The Renaissance Period (c.1450-1600) - Palestrina's Pope Marcellus Mass (1567)

I mentioned Palestrina and his mass in my last post. In this post, I'm going to expand on what I told you earlier.

Palestrina was a composer of sacred music, and a pretty damn loyal one at that. In fact, he actually wrote a few secular tunes, but afterwards he wrote that he "blushed and grieved to have written love songs." He wrote 100+ masses, as well as some spiritual madrigals. His music is pure and a capella, just like most other sacred works of the time. As well as composing, Palestrina also worked as an organist and choirmaster.

Palestrina is also occasionally considered to be the "saviour of polyphony" because of his Pope Marcellus Mass. He wrote his work during the time of the Counter-Reformation (see The Renaissance Period (c. 1450-1600) - Music and Society). Palestrina managed to use polyphony while avoiding the use of secular songs as a cantus firmus and keeping the text clear, which some say helped to appease the Council of Trent.

Here are the lyrics to the Gloria section of the Pope Marcellus Mass (or Missa papae marcelli, as the Italian name goes):

Gloria in excelsis Deo
et in terra pax hominibus
bonae voluntatis.
Laudamus te.
Benedicimus te.
Adoramus te.
Glorificamus te.
Gratias agimus tibi propter
magnam gloriam tuam.
Domine Deus, Rex caelestis,
Deus Pater omnipotens.
Domine Fili
unigenite, Jesu Christe.
Domine Deus, Agnus Dei,
Filius Patris.
Qui tollis
peccata mundi,
miserere nobis.
Qui tollis peccata mundi,
suscipe depecationem nostram.
Qui sedes ad dexteram Patris,
miserere nobis.
Quoniam tu solus sanctus.
Tu solus Dominus.
Tu solus Altissims.
Jesu Christe, cum Sancto Spiriu
in gloria Dei Patris.
Amen.

Simple, no? Oh, all right, here's an English translation, but I can't bothered putting all the line breaks in, so I'm just going to type it all out in a big paragraph.

Glory be to God on high, and on Earth peace to men of good will. We praise Thee. We bless Thee. We adore Thee. We glorify Thee. We give Thee thanks for Thy great glory. Lord God, heavenly King, God the Father Almighty. O Lord, the only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ. Lord God, Lamb of God, Son of the Father. Thou that takest away the sins of the world, have mercy on us. Thou that takest away the sins of the world, receive our prayer. Thou that sittest at the right hand of the Father, have mercy on us. For thou alone art holy. Thou only art the Lord. Thou alone art most high. Jesus Christ, along with the Holy Spirit in the glory of God the Father. Amen.

Pretty serious religious stuff, right? No wonder the Church didn't want secular songs and overly complex polyphony! What compositional devices could be used without spoiling the effects that the Council of Trent wanted?

First of all, Missa papae marcelli is completely choral- no noisy instruments involved. The voices involved were Cantus, Altus, Tenor I, Tenor II, Bass I and Bass II. Cantus and altus were often done by boys, countertenors or castrati  (see The Renaissance Period (c.1450-1600) - Composers and Performers).

Secondly, Palestrina did whatever he could to make the text heard. The Pope Marcellus Mass is mainly syllabic- only one note per syllable. Some parts are neumatic (a few notes per syllable), but melismas (lots of notes per syllable) tend to be reserved for towards the end in the closing "Amen," which also has quite a lot of polyphony and embellishment (after all, everyone already knows what the words are there). Palestrina also made sure that each syllable would be introduced separately in order to make the text clearer.

Palestrina not only made words clearer, he also emphasised some of them. He used homophony (multiple voices moving all at once) to emphasise important words such as Jesu Christe and Domine Deus. He also made use of the different voices for emphasis, only using the entire choir for important words. Hocket was another technique used- in some places the text is also broken up between multiple voice parts, again for emphasis.

Palestrina used some other compositional devices in his work such as cori spezzati, or split choirs. In the introduction, Tenor II and Bass II are roughly grouped together and Tenor I and Bass I are also roughly grouped together. These parts sing alternately at the start. Different rhythms are also used- some syncopation exists throughout the piece. Palestrina also utilises a full, consonant harmony throughout the piece, making use of parallel 10ths and 3rds.

That's the main rundown of the Gloria of Palestrina's Pope Marcellus Mass. Here's a Youtube video for you.