Alessandro Striggio, Missa sopra Ecco sì beato giorno for 40 and 60 voices. Alessandro Striggio, Missa sopra Ecco sì beato giorno for 40 and 60 voices The Missa sopra Ecco sì beato giorno is a musical …More
Alessandro Striggio, Missa sopra Ecco sì beato giorno for 40 and 60 voices.
Alessandro Striggio, Missa sopra Ecco sì beato giorno for 40 and 60 voices
The Missa sopra Ecco sì beato giorno is a musical setting of the Ordinary of the Mass, for 40 and 60 voices, by Florentine Renaissance composer Alessandro Striggio. It probably dates from 1565–6, during the reign of his employer Cosimo I de' Medici. Lost for more than 400 years, it was recently rediscovered in Paris. Most of the mass is for five separate choirs of 8 voices each, with the closing Agnus Dei being for five separate choirs of 12 voices each; all of the voice parts are fully independent. With its huge polychoral forces, climaxing on sixty fully independent parts, it is the largest known polyphonic composition from the entire era.
Unlike the massive polychoral compositions of the Venetian School, in which performance groupings were positioned in lofts across from each other in a large space, the choirs in Missa sopra Ecco sì beato giorno were probably not meant to be significantly spatially separated. Although Striggio left no performance directions, the most likely arrangement was for the singers to be positioned in a large semicircle, with the instrumentalists in its center, in view of the singers. The exact instruments used, and their number, is not known, but probably varied from performance to performance. An unusual feature of the mass is the existence of two partbooks for a Bassus ad organum, a part which doubles the composite bass line of the entire composition. Presumably Striggio used this as a compositional tool, to keep track of the harmonies as he wrote forty to sixty voice parts above it; it also foreshadowed the development of the basso continuo in the 17th century.
The Missa sopra Ecco sì beato giorno is probably a parody mass, i.e. one based on a pre-existing polyphonic work, in this case named "Ecco sì beato giorno". However, no song of this name has yet been found: it may be a lost work of Striggio himself, or may even be a reference to his similarly titled 40-voice motet Ecce beatam lucem. The repetition of musical phrases at certain key points in the Mass suggests use of the parody technique, but it has also been suggested that parts of the mass are contrafacta – music originally written with different words.
Like most settings of the Ordinary of the Mass, the work is in five major divisions:
Kyrie
Gloria
Credo
Sanctus – Benedictus
Agnus Dei
Striggio saves the full complement of 40 and 60 voices for climactic sections. The opening "Kyrie Eleison" begins with only one choir of eight voices; the "Christe Eleison" uses two choirs, totalling 16 voices; and the return of the "Kyrie" brings in yet another choir, totalling 24. The full 40 voices sing together for the first time in the "Gloria", at the words Glorificamus te (we glorify Thee), presenting the work's first climax.
Textural contrasts abound. The "Credo", typically the longest section of any mass setting, uses 40 voices in many places, but intersperses many passages for smaller units. Sections of the mass which normally have a fuller, more exuberant musical setting, such as the "Et Resurrexit" (and He was resurrected) have all 40 voices, while those which more sedate or sorrowful, for example the "Crucifixus", have the smallest groupings (in this case, only eight voices of one choir sing).
The closing "Agnus Dei", with 60 voices in five groups of 12, has more independent parts than any other polyphonic composition of the Renaissance. It begins with all sixty voices entering, one after another, in imitation; once they have all entered, they all sing until the end of the piece, forming a climax to the entire work.
Alessandro Striggio, Missa sopra Ecco sì beato giorno for 40 and 60 voices
The Missa sopra Ecco sì beato giorno is a musical setting of the Ordinary of the Mass, for 40 and 60 voices, by Florentine Renaissance composer Alessandro Striggio. It probably dates from 1565–6, during the reign of his employer Cosimo I de' Medici. Lost for more than 400 years, it was recently rediscovered in Paris. Most of the mass is for five separate choirs of 8 voices each, with the closing Agnus Dei being for five separate choirs of 12 voices each; all of the voice parts are fully independent. With its huge polychoral forces, climaxing on sixty fully independent parts, it is the largest known polyphonic composition from the entire era.
Unlike the massive polychoral compositions of the Venetian School, in which performance groupings were positioned in lofts across from each other in a large space, the choirs in Missa sopra Ecco sì beato giorno were probably not meant to be significantly spatially separated. Although Striggio left no performance directions, the most likely arrangement was for the singers to be positioned in a large semicircle, with the instrumentalists in its center, in view of the singers. The exact instruments used, and their number, is not known, but probably varied from performance to performance. An unusual feature of the mass is the existence of two partbooks for a Bassus ad organum, a part which doubles the composite bass line of the entire composition. Presumably Striggio used this as a compositional tool, to keep track of the harmonies as he wrote forty to sixty voice parts above it; it also foreshadowed the development of the basso continuo in the 17th century.
The Missa sopra Ecco sì beato giorno is probably a parody mass, i.e. one based on a pre-existing polyphonic work, in this case named "Ecco sì beato giorno". However, no song of this name has yet been found: it may be a lost work of Striggio himself, or may even be a reference to his similarly titled 40-voice motet Ecce beatam lucem. The repetition of musical phrases at certain key points in the Mass suggests use of the parody technique, but it has also been suggested that parts of the mass are contrafacta – music originally written with different words.
Like most settings of the Ordinary of the Mass, the work is in five major divisions:
Kyrie
Gloria
Credo
Sanctus – Benedictus
Agnus Dei
Striggio saves the full complement of 40 and 60 voices for climactic sections. The opening "Kyrie Eleison" begins with only one choir of eight voices; the "Christe Eleison" uses two choirs, totalling 16 voices; and the return of the "Kyrie" brings in yet another choir, totalling 24. The full 40 voices sing together for the first time in the "Gloria", at the words Glorificamus te (we glorify Thee), presenting the work's first climax.
Textural contrasts abound. The "Credo", typically the longest section of any mass setting, uses 40 voices in many places, but intersperses many passages for smaller units. Sections of the mass which normally have a fuller, more exuberant musical setting, such as the "Et Resurrexit" (and He was resurrected) have all 40 voices, while those which more sedate or sorrowful, for example the "Crucifixus", have the smallest groupings (in this case, only eight voices of one choir sing).
The closing "Agnus Dei", with 60 voices in five groups of 12, has more independent parts than any other polyphonic composition of the Renaissance. It begins with all sixty voices entering, one after another, in imitation; once they have all entered, they all sing until the end of the piece, forming a climax to the entire work.