Josquin: Missa L'homme armé Super Voces Musicales

Day 260

Josquin: Missa L'homme armé Super Voces Musicales

Tallis Scholars

Peter Phillips

Josquin is perhaps the key composer in the transition from the medieval era to the Renaissance. He lived from about 1450 to 1521 and achieved great fame in his lifetime. Indeed he is one of the first composers whose fame extended beyond his lifetime: indeed he has been described as the first composer whose music was not forgotten after his death.  He composed a substantial amount of choral music, including at least a dozen masses (the exact number is not known because of problems of attribution). This is one of two based on the popular song L'homme armé, which throughout history has been a source which composers have returned to again and again.

The musical style is fascinating - there are some of the long lines typical of Renaissance polyphony but also extensive uses of shorter phrases. Some of the rhythmic complexity is reminiscent of late Medieval music and there are a few moments of quite pungent harmony. Altogether the music makes a very powerful impression - though as I have said before in this project whether the original performances sounded quite like this immaculate and supremely well controlled rendition must be open to question.

The Agnus Dei was particularly haunting. Josquin's canonic mastery here is quite extraordinary but it is the effect rather than the means that matters - the long breathed melody in the top part with more rapidly moving parts underneath bring the mass to a haunting conclusion.

I must have heard some Josquin at university, but I don't have any memories of it. But I am sure that I will follow this mass up with an exploration of more of his music.