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Alyssa Rebecca Pereira Music Historiography 201 Missa L'homme Arm, Kyrie September 27, 2013

The piece I have chosen to analyze is "Missa L'homme Arm, Kyrie" composed in 1475 by Jean de Ockeghem. It is a renaissance choral piece for four parts that varies from many of the pieces we have looked at in class thus far. There are several traits and qualities to this piece that represent Middle Renaissance music versus Early Renaissance and Late Renaissance pieces. The use of contrapuntal voices in Tempo, straight tone in Timbre, and consonance in Harmony are a few examples of the specifics in these very broad categories I have analyzed. To maintain the pureness of the sound, the cantors matched perfectly their vowels, making them all very narrow and resonant. Their voices must be balanced perfectly not only in each section, but between sections to maintain the evenness of the counterpoint. The piece has many qualities of a prolation, or, mensuration canons. There seems to be no specific motif, however, similar rhythmic patterns occur in each voice one right after the other. There are very few moments of rhythmic unisons, which usually occur at cadences. This work is mainly polyphony, or, dyadic counterpoint. There is a great use of melismas that emphasize the polyphonic components of the piece. There is a very steady tempo throughout the entirety of the piece. The 3/4 meter gives the piece a almost dance-like flow that perpetuates it to move forward as voices build off of each other from beginning to end. Syncopation is also very common in the melodic phrases each voice part carries at different times. The harmonic structure of the piece is quite interesting. Modes were used rather than key signatures in that time period. The modes dictated whether a piece would be

major or minor. Often, as in this piece, they would tonicize the starting note of the mode creating either a regular major, or harmonic minor scale. The piece appears to be in C major to any person of the Baroque period and beyond. However, the piece is in G Mixolydian, but with "Ti"s instead of "Te"s. At one point it modulates to C Major, but then right back to G Mixolydian. The piece has close to no dissonance, other than the quick passing tones between chords. It is interesting to see that the only text of the piece is "Kyrie eleison, Christe eleison." Meaning, "Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy". The text is very imploring and one would assume the music to be more "fitting", as we see in later works such as in Mozart's Requim, "Kyrie". The music is very uplifting and hopeful. Though the legato line of the phrases does give a sense of lingering on to a request from the Lord whom they beg mercy from. The piece seems to transition from light heartedly asking, to more intensively pleading, to later on almost demanding mercy. However, when thinking about the name of the piece and the piece in the context of the mass, it may simply be a sequence of the mass to the so called "armed man". The movement may purposefully be more uplifting in comparison to some, but much more solemn compared to others. To truly understand, an analysis of the entire mass would be more appropriate. This piece does, regardless, give us a great sense of the music of the Middle Renaissance period by conveying all these different qualities in 41 measures of music

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