The idea of the armed man loomed large across the Renaissance musical landscape. Out of a simple tune called L’Homme armé, composers crafted more than 40 separate Masses — a tradition longer and more far-reaching than any other.
A single L’Homme armé Mass can easily anchor an entire early-music concert. Programming two separate Masses of the type is much more daunting, especially when the pieces in question are Josquin des Prez’ masterworks, the technically ingenious Missa l’Homme armé super voces musicales and Missa l’Homme armé sexti toni. Yet this is exactly the challenge taken on by San Francisco Renaissance Voices, which presents these two Masses in performances May 15 and 16 in San Francisco and Palo Alto, followed by a June 9 appearance at the Berkeley Festival and Exhibition of Early Music.
Josquin’s well-known L’Homme armé Masses might be considered a departure for SFRV, an ensemble committed to exploring underrepresented repertory. But as Music Director Todd Jolly states, “We settled on performing both of Josquin’s Masses not only because these works are very popular, but also because it will certainly be a rare chance to hear both of Josquin’s armed-man Masses in [a single] concert.” Adding to the occasion’s luster, SFRV employs a brand-new edition of Super voces musicales soon to be published by Jesse Rodin, an assistant professor of music at Stanford University.
Listen to the Music
Although written by the same composer, the two Masses occupy distinct sound worlds. “The Sexti toni settles nicely into one tonality,” Jolly observes. “It is more accessible for the singers. Super voces, on the other hand, challenges us because the tonality is shifting regularly. The performers never get the opportunity to feel at home before another shift takes place.”
Stylistically, too, the pair of Masses present striking contrasts. “The voices in Sexti toni are more spread out,” Jolly continues, “while the texture in Super voces is very dense, with overlapping voices. Super voces feels more like early polyphony, whereas Sexti toni comes off as high Renaissance. That Josquin wrote these, apparently, at about the same time, and approached them so differently, suggests to me that perhaps he wrote them as mirrors of each other, and in doing so succeeded in achieving one of the greatest feats of a remarkable career.”
These oppositions are further enhanced by SFRV’s own performance choices. The ensemble’s assistant director, Katherine McKee, will conduct the Sexti toni Mass, while Jolly himself leads Super voces musicales. McKee’s approach emphasizes solo singing for the sake of textural variety and dramatic presentation, while Jolly’s performance is more ensemble-based, both to ease the risks involved in negotiating Josquin’s tricky tonalities and to minimize the mental and physical strain on his singers.
Jolly also sees some contemporary relevance in programming these pieces during our current time of war. “Considering that our nation is being involved in two wars now for a longer period than we spent fighting World War I or World War II, it seems appropriate to program music that reflects upon that reality,” he notes. “A great many choruses in the Bay Area have been singing pieces of peace in response to the wars. Not many, however, seem to be exploring the rich and varied repertoire of war music. However one may feel about war, the fact is that there is a substantial and worthy body of work inspired by it.”