Parody Mass
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A parody mass is a musical setting of the
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 ...
, typically from the 16th century, that uses multiple voices of a pre-existing piece of music, such as a fragment of a
motet In Western classical music, a motet is mainly a vocal musical composition, of highly diverse form and style, from high medieval music to the present. The motet was one of the preeminent polyphonic forms of Renaissance music. According to the Eng ...
or a secular ''
chanson A (, ; , ) is generally any Lyrics, lyric-driven French song. The term is most commonly used in English to refer either to the secular polyphonic French songs of late medieval music, medieval and Renaissance music or to a specific style of ...
'', as part of its melodic material. It is distinguished from the two other most prominent types of mass composition during 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 ...
, the ''
cantus firmus In music, a ''cantus firmus'' ("fixed melody") is a pre-existing melody forming the basis of a polyphonic composition. The plural of this Latin term is , although the corrupt form ''canti firmi'' (resulting from the grammatically incorrect trea ...
'' and the paraphrase mass.


Etymology

In the sense considered here, the term ''parody mass'' applies to masses where a
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 ...
fragment from another work is used as the basis of a new composition. The term ''imitation mass'' has been suggested instead of ''parody mass'', as being both more precise and closer to the original usage, since the term ''parody'' is based on a misreading of a late 16th-century text. In contradistinction, masses which incorporated only a single voice of the polyphonic source, treated not as a ''cantus firmus'' ('Tenor Mass') but elaborated and moving between different parts, are referred to by writers on musical theory as paraphrase masses. Other compositional techniques provided the basis for the
cyclic mass In Renaissance music, the cyclic mass was a musical setting of the Ordinary of the Roman Catholic Mass, in which each of the movements – Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei – shared a common musical theme, commonly a cantus ...
,
canon Canon or Canons may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Canon (fiction), the material accepted as officially written by an author or an ascribed author * Literary canon, an accepted body of works considered as high culture ** Western canon, th ...
mass, and soggetto cavato. The modern English word 'parody' derives from 'parody', from , 'burlesque song or poem', from 'beside, parallel to' (in this case, "mock-") + 'song, or
ode An ode (from ) is a type of lyric poetry, with its origins in Ancient Greece. Odes are elaborately structured poems praising or glorifying an event or individual, describing nature intellectually as well as emotionally. A classic ode is structu ...
". See also A. , the first ode sung by the
chorus Chorus may refer to: Music * Chorus (song), the part of a song that is repeated several times, usually after each verse * Chorus effect, the perception of similar sounds from multiple sources as a single, richer sound * Chorus form, song in whic ...
after its entrance in the ancient Greek drama. In the case of masses, "parody" has almost nothing to do with humor or ridicule, as understood in the modern definition of the word; while in some cases bawdy secular songs were indeed used in composition of masses, equally often non-liturgical sacred music such as motets formed the basis for parody masses.


History

The parody or imitation mass was a very popular model during 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 ...
:
Palestrina Palestrina (ancient ''Praeneste''; , ''Prainestos'') is a modern Italian city and ''comune'' (municipality) with a population of about 22,000, in Lazio, about east of Rome. It is connected to the latter by the Via Prenestina. It is built upon ...
alone wrote some 50-odd examples, and by the first half of the 16th century this style was the dominant form. 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 ...
, in a document dated 10 September 1562, banned the use of secular material, "...let nothing profane be intermingled ... banish from church all music which contains, whether in the singing or the organ playing, things that are lascivious or impure." The proposed reforms were most carefully followed only in Italy; in France, a change in taste had already brought about many of the wishes of the members of the council, and in Germany they were largely ignored. Parody techniques include adding or removing voices from the original piece, adding fragments of new material, or only using the fragment at the beginning of every part of the mass. In his colossal 22-volume ''El melopeo y maestro'' of 1613, Italian music theorist Pietro Cerone gave some general guidelines for writing a parody mass: each of the main sections of the mass should start with the beginning of the source; the interior section of the Kyrie should use a secondary motive; and some portions, for example the second and third Agnus Dei, should not be chained to the model but be freely composed. He also recommended using as many subsidiary musical ideas from the model as possible. Some examples of early parody masses include the '' Missa Mater Patris'', '' Missa Malheur me bat'', and '' Missa Fortuna desperata'' of
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 ...
, and the ''Missa de Dringhs'' by
Antoine Brumel Antoine Brumel (c. 1460 – 1512 or 1513) was a French composer. He was one of the first renowned French members of the Franco-Flemish School, Franco-Flemish school of the Renaissance music, Renaissance, and, after Josquin des Prez, was one of t ...
. The ''Missa Mater Patris'' by des Prez is considered to be the first true parody mass as it does not include a structural ''cantus firmus''. By the middle of the 16th century, a high percentage of all masses composed used the parody technique.


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Bibliography

* * * * * {{Authority control Renaissance music