A three-voiced mass composition in six movements from the first half of the 14th century. The work survives in a manuscript from Tournai (B-Tc A27 anc.476, ff.28r–33v) which also includes sacred monophony for the Virgin Mary. The differing notational styles of the movements suggest that the work is a compilation, rather than a unified cycle. The Kyrie, Sanctus and Agnus Dei appear to be the oldest layer, using 13th-century modal rhythm, while the Gloria, Credo and Ite missa est employ newer Ars Nova conventions in terms both of notation and of rhythm. The Credo and Ite, which are found in several southern European sources (Credo in F-APT 16bis, E-BUhu and Mn Va.21.8; Ite in I-IV and F-SERc), may have connections with the Avignon circle of manuscripts. The Kyrie, Gloria, Sanctus and Agnus are unica.
The mass has been linked to a foundation by Jean des Prés, Bishop of Tournai, who established a daily Mass for the Virgin at a side altar in the right transept of the cathedral in 1349 (Dumoulin, 1988). Because the tenor of the Ite is taken from a chant from the feast of the Annunciation, this movement, along with the rest of the mass, may also be related to the Annunciation play that was performed in Tournai from about 1231. The Ite, moreover, is a bilingual motet. Its triplum, written in a northern French dialect, has an amatory text, while the Latin motetus admonishes the rich not to ignore the poor. The Annunciation play, which was often performed in informal settings outside a church, offers a plausible explanation for the inclusion of these rather profane texts (Robertson, 1995). A facsimile and edition of the mass are given in Dumoulin, 1988; earlier editions appear in C.-E.-H. de Coussemaker, Messe du XIIIe siècle (Tournai, 1861); in PMFC, i (1956); and in CMM, xiii (1957) and xxix (1962).
See also Mass, §II, 4.
MGG1 (‘Messe’, P. Kast; ‘Tournai, Messe de’, A. Vander Linden)
ReeseMMA
J. Voisin: ‘Manuscrits de l’ancienne école de chant de Tournai’, Bulletin de la société historique et littéraire de Tournai, viii (1862), 83–99
R. von Ficker: ‘Die Kolorierungstechnik der Trienter Messen’, SMw, vii (1920), 5–47, esp. 22, 40
F. Ludwig: ‘Die Quellen der Motetten altesten Stils’, AMw, v (1923), 281–2
H. Besseler: ‘Studien zur Muzik des Mittelalters, I: Neue Quellen des 14. und beginnenden 15. Jahrhunderts’, AMw, vii (1925), 167–252, esp. 194
F. Ludwig: ‘Die mehrstimmige Messe des 14. Jahrhunderts’, ibid., 417–35
J. Handschin: ‘Zur Frage der melodischen Paraphrasierung im Mittelalter’, ZMw, x (1927–8), 513–59, esp. 541
H. Anglès: Introduction to El còdex Musical de Las Huelgas (Barcelona, 1931/R), i
H. Anglès: ‘Una nueva versión del Credo de Tournai’, RBM, viii (1954), 97–9
Stäblein-Harder: Fourteenth-Century Mass Music in France, MSD, vii (1962), 33–4, 62, 97, 115
R. Hoppin: Medieval Music (New York, 1978), 385–7
J. Dumoulin and others: La Messe de Tournai: étude et nouvelle transcription (Tournai and Louvain-la-Neuve, 1988)
J. Yudkin: Music in Medieval Europe (Englewood Cliffs, FL, 1989, 2/1991), 510–15
D. Wilson: Music of the Middle Ages: Style and Structure (New York, 1990), 322
M. Huglo: ‘La Messe de Tournai et la messe de Toulouse’, Aspects de la musique liturgique au moyen-âge (Paris, 1991), 221–8
K. Kügle: The Manuscript Ivrea, Biblioteca Capitolare 115: Studies in the Transmission and Composition of Ars Nova Polyphony (diss., New York U. 1993), 282–7
A. Robertson: ‘Remembering the Annunciation in Medieval Polyphony’, Speculum, lxx (1995), 275–304
ANNE W. ROBERTSON