Missa Papae Marcelli
Missa Papae Marcelli | |
---|---|
Mass by Palestrina | |
Occasion | in honour of Pope Marcellus II |
Composed | 1562 | ?
Scoring | SATB choir, up to seven parts |
Missa Papae Marcelli, or Pope Marcellus Mass, is a
Style
The Missa Papae Marcelli consists, like most
History
The mass was composed in honor of
The third and closing sessions of the
Starting in the late 16th century, a legend began that the second of these points, the threat that polyphony might have been banned by the Council because of the unintelligibility of the words, was the impetus behind Palestrina's composition of this mass. It was believed that the simple, declamatory style of Missa Papae Marcelli convinced Cardinal
Music of the older kind is no longer in use, both because of the confusion and babel of the words, arising from the long and intricate imitations, and because it has no grace, for with all the voices singing, one hears neither period nor sense, these being interfered with and covered up by imitations...And on this account music would have come very near to being banished from the Holy Church by a sovereign pontiff [Pius IV], had not Giovanni Palestrina founded the remedy, showing that the fault and error lay, not with the music, but with the composers, and composing in confirmation of this the Mass entitled Missa Papae Marcelli.
— Quoted in Taruskin, Richard, and Weiss, Piero. Music in the Western World:A History in Documents. Schirmer, 1984, p. 141.
On Saturday, 28 April 1565, by order of Cardinal Vitellozzi, all the singers of the papal chapel were gathered together at his residence. Cardinal Borromeo was already there, together with all the other six cardinals of the papal commission. Palestrina was there as well...they sang three Masses, of which the Pope Marcellus Mass was the last...The greatest and most incessant praise was given to the third, which was extraordinarily acclaimed and, by virtue of its entirely novel character, astonished even the performers themselves. Their Eminences heaped their congratulations on the composer, recommending to him to go on writing in that style and to communicate it to his pupils.
— Quoted in Taruskin, Richard, and Weiss, Piero. Music in the Western World:A History in Documents. Schirmer, 1984, p. 142.
An entry in the papal chapel diaries confirms that a meeting such as the one described by Baini occurred, but no mention is made of whether the Missa Papae Marcelli was performed there or what the reaction of the audience was.[4] This legend persisted into the 20th century; Hans Pfitzner's opera Palestrina is based upon this understanding of the deliberations of the Tridentine officials. While Palestrina sympathized with many of the Council's decisions, and, like Vincenzo Ruffo, sought deliberately to compose in a simplified, easily understood style to please church officials, there is no evidence to support either the view that the Council sought to banish polyphony entirely or that Palestrina's mass was the deciding factor in changing their minds.
In the latter part of the 20th century, the Missa Papae Marcelli has been recorded frequently, and is often used as a model for the study of
Analysis
Missa Papae Marcelli does not (as far as is known) make use of any pre-existing theme. The motif of a rising perfect fourth and stepwise return (illustrated) is used extensively throughout this mass.[3] It is similar in profile to the opening of the French secular song "L'homme armé", which provided the theme for many Renaissance masses. But this is probably a coincidence, as themes with this profile were common in the 16th century, and Palestrina himself used them in several other masses.[7]
The Kyrie consists of imitative polyphony in Palestrina's earlier style, based on the main motif. It is in the middle movements that Palestrina applies the simpler style needed after the Council of Trent. Richard Taruskin described the Credo as "a strategically planned series of cadential 'cells' ... each expressed through a fragment of text declaimed homorhythmically by a portion of the choir ... and rounded off by a beautifully crafted cadence". The words are clearly distinguishable, since melodic decoration is confined to the longest syllables. A different selection of voices is used for each such phrase.[3]
The Sanctus begins with very short phrases
The Agnus Dei returns to the imitative polyphony of the Kyrie (the opening of Agnus Dei I repeats that of the Kyrie). As was frequently done in the 16th century, Palestrina adds an extra voice in Agnus Dei II, making seven for this movement, in which is embedded a three-part canon that begins with the head-motive.[3]
References
- ^ Boisvert, Natalie. "Missa Papae Marcelli, for 6 voices". AllMusic. Retrieved November 18, 2016.
- ^ Ziegler, Steven. "Palestrina: Kyrie, Gloria, and Agnus Dei from Missa Papae Marcelli". San Francisco Symphony. Archived from the original on November 20, 2016. Retrieved November 19, 2016.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-19-538481-9
- ^ .
- ^ Burkholder, J. Peter, Grout, Donald J., and Palisca, Claude. A History of Western Music. Norton, 2006, p. 220.
- ^ Monson, Craig. "The Council of Trent Revisited". Journal of the American Musicological Society 55 (2002), pp. 1–37.
- ^ Godt, Irving. "A New Look at Palestrina's Missa Papae Marcelli". College Music Symposium 23 (1) (Spring, 1983), pp. 22–49. (subscription required)
Further reading
- Bobbitt, Richard (1955). "Harmonic Tendencies in the Missa Papae Marcelli". The Music Review. 16: 273–288.
External links
- Free scores of Missa Papae Marcelli in the Choral Public Domain Library (ChoralWiki)