Missa cuiusvis toni

Missa Cuiusvis Toni (Mass in any mode) is a four-part[1] musical setting of the Ordinary of the Mass by the 15th-century composer Johannes Ockeghem. It is found in late-century manuscripts, including the Chigi codex (c. 1498–1508),[2] and was published in 1539,[3] 42 years after the composer's death in 1497.

The work's name reflects the fact that it may be sung in any of the Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian or Mixolydian modes. This is made possible by writing the music without clefs or key signatures, allowing the singers to assume those suited to the chosen mode.[4] This unusual and complex idea has led the musicologist Fabrice Fitch to describe the mass as "the work chiefly responsible for Ockeghem's reputation as an artful pedant".[5]

Although Leeman L. Perkins describes the Missa Cuiusvis Toni as "not unduly complex in its contrapuntal style",[6] to compose a work to be singable in any of the four modes is a considerable technical challenge, because the cadences suitable for the Phrygian mode are unsuitable for the other modes, and vice versa.[5] Ockeghem's solution is to write cadences that today would be called plagal cadences.[4][note 1] According to the musicologist Richard Turbet, this makes the Mass easiest to sing in the Phrygian mode and successively more difficult in the Mixolydian, Lydian and Dorian modes.[7] Both Turbet and Fitch believe that the work was conceived for the Phrygian mode and then adapted for the other modes.[7][5]

Recordings
  • Missa Cuiusvis Toni, æon, ÆCD 0753 (2 CDs; 2007), performed by Ensemble Musica Nova, Lucien Kandel. First recording of the four versions. Ed. Gérard Geay.

Notes
  1. Cadences in Phrygian mode cannot have the fifth degree of the scale (B♮ in E Phrygian) in the bass of the penultimate chord, as this would give rise to a diminished triad. To solve this, Ockeghem uses the fourth degree of the scale in the bass at these points.[4]

References
  1. van Benthem, Jaap (1997). "'Prenez sur moy vostre exemple' – Signae, Text and cadences in Ockeghem's 'Prenez sur moy' and Missa Cuiusvis toni". Tijdschrift van de Koninklijke Vereniging voor Nederlandse Muziekgeschiedenis. 47 (1/2): 99–118. doi:10.2307/939121. JSTOR 939121.
    • Kellman, Herbert (1958). "The Origins of the Chigi Codex: The Date, Provenance, and Original Ownership of Rome, Biblioteca Vaticana, Chigiana, C. VIII. 234". Journal of the American Musicological Society. 11 (1): 6–19. doi:10.2307/830135. JSTOR 830135.
  3. Fallows, David (May 1984). "Johannes Ockeghem: The Changing Image, the Songs and a New Source". Early Music. 12 (2): 218–230. doi:10.1093/earlyj/12.2.218. JSTOR 3137736.
  4. Taruskin, Richard (2010). Music from the Earliest Notations to the Sixteenth Century. The Oxford History of Western Music. 1. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 479–480. ISBN 978-0-19-538481-9.
  5. Fitch, Fabrice (August 1993). "Missa Cuiusvis toni by Johannes Ockeghem; George Houle (Review)". Early Music. 21 (3, French Baroque II): 486–7. doi:10.1093/em/xxi.3.486. JSTOR 3128304.
  6. Perkins, Leeman L. (2001). "Ockeghem, Jean de". In Root, Deane L. (ed.). The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Oxford University Press. ‎
  7. Turbet, Richard (March 1993). "Missa Cuiusvis Toni by Johannes Ockeghem (Review)". The Musical Times. 134 (1801): 140. JSTOR 1193859.
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