on a successively higher note in each section (and also in the third Agnus Dei), one for each of the six notes in the natural hexachord (thus the title, "voces musicales", or solmization syllables, ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la). The overall modality is Dorian, and all of the movements end on D.[6]
References
- Blackburn, Bonnie. "Masses on Popular Songs and on Syllables". In The Josquin Companion, ed. Richard Sherr, 51–87. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. ISBN 0-19-816335-5
- Brown, Howard Mayer. "Mass". The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. ISBN 1-56159-174-2
- Gleason, Harold, and Warren Becker. Music in the Middle Ages and Renaissance (Music Literature Outlines Series I). Bloomington, Indiana: Frangipani Press, 1986. ISBN 0-89917-034-X
- Noble, Jeremy. "Josquin des Prez", §12, Grove Music Online, ed. L. Macy (Accessed March 25, 2007), (subscription access)
- Reese, Gustave. Music in the Renaissance. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1954. ISBN 0-393-09530-4
- Reese, Gustave (biography), and ISBN 1-56159-174-2
Notes
- ^ An extensive listing of sources and critical commentary on Masses based on the L'homme armé tune, created as part of a Spring 2002 seminar by Mary Kay Duggan at the University of California, Berkeley, is available at Reform and music: 1450–1600 Archived 2008-04-14 at the Wayback Machine (accessed 2008-03-18).
- ^ Blackburn, in Sherr, p. 53
- ^ Reese, p. 237
- ^ Blackburn, p. 65
- ^ Blackburn, p. 65: the Latin original, on p. 441 of the Dodekachordon (Basle, 1547), reads "Ad ostentationem autem artis haud dubie duas illas Missas instituit L'homme arme."
- ^ a b c Blackburn, p. 59.
- ^ Reese & Noble, Grove.
- ^ Blackburn, p. 56