Issues of Counterpoint in Gombert’s Missa Tempore paschali

Abstract

Creating a new edition of the Missa Tempore paschali forces one to confront the extensive parallelisms found in the collected works edition and to consider a set of questions that are comparable to those raised by musica ficta in Gombert’s music: is an aggressive editorial stance justifiable when stylistic norms are exceeded, or might the composer have intended these unusual patterns? Answers emerge from the dense eight-voice Credo and twelve-voice Agnus dei II that both maintain our preconceptions about the style, and challenge them deeply. A new source for the Agnus dei II enriches our understanding of the editorial issues, the connection with Brumel's “Earthquake” mass, and our appreciation of the mass as a whole.