A ''Missa sine nomine'', literally a "

Mass Mass is an Intrinsic and extrinsic properties, intrinsic property of a physical body, body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the physical quantity, quantity of matter in a body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physi ...

without a name", is a musical setting of the

Ordinary of the Mass The ordinary, in Catholic liturgy, Catholic liturgies, refers to the part of the Mass (liturgy), Mass or of the canonical hours that is reasonably constant without regard to the date on which the service is performed. It is contrasted with the ' ...

, usually from the

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

, which uses no pre-existing musical source material, as was normally the case for Mass compositions. Not all Masses based on freely composed material were so named, but many were, particularly from the late 15th century through the 16th century. One of the earliest examples of a ''Missa sine nomine'' is by

Guillaume Dufay Guillaume Du Fay ( , ; also Dufay, Du Fayt; 5 August 1397 – 27 November 1474) was a composer and music theorist of early Renaissance music, who is variously described as French or Franco-Flemish. Considered the leading European composer of h ...

, (

Bologna Bologna ( , , ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in northern Italy. It is the List of cities in Italy, seventh most populous city in Italy, with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nationalities. Its M ...

, International museum and library of music, Ms Q15) whose '' Missa Resvelliés vous'' (formerly known as a ''Missa sine nomine'') dates from before 1430, and possibly as early as 1420. It may have been written for the wedding of Carlo Malatesta and Vittoria di Lorenzo in

Rimini Rimini ( , ; or ; ) is a city in the Emilia-Romagna region of Northern Italy. Sprawling along the Adriatic Sea, Rimini is situated at a strategically-important north-south passage along the coast at the southern tip of the Po Valley. It is ...

. Many other composers wrote ''Missae sine nomine'', including

Walter Frye Walter Frye (died 1474?) was an English composer of the early Renaissance. Life Nothing certain is known about his life. He may have been a "Walter Cantor" at Ely Cathedral between 1443 and 1466, and he may have been the Walter Frye who joined ...

, Barbingant, Alexander Agricola,

Johannes Tinctoris Jehan le Taintenier or Jean Teinturier (Latinised as Johannes Tinctoris; also Jean de Vaerwere; – 1511) was a Renaissance music, Renaissance music theory, music theorist and composer from the Franco-Flemish School, Low Countries. Up to his ...

Matthaeus Pipelare Matthaeus Pipelare ( – ) was a Dutch School (music), Netherlandish composer, choir director, and possibly wind instrument player of the Renaissance music, Renaissance. He was from Leuven, Louvain, and spent part of his early life in Antwerp. U ...

Heinrich Isaac Heinrich Isaac (ca. 1450 – 26 March 1517) was a Netherlandish composer of south Netherlandish origin during the Renaissance era. He wrote masses, motets, songs (in French, German and Italian), and instrumental music. A significant contemporar ...

Pierre de La Rue Pierre de la Rue ( – 20 November 1518) was a Franco-Flemish composer and singer of the Renaissance. His name also appears as Piersson or variants of Pierchon and his toponymic, when present, as various forms of de Platea, de Robore, or de Vic ...

Josquin des Prez Josquin Lebloitte dit des Prez ( – 27 August 1521) was a composer of High Renaissance music, who is variously described as French or Franco-Flemish. Considered one of the greatest composers of the Renaissance, he was a central figure of the ...

Jean Mouton Jean Mouton (c. 1459 – 30 October 1522) was a French composer of the Renaissance music, Renaissance. He was famous both for his motets, which are among the most refined of the time, and for being the teacher of Adrian Willaert, one of the f ...

Vincenzo Ruffo Vincenzo Ruffo (c. 1508 – 9 February 1587) was an Italian composer of the Renaissance. He was one of the composers most responsive to the musical reforms suggested by the Council of Trent, especially in his composition of masses, and as suc ...

, and others. Some ''Missae sine nomine'', i.e. based on freely-composed material, were actually named in other ways: the most famous is

Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (between 3 February 1525 and 2 February 1526 – 2 February 1594) was an Italian composer of late Renaissance music. The central representative of the Roman School, with Orlande de Lassus and Tomás Luis de V ...

's ''

Missa Papae Marcelli ''Missa Papae Marcelli'', or ''Pope Marcellus Mass'', is a mass ''sine nomine'' by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina. It is his best-known mass, and is regarded as an archetypal example of the complex polyphony championed by Palestrina. It was sung ...

'' (“Pope Marcellus Mass”), which according to a somewhat exaggerated legend, persuaded the

Council of Trent The Council of Trent (), held between 1545 and 1563 in Trent (or Trento), now in northern Italy, was the 19th ecumenical council of the Catholic Church. Prompted by the Protestant Reformation at the time, it has been described as the "most ...

not to ban

polyphonic Polyphony ( ) is a type of musical texture consisting of two or more simultaneous lines of independent melody, as opposed to a musical texture with just one voice ( monophony) or a texture with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords ...

writing in

liturgical music Liturgical music originated as a part of religious ceremony, and includes a number of traditions, both ancient and modern. Liturgical music is well known as a part of Catholic Mass, the Anglican Holy Communion service (or Eucharist) and Evensong, ...

. Also, many canonic Masses are literally ''sine nomine'': the '' Missa prolationum'' of

Johannes Ockeghem Johannes Ockeghem ( – 6 February 1497) was a Franco-Flemish composer and singer of early Renaissance music. Ockeghem was a significant European composer in the period between Guillaume Du Fay and Josquin des Prez, and he was—with his colle ...

and the '' Missa ad fugam'' of

are of this type, as is the late '' Missa sine nomine'' by Josquin, in which he returns with new insight to compositional problems he first tackled in his early ''Missa ad fugam''.Lockwood/Kirkman, Grove onlineBloxam, in Scherr, p. 204-209 A myth dating from around the Council of Trent was that a ''Missa sine nomine'' hid a secular tune, and listeners were expected to “get the joke”; however, the practice of writing Masses on freely composed material predated the Council and the

Counter-Reformation The Counter-Reformation (), also sometimes called the Catholic Revival, was the period of Catholic resurgence that was initiated in response to, and as an alternative to or from similar insights as, the Protestant Reformations at the time. It w ...

20th century

In 1977, Leon Schidlowsky composed a work that he called '' Misa Sine Nomine'' and dedicated to the Chilean human rights activist

Victor Jara The name Victor or Viktor may refer to: * Victor (name), including a list of people with the given name, mononym, or surname Arts and entertainment Film * ''Victor'' (1951 film), a French drama film * ''Victor'' (1993 film), a French shor ...

; the text is a juxtaposition of part of the mass ordinary with both Bible verses in Hebrew and contemporary texts, and he wrote it for different combinations of narrator, choirs, organ and percussion.

Notes

References

* Ronald Cross, review of Capella Cordina recording directed by Alejandro Planchart, in The Musical Quarterly, Vol. 60, No. 1 (Jan., 1974), pp. 154-159
Program notes to February 3, 2007 concert at UCLA
*

Lewis Lockwood Lewis H. Lockwood (born December 16, 1930) is an American musicologist whose main fields are the music of the Italian Renaissance and the life and work of Ludwig van Beethoven. Joseph Kerman described him as "a leading musical scholar of the postw ...

/Andrew Kirkman, Mass, II. Grove Music Online, ed. L. Macy (Accessed April 19, 2007)
(subscription access)
* Jennifer Bloxam, "Masses on Polyphonic Songs", in Scherr, Richard, ed. ''The Josquin Companion''. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 2000. {{ISBN, 0-19-816335-5. Renaissance music Masses (music)