CHANTICLEER 

An Orchestra of Voices

Eric S. Brenner, Dan Cromeenes, Dylan Hostetter, Justin Montigne, Benjamin Rauch, William Sauerland Soprano & Alto

Ben Johns, Thomas McCargar, Matthew D. Oltman, Tenor

Eric Alatorre, John Bischoff, Mark Sullivan Baritone & Bass

Joseph Jennings, Music Director

Antoine Brumel

Earthquake Mass (Missa Et ecce terrae motus)

This evening’s concert will be performed without intermission.

The audience is kindly requested to reserve applause until the end.

Introit Et ecce terrae motus                                            Plainsong

Kyrie from Missa Et ecce terrae motus                        Antoine Brumel (c. 1460– c.1515) Gloria from Missa Et ecce terrae motus                       Brumel

Gradual:  O Domine Jesu Christe                                  Brumel

Alleluia: Pascha nostrum / Victimae paschal               Plainsong

Credo from Missa Et ecce terrae motus                        Brumel

Offertory:  Terra tremuit                                                 Plainsong

Sanctus & Benedictus  from Missa Et ecce terrae motus        Brumel

Lamentations                                                                     Brumel

Pater noster                                                                       Plainsong

Agnus from Missa Et ecce terrae motus                       Brumel

Communio:  Da Pacem                                                    Brumel

Post communio: Languente miseris                              Brumel

Dismissal                                                                             Plainsong

Program subject to change.

Notes by Barton Hudson

In Antoine Brumel we have one of the most celebrated composers of the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, praised during his own day and over the following century by writers and musicians alike. François Rabelais and Teofilo Folengo lauded him as one of the most melodious singers among the old masters, while Eloy d’Amerval called him “one of the greatest artists in paradise.” He was cited by such musical writers as Franchinus Gafurius, Gregor Faber, and, as late as 1597, Thomas Morley, who named him alongside Josquin des Prez as those who can teach one everything about older canonic techniques. The earliest successful music printer, the Venetian Ottaviano Petrucci, devoted his second book of masses by one man to Brumel, following only Josquin. His compositions range from the quite elaborate, late Gothic contrapuntal works of his early years to more contrapuntally simple and harmonically oriented ones of the flowering Renaissance. They are marked by the diversity and originality of style.

              Brumel’s Missa Et ecce terrae motus is quite unusual or unique in several ways. Most obviously, it is composed in twelve voices, a number far beyond those required for any other mass of the composer’s generation and rare at all times. By the end of the sixteenth century and later, one finds occasional works of similar magnitude, but they are texturally much simpler, pitting multiple choirs against one another. A 36-voice Deo gratias, ascribed to Johannes Ockeghem but possibly by another composer, and a 40-voice motet Spem in alium by Thomas Tallis require greater forces, but they are much less extensive works.

              Secondly, the mass was intended for Easter performance, since it is based upon the first phrase of an antiphon assigned to that feast. One might expect that the occasion would regularly require elaborate music for its celebration, but liturgically specific masses are more often for saint’s days and lesser occasions than for the highest feasts. Curiously, Brumel composed two such masses, the other based upon the Easter sequence, Victimae paschali.

              For what occasion might he have been asked to compose such a huge work as Missa Et ecce terrae motus? One can only speculate. During Brumel’s generation (he lived from ca. 1460 to ca. 1510) most prominent composers hailed from the southern Netherlands, modern Belgium. Brumel, on the other hand, seems to have been the only major composer from France to have achieved international renown. We cannot be certain where he was born, but it was certainly near Chartres, very possibly the village of Brunelles, not far to the west. During his life he worked at Chartres, Geneva, Laon, Paris, Chambéry, Ferrara, and possibly Rome. No doubt it was while he held one of these positions that he wrote the mass, though it is possible that he received an outside commission, independent of his regular employment.

              The mass survives essentially complete in only one manuscript which, we might think, would give us some guidance regarding provenance, but such is not the case. This manuscript was compiled at the ducal court in Munich for a performance of the work under the direction of the great italianate Netherlander, Orlandus Lassus, around 1570, some 60 years after Brumel’s death. Presumably it was prepared under Lassus’ supervision. A description of the musical establishment by Michael Praetorius makes clear that Lassus had at his disposal a huge musical entourage for the day, some 90 performers, including singers and instrumentalists. The names of many of these are known to us. At the beginning of the mass, the names of each of the singers for the alto, tenor, and bass voices are listed, altogether 33 singers. The three soprano parts could have been sung by either castrati or, more likely, boys, since adults’ names would have been given had they been used. One of those singing the second tenor line was listed as “Cantor”, that is, Lassus himself. While it must be assumed that Lassus admired Brumel’s work, he never himself attempted composition of a mass in twelve voices.

              Regrettably, the end of the Munich manuscript is incomplete. Only the first of the three Agnus Dei acclamations is present, and parts of several voices were lost when a page was severely damaged. The reconstruction of the lost material by Philip Legge is used in this performance. Whether the source ever contained the other two acclamations is unknown. However, a second manuscript at Copenhagen contains a six-voice Agnus section ascribed to Brumel. Whether this was originally belonged to the mass is unknown. No other section of the mass is in six parts, more of the antiphon is used than elsewhere, and the voice ranges differ somewhat. However, it is included in this performance for the second acclamation for lack of another setting. For the third, the first section, in twelve voices, is repeated, a common practice during the period.

              Since Brumel had no models that we know of for composition in twelve voices, especially for a work of this scope, he had to devise his own method for disposition of such forces. First he chose a cantus firmus, the Easter “earthquake” antiphon, or rather the seven notes comprising its first phrase: d - d - b - d - e - d - d. This fragment appears twice in each movement (necessarily only once in the Agnus Dei), once in each major division, usually in three-voice canon. In all sections except the Osanna and Agnus I, it is presented in very long note values. In each canon the successive voices appear on different pitches in the Tenor I, Tenor II, and Bassus III parts. In each canon the voices begin on different pitches, e.g.:

d - d’ - g,     d’ - g - c,     d’ - g - d

The most elaborate arrangement appears in Agnus I: g - c- c’, so that no voice starts on the beginning note of the chant. Uniquely, however, the canon appears five times, each time with the voices one step higher, so that the final statement begins on the antiphon’s beginning pitch, d. The canonic statements form a superstructure, a sort of scaffolding, around which the remaining voices move. The design suggests the traditional late Gothic style of cantus firmus treatment.

              Because of the long notes in the cantus firmus, the remaining voices are greatly constrained in the harmonies they can form, of necessity sustaining one harmony or alternating between two chords in quick succession. Brumel devised two methods of using the remaining voices. Most characteristically, he has each moving in quick note values with individual irregular rhythms, so that one hears a spirited interplay between contrasting voices, though within a limited harmonic framework. This must have seemed the most obvious way of accompanying the long cantus firmus notes at the time. In the other method, however, as in patches of the Gloria, the voices are in the same, relatively quiet rhythms and with the words presented simultaneously in all parts. This is consistent with the more “modern,” renaissance Italian style which developed during the composer’s lifetime and with his participation. The mass thus blends the traditional Netherlands style with the emerging Italian one.

              The polyphonic mass includes the five liturgical items whose texts are common to most occasions, the mass Ordinary. The Proper, consisting of those items which do change according to the season, are normally sung in chant or are replaced with an appropriate substitute item. In this case the antiphon Et ecce terrae motus, which provides the borrowed material used in the polyphonic mass, is performed in place of the Introit. The Gradual is represented by a brief motet prayer, O Domine Jesu Christe, which demonstrates Brumel’s ability to use simple harmonies for coloristic effect. Similar in style is a short work based upon words from the Lamentations of Jeremiah, included as a non-liturgical insertion. As in the scriptures, each of the two verses is preceded by a Hebrew letter, which is also set to music as a small introduction. Replacing the Communio is a tiny motet Da pacem, Domine, a double canon. Two written voices are realized at their written pitch and, one beat later, at the upper fourth. The Post communio motet, Languente miseris, has a tenor part with the words of a Psalm verse, repeated five times in varying rhythms. The other four voices bear only the beginning words “Languente miseris,” whose identity remains obscure; the remainder of the text has not been found, so this opening tag is repeated.

Barton Hudson is the editor of much Renaissance and Baroque music, including that of Josquin des Prez and Jacob Obrecht, as well as the collected works of Antoine Brumel. He is a professor emeritus, a musicologist and harpsichordist, currently enjoying retirement in scenic West Virginia.

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