In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries there was a sudden upsurge among musicians of interest in the goddess Fortuna. A deceptively simple three-voiced canzonetta called Fortuna desperata, possibly by Busnois, seems to have precipitated this renewal of interest. Whoever composed it, this hit song generated a incredible slew of Fortuna-related pieces across the continent, in every genre: "Fortuna desperata" fever, was as close to Beatlemania as anything in the early Renaissance. Several different Fortuna pieces have been ascribed to Josquin. Of these, only his mass, one of five known masses on the piece, can be unquestionably admitted to his catalog. The Missa Fortuna desperata is undatable, but certain stylistic features tell us it's probably an earlier work; it shows a somewhat under-experienced composer rapidly gaining confidence and control over his medium.

Josquin dismantles the canzona completely, using all three of its lines as cantus firmi. He shares these throughout the voices of the mass so that every single one presents the cantus firmus at some point or another. The real touches of brilliance in Missa Fortuna desperata involve Josquin's large-scale design, particularly his use of diminutive mensuration. Much in the manner of an isorhythmic motet, he changes the mensuration (basic division of time) in each movement so that the cantus firmi are heard in smaller and smaller rhythmic values as the mass progresses. Josquin inherited from his medieval forebears an interest in the conceptual aspects of composition, and often built extra-musical symbolism into the structure of his work. Here, the mensural accelerations represent Fortuna's wheel, turning faster and faster. Josquin reiterates this wheel symbolism elsewhere as well, such as the ostinatos sung over the long notes of the bass in the "Agnus Dei." It is Fortuna's hypnotic wheel indeed, turning on and on while fates are hoisted aloft or crushed beneath.

One of the outstanding things about the mass is how Josquin handles vocal texture. Avoiding imitation for the most part, he builds much of the music by writing relatively quick-moving, non-imitative lines around the long-note cantus firmus. The resulting sensation of musical time paradoxically flowing on different planes is engrossing. He sets these against brilliant chordal sections, as if to stem the overabundant flow of melody. At the endings of passages we sometimes hear brief flashes of tight-knit economical imitation. His handling of form on the macro level is splendid. Aside from the said mensural program, the motivic material of the three upper voices is gradually transformed over the course of the "Agnus Dei," giving it a fine, perfectly paced sense of meaningful development. His melodic lines have also begun to acquire at this stage that special quality of Josquin's later music wherein the melodies seem to be spontaneously generating themselves. The "Gloria" is the most sparkling movement; the top line presses on with a giddy, dancing velocity, while the inner voices seem animated with the joyful spirit of gratitude.

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