Missa Papae Marcelli - Style

Style

The Missa Papae Marcelli consists, like most Renaissance masses, of a Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus/Benedictus, and Agnus Dei, though the Agnus Dei is in two parts rather than the common three. The mass is freely composed, not based upon a cantus firmus or parody. Perhaps because of this, the mass is not as thematically consistent as Palestrina's masses based on models. It is primarily a six-voice mass, but voice combinations are varied throughout the piece; Palestrina scores the second Agnus Dei for seven voices, and the use of the full forces is reserved for specific climactic portions in the text. It is set primarily in a homorhythmic, declamatory style, with little overlapping of text and a general preference for block chords such that the text can clearly be heard in performance, unlike many polyphonic masses of the 16th century. Like much of Palestrina's contrapuntal work, voices move in primarily stepwise motion, and the voice leading strictly follows the rules of the diatonic modes codified by theorist Gioseffo Zarlino.

Read more about this topic:  Missa Papae Marcelli

Famous quotes containing the word style:

    Switzerland is a small, steep country, much more up and down than sideways, and is all stuck over with large brown hotels built on the cuckoo clock style of architecture.
    Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961)

    All my stories are webs of style and none seems at first blush to contain much kinetic matter.... For me “style” is matter.
    Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)

    Always, however brutal an age may actually have been, its style transmits its music only.
    André Malraux (1901–1976)