Archaic Features in Masses by Morales
Abstract
McFarland Abstract
An examination of Morales’s Masses reveals a composer comfortable with not only the styles of his contemporaries, but also preoccupied with the compositional methods of earlier generations. This study considers three Masses with so many references to the past that they must be deliberate archaisms. The Masses in this study, Missa Tu es vas electionis, Missa L’Homme armé a4, and Missa Ave Maria, are among Morales’s most old-fashioned Masses. These Masses include many older styles, like mensural proportion, traces of isorhythm, and verbal canons. Many of the characteristics of these three Masses are familiar from the music of the Josquin generation, and some can trace their lineage back to the earliest Renaissance Masses.
McFarland Bio
Alison McFarland is an associate professor of musicology at Louisiana State University. Her research grants include a Fulbright Fellowship to study in the Vatican archives and a Gladys Kriebel Delmas scholarship to study in the Veneto. Her research focuses on the Masses of Cristobal de Morales, patronage in Rome, and sacred music of the 15th and 16th centuries. Her articles can be found in numerous journals and Festschriften.
