Arguably Palestrina's best-known work, this mass owes its formidable reputation to an oft-repeated legend, according to which Catholic authorities, overwhelmed by the spiritual beauty and dignity of this piece, reversed a proposed ban on the use of music during religious services. Without the Missa Papae Marcelli, the legend continues, sacred music would have ceased to exist after the sixteenth century. The true story is somewhat less dramatic. While a total ban on church music was never seriously considered, Catholic authorities were indeed concerned with the growing secularization and excessive complexity of liturgical music. In 1555, Pope Marcellus II (after whom the mass is named) addressed the Papal choir, urging musicians to strive for simplicity, clarity, and intelligibility in their compositions. Marcellus' recommendations became official policy with the pronouncements of the Council of Trent concerning music, in 1562 and 1563. There is no doubt that Palestrina heard and heeded Marcellus' recommendations. In fact, a Commision of Cardinals, which worked in 1564 and 1565 to enforce the Council's decisions regarding music, knew Palestrina's music. It is quite significant that one of the Commission's members was the powerful Cardinal Carlo Borromeo, archbishop of Milan, who had an exceptional understanding of Palestrina's work. The composer himself states explicitly, in the preface to the Second Book of Masses (published in 1567, which contains the Missa Papae Marcelli) that these masses are written in a "new style" to please "the most serious and religious-minded persons in high places." This "new" style, inaugurated with and most self-consciously evident in the Missa Papae Marcelli, originates, essentially, from the very source of Catholic music, plainchant. Palestrina eliminated from his sacred music practically all references to popular song, using instead motivic material extracted from plainchant melodies, and developing a style of vocal writing which owed much to the melodic structure of plainsong. The result was music of great unity, clarity, and beauty, based on the Church's time-honored monophonic repertoire. Nowhere in Palestrina's enormous output are Marcellus' musical ideals more obviously realized. The piece is singularly austere and dignified, darkly colored through an emphasis on low voices. The contrapuntal motion is slow and exquisitely controlled, the proportions architecturally conceived. The movements with longer texts (Gloria, Credo) are written homophonically, that is, moving all the voices together in stately chords. This novel technique, which effectively emphasized the words while providing a welcome contrast to the more contrapuntally active polyphonic movements, proved so effective that it became a standard feature of all his later masses. Despite its restrained style, the mass is not without remarkable highlights. Beautifully controlled dissonant clashes lend the Kyrie a touching poignancy, while the Christe and Sanctus foreshadow the suave melodic writing characteristic of later works. The lush, cascading "Amen" at the end of the Credo remains one of the most beautiful passages of sixteenth century polyphony.

© All Music Guide

Portions of Content Provided by All Music Guide.
© 2008 All Media Guide, LLC. All Music Guide is a registered trademark of All Media Guide, LLC.