PARODY PAIRS
More than thirty of Palestrina’s Masses are of the paraphrase type—pioneered by Josquin in his late Missa Pange lingua and standard practice (as we have seen) for ars perfecta motets—in which a Gregorian chant is absorbed into a pervadingly imitative texture. But the lion’s share, accounting for almost exactly half of Palestrina’s output in the genre (fifty-three to be exact), are parody Masses, in which the motives of a polyphonic model are exhaustively rewoven into new textures. The sources of these Masses were most often motets by composers whose works were popular in local liturgical use during Palestrina’s youth. More than twenty times, though, Palestrina based a Mass on one of his own motets (or even madrigals, including Vestiva i colli).
- Citation (MLA):
- Richard Taruskin. "Chapter 16 The End of Perfection." The Oxford History of Western Music. Oxford University Press. New York, USA. n.d. Web. 12 Nov. 2024. <https://www.oxfordwesternmusic.com/view/Volume1/actrade-9780195384819-div1-016004.xml>.
- Citation (APA):
- Taruskin, R. (n.d.). Chapter 16 The End of Perfection. In Oxford University Press, Music from the Earliest Notations to the Sixteenth Century. New York, USA. Retrieved 12 Nov. 2024, from https://www.oxfordwesternmusic.com/view/Volume1/actrade-9780195384819-div1-016004.xml
- Citation (Chicago):
- Richard Taruskin. "Chapter 16 The End of Perfection." In Music from the Earliest Notations to the Sixteenth Century, Oxford University Press. (New York, USA, n.d.). Retrieved 12 Nov. 2024, from https://www.oxfordwesternmusic.com/view/Volume1/actrade-9780195384819-div1-016004.xml