Josquin des Prez - Missa Hercules dux Ferrariae [Hilliard Ensemble]

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*Sounds a semitone lower than score*

Missa Hercules dux Ferrariae
Composer: Josquin des Prez (ca. 1450 - 1521)
Performers: The Hilliard Ensemble, dir. Paul Hillier.
Score editor: Anaguma

0:00 Kyrie
2:58 Gloria
6:45 Credo
13:39 Sanctus
19:32 Agnus Dei
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"The Missa Hercules dux Ferrariae is a setting of the Ordinary of the Mass composed by Josquin des Prez, and dedicated to Ercole d'Este I, Duke of Ferrara. The musical source material for the mass, the cantus firmus, is derived from the musical letters in the Duke's name, a technique called soggetto cavato.

The Missa Hercules Dux Ferrariae is significant in that it is not only the most famous example of a soggetto cavato, but also the first. Part of the success of Josquin's Hercules Mass is due to the pitch pattern that was derived from his text. All pitches are based firmly in the C hexachord, the pitches begin and end on D the modal final, the tessitura is small and they form two units of four notes each with different linear motions. The first is a stepwise oscillation, the second is a leap followed by descending conjunct motion.

As the premiere soggetto cavato, Josquin’s Hercules Mass is rigid in comparison to Josquin’s other pieces. The compositional style is exclusively polyphonic unlike some of his other pieces which incorporate homophonic passages. The Mass remains in the same mode throughout and his use of the cantus firmus is straightforward.

There are, however, some interesting characteristics in his use of the cantus firmus. The cantus firmus is repeated three times in almost every section of the work. In each instance, the cantus firmus begins on the final D and moves to the confinal A and then to the final D displaced by an octave. The cantus firmus is almost exclusively in the tenor with four exceptions, once at the beginning of the mass in the Kyrie in the soprano, once in the Sanctus in the alto and twice in the superius in the last section of the Agnus Dei.

Josquin manipulates the cantus firmus to two different ways. In the last section of the credo and the first section of the Agnus Dei, Josquin retrogrades the cantus firmus. In both retrogrades, Josquin also reverses the order of the tessitura beginning at the octave final, then moving to the confinal and then the final. The other alteration of the cantus firmus occurs in the last section of the credo and the Osanna in which Josquin diminutes the cantus. Although interesting, both the retrograde and diminution of the cantus firmus was not an uncommon compositional technique.

The only two sections which exclude the cantus firmus use another common compositional technique of the day, that of canon. In the second section of the Sanctus, Josquin composes a two-part canon for alto and bass. The bass begins the canon on the final with the alto entering one tact afterward on the confinal. The other canon occurs in the second section of the Agnus Dei. This three-part canon is scored for soprano, alto and bass, although the tessitura of the bass places it in the tenor range. This canon is begun by the alto followed by the soprano four tacts later and then the bass similarly. The altos canon begins on the final whereas both soprano and bass begin on the confinal.

For voicing Josquin scored the mass for four voices. However, since the tenor only sings the cantus firmus which occurs less than half the time, the mass is really a three voiced mass that occasionally slips into four voices when the cantus firmus enters. However, for climatic purposes, Josquin does write the final section of the Agnus Dei for six voices. Furthermore, as mentioned above, the soprano sing the cantus firmus twice in addition to the three times that the tenors sing it. Undoubtedly, this was to reemphasize the soggetto cavato and its meaning and tribute to the Duke of Ferrara."

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missa_Hercules_Dux_Ferrariae
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