Missa de Beata Virgine (Josquin)

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Manuscript copy from the papacy of Pope Leo X showing the opening Kyrie. (Vatican Library)

The Missa de Beata Virgine is a musical setting of the

Ordinary of the Mass, by Renaissance composer Josquin des Prez. Though formerly believed to have been a late composition due to stylistic reasons (Osthoff asserts 1513), evidence from Burchard’s Diary proves that the mass was written sometime before September 23, 1497. It was the most popular of his masses in the 16th century.[1]

The Missa de Beata Virgine is unusual among Josquin's masses in that the first two movements are for four voices, and the last three for five, with the fifth voice derived canonically. Like most musical settings of the mass Ordinary, it is in five sections, or movements:

  1. Kyrie
  2. Gloria
  3. Credo
  4. Sanctus
  5. Agnus Dei

It uses different

modal coherence suggests that he conceived at least the first two movements, and then the last three movements together.[4]

The Missa de Beata Virgine was one of Josquin's last three masses, with the others being the

Missa Sine nomine and the Missa Pange lingua. It was probably the earliest of the three, and Missa Pange lingua the last.[3] Distinguishing the last masses, and his late style period in general, was a general simplification and refinement: Josquin left behind the elaborate contrapuntal artifice evident in the masses of the preceding period, such as the two he wrote on the L'homme armé tune, and wrote music in which bringing out the meaning of the text, and having it understood, was more important than any virtuoso display.[1]

The movements differ in their treatment of the source plainchant. The Kyrie has the chant in all voices, imitatively and paraphrased; the Gloria treats the chant as a cantus firmus, migrating it from voice to voice. Tonally, both movements end on G, and most of their cadences are on G or D. The Credo, the first movement for five voices, ends with a surprising Phrygian cadence on E, and uses canonic techniques more prominently than in the preceding movements. The overall sound is darker and reminiscent of Johannes Ockeghem.[5] The Sanctus is unusual among Josquin's mass movements, for the five voices sing throughout without a break: normally Josquin breaks up the texture with passages in reduced scoring. Yet the texture is light, with the voices singing polyphonically only some of the time. In the closing Agnus, the chant is treated freely, and the texture is similar to that which Josquin used in his chansons. Both the Agnus and Sanctus cadence on C.[6]

The popularity of this mass in the 16th century may be due to its "sensuously appealing" surface texture, one which foreshadows the music of later composers such as

Cristóbal Morales and Nicolas Gombert.[7]

References

Notes

  1. ^ a b Noble, Grove
  2. ^ Planchart, p. 91
  3. ^ a b Planchart, p. 120
  4. ^ a b Planchart, p. 121
  5. ^ Planchart, p.124-125
  6. ^ Planchart, p. 129-130
  7. ^ Planchart, p. 130
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