Of Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina's 104 universally accepted masses (there are a few additional works in the form that may or may not be authentic), almost half are examples of the so-called "parody mass" genre, taking pre-existing snatches of polyphony as their starting point and deploying it, with suitable adaptation and re-invention, throughout the mass to create a cyclic bond between the five basic sections. In several cases, Palestrina's own motets serve as the models on which the masses are based; such a case is the delightful Missa ascendo ad Patrem for five voices, published in the 1601 volume entitled Missarum liber duodecimus but based on a motet composed all the way back in the early 1570s.

Ascendo ad Patrem is a sacred Latin motet designed for use during Ascensiontide. A comparison of the opening of the motet with the opening of the Kyrie from the Mass based on it shows how masterfully the composer has adapted the five-voice imitation to suit the new medium. By the eleventh bar, the Kyrie's music has diverged quite completely from the corresponding location in the motet, but the transition is made so seamlessly that, without referencing the one to the other, it would be nearly impossible to guess that a change has been made.

The usual five sections of the Mass Ordinary are present: Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus (with Benedictus), and Agnus Dei. As per tradition, the Kyrie is set in three sections-Kyrie I, Christe, Kyrie II. The Christe eleison portion takes a fragment of melody used in the motet for the text "et dum assumptus fuero a vobis" ("and after I have been taken from you"), while the second Kyrie reworks the opening of the motet's secunda pars (second part).

The Gloria text is divided into two sections, connected by a brief passage (nine measures, as transcribed into modern notation) in ternary rhythm that sets the words "Filius Patris" and derives quite clearly from a similar excursion into triple-meter near the end of the motet's prima pars (first part).

The Credo is divided into three sections, for five, four, and five voices respectively, at the end of which the ternary rhythm quotation is given another go. As we move into the Sanctus, we return to the octave leaps that characterized the openings of both the motet and the Kyrie. A four-voice Benedictus makes good use of the motet's secunda pars, coming to a close on G before making room for the fuller, five- voice, triple-meter "Hosanna in excelsis deo".

As usual, the Agnus Dei is divided into two movements; after the exuberance of the Sanctus and Benedictus, the music exudes a certain sublime calmness. Agnus Dei I takes off in a fashion nearly identical to the Kyrie, while in Agnus Dei II the triple-meter burst that precedes the final measures of the motet are expanded into a buoyant finish.

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