Missa Pange Lingua by Josquin des Préz

Transcription

1 Missa Pange Lingua by osquin des Préz As heard on the D album Guitara Illuminata (entaur Records R 2384) artork by arla Mattioli, Aakening Arts arranged for guitar duet by effry Hamilton Steele PrismMusic 4 Spring St Gloucester MA effrysteelecom

2 Missa Pange Lingua arranged for guitar duet by effry Hamilton Steele From the liner notes to the entaur Records D: by osquin des Préz Of hat little is knon of the life of osquin des Préz, a fe details stand out that help form a picture of his nature He as born in Picardy (in France, close to the border ith Belgium) and distinguished himself as a singer in boyhood That he gre to be considered one of the most valued composers of the day is evidenced by the higher fees paid him compared ith his contemporaries That he valued the spiritual over the material is implicit in his choice to spend his last period at the college of ondé, near his birthplace, hen he might easily have held a court position in any of a number of countries He must have sensed the conditions required for him to produce a ork of the depth of Pange Lingua In this arrangement of hat may have been osquin s final ork the original score has been transposed don by a minor third, both guitars having their strings tuned as ere the Renaissance lute and vihuela (the interval of the maor third no occurring beteen the third and fourth strings instead of beteen the second and third strings) As it as common contemporary practice to perform vocal music on these instruments, it is not surprising that this configuration lends itself idiomatically to the vocal polyphony of that time In fact, vihuela tablature arrangements of osquin s vocal music provide clues in questions of musica ficta (sharps and flats added to the original score by performers in accordance ith contemporary practice) as there can be little doubt as to hether a note is sharped hen the actual fret on hich it is fingered has been indicated [Although these arrangements are from another region and produced by the next generation] Throughout most of the ork, each guitar plays to of the four voices the latter originally corresponding to counter-tenor (alto), tenor, baritone and bass ranges I The piece begins ith the plainchant on hich the mass is based, Pange Lingua ( O my tongue, proclaim the mystery ) hose text speaks of ho esus concluded in a marvelous manner his life on earth It is played once each on the nylon and steel string guitars, to successive verses being each heard in different octaves The melody is in the phrygian mode a church mode in the minor ith a particularly dark intensity, oing to the second degree of the scale being a half step above the root note This is folloed immediately by the Kyrie the shortest movement in most masses, having the briefest text hose three sections are in 3/4 ( Lord have mercy ), 2/4 ( hrist have mercy ) and 3/4 ( Lord have mercy ) respectively Here the first phrase (ten notes) of the plainchant melody is the basis for (hat begins as) a canon at the fifth Although printed editions do not maintain the phrygian mode in each entering voice, I have taken the liberty of doing so (as as done in the first recording made of the Mass by the Ne York Pro Musica) This makes for alternation beteen to phrygian tonal centers, a fifth apart, throughout the Mass II With the Gloria, a generic chant intro ( Glory be to God on high ) leads us into a similar treatment of the plainchant melody, folloed by a playful exchange beteen voices on the to-ord text phrases: Laudamus te Benedicimus te Etc ( We praise thee We glorify thee ) This style continues through other declarations of praise When the text foreshados the Agnus Dei (Qui tollis peccata mundi), the meter sitches to 2/4 ith a more plaintive canon that begins, this time, using the first four notes of the plainchant With suscipe deprecationem ( hear our prayer ), e hear the first homophonic (all parts singing the same ords at the same time) moment in the mass thus far Note ho the plea misere nobis ( have mercy on us ) also to be heard in the Agnus Dei movement is dramatized by an octave leap in the melody The Holy Spirit may have been a nimble one in osquin s vie, for the music takes on a dance-like (dotted rhythm)

3 character for the um Sancto Spiritu that closes the movement III The redo begins in 2/4 ith hat can be interpreted as a much embellished version of the first to phrases (21 notes) of the plainchant Though very similar to the opening of the other movements, there is something particularly declarative about the lines here, reflecting strength of belief ( I believe in one God, the father almighty, etc ) The list of beliefs builds to a crescendo ith the Qui propter nos homines ( Who for us men, and for our salvation, came don from heaven ) There follos the suddenly quiet peace of the Et incarnatus est ( And became incarnate by the Holy Spirit ), hich closes ith one of fe cadences on the relative maor Played by a single guitar, it is the most extended section of homophony in the Mass This moment may be taken to symbolize, musically, letting go of the struggle to predict our destinies and alloing God to come through fully (as did esus hen, at baptism, he became The hrist ) The plainchant s first phrase is next invoked for the reverential rucifixus ( He as crucified also for us ); the ascent to heaven is reflected in rising scales; and dotted rhythms return for sitting on the right hand of the Father The Et in Spiritum Sanctum ( I believe in the Holy Spirit ) section reaches its apex in a duet for the to upper voices The meter then shifts to an unshakable 3/4 meter for the acknoledgement of baptism, back to 2/4 for the resurrection of the dead, and back to 3/4 for the life of the orld to come The final Amen is a brief tape loop type canon such as ill be given more extended treatment in the dona nobis pacem that closes the mass I Like the Kyrie and Gloria, the Sanctus begins in 3/4 ith the first phrase of the plainchant, its first brief section coming to repose in a plagal (I-I) cadence on the relative maor Pleni sunt coeli ( Heaven and earth are full of your glory ) is set to fiery canonic riting in the to upper voices here imitations come as close as one beat apart often defiant of meter In fact, breaking free of time signature constraints is a musical device osquin appears to use more often the further from earth he ould like to take us as one may experience in the folloing Osanna in excelsis To balance the earlier duet, the next section, Benedictus qui venit ( Blessed is he ho comes in the name of the Lord ), is sung by the to loer voices The bass voice pauses, as though a mountain climber, to hear each of his initial phrases echoed by the baritone Seeking this voice from the next mountain, he hikes toards it; and thus e hear the time beteen echoes decreasing ould this be osquin s depiction of the ourney toards God: ho e seek the being ho produced the echo e have been hearing, only to find that He as singing to us from ithin? As is customary, the Sanctus closes ith a reprise of the Osanna Also beginning in 3/4, the Agnus Dei ( Lamb of God ) quotes the first three notes of the plainchant but then surprises us on the fourth note by umping don to the sixth degree of the scale rather than the seventh (as e have heard in every previous instance) temporarily transforming the earthly melancholy and struggle felt in the phrygian minor mode into the heaven-bound relative maor Though e may be led to expect that this section ill cadence on the maor, in the penultimate beat osquin brings us back into minor The middle section is an extended duo beteen the to higher voices, played on the solo classical guitar, in 2/4 Like the Pleni sunt coeli duo (from the Sanctus), the voices at first have canon entrances four beats apart, but intensity increases as each voice becomes more anxious to be heard and soon the entrances are coming only one beat apart On the first miserere nobis ( have mercy on us ) of this section, e tice hear a yearning phrase that osquin ill reinvoke near the close of the movement In the final section, each voice enters three beats apart (in 3/4) ith one Agnus Dei each, pathos leant by renching half-step dissonances Here, only three notes of the plainchant remain intact, beyond hich the melody has a ne shape emphasizing or giving in to the gravity of the root note The meter immediately shifts to 2/4 as the treble voice begins the first six notes of the plainchant in augmentation (lengthened note values) a technique osquin used throughout his earlier masses but only chose this single instance to employ in this one After the usual qui tollis peccata mundi ( ho takes aay the sins of the earth ) e are led into the dona nobis pacem ( grant us peace ) osquin appears to evoke three consecutive and distinct moods ith each statement of this famous prayer: reticence (hen the voices are paired), heroism (repeated notes folloed by a brief descent culminating in the aforementioned yearning phrase), and, finally, bliss The sense of inner peace evoked by this closing canon is at the same time plaintive, as if leaving behind the emotional intensity of human existence upon reaching the Kingdom of Heaven While this arrangement as recorded on to classical guitars, to help distinguish the lines of polyphony one as strung ith Thomastik rope-core steel strings (hich are optimized for nylon-string guitars) Fingering has been left to the players While straightforard in most cases, a fe large stretches ill be required to maintain the independence of voices hen they come to a unison effry Hamilton Steele

4 MIA PANGE LINGUA Arranged for To Guitars by EFFRY HAMILTON STEELE OSQUIN DES PRÉZ Steel String Guitar ➂-F Plainchant Nylon String Guitar ➂-F,,,,,, OSQUIN DES PREZ Missa Pange Lingua arr by effry Hamilton Steele Prism music effrysteelecom

5 6 6 n ➂-F ➂-F n Kyrie n 21 OSQUIN DES PREZ Missa Pange Lingua arr by effry Hamilton Steele Prism music effrysteelecom

6 ẇ n n OSQUIN DES PREZ Missa Pange Lingua arr by effry Hamilton Steele Prism music effrysteelecom

7 ➃ OSQUIN DES PREZ Missa Pange Lingua arr by effry Hamilton Steele Prism music effrysteelecom

8 This page intentionally left blank to facilitate page turns OSQUIN DES PREZ Missa Pange Lingua arr by effry Hamilton Steele Prism music effrysteelecom

9 ➂-F, ➂-F Gloria n 5 5 n OSQUIN DES PREZ Missa Pange Lingua arr by effry Hamilton Steele Prism music effrysteelecom

10 OSQUIN DES PREZ Missa Pange Lingua arr by effry Hamilton Steele Prism music effrysteelecom

11 45 n ẇ OSQUIN DES PREZ Missa Pange Lingua arr by effry Hamilton Steele Prism music effrysteelecom

12 um Sancto Spiritu OSQUIN DES PREZ Missa Pange Lingua arr by effry Hamilton Steele Prism music effrysteelecom

13 ➂-F ➂-F redo n n OSQUIN DES PREZ Missa Pange Lingua arr by effry Hamilton Steele Prism music effrysteelecom

14 n OSQUIN DES PREZ Missa Pange Lingua arr by effry Hamilton Steele Prism music effrysteelecom

15 Et incarnatus est OSQUIN DES PREZ Missa Pange Lingua arr by effry Hamilton Steele Prism music effrysteelecom

16 111 rucifixus etiam ẇ n n OSQUIN DES PREZ Missa Pange Lingua arr by effry Hamilton Steele Prism music effrysteelecom

17 Et in Spiritum Sanctum OSQUIN DES PREZ Missa Pange Lingua arr by effry Hamilton Steele Prism music effrysteelecom

18 onfiteor unum baptisma Et exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum OSQUIN DES PREZ Missa Pange Lingua arr by effry Hamilton Steele Prism music effrysteelecom

19 Amen OSQUIN DES PREZ Missa Pange Lingua arr by effry Hamilton Steele Prism music effrysteelecom

20 Sanctus n 6 6 n OSQUIN DES PREZ Missa Pange Lingua arr by effry Hamilton Steele Prism music effrysteelecom

21 21 21 Pleni sunt coeli OSQUIN DES PREZ Missa Pange Lingua arr by effry Hamilton Steele Prism music effrysteelecom

22 OSQUIN DES PREZ Missa Pange Lingua arr by effry Hamilton Steele Prism music effrysteelecom

23 90 90 Osanna OSQUIN DES PREZ Missa Pange Lingua arr by effry Hamilton Steele Prism music effrysteelecom

24 OSQUIN DES PREZ Missa Pange Lingua arr by effry Hamilton Steele Prism music effrysteelecom

25 137 Benedictus OSQUIN DES PREZ Missa Pange Lingua arr by effry Hamilton Steele Prism music effrysteelecom

26 da capo Osanna OSQUIN DES PREZ Missa Pange Lingua arr by effry Hamilton Steele Prism music effrysteelecom

27 Agnus Dei I OSQUIN DES PREZ Missa Pange Lingua arr by effry Hamilton Steele Prism music effrysteelecom

28 26 Duo n n 61 n 68 n n n n 75 OSQUIN DES PREZ Missa Pange Lingua arr by effry Hamilton Steele Prism music effrysteelecom

29 Agnus Dei II 6 5 OSQUIN DES PREZ Missa Pange Lingua arr by effry Hamilton Steele Prism music effrysteelecom

30 ẇ OSQUIN DES PREZ Missa Pange Lingua arr by effry Hamilton Steele Prism music effrysteelecom

31 Prism music urrent Titles SOLO GUITAR Les inq Doigts (8 movements) Igor Stravinsky Prelude Nos 4 & 15 (from Op 28) Third ello Suite (6 movements) Sin Palabras Unicornio/Rabo de Nube Para Amarnos con el Mundo Erev Shel Shoshanim Agnus Dei 1310 Frédéric hopin S Bach Silvio Rodriguez (uba) Salvador ardenal Barquero (Nicaragua) Israel England Semper Doland ohn Doland 25 nely arranged orks by the English Renaissance master oice of reation Stream at Sunrise Samba de los Niños acob s Dream (for guitar ith tape) Sunset Reverie Solo Guitar Suite from lear Aay: A Fisherman s Fareell effry Hamilton Steele effry Hamilton Steele GUITAR DUET Missa Pange Lingua (5 movements) osquin des Préz (c ) Missa Hercules (5 movements) osquin des Préz GUITAR, IOLIN/IOLA, FLUTE, PENNYWHISTLE, OIES & PERUION (ith dancers) lear Aay: A Fisherman s Fareell effry Hamilton Steele (complete score) The lear Aay Songbook effry Hamilton Steele (ust the songs from lear Aay: A Fsiherman s Fareell) Prism Music 4 Spring St Gloucester MA