Chapter 4: The Performer’s Approach

This chapter, along with the following one, documents the second line of work in the present research, consisting of practice-based research strategies centered on the study and performance of Missa Inviolata.

Two main aspects have characterized this practical work on Missa Inviolata. The first has functioned as a prerequisite: taking the sources as a starting point, instead of transcriptions in modern notation, thus working directly from the original notation. This approach allows direct access to the musical materials, unfiltered by the authorship paradigm that is central to modern editions. Moreover, treating original sources not as arcane artifacts to be translated but as “original instruments” for music-making helps tremendously in developing the practical skills possessed by musicians of the time. Without those skills, I would have been limited to the standard, mainstream approach of the modern choir conductor (i.e., the modern edition in score format), and I would never have encountered Missa Inviolata. It was my direct exploration of the manuscript and my realization of the relative importance of a very substantial, six-part setting of the Ordinary of the Mass in the source that drew my attention to this piece. Only later, in the process of research, did I discover that although it had been studied by scholars, it was systematically ignored by performers.

The second aspect of the practical work has been the expansion of focus towards a wider musical corpus, given that Missa Inviolata is closely related to other pieces. This means considering not only Missa Inviolata for study and performance but also the motet by Josquin on which it is based, as well as other pieces inspired by the same motet. Furthermore, the monophonic plainchant sequence Inviolata, which Josquin (and many other composers) took as a basis to build his motet, has been included as part of the corpus, along with other polyphonic compositions based on the same sequence. Finally, the corpus has been further expanded, tracing its seminal musical elements back to the plainchant responsory Gaude Maria Virgo. This responsory received a melismatic expansion (a trope) on its penultimate word (precisely, “inviolata”), the texting of which eventually became independent as the sequence Inviolata.

4.1 Missa Inviolata in performance

The starting point of the practice-based aspect of the present research has been the study and performance of Missa Inviolata. Over the past few years, I have had the opportunity to work on this piece in various contexts, with different ensembles and approaches, including informal performances in pedagogical settings, performances in liturgical contexts, and concert performances.

Informal performances in pedagogical contexts have been carried out with conservatoire students and colleagues, mainly as part of the master elective course Franco-Flemish Polyphony⁴⁵ that the Royal Conservatoire of The Hague offers in collaboration with the Alamire Foundation⁴⁶ (Leuven, BE). I teach this course together with Stratton Bull, director of the ensemble Cappella Pratensis⁴⁷.

In liturgical contexts, Missa Inviolata has been performed with the ensemble Cantores Sancti Gregorii, led by Jan Janovcik. This group has been regularly singing both polyphony and chant in the Traditional Latin Mass in diverse churches in The Netherlands for over a decade⁴⁸. Missa Inviolata, as a setting of the Ordinary, has been used several times in recent years when appropriate according to the liturgical occasion and its Marian connotations. The first two such occasions were Saturday 8 December 2018 (Feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary) in the Sint-Jacobus de Meerderekerk, The Hague, and Saturday 2 March 2019 (celebration of a votive Marian mass) in the Heilige Annakerk, Rosmalen.

Regarding concert performances, the first two movements of Missa Inviolata (Kyrie and Gloria) were included in the program of my first-year presentation for the Choral Conducting master’s degree, on Monday 19 September 2022. They were performed by a mixed vocal and instrumental ensemble, using a preliminary version of my edition, transcribed into modern notation (discussed in chapter 3 and available as Annex I). Additionally, the full piece has been performed in concert by my own professional ensemble, La Academia de los Nocturnos, singing from the manuscript, as part of two Early Music festivals: on Sunday 29 November 2020, in the Temporada de Música Antigua of Guadalajara (Spain), and on Saturday 20 November 2021, in the XXV Festival de Música Antigua de Úbeda y Baeza (also Spain). While on the first occasion the piece was performed by voices only (one to a part), the second concert was in collaboration with Ensemble La Danserye (specialized in Renaissance wind instruments).

Working on Missa Inviolata in such a variety of situations has allowed for experimentation with different approaches: performing with professionals or with students; from the manuscript in choirbook format, from the manuscript in partbook format and from the transcription in modern notation; with voices only or with voices and instruments; with one performer to a part or with several performers to a part; etc. Moreover, the different kinds of focus demanded by each of these situations (the pedagogical context, the liturgical context, the concert performance) emphasize diverse aspects, facilitating a deeper knowledge of the piece and a higher level of awareness of its multiple facets that would not be possible through a single perspective.

4.2 Josquin’s motet Inviolata

The first step in widening the musical corpus is examining the motet Inviolata by Josquin⁴⁹, on which Missa Inviolata is based through the parody technique⁵⁰. This is one of Josquin’s most famous motets, surviving in more than 20 sources. Willem Elders has dated it to Josquin’s “second period” (1489-1504), which extends from Josquin’s entrance to the Papal Chapel in 1489 until his return to the North in 1504, after serving in the Estense court of Ferrara⁵¹.

Josquin uses the plainchant sequence Inviolata as cantus firmus, placed in the Tenor, divided into three sections (resulting in the three parts of the motet) and treated canonically at the fifth in the Quintus. The temporal distance of the canon is progressively shortened: three breves in the first section, two breves in the second, one brevis in the third, contributing to a progressive intensification of the texture. The other three voices (Cantus, Altus, Bassus) develop a rich contrapuntal landscape combining themes and motives that range from exact imitation of the plainchant, through close derivations of its component materials, to more or less free, additional ideas, which can most of the time also be related organically to fragments of the sequence. A multi-layered approach to the thematical analysis of the motet has been provided as Annex 2⁵².

Besides the fact that the study and analysis of Josquin’s motet is an obvious way to put Missa Inviolata in context, it is important to highlight the results of learning and performing it from the perspective of the practical musician, i.e., as a practice-based research strategy. The kind of musical awareness generated by aural familiarity with the pre-existing model allows the performer (so to speak) to “feel the presence” of Josquin’s motet while singing Missa Inviolata, on the one hand, while at the same time drawing attention to the particular ways of reworking Josquin’s material by the composer of the mass.

4.3 Other polyphonic works based on the sequence Inviolata

During my process of research, I have identified a group of approximately 20 polyphonic works based on the sequence Inviolata, all composed during the 16^th century⁵³. While these pieces can be categorized by genre (mostly motets and masses, see Table 7), a different perspective is more fruitful for this research. 16^th century compositions based on the sequence Inviolata fall roughly into two main categories: those simply based on the plainchant sequence and those additionally inspired by Josquin’s motet. To avoid subjective judgements when making this distinction, the criterion used to categorize a piece as “Josquin-inspired” has been the presence of specific compositional techniques in its structure connecting it to Josquin’s five-part setting of the sequence.

To further expand the focus of the practice-based element of this research, four polyphonic pieces have been selected for study and performance, two from each proposed group (marked with an asterisk in Table 7). The selected pieces based on the Inviolata sequence that do not show any connection to Josquin’s motet are:

• An anonymous setting appearing in Codex Smijers (the first out of two such anonymous compositions)⁵⁴, in which six of the verses of the sequence (the even ones) are set polyphonically in four voices, intended for alternatim performance (with odd verses sung in plainchant).
• A mass super Inviolata by Pierre de la Rue⁵⁵, which, as a full setting of the Ordinary, is a much more substantial piece when compared to the humble alternatim setting of the sequence, but similarly based on the paraphrase technique, albeit on a much larger scale.

The Inviolata motets by Costanzo Festa⁵⁶ and Vicente Lusitano⁵⁷, both written for eight voices, seem to be directly inspired by Josquin’s composition: like the model, they are divided into three sections and use canonic procedures as main structural component⁵⁸.

• Festa writes four voices, all treated in canon, for a total of eight, with the canonic interval progressively shrinking through the sections: first section at the octave, second section at the fifth, final section at the fourth⁵⁹.
• Lusitano is even closer to Josquin in the basic structure, keeping the same canon procedure through its three sections. The main structural difference consists of longer gaps between the cantus firmus phrases, allowing for additional developments and extending the scale of the piece.

The result of taking these four compositions as additional specimens for study and performance has been a further increase in the specific kind of awareness mentioned in the previous section. While the anonymous piece and De la Rue’s mass use the musical material of the Inviolata plainchant sequence in ways completely different from Josquin, focusing primarily on paraphrase techniques, the settings by Festa and Lusitano show additional possibilities that arise when taking Josquin’s procedures to the extreme. These possibilities that are hinted at when considering the canonic techniques deployed by Josquin but are not necessarily realized in his motet.

4.4 The sequence Inviolata

All the polyphonic pieces mentioned so far are ultimately related to the plainchant sequence Inviolata, either directly or through Josquin’s motet as an intermediate model. Performers specializing in Renaissance polyphony tend to devote little attention to plainchant, while those specialized in chant often disregard polyphony. Nevertheless, these two repertories feature a very close relationship, as they acted as different layers in a single musical space: that of liturgy. Therefore, the next logical step in the practice-based aspect of the present research was the study and performance of the plainchant sequence itself.

The sequence (Lat. sequentia) is a genre of liturgical chant. It is an item of the proper of the mass, appearing after the Alleluia and before the Gospel, but it was not universal and was subjected to many variations across different eras and regions. Moreover, it cannot be considered Gregorian chant proper, as it belongs to a later layer of liturgical embellishment, first developed in Carolingian times. Traditional historiography pointed to a specific practice as the origin of the sequence: texting a long melisma appearing in a chant, most typically an Alleluia. However, many sequences seem to have been created directly as such, not necessarily as an additional layer on pre-existing material⁶⁰. In either case, the result a chant genre featuring a mostly syllabic style, often with some structural elements emphasizing its versification, such as rhyme and paired verses.

The earliest references to sequences appear in the 800s, and new sequences continued to be produced throughout the Middle Ages, with a “classical” period extending from ca. 1100 to 1300 in which the genre became more stable. After the Council of Trent it was all but abolished, although there was no formal, explicit prohibition. The missal of 1570 includes only four sequences for the entire Roman Rite: Victimæ paschali laudes (Easter), Veni sancte spiritus (Pentecost), Lauda Sion salvatorem (Corpus Christi), and Dies iræ (All Souls and Masses for the Dead). In 1727, the Stabat Mater (Our Lady of Sorrows) was officially added, and in 1970 the Dies iræ was removed.

The sequence Inviolata appears in approximately 40 sources originating from the 12^th to the 16^th centuries among those indexed in the Cantus online database⁶¹. From these, a total of ten have been selected with purely practical criteria, mainly the availability of online digital reproductions and their readability, to be used for study and performance. A transcription is available in the Liber usualis⁶², in the specific variant of black square notation used for modern editions of chant. A further practical edition has been prepared as part of this research (Annex 3), and its Latin text and English translation are provided here.

As a practice-based strategy of research, learning and performing the plainchant sequence has provided a different perspective on the corpus of polyphonic compositions mentioned in the previous sections, through familiarization and assimilation of the common monophonic material serving as a basis for all those pieces. Moreover, it has also served as basis for polyphonic experiments, discussed in the next chapter. Additionally, working on the sequence from the sources has the side effect of raising awareness of the great number of variants, melodic and textual, already apparent in the relatively limited number of sources selected for study and performance (a total of 10). These variants, even if they are not the focus of the present research, have offered a particular opportunity for experimentation, also discussed in the next chapter.

4.5 The responsory Gaude Maria Virgo

In configuring an Inviolata corpus of interrelated repertoire for study and performance as part of the practice-based aspect of this research, there is one further step to take, given that the sequence Inviolata can itself be considered a derivation from pre-existing material. As mentioned in the previous section, sequences were traditionally considered as the result of texting a long melisma (such an added text would be called prosa or prosula). Even if this has been shown to be a reductionist perspective, with the sequence repertoire constituting a multifaceted phenomenon, the sequence Inviolata happens to have originated in such a process, namely the texting of a long melisma appearing in an earlier plainchant piece: the responsory Gaude Maria Virgo.

Gaude Maria Virgo is one of the so-called great responsories (Lat. responsoria prolixa), probably originating in the 9^th century⁶³. The general function of a responsory is to serve as a postlude to a reading or lesson (Lat. lectio), often having the character of a commentary or gloss on that lesson. This role was very important in the office of Matins, which includes a total of nine such pairs of lessons and responsories. Because of this, it is one of the richest genres in Gregorian chant (six hundred items in sources ca. 1000, more than a thousand by the 1200s).

Occupying the most important position (the last one) in the liturgy of Matins of the Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary (popularly known as Candlemass, and traditionally celebrated on February 2^nd), the responsory Gaude Maria Virgo became a target for embellishment, in the form of a long melisma on the penultimate syllable of, precisely, the word “inviolata”⁶⁴. From the point of view of this melisma, the sources transmitting Gaude Maria Virgo fall roughly into three groups

• those that transmit the responsory without the melisma,
• those that feature the additional melisma on the penultimate syllable of “inviolata”,
• those that present the responsory without the melisma, but also include the sequence Inviolata (i.e., the melisma already texted and extracted from the responsory) immediately after the responsory.

Of the slightly more than 30 such sources indexed in the Cantus database and available in online digital reproductions, only two fall into the second category⁶⁵, with the rest of the sources distributed evenly between the first and third group.

Although the equivalent to the Liber usualis containing the chants for the Divine Office, the Antiphonale monasticum, does not include the liturgy of Matins (being specifically edited “pro diurnis horis”), the responsory Gaude Maria Virgo is included as part of the solemn Vespers of the Feast of Annunciation, therefore it is available in a modern transcription⁶⁶. A further practical edition has been prepared as part of this research (Annex 4), and its Latin text and English translation are provided here.

From a performer’s perspective, several approaches to this responsory have been experimented with, keeping in mind the different formats in which it is transmitted: it is evidently possible to sing it with or without the additional melisma, and in the second case, with or without the text. Additionally, the structure of the responsory assumes a repetition of (part of) its first section, which further opens the possibility of leaving the melisma out the first time, including it (with or without text) the second time. At any rate, the fact that the whole sequence Inviolata (which, as seen in previous sections, served as basis for numerous polyphonic pieces) was originally just a melisma, added at a specific point in the last responsory of the liturgy of Matins, changes its meaning and situates it in a completely different context. More importantly, learning and performing it as a melisma in that context, as a strategy of practice-based research, contributes to embodying that knowledge and carrying those connotations into the derived repertoire.

Notes to chapter 4

45. More information on this subject, in the context of the master electives offered by the Royal Conservatoire here: <https://www.koncon.nl/en/masterelectives>.

46. <https://www.alamirefoundation.org/en/>.

47. <https://www.cappellapratensis.nl/en/>.

48. Diverse live recordings from liturgical services available at <https://praecentor.bandcamp.com/> (audio only) and <https://www.youtube.com/@CantoresSGregorii> (audio and video).

49. For general information on this motet, see Elders 2013 (p. 71, p. 77-78, p. 170). The piece is identified with the number 24.4 in the New Josquin Edition.

50. See section 1.4 for a general description of the parody technique, as well as for references to existing analyses of the mass from this technique’s perspective.

51. See Elders 2013, p. 64 and p. 163.

52. For other analyses, see Elders 2009 and Rees 2010.

53. Information gathered from the Motet Catalogue Database Online: <https://legacy.arts.ufl.edu/motet/>.

54. The anonymous piece appears in f. 1v-3r of NL-SH 152 (AKA Codex Smijers).

55. Pierre de la Rue’s mass appears in E-MO 773 (from f. 14v), A-Wn Mus.Hs. 15496 (from f. 51v) and D-Ju 7 (from f. 30v).

56. Constanzo Festa’s motet appears in I-Rvat Capp.Sist.24 (from f. 119v) and I-Rvat Capp.Sist.46 (from f. 134v).

57. Vicente Lusitano’s motet appears in Lusitano 1555.

58. These two and other such canonic Inviolata motets are compared in Rice 2007.

59. For more on this motet, see Brauner 1996.

60. For more on the sequence, see Crocker 1966 and relevant sections in reference works, such as Hiley 1993 (chapter II.22 “Sequences”) and Kruckenberg 2018. The most thorough and recent discussion of the genre is Peláez Bilbao 2021.

61. Cantus: A Database for Latin Ecclesiastical Chant <https://cantusdatabase.org>.

62. Benedictines of Solesmes 1961 (p. 1861).

63. For the early history of this responsory, see Haggh 2006.

64. On the topic of melismatic tropes in responsories, see Holman 1963 and Steiner 1973.

65. These are F-Pn Lat 12601 (f. 95v) and F-Pn Lat 17296 (f. 68v), from the 11^th and 12^th century respectively.

66. Benedictines of Solesmes 1934 (p. 1195).