Three-voice textures in the mid-15th-century English Mass cycle

Abstract

I n writing any form of polyphony, composers had to balance a range of priorities that formed a matrix of related and sometimes conflicting conventions governing contrapuntal possibilities. For works that utilize pre-existent materials in the form of cantus firmi or chant paraphrases, such as some Mass cycles, a further range of constraints is given by the very nature of this material. It is within this matrix of different compositional concerns that composers sought to develop their musical argument and to give voice to their own compositional identities. An understanding of style, be that pertaining to a composer or an entire national, chronological or generic group, can only be reached through an understanding of these competing compositional principles, how they were prioritized, and what room they allowed for individual answers to common compositional questions. The stated aim of the conference from which this collection of essays is drawn was to ‘face the music of medieval England’. The focus of this contribution is to provide a window through which we might do that, in the context of a small and self-contained repertory, namely the three-voice Mass cycle as cultivated in mid-15th-century England. This repertory has the advantage of boasting a wealth of scholarship that looks at different aspects of its contrapuntal handling. The discussion below brings together Andrew Kirkman’s comprehensive study of voice range with Margaret Bent’s work on grammatical function, as well as making some refinements based on an analysis of the nature of pre-existent material found in some of the repertory.2 This discussion offers new perspectives on some apparently unusual Mass cycles that appear to sit outside of the norms—perspectives which might shed light on issues of authorship, provenance and chronology. Specifically, I wish to turn my attention to issues of range and grammatical function within a particularly unusual anonymous Mass cycle from the Strahov Codex, the Veni creator spiritus Mass, and within three Sine nomine cycles by Bedyngham, Standley and Tik. My hope here is not just to face the music, but what stands behind it as well.