Missa Prolationum

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Missa Prolationum is the (posthumous) title of a setting of the Ordinarium Missae by Johannes Ockeghem . The peculiarity lies in the compositional design: only two of four voices are notated - the two non-notated voices can be derived from the existing canons of intervals and proportions. The middle or second half of the 15th century is assumed to be the period of origin.

composition

The composition is designed for four voices (bass, tenor, contratenor, superius) and comprises the five parts of the ordinance:

  1. Kyrie
  2. Gloria
  3. Creed
  4. Sanctus and Benedictus
  5. Agnus Dei (in three sections: I, II, III)

In the composition of the mass, Ockeghem uses the principle of increasing the interval in the canons from measuring part to measuring part: in the "Kyrie" he first demands the canon in unison, in the upper second and in the lower quarter, the "Gloria" brings the canon in the lower quarter, the “Credo” in the lower quint, the “Sanctus” in the upper sixth, the lower seventh, the octave and in the Benedictus again the canon in the lower fourth, as well as the Agnus Dei I; the Agnus Dei II and III bring the lower and upper quint canons.

Palestrina's Missa Repleatur os meum uses a similar idea, only not in the consistent development of Ockeghem, even if in the first Agnus Dei of this mass the note values ​​of the voice that dissolves the canon are also supposed to be enlarged (doubled).

The impressive moment of this musical setting is Ockeghem's achievement of creating a four-part setting in two voices in such a way that it meets all the rules and requirements of polyphonic composition of the time.

At present the (usually to be assumed) chorale or song templates have not yet been identified and one therefore assumes a completely new composition without recourse to a cantus firmus - a very unusual phenomenon at that time.

Sources and dating

Two handwritten sources reproduce the setting of the Mass in very different forms, Codex Chigi (f.106v to 114r), which was created for Philip I of Castile between 1498 and 1503, i.e. shortly after Ockeghem's death, the other source is the Vienna manuscript ( Vienna, Austrian National Library, Manuscript Collection, MS 11883, f.208r to 221r). The exact date of composition of the Missa prolationum is unknown; despite all efforts, the period of its creation can only be narrowed down to approximately the middle or second half of the 15th century.

First (partial) prints

In 1540 from this work in Sebaldus Heyden's "De Arte canendi" the Kyrie I , the section " et in terra pax " and the " Osanna " were printed with the respective resolution. In 1554 the Kyrie I appears also with a resolution in Joannes Zanger's “Practicae musicae praecepta” and in 1563 in Ambrosius Wilphlingseder's “Erotemata musices practicae”.

Edition in the 20th century

The mass was published for the first time in a series with other compositions by Ockeghem in full resolution in:

  • Johannes Ockeghem: Masses and Mass Sections IX – XVI. In: Publications of Early Music, ii . Ed. D. Plamenac, New York 1947, (2/1966).

Web links