Elementi di parafrasi contrappuntistica nella Missa Je n’ay dueil di Antoine Brumel

Abstract

Although Brumel’s four masses on polyphonic chansons - Je n’ay dueil, Bergerette savoyenne, En l’ombre d’ung buissonet, and Dringhs - elaborate their borrowed material using similar techniques, they nonetheless represent different stages in the process of imitating their models. In the Missa Je n’ay dueil, which is taken as a case study, the counterpoint of Agricola’s chanson is subjected to expansion and enrichment, with paraphrase not only in the tenor but also in the superius. The model is followed in its polyphonic complexity, phrase by phrase and respecting the cadential plan, in each of the five parts of the mass. Although the model tenor in general directs the mass, it almost never comprises the essential element, but rather, is almost always integrated into the melodic logic of the other three parts. The process of imitation that Brumel adopts stands at a significant distance from the tradition of the cantus firmus mass, and leans in the stylistic direction of the model itself. A homogeneous style...