{"id":315,"date":"2015-07-24T11:06:17","date_gmt":"2015-07-24T15:06:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/obrechtmass\/?page_id=315"},"modified":"2018-08-28T10:57:44","modified_gmt":"2018-08-28T14:57:44","slug":"kyriei","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/obrechtmass\/score\/kyriei\/","title":{"rendered":"Examine the Score: Kyrie I"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Kyrie I<\/h5>\n

The Kyrie is the first Ordinary<\/a> plainsong<\/a> of the Mass, which is to say it uses a text common to all Mass celebrations. In the Middle Ages and Renaissance, composers of polyphony for the Mass focused on settings of the Ordinary texts, so in a Mass with polyphony, the Kyrie is usually the first polyphonic music heard in the ceremony.<\/p>\n

Obrecht\u2019s Kyrie I is for four voices, but he begins with a duet for superius and altus that will return at the beginning of the other Ordinary sections (Et in terra, Patrem, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei). This is called a headmotive<\/a>. and serves to unify the Ordinary sections across the expanse of the Mass ritual.<\/p>\n

In this first section of the Kyrie, Obrecht combines the text of the Kyrie, an ancient Greek prayer for God’s mercy, with a plea to St. Donatian, the name saint of Donaes de Moor. The cantus firmus<\/em><\/a> is the suffrage antiphon<\/a>, O beate pater Donatiane<\/em><\/a>, a short chant well known to the people of Bruges. St. Donatian was the patron saint of the city, and his relics resided in the great collegiate church of Sint-Donaas.<\/p>\n

Statuit ei<\/em><\/a>, the plainsong Introit that immediately precedes the singing of the Kyrie, is a chant of general praise to any saint ranked as a Confessor Bishop. Obrecht thus brings St. Donatian to the foreground by choosing a cantus firmus<\/em> that immediately declares the saint\u2019s name and beseeches his intercession.<\/p>\n

Obrecht also embeds a tribute to the renowned composer of the French royal court, Johannes Ockeghem<\/a>, in this Kyrie. The first seven notes of the bass line are a direct quotation of the bass line in the opening Kyrie of Ockeghem\u2019s Missa Ecce ancilla Domini<\/a>, a Mass in honor of the Annunciation. Obrecht probably met Ockeghem in August 1484, when the French composer was traveling in Flanders. He makes a more overt reference to Ockeghem\u2019s Mass in the Osanna, and indeed seems to strive to emulate the older composer’s style throughout the Mass for St. Donatian.<\/p>\n

Obrecht’s Kyrie I is sung by Cappella Pratensis<\/a> from the original notation as preserved in the choirbook Jena, Universitatsbibliothek, Ms 32<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For more information, see:<\/em>
\nHiley, David. Western Plainchant: a Handbook<\/em>. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 1993. See it particular \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 pp.150-56, 211-13<\/span>
\nCrocker, Richard L. “Kyrie eleison.” Grove Music Online.<\/em> 10 Jul. 2018.\u00a0 www.grovemusiconline.com<\/a> <\/span>
\nStrohm, Reinhard. Music in Late Medieval Bruges<\/em>. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1985. See in particular pp. 38-42.<\/span>
\nWegman, Rob C. Born for the Muses: The Life and Masses of Jacob Obrecht<\/em>. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994. See in particular pp.169-74.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

View the score of Kyrie I<\/a>
\nView the film of Kyrie I<\/a>
\nContinue to the score of the Christe<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kyrie I The Kyrie is the first Ordinary plainsong of the Mass, which is to say it uses a text common to all Mass celebrations. In the Middle Ages and Renaissance, composers of polyphony for the Mass focused on settings …<\/span> Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1109,"featured_media":0,"parent":56,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-315","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/obrechtmass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/315","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/obrechtmass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/obrechtmass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/obrechtmass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1109"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/obrechtmass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=315"}],"version-history":[{"count":26,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/obrechtmass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/315\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2785,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/obrechtmass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/315\/revisions\/2785"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/obrechtmass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/56"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/obrechtmass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}