After the penitence and long sacrifice of Lent, after the dire memorial liturgies of Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, when the altar is stripped bare and all the lights save one extinguished, the Church greets the sunrise of Easter with the jubilant shout: "Alleluia! Christ is risen!" The Hebrew word "Alleluia," pointedly absent from every service during Lent, resounds throughout the celebration of Easter; the very same word of praise, and the joyful message of resurrection, resounds throughout La Rue's Easter Day Mass, the Missa Paschale. This popular five-voiced Mass, recopied at least six times for La Rue's Hapsburg patrons, is built upon around multiple cantus firmi: seven separate plainchants from the Easter liturgy. Yet rather than resulting in a musical hodgepodge, a remarkably unified series of movements unfolds around these diverse tenor chants; La Rue exploits motivic similarities between several, repeats one chant across two movements, and tolls again and again the "Alleluia" refrain which permeates the Easter liturgy.

Of the seven chants (a "perfect" number), six come from the Easter Offices of Matins and Lauds which begin the Easter morning, and Compline, which closes the day. The Kyrie, on the other hand, adopts the chant "Resurrexi et adhuc," the Proper Introit which immediately precedes the Kyrie during Easter Mass. This liturgical bond is strengthened in the Credo, which gives the same Introit to the tenor. There the chant, however, is transposed down a fifth, as if symbolizing Christ's descent to the world; the complete five-voiced texture of this movement resides more in the depths. The second half of the Credo, beginning with the announcement "He was raised from the dead," begins with regularly alternating voice groups, from the three uppermost to the lower pair. The composer adds to this stereotypical gesture of higher scoring an extraordinary structural gesture: the entire "Et resurrexit" section uses no chant, highlighting the astounding novelty of the Easter message. The two vocal groups reconcile their contrasting close imitations near the end of the movement, as all reunite in five-voiced imitation at the text "And we expect the resurrection of the dead" (Et expecto resurrectionem).

The play with contrasting imitative textures continues in the final movements, as does the permeating "Alleluia." All seven chants contain either one or three such shouts of praise. In the Osanna section of the Sanctus, La Rue expands the jubilation of the cantus firmus chant by also repeating a fragment of Easter Lauds text: three times, as an ostinato, he repeats the phrase, "Now the sun has risen" (Orto jam sole), with the chant melody echoed in the bassus as well. The dramatic Compline text in Agnus Dei I tells of the two Marys at the empty tomb; a sudden alternation of breathless duos embodies their astonishment. The final Agnus Dei apportions to the tenor a mesmerizing ostinato: three trumpet-like announcements that "The Lord is risen," followed by three "Alleluia" melismas which are imitated in all five voices. The message of joy is unanimous and clear.

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