''Missa Tu es Petrus'' is a

parody mass A parody mass is a musical setting of the mass, typically from the 16th century, that uses multiple voices of another pre-existing piece of music, such as a fragment of a motet or a secular ''chanson'', as part of its melodic material. It is dist ...

for six voices (SSATBB) by

Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina ( – 2 February 1594) was an Italian composer of late Renaissance music. The central representative of the Roman School, with Orlande de Lassus and Tomás Luis de Victoria, Palestrina is considered the leading ...

first printed in the ''Missarum, Liber 15'' (1887) of

Franz Xaver Haberl Franz Xaver Haberl (12 April 1840, in Oberellenbach (today Mallersdorf-Pfaffenberg), Lower Bavaria – 5 September 1910, in Ratisbon) was a German musicologist, friend of Liszt, Perosi, and Singenberger, cleric, and student of Proske. He m ...

's edition. The eponymous model ''Tu es Petrus'' ("Thou art Peter") is one of three

motet In Western classical music, a motet is mainly a vocal musical composition, of highly diverse form and style, from high medieval music to the present. The motet was one of the pre-eminent polyphonic forms of Renaissance music. According to Margar ...

s by Palestrina, all on the same text, intended “for the Feast of St. Paul and St. Peter” (29 June); the other two are for 5 and 7 voices. In fact there are three ''Missae Tu es Petrus'', the less well-known being a six-voice

paraphrase mass A paraphrase mass is a musical setting of the Ordinary of the Mass that uses as its basis an elaborated version of a cantus firmus, typically chosen from plainsong or some other sacred source. It was a common means of mass composition from the la ...

on the gregorian antiphon posthumously published in ''Missarum, Liber 12'' (1601), and a

polychoral An antiphon (Greek ἀντίφωνον, ἀντί "opposite" and φωνή "voice") is a short chant in Christian ritual, sung as a refrain. The texts of antiphons are the Psalms. Their form was favored by St Ambrose and they feature prominently ...

mass for 18vv of doubtful authenticity that like the other parody mass adapts the music of the same 1572 motet to the texts of the

Ordinary of the Mass The ordinary, in Roman Catholic and other Western Christian liturgies, refers to the part of the Mass or of the canonical hours that is reasonably constant without regard to the date on which the service is performed. It is contrasted to the ''pr ...

History

Palestrina frequently employed parody technique, reworking old material in newer works. The text of the model is in Latin and is based on :

Analysis

The

mass Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different elementar ...

consists of seven movements, standard for a choral mass:

Kyrie Kyrie, a transliteration of Greek , vocative case of (''Kyrios''), is a common name of an important prayer of Christian liturgy, also called the Kyrie eleison ( ; ). In the Bible The prayer, "Kyrie, eleison," "Lord, have mercy" derives fr ...

Gloria Gloria may refer to: Arts and entertainment Music Christian liturgy and music * Gloria in excelsis Deo, the Greater Doxology, a hymn of praise * Gloria Patri, the Lesser Doxology, a short hymn of praise ** Gloria (Handel) ** Gloria (Jenkins) ...

Credo In Christian liturgy, the credo (; Latin for "I believe") is the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed – or its shorter version, the Apostles' Creed – in the Mass, either as a prayer, a spoken text, or sung as Gregorian chant or other musical setti ...

Sanctus The Sanctus ( la, Sanctus, "Holy") is a hymn in Christian liturgy. It may also be called the ''epinikios hymnos'' ( el, ἐπινίκιος ὕμνος, "Hymn of Victory") when referring to the Greek rendition. In Western Christianity, the ...

, Benedictus,

Agnus Dei is the Latin name under which the " Lamb of God" is honoured within the Catholic Mass and other Christian liturgies descending from the Latin liturgical tradition. It is the name given to a specific prayer that occurs in these liturgies, and ...

1 and Agnus Dei 2. In the opening of the majority of the main movements in the mass, Palestrina copies almost exactly the notation of the motet from the original work. The added features give the piece a more, “fugal” feel. The work is

antiphonal An antiphonary or antiphonal is one of the liturgical books intended for use (i.e. in the liturgical choir), and originally characterized, as its name implies, by the assignment to it principally of the antiphons used in various parts of the L ...

in its structure and is meant to convey an overwhelming sense of joy. The work requires singers to balance respect for the religious nature of the work, while exhibiting a sense of glee. The major key also adds to its blissful character. The music combines vivacity with quiet and tender touches that suit its intended performance venue, i.e. a church/cathedral. In general, its tempi are reasonably calm, so the sense of excitement and ecstasy ensues in its transformation through performance. In

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

, Donato Mancini wrote, "Palestrina's style has virtually become a stand-in for sacred-sounding music, partly because his was the last generation of composers dedicated to a purely

contrapuntal In music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more musical lines (or voices) which are harmonically interdependent yet independent in rhythm and melodic contour. It has been most commonly identified in the European classical tradi ...

style. His own stylistic aim seems to have been to sum up and bring to a peak of refinement and clarity the accomplishments of those who came before him. ''Missa Tu es Petrus'' is one of those works where that aim is most perfectly achieved."

Bibliography

* Classical Net Review - Palestrina - Missa Tu es Petrus * Emmanuel Music - Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina: "Tu es Petrus" - Translation * Palestrina: Missa Tu es Petrus & Missa Te Deum laudamus * Tu es Petrus a 6 (Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina) - ChoralWiki

References

{{Authority control Compositions by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina

Palestrina Palestrina (ancient ''Praeneste''; grc, Πραίνεστος, ''Prainestos'') is a modern Italian city and ''comune'' (municipality) with a population of about 22,000, in Lazio, about east of Rome. It is connected to the latter by the Via Pren ...

Renaissance music