Dufay: Missa L'homme armA©; Supremum est mortalibus bonum

The Masters' Masses were not for the Masses

Masses composed around the melody of the song L'Homme Arme (the Armed Man) are almost a genre onto themselves. Musicologically speaking, they are 'parody' masses, that is, polyphony compositions using the melodic themes and harmonic structures of a pre-existing chanson, often one with a secular text. Due partly to the odd jaunty quality of the L'Homme Arne theme, all of these masses are exceptionally colorful in rhythm and voicing, more sumptuous than pious, more flamboyant than devotional - a liturgical call to arms. Virtually every major composer of the 15th and 16th centuries wrote one; amazon currently lists performances of L'Homme Arme masses by Dufay, Busnois, Ockeghem, Josquin, Obrecht, de la Rue, Senfl, and Palestrina, as well as less well-known composers like Robert Carver, Mattheus Pipelare, Johannes Tinctoris, Juan de Anchieta, Johannes Regis, Cristobal Morales, and Mathurin Forestier.

Why so many? It used to be supposed that the composers felt motivated by professional competition and/or eagerness to meet a sublime challenge to their skills. There may well be truth to that notion, but a more practical factor is almost certainly involved. Such masses were written on commission, for pecuniary reward, and the commissions for these masses, as far as we know, came entirely from very potent patrons - kings, dukes, archbishops and such, the movers-and-shakers of Renaissance Europe - and most of these patrons were prominent members of an international confraternity called The Order of the Golden Fleece, which held convocations at significant times and places. A modern analogy might be the annual convocation of big shots at Bohemian Grove in northern California, although as far as I know the Bohemian Club has never commissioned a significant piece of music. The Golden Fleece had its own theme song, which was... L'Homme Arme!

I've never heard a L'Homme Arme mass that I didn't like. Obviously not all performances are equally successful, but the challenge of composing a new mass in full awareness of the greatness of previous compositions does seem to have inspired people. Dufay's L'Homme Arme was composed in the 1460s, at a time when Dufay was wealthy and renowned, and approaching old age. Interestingly, it shows the master being strongly influenced by his own disciples; Dufay extends his usual sweet Burgundian polyphony to match the riotous mannerism of younger men like Busnois and Ockeghem. Even so, Dufay's melodic delicacy survives in this most rhythmically electrifying context, making his L'Homme Arme one of the most accessible to modern listeners.

The Oxford Camerata performance begins with a unison chanting of the basic L'Homme Arme melody, a helpful gesture for the uninitiated listener. Then director Jeremy Summerly chooses to separate the movements of the mass with chanted monophonic antiphons, an authentic liturgical parctice, and to conclude the performance with the polyphonic motet Supremum est Mortalibus Bonum, written by the much younger Dufay in about 1430. It's a good choice, allowing the listener to hear the compositional distance Dufay and his disciples had traversed in thirty years.

The Oxford Camerata is a choir twelve voices, men and women, all Britons, bearing such charming British names as Alison Coldstream and Julian Smallbones. It's an excellent choir - better I think than the Tallis Scholars and other similar ensembles, having clearer diction and an more incisive collective timbre - and although I'd prefer to hear this mass performed in recording by singers one on a part, I'm certainly pleased with this CD and recommend it heartily. June 11, 2008

Experience the glory of early Renaissance sacred polyphony

If you want to experience early Renaissance sacred polyphony in all its glory, one of the best places to start is this scintillating recording of Guillaume Dufay's "Missa L'homme arme" by the Oxford Camerata. This vocal consort, led by Jeremy Summerly, has been a leading light in the early music vocal scene, having recorded several other remarkable works for the Naxos label (William Byrd's "Masses for Four and Five Voices" comes to mind).

"Missa L'homme arme" represented a comeback of sorts for Dufay (1397-1474). Years earlier, Dufay had become the first composer to base a Mass Ordinary cycle on a secular song (his own "Se la face ay pale"). The generation of composers that followed Dufay tried to outdo each other by composing Masses based on the short, catchy "L'homme arme" melody. By writing his own "Missa L'homme arme," Dufay rose to the challenge issued by mid-15th century composers of sacred music.

Dufay's entry was late but significant. His Mass employed several newer techniques, including retrograde and inverted cantus firmus, which allowed him to compete with younger, progressive composers such as Ockeghem and Busnoys. For Dufay, "Missa L'homme arme" was a chance to show he could still compose a virtuoso Mass with the best of them, and he succeeded gloriously, re-affirming his stature as the pre-eminent composer of the century.

Unlike the upbeat pop tune that inspired this Mass (which appears as the first track here), Dufay's movements unfold smoothly and gradually, like undulating waves. Voices emerge in ghostly motifs that faintly echo the main theme (or cantus firmus), most dramatically in the "Agnus Dei" movement. Here, Dufay's original score bears the note, "The crab proceeds whole but returns half." This cryptic phrase indicates how Dufay manipulated the cantus firmus: the "L'homme arme melody" is stated backward, in half-time, before beginning over again forwards and in standard time.

The performance of the Oxford Camerata is excellent throughout this recording, which also includes the motet "Supremum est mortalibus." Through the Camerata's heavenly voices, Dufay's Mass achieves an otherworldly, timeless beauty that will impress scholars and astonish casual listeners. This is truly a work for the ages.
December 8, 2006

DA VIRTUTIS MERITUM

Dufay's life seems to have been entirely within the 15th century. He was based at the abbey of Cambrai and seems to have enjoyed a wide reputation spreading as far as Scotland, where one of the manuscripts of this mass survives. The mass is a large-scale work, with a Sanctus lasting over ten minutes (which is a lot longer than, say, Verdi's), and an Agnus Dei taking well over eight. To complete the set there is a motet 'Supremum est mortalibus bonum' dating from the 1430's, and one very intriguing feature of this disc is the presence of an unharmonised 'Veni sancte spiritus' (sung to a popular tune) after the Gloria and two plainsong items 'Jubilate Deo' following the Credo and 'Illumina tu faciem' right at the end after the Agnus Dei. Sadly there is no illumination of this in the liner-note, which is really the most frightful guff saying next to nothing and saying it rather badly. Provisionally I have to assume that these numbers (all short) were sung at appropriate points during the celebration of the mass, otherwise what is the point of sequencing them in this way on the record? What I would have liked some guidance on is whether the composer envisaged these extras as integral parts of the setting of the mass - e.g. do they occur in the manuscripts, of which there are no fewer than four? Evidently I shall have to research this question elsewhere.

I am an admirer of the Oxford Camerata in general. As in their record of Josquin's mass based on the same chanson, there are 12 singers, those male these feminine as Milton puts it, numbering 7 and 5 respectively. I have read some comment that finds them prone to over-slow tempi, but I have been used to 15th and 16th century ecclesiastical polyphony all my life from childhood, and while I have no pretensions at all to being expert on the subject I suppose I can say that I find nothing untoward in any aspect of the Camerata's approach. The recording is predictably good, and the strength of the vocal tone impressed me.

English translations of the Latin are provided for everything here. These are in general accurate, although it is worth pointing out that towards the end of the Veni sancte 'Da...sacrum septenarium' means literally 'grant seven holy years', and 'da salutis exitum' means unequivocally 'grant final salvation'. November 9, 2004

A Great Recording of Dufay's Mass Plus

Dufay was the music master of the early Renaissance, and this disc contains his mass setting of the greatest hit of the later middle ages and Renaissance, "L'homme arme", plus recordings of the song itself as well as chants and motets utilizing the tune as their basis, worked in among the mass setting pieces. However, lest potential buyers think they are getting some kind of new agey, fluffy music here, this recording works very hard to be authentic, and the performance is more powerful than serene, more earthy than spacey, and majestic in a very medieval way. Summerly and company get these works very right. March 7, 2002

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