Missa La sol fa re mi
The Missa La sol fa re mi is a musical setting of the mass by Josquin des Prez, first published in 1502. It is one of his most famous masses, and one of the earliest and most renowned examples of the soggetto cavato technique – the technique of deriving musical notes from the syllables of a phrase, in this case "Lascia fare mi" (Italian: "let me do it").
Background
"Lascia fare mi" ("leave it to me", or possibly in a more idiomatic translation, "let me do it") was supposedly a common phrase used by an unknown aristocrat to get people to stop pestering him with requests or complaints.[2] The story was first reported by Glareanus, writing in 1547, who went on to say, "and then [Josquin] went on to write an entire mass, an exceedingly elegant work, based on these same words: thus, 'La sol fa re mi.'"[1] The musical syllables La-Sol-Fa-Re-Mi correspond to A-G-F-D-E in the "natural" hexachord, the six notes starting on C.
There have been several attempts to date the mass, and opinions of Josquin scholars differ, placing it variously between the late 1470s and the 1490s. Ottaviano Petrucci published it in his first book of masses in 1502, one of the first books of music ever to be printed, which shows its importance and influence; indeed it was widely transmitted, in many other sources, in the early 16th century. The mass may have been written during Josquin's Roman period, for example between 1490 and 1493, while Josquin was singing in the Sistine Chapel choir.[3] Its contrapuntal sophistication, as well as circumstantial evidence suggesting who the aristocrat may have been, perhaps indicate the later date.[4] If the earlier date is correct, it would be the earliest mass ever written on solmization syllables; as it is, it is one of the earliest masses on a freely invented subject.
If the mass is dated to the 1490s, circumstantial evidence suggests that the aristocrat who made excessive promises may not have been an Italian at all, but a Turk. Prince
The music
As is the case with most mass settings in the middle Renaissance, it consists of the following parts:
- Kyrie
- Gloria
- Credo
- Sanctus and Benedictus
- Agnus Dei I, II and III
It is mainly in
Not only does the five-note figure appear throughout, but it appears in compositional permutations such as retrograde (Mi-Re-Fa-Sol-La), occasionally making palindromic figures as a result of retrogrades appearing immediately before or after statements of the figure in its original form.[7] In addition, Josquin uses the figure in each of the three hexachords available to Renaissance music theory: the natural hexachord beginning on C (giving A-G-F-D-E for the figure), the "hard" hexachord beginning on G (giving E-D-C-A-B natural for the figure), and the "soft" hexachord beginning on F (giving D-C-B flat-G-A for the figure). Sometimes he swaps hexachords in mid-figure, a compositional trick visible on the page but difficult to hear. The motivic saturation characteristic to the piece, including use of permutations such as retrograde, is more commonly associated with music of the Second Viennese School than the Renaissance, but Josquin was not only an innovator: he was working with a motivic cell which was singularly well-suited to such treatment.
The Missa La sol fa re mi remains one of Josquin's most famous masses, and is often performed and recorded.[8]
References and further reading
- ISBN 0-19-816335-5
- ISBN 0-393-09530-4
- Gustave Reese (biography) and ISBN 1-56159-174-2
- Patrick Macey: "Josquin des Prez", Grove Music Online, ed. L. Macy (Accessed December 16, 2006), (subscription access)
- Dawson Kiang, "Josquin Desprez and a Possible Portrait of the Ottoman Prince Jem in Cappella Sistina Ms. 41", Bibliothèque d'Humanisme et Renaissance, 54. 1992.