A New Continental Source of a Fifteenth-Century English Mass

摘要

The survival rate of English fifteenth-century sacred polyphony is lamentably low compared with its Continental counterpart. It is noteworthy, therefore, when a new source of this severely depleted repertory comes to light. Lyons, Bibliothèque municipale, MS 6632 is a collection of little-known fragments previously believed to contain Continental music from c.1500. One of these compositions has now been identified as a three-voice English mass, composed in the mid-fifteenth century, with known concordances in four other fifteenth-century manuscripts. The version in Lyons 6632 is unique, however, in that it includes a fourth voice below the original three-voice texture that appears to be the work of a later composer. The adaptation of pre-existing compositions through the addition of a new voice or voices occurred throughout the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. In the last quarter of the fifteenth century the practice largely transferred from sacred to secular genres—particularly the chanson. The mass in Lyons 6632 is remarkable for being a rare exception to this shift, and an unusually late example of a large-scale sacred work with a voice added by a later hand.