Josquin Des Prez

Missa Gaudeamus

The Missa Gaudeamus is a musical setting of the Ordinary of the Mass by Franco-Flemish composer Josquin des Prez, probably composed in the early or middle 1480s, and published in 1502. It is based on

Sources and attribution#

The number of sources for this work is relatively high: two printed editions, four reprints and seven manuscripts. The Missa super Gaudeamus mass was first published in Misse Josquin (“Liber Primus Missarum Josquin “) (Venice, 1502) by Ottaviano Petrucci together with the masses L’homme arme. Super voces musicales, La.sol.fa.re.mi, Fortuna desperata, L’homme arme. Sexti toni, and reprinted in Rome in 1526. Among the first manuscript copies we mention the Kyrie copied by Johannes Orceau, for the Sistine Chapel, in Rome, dated between 1503 and 1512. probably copied in the 1520s by Pierre Alamire ascribes the mass to Ockeghem, as well as an 1836 manuscript in Leipzig by Moritz Hauptmann. Fétis, in his Biographie universelle des musiciens, under the voice relative to Ockeghem, cites a manuscript of the Kyrie and Christe of a messe .. intitulée Gaudeamus published by Kiesewetter in 1834; however, such authorship had been later amended by Kiesewetter in his 1848 edition of the History of the modern music of western Europe.

Genesis and background#

There are no manuscript sources that can be dated before 1502, and Planchart has proposed an alternative interpretation of the work: the same introit, with textual variations, is sung at other saints celebrations, for instance the Mass of St. Agata (the original version) and, most notably, for All Saints celebration. The motif made up by the first six notes of the introit, which makes up the word Gaudeamus, is the most recognizable melodic material, and can be recognized 6 times in the Kyrie, 14 in the Gloria, 2 in the Credo, 12 in the Sanctus and 27 in the Agnus Dei; as this numbers are far from proportional to the length of the various sections, Elders suggests an intentional and numerological plot behind the numbers of Gaudeamus statements in each section, as symbols related to the Book of Revelation, disclosing the profound inspiration of the work as a history of salvation. This enforces the thesis that the Mass could be destined to All Saints’ Day Liturgy; among the readings for that day stand the Book of Revelation (7:2-12) and the gospel is taken from Matthew (5), the sermon of beatitudes.

Style#

The mass presents sections written with different compositional techniques and style; the cantus firmus technique coexists with ostinato passages as well as more free counterpoint. The aforementioned Gaudeamus Omnes introit, transposed up a fifth, is quoted rather unchanged in the cantus firmus at the tenor up to “Mariae Virginis” in the Kyrie, completely in the Gloria and the Credo. However, borrowings from this melodic material appear in all voices, most notably the Gaudeamus intonation appears in many variations (Planchart classifies 10 different variations, says it “combines cantus-firmus techniques and those of ostinato with vigour and inventiveness” while Planchart stresses the “abundance of melodic and rhythmic invention that seems to grow unchecked by any rational plan” and relates its style to the masses of Obtrecht. The same author identifies two macro-units in the mass, evidencing close compositional procedures, one being the group of sections Kyrie, Sanctus and Agnus, the other being the Gloria and Credo; when coming to the tonal classification of the mass, Planchart avoids to classify simply the mass as in dorian mode transposed by a fifth on A, bringing examples of its modal richness and complexity (a typical characteristic among late 15th-century polyphony), for instance borrowings from the Phrygian mode in the Credo.

External links and resources#

(features also a recording of the mass by Collegium Musicum, University of Kansas)

Composer: Josquin Des Prez