TIJDSCHRIFT VAN DE KONINKLIJKE

VERENIGING VOOR NEDERLANDSE

MUZIEKGESCHIEDENIS
DEEL LXVII-1/2, 2017
Eindredacteur: Eric Jas
Redactie: Robert Adlington, Jacques Boogaart,
Albert Clement, Walter van de Leur

A FESTSCHRIFT FOR JAAP VAN BENTHEM

ON HIS 80th BIRTHDAY

INHOUD

Jacob Barend (Jaap) van Benthem (23-12-1937).

List of publications
5

Peter Wright: A deleted Sanctus in the Aosta codex

11

Alejandro Enrique Planchart: The case of a unique

Alleluia for Cambrai
31

Agnese Pavanello: Fortuna on the dolphin. Notes on an iconographic

motif in Cappella Sistina 14 and 51
51

Bonnie J. Blackburn: Conrad Paumann in Ferrara

69

Fabrice Fitch: On compositional process and the Missa Prolacionum

83

M. Jennifer Bloxam: Ockeghem’s presence in Obrecht’s Masses

103
 Willem Elders: Johannes Ockeghem. Some ‘identifications’
125

Paweł Gancarczyk & Lenka Hlávková: The Lviv fragments and

Missa L’homme armé sexti toni. Questions on early Josquin
reception in Central Europe
139

David Fallows: A new Josquin ascription. The four-voice Au bois,

au bois ma dame, previously credited only to Moulu
163

Paul Kolb: Divisions of dots and dots of division.

History, theory, and practice
177

John Milsom: Dots before the eyes. Regional preferences for the
placement of dots of addition
191

Andrea Lindmayr-Brandl: Gaudeamus, bibe, bibe! Singing from

partbooks with a baton?
213

Stefan Gasch: Fiktion und Fakt. Anmerkungen zu verlorenen Beständen der

Münchner Hofkapelle und einem wiederentdeckten
Chorbuch (D-Mbs Mus.ms. 2759)
223

Honey Meconi: The Munich connection. Extreme singing

in Lassus and La Rue
247

Bernhold Schmid: Ein fälschlich Lasso zugeschriebenes Salve Regina à 2 in

der Staats- und Stadtbibliothek Augsburg. Vorlage und Autorschaft
259

Agnieszka Leszcyńska: Jacob Regnart’s connections with

Silesia and Poland
279
 M. Jennifer Bloxam

OCKEGHEM’S PRESENCE IN OBRECHT’S MASSES*

Many composers honored Johannes Ockeghem by incorporating his music into their
own works, but Jacob Obrecht did so more assiduously and more inventively than
anyone else.1 Obrecht based an early Mass on one of Ockeghem’s chansons (Missa
Fors seulement), and wove another (S’elle m’amera/Petite camusette) into his Missa Pluri-
morum carminum I; he found inspiration for his own Missae Caput and L’homme armé in
Ockeghem’s homonymous Masses, and reworked two of the older composer’s chan-
sons (Fors seulement and Ma bouche rit). Most unusual, however, are Obrecht’s embed-
ded references to Ockeghem’s music in three Mass settings based on plainsong cantus
firmi with no obvious connection to the Ockeghem works they quote: the Missae de
Sancto Martino, de Sancto Donatiano, and Sicut spina rosam. In this essay, I will explore
the meaning of Ockeghem’s presence in these three Masses by Obrecht, offering
through my reflections on the nature and strategies of these tributes my own homage
to two fine and generous senior colleagues, Jaap van Benthem and Barton Hudson.
The three Obrecht Masses in question draw from two Mass settings by Ocke-
ghem: the Missa de Sancto Donatiano quotes from the Missa Ecce ancilla domini, and the
Missae de Sancto Martino and Sicut spina rosam both refer to the Missa Mi-mi.2 Obrecht
also refers to Ockeghem’s Marian motet Intemerata dei mater within his Sicut spina
rosam Mass.3 In each case, precisely which segments Obrecht quotes and where they
appear has been known for some time, and this knowledge has informed analyses that
*
I am deeply grateful to J.A. Owens for her generous and astute comments and suggestions on
earlier drafts of this essay.
1
For a useful overview of works modelled on music by Ockeghem, encompassing intabulations,
pieces alluding to him by means of short quotations or musical style, as well as works drawing
their cantus prius factus from or reworking a secular piece by him, see E. Jas, ‘Ockeghem as a
model’, in Johannes Ockeghem. Actes du XLe colloque international d’études humanistes, ed. P. Ven-
drix (Paris 1998), 757-785. A close examination of composers’ use of Ockeghem’s Missa Mi-mi
is found in M. Picker, ‘Reflections on Ockeghem and Mi-mi’, in Johannes Ockeghem. Actes, 415-
432, esp. 427-432.
2
A. Wathey identified Ockeghem’s presence within Obrecht’s Missa de Sancto Donatiano in 1979
(‘Isoperiodic technique in “cantus firmus” organization, c.1400-c.1475’, unpublished research
paper, St Edmund Hall, Oxford, 1979), cited in R.C. Wegman, Born for the muses. The life and
Masses of Jacob Obrecht (Oxford 1994), 169, n.15). Obrecht’s interest in the Missa Mi-mi was
first demonstrated by H. Besseler, who revealed its presence within the Missa Sicut spina rosam
in 1926 (‘Erläuterungen zu einer Vorführung ausgewählter Denkmäler der Musik des späten
Mittelalters’, in Bericht über die Freiburger Tagung für deutsche Orgelkunst vom 27. bis 30. Juli 1926
(Augsburg 1926), 151). D. Fallows subsequently noted Obrecht’s reference to the Mi-mi Mass
in the Missa de Sancto Martino in his 1986 review of R. Strohm’s Music in late medieval Bruges,
found in EMH 6 (1986), 283.
3
First noted by Picker in ‘Reflections on Ockeghem and Mi-mi’, 428.

© Tijdschrift van de Koninklijke Vereniging voor Nederlandse Muziekgeschiedenis, Vol. LXVII-1/2, 2017 103
aimed to chart Ockeghem’s influence on Obrecht’s stylistic development and grapple
with the chronology of his Mass settings.4 My goal in this brief contribution is not to
dwell on matters of style or dating, but rather to consider these quotations together in
order to better understand Obrecht’s reasons for choosing and deploying them as he
did. We thus begin by reviewing the morsels of Ockeghem’s music which Obrecht
chose to incorporate into these three Masses, their placement, and how he treated
them.

obrecht’s ockeghem quotations: what and where

In Obrecht’s Missa de Sancto Donatiano, the first seven notes of the Kyrie’s Bassus
duplicate the Bassus at the opening of Ockeghem’s Missa Ecce ancilla domini (compare
Examples 1a and 1b). Obrecht follows Ockeghem’s example in holding the bass en-
trance in prolonged abeyance: he commences with a long treble duo, which is then
joined by the chant-based Tenor cantus firmus; only then does he allow the Bassus to
sound. In this way, the listener is led to anticipate the bass entrance and attend to it.
Most overt is the citation that opens the ‘Osanna’, an almost verbatim quotation
of the first five measures of the ‘Osanna’ from Ockeghem’s Mass (compare Examples
2a and 2b).5
In the Missa de Sancto Martino, the sole apparent nod to Ockeghem occurs at the
beginning of the Kyrie with an altered reference to the opening of the Missa Mi-mi
(compare Examples 3a and 3b). The original is transposed up a minor third to place
the modal final on G, and Obrecht replicates the distinctive Bassus motive only as
far as the fourth note, thereby denying its Phrygian flavor and allowing him to estab-
lish the transposed D mode that governs his piece. Still, the melodic and rhythmic
motion of the Altus and the preservation of the harmonies in all three upper voices
affirm Obrecht’s deferential gesture in Ockeghem’s direction, brief as it is.
Most forthright and extensive are the Ockeghem quotations within Obrecht’s
Missa Sicut spina rosam. As did the Missa de Sancto Martino, this Mass opens with a
reference to the beginning of the Bassus motto from Missa Mi-mi, but here it re-
mains at its original pitch and extends through the sixth note to embrace the E mode
(compare Examples 3a and 3c). Indeed, the responsory from which Obrecht drew
his cantus firmus for the Missa Sicut spina rosam is a mode 3 chant, so he is able to
retain this modality for the entire composition. As in the Missa de Sancto Martino, the
4
Analyses especially attuned to Obrecht’s debt to Ockeghem in these three Mass settings in-
clude E.H. Sparks’ discussion of the Missa Sicut spina rosam in Cantus firmus in Mass and motet,
1420-1520 (Berkeley etc. 1963), 274-276; B. Hudson’s penetrating consideration of the same
in ‘Obrecht’s tribute to Ockeghem’, in TVNM 37 (1987), 3-13; and Wegman’s scrutiny of all
three in Born for the muses, 118-130 and 165-174.
5
Described by Wegman in Born for the muses, 171-173, crediting Wathey.

104
melody and rhythm of the Altus as well as the harmonic progression reinforce the
clarity of the reference to the Mi-mi Mass.6
At the same time, the Discantus sings the motive to which Ockeghem set the first
word ‘Intemerata’ (‘undefiled’) in the Discantus of his five-voice motet Intemerata
dei mater, whose Vagans part also contains Ockeghem’s self-reference to the Mi-mi
motive (see Example 3d).7 Obrecht then duplicates this opening four-voice double
reference to Ockeghem’s Mass and motet at the outset of his Sanctus setting as well
as at the beginning of the Agnus dei (see Examples 3e and 3f). He makes his deepest
bow to Ockeghem in the Agnus dei: the complete Bassus line of Ockeghem’s Kyrie
(Kyrie I – Christe – Kyrie II) emerges from the multivalent headmotive, underpin-
ning all three sections of the Agnus dei while the Tenor simultaneously unfolds the
final statement of the plainsong cantus firmus. The younger composer here builds his
musical edifice on a foundation laid down by the older man, yielding control of its
dimensions, cadential articulations, and harmonic options to him.

ockeghem’s voice

Considered together, Obrecht’s quotations within these three Masses are striking in
their emphasis on Bassus lines selected from Ockeghem’s music: in each, the first
notes sung by the bass voice come from Ockeghem’s pen, and in the Missa Sicut spina
rosam, the bass delivers only Ockeghem for the entire Agnus dei. By so privileging
the bass voice as the primary carrier of his Ockeghem quotations, Obrecht offers a
heretofore unremarked clue to the significance of his references that enables deeper
understanding of his tribute.
That Ockeghem was himself a fine bass is attested by two contemporary witnesses.
The theorist and composer Johannes Tinctoris lauded him as an outstanding con-
tratenorista bassus in his De inventione et usu musice (Book 2, Chapter 20), completed by
the early 1480s. Tinctoris mentions Ockeghem’s vocal range and talent in a passage
describing the voice types required to sing polyphony, during which he identifies
individuals he deems best in each category. There can be little doubt that Tinctoris
based his opinion on his own experience of having heard Ockeghem sing, most
likely sometime prior to his departure from the north for Naples in the early 1470s:
6
Although the origin of the title of Ockeghem’s Missa Mi-mi is not directly relevant here, R.W.
Duffin’s revelation that the solmization functions as an indicator of the work’s Phrygian modal-
ity (‘Mi chiamano Mimi ... but my name is Quarti Toni. Solmization and Ockeghem’s famous
Mass’, in Emu 29 (2001), 165-184) provides further explanation for Obrecht’s decision to meld
it with a mode 3 plainsong cantus firmus. I am grateful to J.A. Owens for bringing Duffin’s essay
to my attention.
7
J. Dean provides an insightful and in-depth analysis of Ockeghem’s self-references within Inte-
merata dei mater in ‘Ockeghem’s valedictory?’, in Johannes Ockeghem. Actes, 521-570, esp. 536-
555.

105
Example 1a. Johannes Ockeghem, Missa Ecce ancilla domini, Kyrie, mm. 1-19.
5
&O › . w. ˙ ˙ ˙ . .... œ w ˙ . œ ˙ . .... œ ˙ ˙ w ∑ w
D
˙ w
Ky - - - - - ri
# - e, e -

A VO w . ˙ w ..
.. ˙ ˙ ˙ w ˙ › w
Ky - - - - - ri - e, e -

w. œœ ˙ ˙ ˙. œ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙. œ ˙ ˙ b˙ w
10
D &w ˙ ˙ ˙ › ∑
b
ley - - - - - - son,
w. ˙ ˙
A Vw œœ ˙ ˙ w ˙ ˙ ˙ Ó ˙ w ..
.. œœ˙ ˙ w ›.
ley - - - - - - son,
b
w
15
& w. ˙ w ˙ w ˙ w ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ w ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ w
w
D

ky - - - - - -
b -
b
ri -

V w. w Ó ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙. œ˙ w ˙ ˙ w
A
˙ w w ˙ ˙. œ˙ ˙ w
ky - - - - - - - ri - e,

w w › › w ˙ ˙b w
V
.. ..
T .. ..

Ec - - - ce an - cil - la do - mi -

&w w
w ˙ ˙ ˙ w ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙
∑ ∑
˙. œ w
D

e, ky - ri - e - ley - - -

w Ó w
O
V Ó bw œœ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙. œ w ˙ w w b˙ ˙ w
3
A

ky - - - ri - e - ley -
w › w
V
..
T .. ›
ni fi - at
? „ w ˙ w ˙ w ›.
B
›
Ky - ri - e - ley - - -

Example 2a. Johannes Ockeghem, Missa Ecce ancilla domini, Sanctus, mm. 56-63.

› w.
60
D &C
..
.. w w ˙ w w ∑ w w
O - - - san - - - na, o - san -

›. › w w w w. w.
A VC
..
..
..
.. ˙ w w ˙ ›
O - - - san - - - - na

VC w › › w w.
.. ..
∑ ˙ w
T .. .. ∑
O, o - san - - - - na

?C › w „ w
w
.. ..
B
›. .. ..
w › ›
O - - - san - na, o - san -

106
Example 1b. Jacob Obrecht, Missa de Sancto Donatiano, Kyrie, mm. 1-12.

#
5
& ›. w w w. ˙ . œ ˙ ˙ .... w
..
˙ w ˙. œ w ˙
D ..
w ˙
b
˙ .
Ky - -

˙ ... œ w
- ri - e

œœ ˙ ˙ w w ˙. œ ˙ w ˙ w ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ w
A V w. .
Ky - - - - ri - e

10
&w ∑ w ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ œœ ˙ ˙ w. ˙ ˙ ˙. œ ˙ w
D
›.
V w. ˙ w w ˙ w Ó w ˙ w ˙. œ˙ w ˙
˙ ˙ ˙. œ ˙ w
A

#
T V ›. › ›
..
.. w w ˙. œ˙ w ˙ ›.
O be - a - te pa - ter
? „ „ „ „ w
B
›
Ky

D &∑ ∑ w w w w

˙ ˙. œw ˙ w w w
A V

T V ∑ › ›
Do -

B
?˙ w ˙ w › w
ri -

Example 2b. Jacob Obrecht, Missa de Sancto Donatiano, Sanctus, mm. 65-72.

#
w
65 70
D &C › w w.
..
.. ˙ w w › w › ..
.. w ›
O - san - na o - san - na

V C ›.
.. .. w. .. ˙ w › ›
A ..
› ..
w w w w ..
O - - - san - - - - na

VC . › ›
.. ..
T .. .. › › ›
O be - a - te

?C ..
› ..
w „ „ ›
B
›. .. .. w w ›
O - - san - na o-

107
Example 3a. Johannes Ockeghem, Missa Mi-mi, Kyrie, mm. 1-5.
5
D &O › w w w. œœ w
∑ w ˙ w w ˙ w
Ky - ri - e - ley - son, ky - ri - e - ley

˙ ˙ ˙ w ˙ ˙
A V O w. ˙ ˙ Ó ˙ ˙ ˙
˙ ˙ ˙. œ w w ˙
Ky - ri - e - ley - son, ky - ri - e - ley -

T V O ›. w w. ˙ w ˙ ˙ w w w w w.
Ky - - - - - ri - e - ley -
? O w. w w. ˙ w. b˙ w w ˙
B ˙ w ( ) w
∑
Ky - ri - e - ley - - - - son, ky -

Example 3b. Jacob Obrecht, Missa de Sancto Martino, Kyrie, mm. 1-5.

& bO Ó
5

˙ ˙. œ œ œ w ˙
˙ ˙ ˙ .
..
D .. w w
Ky - - - - ri - e

b O w. ˙ bw w. w w. w. ˙ ˙ ˙ w
A V ˙ ˙ ˙. œ
Ky - ri - e

›. ›. ›.
T V b O ›. ›.
b
Mar - ti - nus ad - huc

? w. w. ˙ w ›
B bO ˙ w › w ˙ ˙ ˙. œ ˙ ˙
Ky - ri - e

Example 3c. Jacob Obrecht, Missa Sicut spina rosam, Kyrie, mm. 1-4.

D & O › w w › w ˙ ˙. œ œ œ ˙.
Ky - ri - e

A V O w. ˙ w ˙ ˙ w. ˙ w w w „
Ky - ri - e

T V O ›. w › ›. ›.
Sic - ut spi -
? w. w › ›. „
B O ˙ w
Ky - ri - e

108
Example 3d. Johannes Ockeghem, Intemerata dei mater, mm. 1-4.

› w w › w w w
D VO ∑
In - te - me - ra - ta de - i
› w w › w › ˙.
C VO
In - te - me - ra - ta de - i

T VO „ „ › w w
In - te - me -
? O w. w w. œ w
V ˙ w ˙ w. ˙ ˙.
In - te - me - ra - ta de - i

B
?O „ „ ..
..

In - - -

Example 3e. Jacob Obrecht, Missa Sicut spina rosam, Sanctus, mm. 1-4.

D & O › w w › w ˙ ˙. œ œ œ w
San - - - - - ctus

w. ˙ w ˙ ˙ w w › w ˙
A V O
San - - - ctus, San -

V ›. w ›. ›.
T O ›
w.
Sic - ut spi -
? w. w › w w
B O ˙ w ∑
San - - - ctus, San -

Example 3f. Jacob Obrecht, Missa Sicut spina rosam, Agnus dei, mm. 1-5.
5
D &O › w w › ˙. œ˙ ˙ w ˙ ˙. œw ˙ w
A - gnus de -
˙
- - - i

A V O w. ˙ w ˙ ˙ › w w ˙ w ˙. œw w.
A - gnus de - - - - i

VO
..
w ˙ ˙ w w w w w.
T ..
›
Sic - - - ut spi - na ro - -
? O w. w w. ˙ w. ˙ w w ˙
B ˙ w w ∑
A - gnus de - - - i qui tol -

109
 We call tenorists those who sing those parts of songs we call tenors, contratenorists
those who sing the contratenors, and sopranos those who sing the sopranos. But those
tenorists and contratenorists are called low who are known to be apt to the singing
of low tenors and contratenors, high ones however to high. And however much in
whatever kind of these singers, by whom alone on earth (may I dare say this) ‘joyful
and comely praise is made to our God’, very many are singing most artfully and most
sweetly: but among low tenorists Philippus de Passagio, born in Cyprus but educated
in Brabant; among high ones Wassettus of Cambrai; among low contratenorists Joannes
Okeghem, whom (as likewise an outstanding composer) we noticed above; among
high ones Jacobus Teunis of Flanders; and among sopranos Joannes de Lotinis of Di-
nant justly (in my opinion) own the palm. For to each of them in his kind, above all
whom I ever heard, all things that make a singer finished were granted by the help of
grace and nature; that is skill, measure, technique, expression, and a good voice.8

Another certain ear-witness was the Italian diarist Francesco Florio, who heard Ocke-
ghem sing Mass and vespers at the castle chapel in Tours when he visited the city
around 1477. Although Florio does not identify Ockeghem as a bass, he probably had
ample opportunity to judge the quality of his voice, since the composer, as maître de
la chapelle du roi, would presumably have led the choir by singing the intonations as
well as the solo portions of the plainsong during these services:

If ever however I wish to give a freer rein to my senses, I betake myself to the citadel
which I described above as situated opposite the side of St Gatianus. [...] As is well-
known, the royal chapel is built at the entrance to this citadel, and in it the singers
of the king himself sing the Mass and vespers every day. They have been chosen and
judged to be the best from the whole kingdom, but of them all it is Joannes Okegam,
the treasurer of the church of St Martin and master of the royal chapel, who shines
pre-eminent like Calliope when she enjoyed the favor of Apollo, and readily surpasses
8
Tenoristas vocamus qui partes illas cantuum quas tenores appellamus canunt, contratenoristas
qui contratenores, et supremos qui supremas. Verum tenoriste et contratenoriste bassi denomi-
nantur qui ad canendos tenores et contratenores bassos apti cognoscuntur, alti vero qui ad altos.
Et quamvis in quolibet genere horum cantorum, quibus tantum in terris (hoc dicere ausim)
“Deo nostro fit iocunda decoraque laudatio” [Ps.146.1b], quamplurimi sint artificiosissime sua-
vissimeque concinentes: inter tenoristas tamen bassos, Philippus de Passagio, natione Cyprius
sed eruditione Brabantinus; inter altos, Wassettus Cameracensis; inter bassos contratenoristas,
Joannes Okeghem, cuius (ut etiam compositoris eximii) supra meminimus; inter altos, Jacobus
Teunis Flamingus; ac inter supremos, Joannes de Lotinis Dinantinus merito palmam (mea qui-
dem opinione) possident. Nam cuilibet eorum in genere suo, super omnes quos unquam audivi,
omnia que cantorem perfectum efficiunt gratie et nature beneficio concessa fuerunt; id est ars,
mensura, modus, pronunciatio, et vox bona.’ Text and translation from the exemplary Early
Music Theory website project ‘Johannes Tinctoris. Complete Theoretical Works’, project team
members R. Woodley, J.J. Dean, and D. Lewis: http://earlymusictheory.org/Tinctoris/.

110
 by far all the others in the chapel like a son of the Muses. It is impossible not to like
this man, such is his physical beauty, and such the radiance and grace of his dignified
speech and manners. Alone among the singers he is without fault, and he alone may
be respected and revered as the phoenix in Arabia deserves to be. It may therefore be
imagined how highly music is valued there, and it may be understood how much the
human voice surpasses other musical instruments [...] And so I experience the greatest
pleasure in this chapel, at least on feast­­-days, when I attend to hear now the solemnity
of Masses, and now vespers. 9

Posthumous paens to Ockeghem also remark on the quality of his voice. In his
lengthy Déploration sur le trespas de feu Okergan trésorier de Sainct-Martin de Tours, the
French court poet and singer Guillaume Crétin (ca. 1460–1525) extolled his senior
colleague’s vocal gifts in strongly sensate terms that seem borne of personal experi-
ence (see Figure 1).
Even the northern humanist theologian Desiderius Erasmus (1469-1536), who
could only have heard Ockeghem as an old man, composed an elegant Latin epitaph
in his honor that extolls his prowess not as a composer but as a singer. The elegy be-
gins by recalling his ‘golden voice’ and returns in the latter half of the poem to note
its affective power (see Figure 2):10

That Obrecht’s quotations from Ockeghem’s Mass oeuvre clearly privilege the bass
voice raises the question of whether Obrecht, like Tinctoris and Florio, and quite
possibly Crétin and Erasmus, had occasion to hear the great man sing. In fact, as
Rob Wegman has suggested, Obrecht may well have seized the opportunity to meet
Ockeghem in person during the elderly musician’s sojourn to Bruges and Damme in
9
‘Si vero quandoque laxiores habenas sensibus dimittere voluero, confero me in arcem quam ex
opposito laterali Sancti Gatiani sitam superius dicebam [...] In atrio quippe hujus arcis capella
regalis constructa est, in qua regis ipsius cantores quotidie missam vesperaque concinunt. Hi
omnes ex toto regno electi optimi judicantur, inter quos tamen voce et arte Joannes Okegam,
Martini Sancti ecclesiae thesaurarius, regiaeque capellae magister, velut Calliope Apollinis fa-
vore confortata relucet atque in illa facile Pieri filias, sic iste ceteros longius antecellit. Virum
hunc profecto non posses non amare, tanta corporis pulchritudine pollet, tanta morum ac ver-
borum gravitate nitet et gratia. Hic solus inter cantores omni vitio caret, omni abundant virtute,
solusque ut in Arabia phoenix merito coli potest et observari. Ibi igitur quantum musica caleat
perpenditur, quantumque vox humana cetera instrumenta musicalia excellat, cognoscitur; quo
sic ut saepe tanto vocis modulamine supra penitus me ipsum raptus [...] In hac itaque capella die-
bus saltem festis me plurimum oblecto, dum nunc missarum solemnia, nunc vesperas auditurus
accedo.’ Text drawn from A. Salmon, ‘Description de la ville de Tours sous le regne de Louis
XI’, in Memoires de la Société archéologique de Touraine 7 (1855), 82-108, in particular 99-100. I
am indebted to Dr. Tom Holland for his kind assistance with the translation.
10
The elegy, which was set to music by Johannes Lupi, is discussed by C.A. Miller, ‘Erasmus on
music’, in MQ 52 (1966), 332-349 at 341-343.

111
Figure 1. Guillaume Crétin, excerpts from Déploration sur le trespas de feu Okergan trésorier de Sainct-
Martin de Tours. From G. Crétin, Œuvres poétiques, ed. K. Chesney (Paris 1932, repr. Geneva
1997), 66 and 68-69.11
Plorer le fault, ce bon chantre tant saige Mourn the loss of this good singer so wise
Qui par escript a touché maint passage, Who composed so many passages
Et si tresbien de la gorge a passé. And also passed them very well through the
(lines 170-173) throat.

Simon, Greban qui fustes du mestier,
Que n’avez vous laissé pour heritier
Ung Meschinot, ung Milet, ung Nesson,
Pour hault louer le melodieux son,
La voix, le chant et subtile façon
De ce vaillant renommé Tresorier.
(lines 268-273)
Simon, Greban, who were of the profession,
Whom did you leave as heir?
A Mechinot, a Milet, a Nesson,
To praise the melodious sound,
The voice, the singing, and the subtle style
Of this valiant and celebrated Treasurer.

mid-August 1484. At this time, Obrecht, a man in his mid-20s, was probably on his
way from Bergen op Zoom to take up his new position as master of the choirboys at
the Cathedral of Cambrai, a role he assumed on 6 September. He could easily have
taken a route passing through Bruges for the chance-in-a-lifetime to meet the most
renowned composer then alive.12
Precisely why Ockeghem travelled to Flanders remains unknown – a diplomatic
mission may have been involved – but there is no doubt that he enjoyed interactions
with musicians while there. His visit to Bruges included a dinner, accompanied by
six jugs of wine, hosted by the socii de musica (singer-clerks) of the church of St Do-
natian.13 This gathering took place on 15 August, the Feast of the Assumption of the
Virgin, one of the great Marian feasts of the liturgical calendar, and the distinguished
visitor would almost certainly have attended the solemn festal Mass in the church
of St Donatian earlier in the day. Ockeghem may even have thrilled the singers by
joining them in the choir; perhaps they sang one of his Masses, of which at least three
(Mi-mi, Cuiusvis toni, and L’homme armé) were contained in the church’s choirbooks
by this time.14 If indeed Obrecht was present on this occasion (perhaps alerted by his
friend Jean Cordier, a Bruges native, a canon of St Donatian’s, and a fine tenor), then
he may well have heard Ockeghem sing, and even joined the choirmen himself.15
Of course this scenario exists only in the realm of plausible speculation, but it may
help to explain the impression imparted by this handful of Bassus part quotations,

11
I am grateful to Prof. Annelle Curulla for her assistance with the translation.
12
Wegman, Born for the muses, 83-84.
13
Ibid., 84.
14
R. Strohm, Music in late medieval Bruges (rev. ed. Oxford 1990), 30 and 142.
15
On Jean Cordier, see ibid., 37-38.

112
Figure 2. Desiderius Erasmus, excerpt from Ergone conticuit. Text and translation (adapted) from Col-
lected Works of Erasmus, vol. 85, Poems, trans. C.H. Miller, ed. H. Vredeveld (Toronto 1993), 76-77.
Ergone conticuit Has it fallen silent then,
Vox illa quondam nobilis, That voice once so renowned,
Aurea vox Okegi? The golden voice of Ockeghem?
(lines 1-3)

Quid facis, invida mors? What are you doing, O envious Death?
Obmutuit vox aurea, The golden voice has been silenced,
Aurea vox Okegi, The golden voice of Ockeghem,
Vel saxa flectere efficax, The voice that could move even stones,
Quae toties liquidis The voice that so often with fluid
Et arte flexilibus modis And subtly modulated melodies
Per sacra tecta sonanas In the vaulted nave resounded,
Demulsit aures caelitum Soothing the ears of the saints in heaven
Terrigenumque simul And likewise piercing the hearts
Penitusque movit pectora. Of earthborn men.
(lines 15-24)

all of which derive from compositions generally agreed to postdate Ockeghem’s 1484
visit to Bruges.16 These evocations suggest a more intimate approach to quotation,
distinct from other composers’ references to Ockeghem’s music which focus on me-
lodic motives drawn from a Superius part, or which simply borrow a cantus prius fac-
tus.17 Obrecht here seems intent on conjuring not only an admired older colleague’s
compositions, but his voice as well. Indeed, Obrecht’s evocation of Ockeghem’s
voice in all three Mass settings occurs within the broader context of what could be
described as stylistic ventriloquism: the younger composer endeavors to speak in the
unique musical style of the older composer, projecting that style through the body
of his new musical creation.18 Both his outright quotation of bass lines from Ocke-
ghem’s Masses and his embrace of key features of Ockeghem’s style reveal Obrecht’s
16
Strohm has persuasively associated the Missae de Sancto Martino and de Sancto Donatiano with
endowments in Bruges in 1486 and 1487 respectively (Music in late medieval Bruges, 40-41 and
146-147). Barton Hudson argued that the Missa Sicut spina rosam was composed in response to
Ockeghem’s death in 1497 (‘Obrecht’s tribute to Ockeghem’, 3-13), while Wegman places this
Mass in the mid-1480s, grouping it with the other two on the basis of certain similarities of style
and technique (Born for the muses, 118-130).
17
Jas, ‘Ockeghem as a model’, 761-773, 777-780.
18
Sparks was the first to note Ockeghemian aspects of style and technique in the Missa Sicut
spina rosam (Cantus firmus in Mass and motet, 275-276), an insight further developed by Hudson
(‘Obrecht’s tribute to Ockeghem’, esp. 4-5). Wegman discerned recollections of Ockeghem’s
style in the Missa de Sancto Martino (Born for the muses, 168), and an even more pervasive stylistic
emulation of the older composer in the Missa de Sancto Donatiano (ibid., 170-174).

113
desire to both emulate and salute, in a palpable and personal way, a man whose music
he deeply admired.

obrecht’s ockeghem quotations: making choices

Why did Obrecht select these particular segments of Ockeghem’s music for inclusion
in these three Mass settings? It can be difficult to fathom any composer’s motiva-
tions for choosing a particular piece of pre-existing music for use within a setting of
the Mass Ordinary. While the choice of a plainsong cantus firmus generally serves
to link a Mass setting with a particular liturgical occasion, whether general (such as
Marian feasts) or specific (such as a saint’s day), the selection of material drawn from
a polyphonic work by another composer seldom points clearly to a particular festal
association. In those rare instances when occasion-specific plainsongs are combined
with quotations from pre-existing polyphony, the challenge and allure of discern-
ing a composer’s rationale for choosing the particular polyphonic model quoted is
particularly acute.

Obrecht’s references to Ockeghem’s Missa Mi-mi occur in two Masses intended for
unrelated liturgical occasions. The Missa de Sancto Martino honors the fourth-century
Bishop of Tours by weaving ten plainsong melodies from the saint’s office as cantus
firmi throughout the Mass, while the Missa Sicut spina rosam celebrates the Blessed
Virgin with a cantus firmus drawn from a matins responsory for her Nativity. Ocke-
ghem’s Missa Mi-mi does not incorporate any pre-existent material that would as-
sociate it with any particular festal occasion, though the emphasis on the solmization
syllable mi and the interval of a perfect fifth may be understood as a potent Christo-
logical allegory rooted in the musical treatises of the French theologian Jean Gerson
(1363-1429) with which the composer was familiar.19 Whether Obrecht was privy
to this allegorical dimension of the Mi-mi Mass (if indeed Ockeghem intended it) is
unknown and probably unknowable; insofar as every Mass setting is ultimately di-
rected to the Lord, the presence of such symbolism appears unlikely to have played a
decisive role in Obrecht’s decision to quote from it.
Rather, the sheer familiarity and reputation of the Missa Mi-mi were likely the
most important factors in Obrecht’s decision to choose this Mass to cite within both

19
G. Kirkwood has revealed that Gerson expressed his theology using solmization syllables on
which singers were to meditate, with mi signifying Christ, whose compassion mediates between
the fifth formed by ut, representing human misery, and la, denoting the joy of salvation. She
summarizes Gerson’s system in ‘My my as theological allegory’, in Johannes Ockeghem, Masses
and Mass sections, ed. J. van Benthem, part 3, fasc. 2 (Utrecht 1998), xiii-xv, and explores Ocke-
ghem’s connection to Gerson in ‘Kings, confessors, cantors and archicapellano. Ockeghem and
the Gerson circle at St.-Martin of Tours’, in Johannes Ockeghem. Actes, 101-138.

114
the Missa de Sancto Martino and the Missa Sicut spina rosam.20 In both cases, the quota-
tions appear to function primarily as a signifier for the eminent composer himself,
an impression bolstered by the above-noted prominence of references emphasizing
the bass voice. In the Mass for St Martin, the charge to compose a Mass celebrating
the very saint entombed within the great collegiate church of St Martin in Tours
that Ockeghem served as treasurer would naturally invite such a gesture.21 Although
somewhat veiled in its brevity and transposition, the reference to the opening of the
Mi-mi Mass at the outset of Obrecht’s Kyrie, fused as it is with a Tenor cantus firmus
that enunciates the saint’s name (see Example 2b), would have delighted singers fa-
miliar with the model and its illustrious creator, as Obrecht’s fellow singers in Bruges
surely were.22
In the Missa Sicut spina rosam, Obrecht’s more overt use of this signature motive
from the Mi-mi Mass, as well as his reference to the Discantus melody at the opening
of Intemerata dei mater, are likewise triggered by the textual content of the plainsong
cantus firmus. In this case, however, the relationship between the quotations and the
cantus firmus is more integrally bound up with the work’s honorific aspect. Obrecht
drew his cantus firmus from the matins responsory Ad nutum domini, widely sung for
the feast of the Virgin’s Nativity.23 That he chose to use only the repetendum of the
respond from this responsory strongly suggests the importance he attached to this
phrase of text within the chant, an emphasis accentuated by its threefold repetition in
responsorial performance within matins:

20
Both a poem and a manuscript made soon after Ockeghem’s death signal the high status ac-
corded the Missa Mi-mi. In his Déploration, Guillaume Crétin exhorts living composers to sing
his works, offering a select list that begins with this Mass: Lors se chanta la messe de My My /
Au travail suis, et Cujus vis toni, / La messe aussi exquise et très-parfaicte / De Requiem par ledict
déffunct faict [...] Similarly, the famous Chigi Codex (VatC 234), copied within six years of
Ockeghem’s death, devotes most of its first 136 folios to an assemblage of almost all his Mass
music and gives Missa Mi-mi pride of place at the beginning of the manuscript.
21
As noted by Picker, ‘Reflections on Ockeghem and Mi-mi’, 428.
22
Regarding the significance of Obrecht’s cantus firmus choice at the opening of this Kyrie,
see M.J. Bloxam, ‘The late medieval composer as cleric. Browsing chant manuscripts with
Obrecht’, in Exploring Christian song, edd. M.J. Bloxam & A. Shenton (Lanham, MD 2017),
29-52 at 46-47.
23
Ad nutum domini is one of three responsories attributed to Fulbert of Chartres (960-1028)
and created specifically for the Nativity feast at Chartres Cathedral (M.E. Fassler, The Virgin
of Chartres. Making history through liturgy and the arts (New Haven 2010), 122-129). Although
Ad nutum domini could serve a variety of other Marian functions depending on the usage,
it was most commonly associated with her Nativity feast (see http://cantus.uwaterloo.ca/
search?t=Ad+nutum+domini, accessed 3 August 2017). For a summary of its use within the
rites of institutions known to Obrecht, see M.J. Bloxam, ‘Plainsong and polyphony for the
Blessed Virgin. Notes on two Masses by Jacob Obrecht’, in JM 12 (1994), 51-75 at 57-60.

115
 respond: Ad nutum domini nostrum ditantis honorem: sicut spina rosam genuit iudea
Mariam. verse: Ut vitium virtus operiret gratis culpam. respond: Sicut spina rosam genuit
iudea Mariam. doxology: Gloria patri et filio et spiritui sancto. respond: Sicut spina
rosam genuit iudea Mariam.

respond: At the command of our Lord, enriching our dignity: Just as the thorn bore the
rose and Judea bore Mary. verse: So that virtue might cover vice and thanksgiving our
guilt. respond: Just as the thorn bore the rose and Judea bore Mary. doxology: Glory be to
the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. respond: Just as the thorn bore the rose and
Judea bore Mary.

Obrecht emphasized the importance of this phrase within his Mass setting by allow-
ing the chant segment to saturate the texture both melodically and textually. Not
only does the Tenor (the principle cantus-firmus-bearing voice) sing the Proper text
instead of the Mass Ordinary text, but when the plainsong migrates to other voices
these too often carry the Proper text, signaling that these words were meant to be
sung.24
The crux of the chosen segment is the verb ‘genuit’, which captures the dynamic
concept of one being bringing forth another. This theme of lineage permeates the
Nativity office from which Obrecht drew, and also dominates the Mass formulary
for the feast, whose Gospel reading consists of the full recitation of the ‘Liber ge-
nerationis Jesu Christi’ (Matthew 1:1-16).25 By interlacing the melody and text of
this carefully chosen plainsong cantus firmus with forthright and multiple quotations
from Ockeghem’s Mi-mi Mass and his motet Intemerata dei mater, Obrecht thus seems
to imbue the cantus firmus with two layers of meaning. One directly buttresses the
liturgical theme of royal pedigree so central to Mary’s Nativity feast, while the other
obliquely glosses the declaration of musical indebtedness contained in the Ockeghe-
mian elements of the setting.
At the same time, Obrecht’s double reference to Ockeghem at the outset of his
Missa Sicut spina rosam seems to close an intertextual circle first opened by Ockeghem
himself. As Jeffrey Dean’s elegant analysis of the motet has revealed, the opening of
Intemerata dei mater, while most clearly invoking the Missa Mi-mi, ultimately proves to
24
Jacob Obrecht, Collected works [New Obrecht Edition], vol. 11, ed. B. Hudson (Utrecht 1990),
xxxix-xl.
25
Fassler explores this focus on lineage in the Chartrain office and Fulbert’s chants in The Virgin
of Chartres, 107-129. Obrecht’s contemporaries clearly recognized the broader import of the
declaration of pedigree conveyed by his chosen cantus firmus, as witnessed by the inclusion of
the Missa Sicut spina rosam in JenuU 22, copied in Alamire’s scriptorium between 1500 and 1505
and acquired by Elector Frederick the Wise. Therein it is treated to the only miniature in the
manuscript, the iconography of which reflects the debate surrounding the doctrine of Mary’s
Immaculate Conception. See H.M. Clarke, ‘A virgin, a lineage, and an elector. Ancestry and
imagery in Thüringer Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek Ms. 22’, in JAF 6 (2014), 69-82.

116
derive from Ockeghem’s own virelai Presque transi, the chanson on which the Mi-mi
Mass itself is based.26 The opening of Missa Sicut spina rosam thus enfolds Ockeghem’s
self-referential chain from chanson through Mass to Marian motet within a new Mass
composition whose Marian plainsong cantus firmus dwells on the theme of lineage –
the very theme enacted in Obrecht’s references to Ockeghem’s music.
Dean builds a most compelling case for the valedictory nature of Intemerata dei
mater. Based on his identification of previously unrecognized self-quotations from
chansons embedded within it, he proposes that the motet is one of Ockeghem’s
last works, likely composed around the time he made his will in 1487.27 Obrecht’s
reference to it within his Missa Sicut spina rosam would thus date that Mass to the
late 1480s at the earliest, after the composition of the Missae de Sancto Martino and
de Sancto Donatiano. If indeed compositional evidence of increasing attention to and
esteem for the works of a senior composer can provide clues to chronology, then the
Missa Sicut spina rosam would stand as Obrecht’s most accomplished and ambitious
tribute to Ockeghem, one that duplicates the Marian focus of the senior composer’s
valedictory motet.28

While Obrecht’s brief reference to Ockeghem’s motet Intemerata dei mater within his
Missa Sicut spina rosam carries only a veiled and general festal association into its new
context, one that concurs with the Marian theme of the Mass, the same is not true
of the references to the Missa Ecce ancilla domini within the Missa de Sancto Donatiano.
The cantus firmus of Ockeghem’s Ecce ancilla domini Mass derives from the final seg-
ment of the rare processional antiphon Missus est Gabriel angelus, sung on Sundays
in Advent in the Parisian rite.29 Its text excerpts Mary’s reply to the Angel Gabriel
from Luke’s Annunciation narrative, in which she accepts God’s will, and by so do-
ing precipitates the miracle of the Incarnation. The Marian content of Ockeghem’s
Mass, in particular its association with days and seasons focused on the Annunciation,
thus carries forward into its host composition, a Mass dedicated not to Mary but
26
‘Ockeghem’s valedictory?’, 536-542. The connection between Ockeghem’s Missa Mi-mi and
his chanson Presque transi was first noted by H. Miyazaki in ‘New light on Ockeghem’s Missa
“Mi-mi”’, in EMu 13 (1985), 367-375, and subsequently developed by F. Fitch in Johannes
Ockeghem. Masses and models (Paris 1997), chap. 5, 159-171.
27
Dean, ‘Ockeghem’s valedictory?’, 554-555.
28
Wegman argued that the Missa Sicut spina rosam was composed in connection with Ockeghem’s
visit to Bruges in 1484, basing his judgement on selected stylistic criteria that did not encompass

the emulative and ritual basis of certain compositional decisions (Born for the muses, 118-130). In
light of more recent scholarship – Picker’s revelation that Obrecht here quoted from Ockeg-
hem’s Intemerata dei mater and Dean’s persuasive argument for the late date of this motet – Weg-
man’s hypotheses about the dating and genesis of the Mass now appear less convincing.
29
Regarding Ockeghem’s manipulation of this cantus firmus, first identified by M. Bukofzer, see
Johannes Ockeghem, Masses and Mass sections, ed. J. van Benthem, part 1, fasc. 2, Missa Ecce ancilla
domini (Utrecht 1995), vii-ix.

117
to St Donatian, patron saint of Bruges. What considerations might have motivated
Obrecht’s unusual choice here?
Although no copying record survives to confirm the inclusion of the Missa Ecce
ancilla domini in a Bruges choirbook, its presence within Obrecht’s Mass for St Do-
natian constitutes indirect evidence for its familiarity not only to the composer but
also to his singers. The covert manner in which Obrecht cites Ockeghem in Kyrie
I initially suggests that the model’s Marian associations are incidental to his strategy,
which centers on a textural emulation that culminates with the entrance of the first
seven notes of Ockeghem’s bass melody and pays no attention to the model’s cantus
firmus (see Examples 1a and 1b). As in his use of the Mi-mi Mass, Obrecht here seems
to treat the Bassus quotation as a signifier for Ockeghem himself, making him soni-
cally present for those intimately familiar with the Missa Ecce ancilla domini.
However, Obrecht’s wholesale importation of the first five bars of Ockeghem’s
‘Osanna’ to launch the ‘Osanna’ of his Missa de Sancto Donatiano is of much weightier
significance, inviting interpretation from two different perspectives – Mariological
and tributary – that both hinge on the ritual import of its placement within the Mass
service. So we turn finally to consider why Obrecht chose to situate his references
to Ockeghem where he did within these three Mass settings. Doing so requires
approaching them not as freestanding, proto-symphonic compositions made only
for listeners’ or singers’ enjoyment, but rather as components of the complex ritual
drama of the Mass, an experience of music more akin to an opera than a symphony.30
Obrecht, like most composer-clerics of the period, participated in this celebration on
a daily basis, and the materials and protocols of liturgy were particularly important
to his compositional strategies.31 His decisions about where and how to embed his
references to Ockeghem’s music within his Mass settings are intimately bound up
with the function of a polyphonic setting of the Mass within the dramatic arc of the
ritual itself. Obrecht’s quotation of Ockeghem’s ‘Osanna’ from the Missa Ecce ancilla
domini within his Missa de Sancto Donatiano will serve to open a brief exploration of
how ritual context shaped Obrecht’s quotational strategies.

obrecht’s quotations of ockeghem in ritual context

Why would Obrecht single out an internal segment of the Sanctus text as the loca-
tion for his most obvious reference to Ockeghem’s Missa Ecce ancilla domini? The an-
swer lies in the ritual function of the Sanctus itself, the musical item most intimately
associated with the Eucharistic phase of the ritual.
30
For an excellent introduction to the dramatic nature of the Mass ritual, see O.B. Hardison, Jr.,
‘The Mass as sacred drama’, in Christian rite and Christian drama in the Middle Ages. Essays in the
origin and early history of modern drama, ed. O.B. Hardison, Jr. (Baltimore 1965), 35-79.
31
For a broad consideration of how Obrecht’s experience of ritual influenced his compositional
choices, see Bloxam, ‘The late medieval composer as cleric.’

118
Sanctus, sanctus, sanctus dominus deus sabaoth.
Pleni sunt cæli et terra gloria tua.
Osanna in excelsis.
Benedictus qui venit in nomine domini.
Osanna in excelsis.

This ancient text serves as the worship community’s response to the celebrant’s Pref-
ace prayer, which concludes by exhorting the people to join with the angels in God’s
praise. The Preface marks the opening of the Canon of the Mass, the long series of
prayers and ritual actions that prepares, effects, and acknowledges Christ’s Real Pres-
ence in the elements of bread and wine.32 When the Sanctus was sung in chant, the
celebrant normally waited until its conclusion before continuing the prayers of the
Canon, but due to the time needed to perform a polyphonic Sanctus, the celebrant
could commence his silent recitation of the Canon immediately after intoning the
Preface prayer, just as the choir began to sing. Both his pronouncement of the Words
of Consecration that made Christ present in the host and the Elevation of the Host
that immediately followed the consecration thus took place during the performance
of the Sanctus. Hence the ritual climax of the Eucharistic celebration was framed by
polyphony, with the Consecration and Elevation customarily occurring at the close
of the first Osanna and followed by the Benedictus, whose text became a welcome
for the now-present Christ (‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord’).33
In ritual context, then, both Ockeghem’s and Obrecht’s ‘Osanna’ settings gave
musical expression to the angels’ and humankind’s awestruck acknowledgement
of the Real Presence, ‘Osanna in the highest!’ From the Mariological perspective,
Obrecht’s decision to quote from Ockeghem’s Ecce ancilla domini Mass at this precise
ritual juncture suggests his knowledge of the well-established theological connection
between the miracle of this Real Presence and the miracle of the Incarnation.34 The
correspondence was recognized from early Christian times; the second-century pa-
tristic theologian Justin Martyr noted that, just as the Word was made flesh within a
Virgin through the power of the Holy Spirit, so the descent of the Holy Spirit makes
32
For a detailed consideration of the Canon, including the Preface and Sanctus, see J.A. Jung-
mann, S.J., The Mass of the Roman rite. Its origins and development (Missarum Sollemnia), trans. F.A.
Brunner (New York 1951), vol. 2, 101-274, esp. 115-138.
33
Jungmann, The Mass of the Roman rite, vol. 2, 137, esp. n. 44, and 216. A useful overview of
evidence for this practice is found in A. Kirkman, The cultural life of the early polyphonic Mass.
Medieval context to modern revival (Cambridge 2010), 196-200. The practice of singing the Bene-
dictus after the Elevation may have originated as early as the eleventh century, in connection
with troped Sanctus chants; see A. Gastoué, ‘Le Sanctus et le Benedictus’, in Revue du chant
grégorien 38 (1934), 163-168 at 167-168.
34
A more extensive reading of Obrecht’s references to Ockeghem with the larger context of this
Mass can be found in M.J. Bloxam, ‘Text and context. Obrecht’s Missa de Sancto Donatiano in its
social and ritual landscape’, in JAF 3 (2011), 29-30.

119
Christ materially present under the appearance of the host at the Consecration.35
Obrecht’s reference to Ockeghem’s ‘Osanna’ thus offers, for those able to apprehend
it, a subtle evocation of Mary and the Incarnation at this climactic point in the Mass
ritual.
The second perspective at play in this quotation, that of collegial homage, is both
more apparent and more personal than the Mariological dimension. By revealing
Ockeghem’s unobstructed sonic body for just a few seconds at the opening of the
‘Osanna’, Obrecht in effect elevates the object of his musical reverence in conjunc-
tion with the Elevation of the Host. The ritual drama here allows a two-fold rev-
elation, one an aural confirmation of Ockeghem’s presence in Obrecht’s Mass, the
other the visual witness of Christ’s presence in the Eucharist. Perhaps Obrecht’s idea
to cite Ockeghem’s own musical response to this ritual moment was sparked by the
fact that the first four pitches of the cantus firmus of his ‘Osanna’ setting, the suffrage
antiphon O beate pater Donatiane, concur with the Marian responsory segment that
appears as the tenor cantus firmus in the ‘Osanna’ of the Missa Ecce ancilla domini.
Regardless of the creative process that led to it, the result is that Obrecht here ac-
knowledges Ockeghem acknowledging the Real Presence at this most potent phase
of the Mass celebration.

The Eucharistic phase of the Mass ritual is likewise the site of Obrecht’s most con-
centrated invocations of Ockeghem within the Missa Sicut spina rosam. After the
salute to Ockeghem at the opening of the Kyrie, the Gloria and Credo forego direct
reference to Ockeghem’s music, but both the Sanctus and the Agnus dei commence
with the combined Missa Mi-mi/Intemerata quotation that began the Kyrie. This
highly unusual selective treatment of the headmotive device, normally employed
to connect all five Ordinary texts aurally over the course of the ceremony, seems
designed to make Ockeghem sonically present during that part of the ritual focused
on the Real Presence. He is palpably with the choir as they commence the song of
the angels in response to the celebrant’s preface prayer at the outset of the Canon. At
the close of the Canon, he then reappears in their midst throughout the Agnus dei,
as the bass sings the complete Bassus line of the Missa Mi-mi’s Kyrie in tandem with
the complete presentation of the plainsong cantus firmus.
For Obrecht, as for many other composers of the period, the Agnus dei often
called forth the most ambitious and impressive compositional strategies, especially
those involving contrapuntal feats, such as the extended conjoining of a plainsong
melody with Ockeghem’s Bassus line achieved here. When viewed without refer-
ence to the ritual context of Mass Ordinary settings, such concluding tactics naturally

35
J.H. McKenna, The Eucharistic epiclesis. A detailed history from the patristic to the modern era (2nd ed.
Chicago 2009), 43-44, 66-67, and 178-180. On Mary in relation to the Eucharist more gener-
ally, see also M. Rubin, Corpus Christi. The Eucharist in late medieval culture (Cambridge 1991),
142-147.

120
invite comparison to the symphonic finale.36 Considered within the framework of
the Mass ceremony, however, what might initially appear to be mere compositional
showmanship intended primarily to dazzle astute listeners and singers gains a deeper
significance.
It is crucial to recognize that the solemnities of the Eucharistic phase of the Mass
ritual did not end with the Elevation of the Host: the music of the Agnus dei was
sung in conjunction with ritual actions of tremendous symbolic weight, the Kiss of
Peace and the priest’s communion.37 Both actions, like the ‘ocular communion’ pro-
vided by the display of the consecrated Host at the Elevation, enabled congregants to
participate spiritually in the communion sacrament without the rigorous preparation
entailed in partaking physically, a regimen that the laity generally undertook in this
period only during Lent, in anticipation of the annual Eastertide communion. Con-
gregants could communicate spiritually through the Kiss of Peace, which at this time
customarily involved the celebrant kissing first the consecrated Host and then the
osculatorium or pax-board (a small flat panel of wood, metal, enamel, or ivory bear-
ing an image of the Crucifixion, the Man of Sorrows, the Lamb, or the Mother and
Child) that clergy then carried to the laity to kiss.38 Similarly, the priest’s reception
of the sacrament became representative, functioning as communion for the body of
worshippers observing the ritual.39 The Agnus dei thus functioned as an accompani-
ment to both the priest’s and the people’s experience of communion with the Lamb
of God present in the Host.
That Ockeghem is most manifest as a sounding presence in the Agnus dei of
Obrecht’s Missa Sicut spina rosam can be understood from several perspectives.
Obrecht, acting as a musical celebrant, here seems to offer Ockeghem for musical
veneration in tandem with the ritual adoration of the Lamb that the Agnus dei ac-
companied, akin to his quotation of Ockeghem at the opening of the ‘Osanna’ in the
Missa de Sancto Donatiano. In his wholesale absorption of the entire Bassus line from
36
D. Fallows, ‘The last Agnus dei. Or: The cyclic Mass, 1450-1600, as forme fixe’, in Polyphone
Messen im 15. und 16. Jahrhundert. Funktion, Kontext, Symbol, edd. A. Ammendola, D. Glowotz
& J. Heidrich (Göttingen 2012), 53-63.
37
J. Bossy, ‘The Mass as a social institution, 1200-1700’, in Past and Present 100 (1983), 29-61 at
54-56.
38
C. Koslofsky, ‘The kiss of peace in the German Reformation’, in The kiss in history, ed. K. Har-
vey (Manchester and New York 2005), 18-35 at 21-22. A superb consideration of the pax-board
as an object and an experience in the Sarum rite is found in Late medieval liturgies enacted. The
experience of worship in cathedral and parish church, edd. S. Harper, P.S. Barnwell & M. Williamson
(Farnham, Surrey etc. 2016), 74-77, 213, 239-43; enactments of this ritual can be viewed at
http://www.experienceofworship.org.uk/enactments/introduction/.
39
On the Kiss of Peace, the Agnus dei, the priest’s communion, and the infrequency of commu-
nion by the faithful, see Jungmann, The Mass of the Roman rite, vol. 2, 321-367. See also A.N.
Burnett, ‘The social history of Communion and the Reformation of the Eucharist’, in Past and
Present 211 (2011), 77-119, esp. 80-96.

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the Kyrie of Ockeghem’s Missa Mi-mi, Obrecht achieves what might be construed
as compositional communion with the object of his musical veneration, receiving
Ockeghem’s ‘real presence’ (represented by the composer’s voice part from one of
his signature Masses) into his own musical body. At the same time, in the context of
the performance of his Agnus dei at Mass, Obrecht offers Ockeghem to both singers
and listeners as their own sung and heard communion with the great composer, even
as they celebrate Christ in the Eucharist.
Reading Obrecht’s treatment of Ockeghem’s music in the Missa Sicut spina rosam
against the backdrop of the Mass ritual throws his deifying impulse into sharp relief,
and calls to mind Cretin’s unabashed glorification of Ockeghem in his Déploration
sur le trespas de feu Okergan. At the close of his poem, Cretin urges the choirboys, in
language clearly inspired by the conclusion of the celebrant’s Preface prayer that in-
troduced the Sanctus at every Mass, to ‘pray to God that the Treasurer called Ocke-
ghem will be welcome among His heavenly host, to finally sing forever in Paradise.’40
Obrecht here seems to craft a musical realization of the choristers’ prayer, giving
Ockeghem a permanent place in the choir through quotations that evoke both his
voice and his music, and situating them in that part of the Mass liturgy dedicated to
rejoicing in God’s presence in the Eucharist. Taken together, the ritually motivated
quotational strategies revealed here, coupled with fresh insights regarding the theme
of lineage conveyed by his chosen plainsong cantus firmus and the implications of
his reference to Intemerata dei mater, lend fresh support to Barton Hudson’s hypoth-
esis that Obrecht composed the Missa Sicut spina rosam as a posthumous tribute to
Ockeghem.41 Whether it originated as an homage to Ockeghem before or after his
death, this Mass stands as Obrecht’s most dedicated and meaningful effort to invoke
the renowned composer within a Mass setting.

concluding thoughts

In a provocative essay published twenty years ago, Paula Higgins traced the begin-
nings of a musical ‘discourse of creative patriarchy’ in the decades around 1500,
noting the seminal role played by Ockeghem in this development.42 His motet-
chanson on the death of Gilles Binchois in 1460, Mort tu as navré, contains the first
known musical allusion to a composer as a ‘father’; the anonymous poem set by
Ockeghem describes Binchois as ‘le père de joyeuseté’. About five years later, Ocke-
ghem’s younger colleague in Tours, Antoine Busnoys (ca.1430-1492), embedded
40
See Crétin, Œuvres poétiques, 73: Et priez Dieu qu’il reçoive a son hoste / Le Tresorier dit
Okergan, affin / Qu’en Paradis chante a jamais sans fin. (lines 418-420).
41
Hudson, ‘Obrecht’s tribute to Ockeghem’.
42
P. Higgins, ‘Musical “parents” and their “progeny”. The discourse of creative patriarchy in
early modern Europe’, in Music in Renaissance cities and courts. Essays for Lewis Lockwood, edd. J.A.
Owens & A.M. Cummings (Detroit 1997), 169-186, esp. 178-179.

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the melody to which Ockeghem had set ‘the father of joyfulness’ phrase within his
own musical encomium for Ockeghem, the motet In hydraulis. Busnoys adapts the
melodic gesture from the Superius of Ockeghem’s lament to serve as the imitative
headmotive of the secunda pars of his own tribute, set to the text ‘Hec Ockeghem’.43
This third verse of the anonymous poem, believed to be from Busnoys’ pen, con-
tinues with an acknowledgement of Ockeghem’s status as a singer and identifies the
speaker as his musical heir (see Figure 3).

Figure 3. Antoine Busnoys, In hydraulis, lines 11-15. Text and translation from P. Higgins, ‘Lament-
ing “our master and good father”’, 310-311.
Hec Ockeghem cunctis qui precinis
Galliarum in regis latria,
Practiculum tue propaginis
Arma cernens quondam per atria
Burgundie ducis in patria.
You Ockeghem, who are chief singer before
all [premier chapelain] in the service of the
King of the French,
strengthen the youthful/immature practice of
your progeny
when, at some time, you examine [the results
of] these aspects in the halls
of the Duke of Burgundy, in your fatherland.

Obrecht’s homage to Ockeghem in these three Masses, though initiated decades

later, resonates with Busnoys’ paean to his admired older colleague in his In hydraulis
motet. As Rob Wegman has demonstrated, Busnoys’ musical style profoundly in-
fluenced Obrecht, an inspiration likely borne of personal contact. Obrecht’s father,
a brilliant trumpeter, moved in the court circle around Charles, Count of Charolais
(the future Duke of Burgundy) which was inhabited on occasion by Busnoys, making
personal contact between the already-renowned composer and the precocious young
Jacob in the period 1467-70 quite possible.44 Perhaps Obrecht followed Busnoys
example in adopting musical quotation for honorific purposes, but it is noteworthy
that he seems not to have done so to pay tribute to Busnoys, despite the fact that he
admired and learned much from his music. Instead, it was Ockeghem, as both singer
and composer, who so captivated Obrecht that he sought to capture both in his own
compositions. Francesco Florio’s hearty praise of Ockeghem’s appearance, manner,
character, and voice – personally observed twenty years before the composer’s death

43
Higgins developed her insights on Ockeghem’s centrality to the emergence of what she terms
‘creative patrilineage’ in ‘Lamenting “our master and good father”. Intertextuality and creative
patrilineage in musical tributes by and for Johannes Ockeghem’, in Tod in Musik und Kultur.
Zum 500. Todestag Philipps des Schönen, edd. S. Gasch & B. Lodes (Tutzing 2007), 277-314.
On the dense web of intertextual references proposed between Ockeghem and Busnoys, see in
particular 277-294.
44
Regarding the probability of early contact between Obrecht and Busnoys, see Wegman, Born
for the muses, 63-65; he explores the impact of Busnoys’ Mass style on Obrecht in 94-100.

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– offers us a sense of what so impressed Obrecht, and can help us to fathom why he
would employ such extraordinary reverential strategies to evoke Ockeghem’s pres-
ence during the Mass ritual.
Obrecht belongs among those composers who contributed to the construction
of a ‘creative patrilineage’ descending from Ockeghem, but the nature of his con-
tribution stands apart. Obrecht’s salutes are at the same time more overt and less
self-conscious than those by Busnoys and others. Rather than allusive musical refer-
ences whose meanings rely on implied textual associations, Obrecht favors direct
quotations whose meanings hinge primarily on their ritual placement in the Mass.
His decisions to draw on bass lines that Ockeghem both composed and sang, and to
cite intact polyphonic segments at ritual moments focused on God’s presence, seem
less concerned with declaring his own relationship to Ockeghem than in dramatically
and palpably extolling a musician he deeply admired. Regardless of the lens through
which we view the retooling of others’ music within a new creation, Obrecht’s
distinctive approach to composing Ockeghem’s presence into these three Mass set-
tings is eloquent testimony to the profound and often personal nature of composers’
mutual engagement during this period.

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