Obrecht's Missa de Sancto Donatiano in Context

Text and Context:
Obrechts Missa de Sancto Donatiano

in Its Social and Ritual Landscape*
M. Jennifer Bl oxam
Obrechts reputation as a note-smith has shaped our modern perspective on his music
to a remarkable degree; his compositional facility and contrapuntal ingenuity continue
to fascinate.1 His many masses in particular reward analysis focused primarily on his
manipulation of the notes; these works have the power to satisfy modern eyes and ears
as free-standing edifices whose most important external connections are to each other
(as we ponder matters of style development and chronology) and to the masses of
predecessors, contemporaries, and followers (as we assess origins, influence, and legacy).2
Yet we are now more richly informed about Obrechts life and the environments
in which he worked than ever before, and so better situated to view these impressive
architectural constructions from a vantage-point within a landscape once familiar to
the composera landscape that includes the social and religious dimensions within
which his sacred music was created and used.3 The function of his masses in these two
fundamental dimensions can at last begin to inform our analysis of the works themselves;
only by discovering a compositions role within a larger landscape can we begin to
fathom why Obrecht made the notes do what they do.
Texts, not notes, furnish the material to reconstruct the framework of function
around the mass music of Obrechts time. Three levels of text beg for our attention: first,
* This essay is the final component in a multi-media project devoted to Obrechts Missa de Sancto Donatiano and its
context, launched in 2005 in partnership with the Dutch-based ensemble Cappella Pratensis. The centerpiece of the
project, containing the complete filmed re-creation of the mass, is the CD+DVD entitled Jacob Obrecht: Missa de
Sancto Donatiano (Bruges 1487), Cappella Pratensis, dir. by Stratton Bull and Peter Van Heyghen (Fineline, FL 72414,
2009). A website with annotated and animated scores, film clips, and additional content complements the CD+DVD:
see <http://obrechtmass.com/home.php>. On the projects aims and process, see M. Jennifer Bloxam and Stratton
Bull, Obrecht and the Mass for St. Donatian: A Multi-Media Triptych, in Journal of the Alamire Foundation 2 (2010),
111-25. The present article is best read with the website at hand, so as to view the images and consult the examples as
animated scores with audio and film clips included.
I am profoundly grateful to many colleagues who contributed in many different ways over many years to the research
that culminates with this essay and the associated website; I wish to offer special thanks to Stratton Bull and the men
of Cappella Pratensis, Sarah Riskind, Vronique Roelvink, Jessie Ann Owens, Reinhard Strohm, Rob C. Wegman,
Nol Geirnaert, and the staff and students of the 2006 and 2008 Williams Instructional Technology Summer Intern
Program. A fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities and generous assistance from Williams
College were crucial to the completion of this project.
1
See the astute analysis of the evolution of Obrechts modern reputation in Rob C. Wegman, Obrecht, Jacob, in Grove
Music Online. Oxford Music Online, <http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/20231> (ac-
cessed 28 August 2010). Fabrice Fitch examines certain negative modern judgments that have attached to the com-
posers compositional dexterity, using them as a springboard for a renewed appreciation of his compositional
techniques, in For the Sake of His Honour: Obrecht Reconsidered, in Tijdschrift van de Koninklijke Vereniging voor
Nederlandse Muziekgeschiedenis 48 (1998), 150-63.
2
The most ambitious and successful application of this traditional approach to Obrechts mass music is Rob C. Wegman,
Born for the Muses: The Life and Masses of Jacob Obrecht (Oxford, 1994).
3
Wegman, in Born for the Muses, paints a vivid picture of Obrechts life, and in recent decades a small army of scholars
too numerous to name here have illuminated the musical culture of centres where Obrecht worked: Ghent, Cambrai,
Bruges, Bergen-op-Zoom, Antwerp, and Ferrara.
10.1484/J.JAF.1.102191 J o u r n a l o f t h e a l a m i r e f o u n d at i o n 3 (2011) 11
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the text to which he set his notes; second, the text of the readings, recitations, and chants
that surrounded his mass ordinary settings in the performance of the mass ceremony;
and third, the diverse array of texts, from archival records to liturgical treatises, that
reveal the context within which these worship services were created and experienced.
What does context encompass when the object of study is a polyphonic setting
of the mass ordinary? Three overlapping contextual spheres are most relevant. Certainly
social context is one essential pillar on which to build an understanding of a works
function: who requested it and why, who sang and heard it and under what circumstances.
Ritual context can likewise inform our perspective on sacred polyphony: the spoken
and sung texts and ceremonial actions of the liturgy hold narrative and symbolic content,
and the architectural setting and its visual adornments amplify this meaning. Finally,
consideration of theological context can offer insights into the religious beliefs that not
only underpin the social and ritual contexts within which this music was used, but that
also have a profound impact on its compositional details.
For most polyphonic settings of the mass ordinary we know few of the textual or
contextual particulars; the basic questions regarding who, where, when, and why can
be answered only in part. For Obrechts Missa de Sancto Donatiano, however, a treasure-
trove of textual and contextual detail survives to enable us to reconstruct the framework
of function, and so to more fully understand Obrechts compositional decisions.
A Will and a Widow
When the wealthy Bruges furrier Donaes de Moor died on 9 September 1483, he left his
widow, Adriane de Vos, to carry out his last wishes as expressed in his will.4 In keeping
with his charitable and spiritual concerns before his death, Donaes provided that after
his demise new endowments should support several new masses at the Sint-Jacobskerk,
his parish church in Bruges, as well as provide alms for those confined in the citys
donckercamer, or debtors prison.
Several years passed before Adriane was able to fulfill the terms of her husbands
will: he had died in political exile from Bruges on his estates in Middelburg (Zeeland),
and his body could not be returned to Bruges for burial until she paid the city magistrates
for what was, in effect, her husbands posthumous pardon. By 1486, however, Donaes
was at rest in the Sint-Jacobskerk, his grave near the choir marked by a red marble stone
with inlaid brass coats of arms.5
The foundation charter, finalized on 19 February 1487, includes the specific terms
of the endowment for De Moors memorial service.6 A vivid impression of the ceremony
4
The extraordinary discovery of the details surrounding the creation of this mass was made by Reinhard Strohm; the
summary here draws on his Music in Late Medieval Bruges, rev. ed. (Oxford, 1990), 145-46, and his notes for the edition
of the mass in the New Obrecht Edition 3, ed. Barton Hudson (Utrecht, 1984), xiii-xv. For more on Donaes, see <http://
obrechtmass.com/explore/donaes.php>; about Adriane, see <http://obrechtmass.com/explore/adriane.php>.
5
The grave marker is described in a manuscript collection of texts and drawings devoted to epitaphs and grave mark-
ers in religious institutions in Bruges, made c. 1700 by Ignace-Michel de Hooghe. See <http://www.historischebron-
nenbrugge.be/bronnen/hooghe/frameset.php>.
6
The original charter is Bruges, Rijksarchief, Inv. No. 88 (Archief Sint-Jacobskerk Brugge), No. [970] = regest 600 =
charter 447; an exact copy is found in Bruges, Rijksarchief, Inv. No. 88 (Archief Sint-Jacobskerk Brugge), No. 888, the
register of the churchs foundation acts. Another copy, dated 14 March 1487, is found in a charter of the guild of the
furriers, which was responsible for carrying out the foundation (Bruges, Stadsarchief, No. 345, liasse 45). I am grateful
12 M. JENNIFER BLOXAM
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emerges, beginning with bell-ringing on the eve of the feast day (see Appendix A for
the transcription of these passages):
Every year, on the eve of St. Donatian and on the day of St. Donatian beginning at seven
oclock in the morning, the biggest bell named Jacob should ring [luden] for half an
hour; then the same bell should chime [beyaerden] without cease until eight oclock in
the morning.7 Item. Also every year, on the aforementioned day of St. Donatian, we and
our heirs must sing a solemn mass of St. Donatian in discant in the aforementioned
chapel [of Donaes de Moor and Adriane de Vos] with a priest, deacon, and subdeacon,
at seven oclock in the morning, with the great organ, and with the companions of music
of the same church [of Sint-Jacob].8 And throughout the mass the bells should ring
and after the mass the priest, with deacon and subdeacon, and the priest wearing his
cope [cappe],9 should go to the grave [of Donaes de Moor], and there read the psalm
De profundis with collect Item. Every year the musicians of the church should be
paid; there must be at least six of them; if not, the zangmeester [cantre] with his children
shall fulfill their task. To sing the polyphonic mass, we and our heirs will pay seventeen
grooten [to the entire group of singers]. Item. Every year the organist who plays the great
organ for this mass should be paid three grooten and the organ blower one grooten for a
total of four grooten.10
Thus, from the desire of this generous citizen to gain entry into heaven, and his
particular concern for contributing to his parish church and the poor, sprang a
remarkable piece of music. To obtain the solemn mass for St. Donatian in discant
required by the foundation, his widow apparently approached no less a composer than
Jacob Obrecht, the succentor of the collegiate church of Sint-Donaas in Bruges at this
time, to craft a setting of the mass ordinary for her husbands memorial service.11 Obrecht
must have composed the Missa de Sancto Donatiano sometime between the foundation
of the endowment in February 1487 and the first observance of the commemoration on
14 October that year. Whether he was involved in the performance of the mass is not
known, but he was still in Bruges, having just two weeks earlier obtained permission
to Vronique Roelvink for her generous help in clarifying the nature of the several documents concerning this foun-
dation, sharing her photographs and transcriptions, and advising about the translation of the segments relevant to
this mass. Lengthy excerpts from the De Moor foundation are published in Jean J. Gailliard, Bruges et le Franc, 6 vols.
(Bruges, 1857-64), vol. 2, 371-78, available online at <http://www.bsb-muenchen.de/>.
7
This special bell-ringing technique of chiming, known as beyaerden, originally meant rhythmically playing a swing-
ing-bell or -bells, either indirectly by rope pulls or directly with hammers or clappers; see Andr Lehr, Wim Truyen,
and Gilbert Huybens, The Art of the Carillon in the Low Countries (Tielt, 1991), 90-94. Remarkably, the tower bells
customarily rang throughout such memorial mass ceremonies in Bruges (as noted in Strohm, Music in Late Medieval
Bruges, 3-4); the change to a more animated peal after a half hour suggests a connection to the progress of the ritual
underway within the church, possibly signaling the transition to the eucharistic phase of the liturgy and the impend-
ing Elevation.
8
The phrase ghesellen vander musike, here translated as companions of music, is a common designation for church
musicians in the Low Countries at this time, and conveys a certain group identity; see Rob C. Wegman, From Maker
to Composer: Improvisation and Musical Authorship in the Low Countries, 1450-1500, in Journal of the American
Musicological Society 49 (1996), 409-79 at 471.
9
Regarding this vestment, also known as the pluviale, see Joseph Braun, Die Liturgische Gewandung im Occident und
Orient: Nach Ursprung und Entwicklung, Verwendung und Symbolik (Darmstadt, 1964), 306-58; also Maurice B.
McNamee, Vested Angels: Eucharistic Allusions in Early Netherlandish Painting (Leuven, 1998), 215-16.
10
Another charter concerning the financing of this foundation, but lacking the description of the foundation itself, is
preserved in Bruges, Stadsarchief, No. 457, a contemporaneous collection of foundation texts from the city.
11
Otto Gombosi was the first to suggest a connection between this mass and the city of Bruges in Jacob Obrecht: Eine
stilkritische Studie (Leipzig, 1925), 116, but it was Strohm who discerned the special significance of the cantus firmi to
the De Moor foundation (Music in Late Medieval Bruges, 146-47).
text an d context: obrecht s M i s s a d e s a n c t o d o n at i a n o 13
jaf_3_1.indd 13 22/03/11 08:19

from the chapter of Sint-Donaas to absent himself for six months after the next feast of
St. Donatian in order to accept the Duke of Ferraras invitation to visit his court.12
More may be known about the architectural and decorative environment in which
this mass was first sung, and about the details of its performance, than about any other
single mass of the period. The parish church of Sint-Jacob still stands, although
iconoclasts largely destroyed its medieval treasures and trappings in 1567, and Baroque
accretions now obscure our sense of the fifteenth-century structure. During the lifetime
of Donaes, and with the financial support of wealthy merchants of the parish like him,
the Sint-Jacobskerk underwent significant expansion that began in 1457 with the addition
of two southern aisles and the relocation of the choir, which was consecrated in 1470.
In the mid-1470s another flurry of construction expanded the nave to three aisles,
changed the tower, and created a new western entrance.13 Fortunately we can retrieve
some sense of the late-medieval interior in a painting executed by Pieter Claeissins the
Elder (1499/1500-1576), depicting the Presentation of the Virgin in the Temple as
imagined in the choir of the Sint-Jacobskerk after the choirs completion and before the
destruction of 1567.14 Spacious side chapels can be seen to either side of the high altar,
over which a large altarpiece is open; the carved choir stalls, tiled floor, Corinthian
columns supporting Gothic arches, intricate stone-carving, and the sheen of rich fabric
and metal trappings impart a vivid sense of the wealth of this important parish church.
Through the gate to the north of the altar in Claeissins painting we can glimpse the
entrance to the private apsidal chapel that Donaes and Adriane founded upon receiving
permission on 12 May 1479.15
Those participating in or attending the memorial mass for Donaes de Moor sung
annually on 14 October in the chapel of Sts. Donatian and Adrian would have walked
to the easternmost end of the church to reach the small chapel that extended from the
north side of the apse.16 In the mid-autumn around seven oclock dawn would be
breaking; the altarpiece at the high altar was probably still closed, as the days masses in
choro were yet to occur. But upon reaching the private chapel, participants and witnesses
would see, illuminated by candlelight over the small altar, portraits of Donaes and
Adriane flanked by their patron saints, posed in permanent prayer before the image of
the crucified Christ lifeless in his mothers arms at the foot of the Cross. This altarpiece,
commissioned by the couple from a local painter not long before the merchants
12
For the text of this document, see Wegman, Born for the Muses, 141.
13
On the architecture and ornament of the Sint-Jacobskerk, see W. Rombauts, Het oud archief van de kerkfabriek van
Sint-Jacob te Brugge (XIIIde-XIXde eeuw) (Brussels, 1986).
14
This painting, part of The Devonshire Collection (<http://www.chatsworth.org/learn/the-devonshire-collection>),
can be viewed at <http://obrechtmass.com/explore/sintjacobskerk.php>. The identification of the interior setting as
that of the Sint-Jacobskerk was made by J. Rotsaert, Het hoogaltaar in de Sint-Jacobskerk te Brugge, in Het Brugse
Ommeland 15 (1975), 130-32.
15
About the De Moor chapel and the couples other donations to the Sint-Jacobskerk, see Maximiliaan Pieter Jan Martens,
Artistic Patronage in Bruges Institutions, ca. 1440-1482 (Ph.D. diss., University of California, Santa Barbara, 1992),
vol. 1, 262 and 264-66.
16
A reproduction of the post-expansion ground plan of the Sint-Jacobskerk in Bruges, showing the apsidal chapel of
Sts. Donatian and Adrian, is found in Raymond M. Lemaire, Bouwen door de eeuwen heen in Vlaanderen: Inventaris
van het cultuurbezit in Belgi. Architectuur: Deel 18na, 1: Stad Brugge: Oudste kern (Turnhout, 2000), 301. A photograph
of the original document preserved in the Sint-Jacobskerk can be seen at <http://obrechtmass.com/explore/sintjacob-
skerk.php>.
jaf_3_1.indd 14 22/03/11 08:19

departure into political exile in May 1483, would serve as the visual focus before which
the commemorative mass was celebrated (see Plate 1).17
As was the custom, Donaes and Adriane had furnished their small chapel with
everything necessary for the celebration of mass; the list enumerated when the care of
the chapel was transferred to the parishs poor box (dis) mentions all the ecclesiastical
implements, altar cloths, chasubles, statues, surplices, maniples, copes, curtains, chalice,
ampulas, the Easter board, chandeliers, and all the rest in the said chapel.18 According
to the French liturgist Guillaume Durand (c. 1237-96), priestly vestments for this mass
in honour of a Confessor Bishop would have been white, by virtue of their integrity and
innocence: he cited from the Book of Lamentations and the Book of Revelations by way
of justification (Her Nazarites were made white [Lam. 4:7]; and They shall walk with
me in white [Rev. 3:4]).19
The charter stipulates that at least six singers were required to sing the mass, and
that if needed the zangmeester and his boys could be enlisted; in choral forces the church
of Sint-Jacob boasted, in addition to the zangmeester, four choirboys and about ten
singer-clerks, including the essential tenorista Denijs van Spiere.20 The notated range of
the superius part in Obrechts mass is fairly low (reaching d only four times, descending
with some frequency to g, and moving primarily in the c-g span), so choirboys were by
no means essential; in the minimum configuration of six singers, the bassus and tenor
parts were probably sung by single voices, while the altus and superius most likely
required two adult voices per part.21
The use of the great organ for the service is certain, probably played by the new
organist of the Sint-Jacobskerk, Jan van Hille, who began his appointment in 1487.22
Flemish organs at this time were generally double-chest instruments, with one manual
for the Hauptwerk and another for the Rckpositiv (the little organ placed at the organists
back). As a rule only the Rckpositiv was capable of two or three different timbres, and
the organ probably had no pedal.23
The specific role of the organ, however, is unclear. Perhaps, as was the practice at
the collegiate church of Sint-Donaas, it accompanied or alternated with the plainsong
for mass, in particular the Kyrie, lessons, and sequence.24 The organ may also have given
17
For more about this altarpiece, see <http://obrechtmass.com/explore/lamentation.php>. The triptych is attributed to
the Master of the St. Lucy Legend, and survives today in the collection of the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid.
Its central panel is modelled on a Lamentation scene painted by Dirk Bouts in Leuven c. 1455-60. See Colin Eisler, The
Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection: Early Netherlandish Painting (London, 1989), 116-23, and Pita Andrade, Jos Manuel,
and Maria del Mar Borobia Guerrero, Old Masters: Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum (Madrid, 1992), 128-29.
18
Martens, Artistic Patronage, vol. 1, 265-66.
19
William Durand on the Clergy and Their Vestments: A New Translation of Books 2 and 3 of the Rationale Divinorum
Officiorum, trans. T. M. Thibodeau (Scranton, PA, 2010), 213.
20
See Strohms summary of the musical establishment of the Sint-Jacobskerk in Music in Late Medieval Bruges, 57, and
Alphonse Dewitte, Zangmeesters, organisten en schoolmeesters aan de Sint-Jacobparochie te Brugge 1419-1591, in
Biekorf 72 (1971), 332-49. On the role of the tenorista, see Craig Wright, Music and Ceremony at Notre Dame of Paris,
500-1550 (Cambridge-New York, 1989), 322-24.
21
Regarding the distribution of voice parts for sacred music of this period, see David Fallows, Specific Information on
the Ensembles for Composed Polyphony, 1400-1474, in Studies in the Performance Practice of Late Medieval Music,
ed. Stanley Boorman (Cambridge-New York, 1983), 109-59.
22
Dewitte, Zangmeesters, organisten en schoolmeesters, 348.
23
Maarten A. Vente, Die Brabanter Orgel: Zur Geschichte der Orgelkunst in Belgien und Holland im Zeitalter der Gotik
und der Renaissance (Amsterdam, 1958), esp. 11-17.
24
Strohm, Music in Late Medieval Bruges, 31.
jaf_3_1.indd 15 22/03/11 08:19

the pitch for the plainsong intonations.25 Because the great organ was situated on the
choir screen, some distance from the private chapel, it appears unlikely that it could have
served to accompany any part of Obrechts polyphony, though the use of a small positive
organ for this purpose cannot be ruled out.26
The terms of the endowment do not specify a Requiem mass, and the donors
devotion to St. Donatian as well as his expectation that his commemorative polyphonic
mass would be sung on the saints feast day point to the use of the proper formulary for
the feast, rather than to that of the Requiem liturgy associated with obit masses.27 Thus
we turn to the mass formulary for Donatian as preserved in late medieval liturgical
books from Bruges, Cambrai, and the diocese of Tournai in order to set Obrechts
polyphony into its ritual frame.
The Ritual Framework
Although the feast of St. Donatian in Bruges enjoyed triplex status by virtue of his role
as the patron saint of the city, the proper plainsongs for the mass celebration in his
honour drew primarily from the Common of the Saints formulary for a Confessor
Bishop (see Appendix B). Thus the introit, gradual, Alleluia, offertory, and communion
chants offer praise in the most general terms, never naming the saint in question but
rather honouring him as representative of a type.28 The opening plainsong of the service,
the introit Statuit ei, is indicative:29
The Lord established a covenant of peace with him, and made him the chief of the
sanctuary, that the honour of the priesthood should be his forever. V. Lord, remember
David and all his gentleness.
Donatian is named in the collect and postcommunion prayers intoned by the officiating
priest, who invokes the saints intercessory powers. Particulars of Donatians life, however,
are revealed only in the sequence Dies nobis reparatur, which recounts his miraculous
rescue after clinging to a wheel in flood waters, and the healing miracles he worked. In
general, however, St. Donatian is present in the mass ritual primarily as the recipient of
praise for the Christ-like aspects of his life, and as the focus of intercessory prayers.
25
This practice is mentioned by Arnold Schlick in his Spiegel der Orgelmacher und Organisten (Mainz, 1511); see the
translation by Elizabeth Berry Barber (Buren, 1980), 22-23.
26
On the use of the organ in Bruges, see Strohm, Music in Late Medieval Bruges, 31-32 and 57-58, where he notes that
the Sint-Jacobskerk tested a small organ in 1455/56. The organist might well have extemporized over the special
melodies on which Obrecht based his polyphony; for a modern re-creation of such an improvisation, go to <http://
obrechtmass.com/mass.php#>.
27
Wright, Music and Ceremony, 128-34, details the practice of weekly and annual votive masses endowed by benefactors
at Notre Dame in Paris for the salvation of their souls. Specific formularies for special saints were much in demand,
as were Requiem masses, which were identified as such.
28
On the typology of saints, see Andr Vauchez, Sainthood in the Later Middle Ages, trans. Jean Birrell (Cambridge-New
York, 1997), 141-284, and Donald Weinstein and Rudolph M. Bell, Saints and Society: The Two Worlds of Western
Christendom (Chicago, 1982), 141-64.
29
For more about this introit, see <http://obrechtmass.com/examine/introit.php>, in which one can link to a filmed
performance of the entrance ceremony taking place during the singing of this chant, and see a page from a pair of
graduals made between 1468 and c. 1483 for the Sint-Donaaskerk (Bruges, Grootseminarie Mss. D7 and D8) from
which the men are singing.
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A certain impersonal quality pervades this festal liturgy for St. Donatian, especially
in the fore-mass, within which all texts and plainsongs are delivered by a third person
narrator or in the communal first person plural reserved for pleas. Dramatic texts in the
first person singular are withheld until the eucharistic phase of the service: the offertory
sets a psalm text in which the Lord bestows blessings on his (unnamed) priest, and the
communion is based on a passage from the Gospel of Matthew in which Jesus praises
the (once more unnamed) good servant. That the words of Jesus are reserved until after
the Canon of the mass, when Christ is made incarnate in the Host, is tellingwithin
the narrative arc of the service St. Donatian plays a minor role, serving as an exemplar
and intermediary, subsumed into the larger Christological drama of the mass ritual.
Cantus Firmi: Plan and Purpose
Within this sturdy and straightforward framework of the prescribed readings and chants
for the festal mass of St. Donatian, the function of the polyphonic ordinary sections
contributed by Obrecht leap into sharp relief as commentary specific to the
commemorative occasion. The first bold strokes are seen in the composers choice of
pre-existent texts and tunes woven into the polyphony (see Table 1).
First and foremost is the antiphon O beate pater Donatiane, which serves as the
dominant unifying element of Obrechts setting, linking the Kyrie, Sanctus, and Agnus
Dei. As a communal appeal for the saints intercession, this antiphon played several roles
in the liturgy of Bruges: at the collegiate church of Sint-Donaas, for example, it served
as the antiphon to the Benedictus on the sixth day of the octave of the feast and as the
antiphon to the Magnificat at second vespers on the translatio of St. Donatian on 30
August. Most germane to Obrechts purpose, however, was its place among the suffragia
communia, chants deemed appropriate for extra-liturgical use in votive and private
ceremonies.30 In this role, the brief melody and its invocational text must have been sung
often and in a variety of devotional contexts, and thereby deeply ingrained in the
memories of the folk whose town Donatian protected.31
Two additional plainsongs from the office for the natale of Donatian appear as
cantus firmi. Underpinning the Gloria is the first responsory for matins, Confessor
Domini Donatianus, whose melody is known only through its appearance herein. The
eighth responsory for matins, O sanctissime presul, articulates the several divisions of
the Credo; the music of this responsory survives in a fragment of an antiphoner recovered
from book bindings in the Bruges city archives.32
30
See the Breviarium ad usum insignis ecclesie sancti Donatiani Brugensis, pars aestivalis (Paris: Bonnemere, 1520); loca-
tions of this print and additional information can be found in the RELICS database: <http://quod.lib.umich.edu/r/
relics/>.
31
No source from Bruges preserves the melody for this antiphon, but a similar version directed to St. Martin (O beate
pater Martine) appears in sources from Utrecht, serving as the fifth antiphon at vespers and as the Nunc dimittis
antiphon at compline; see New Obrecht Edition 3, xiii, and the CANTUS database (<http://publish.uwo.ca/~cantus/>)
for details.
32
Stadsarchief Brugge, Oud Archief No. 538. See the facsimile in M. Jennifer Bloxam, Sacred Polyphony and Local
Traditions of Liturgy and Plainsong: Reflections on Music by Jacob Obrecht, in Plainsong in the Age of Polyphony, ed.
Thomas Forrest Kelly, Cambridge Studies in Performance Practice 2 (Cambridge, 1992), 149-57 at 150.
jaf_3_1.indd 17 22/03/11 08:19

jaf_3_1.indd 18
Table 1. Arrangement of cantus firmi within the Missa de Sancto Donatiano by Jacob Obrecht
18
CF/sub-section Text/translation
AI O beate pater
O blessed father
AII Donatiane pium Dominum Iesum pro impietatibus nostris deposce.
M. JENNIFER BLOXAM
Donatian, pray to loving Lord Jesus for forgiveness for our sins.
B Gefft den armen gefangen umb got dat u got helpe mari ut aller not.
Give to the poor prisoners for Gods sake, that God may help you out of all your misery.
CI Confessor Domini Donatianus ab utero in sinu matris Ecclesie exceptus. Divine legis precordialiter extitit emulus.
Confessor of the Lord, Donatian, was taken from the womb to the breast of our Holy Mother Church. Divine Law he followed diligently in
his heart.
CII Cumque sacre infantie inspiraret Christus sitire fontem Sancti Spiritus. Divine legis precordialiter extitit emulus.
And when in his holy infancy Christ inspired him to thirst for the waters of the Holy Spirit. Divine Law he followed diligently in his heart.
DI O sanctissime presul Christi Donatiane angelorum choris asscripte et electorum Dei gaudiis addicte.
O most holy priest of Christ, Donatian, enrolled in the choruses of angels, and of the chosen ones of God a participant in their joys.
DII Defende nos continua intercessione et ab hostili animarum et corporum impugnacione.

Defend us by your continual intercession from the hostile onslaughts of both souls and bodies.
DIII Exaudi preces coram te fusas et suscipe vota ad te suspirantium.

Graciously hear our prayers poured out before you and champion the wishes of those who sigh to you.
22/03/11 08:19
jaf_3_1.indd 19
CF/sub-section Text/translation
E O clavis David et sceptrum domus Israel qui aperis et nemo claudit claudis et nemo aperit veni et educ vinctum de domo carceris
sedentem in tenebris et umbra mortis.
O key of David and sceptre of the house of Israel, you who open and none can close, you who close and none can open: come and lead the
captive from his prison where he sits in darkness and the shadow of death.
Kyrie I Christe Kyrie II

Altus: B (x2)
Tenor: AI+AII AI (x2) AI+AII
Bassus: B (x2)
Et in terra Qui tollis

Tenor: CI CII (x2)
Patrem Et incarnatus est (a2) Et resurrexit Et unam sanctam

Tenor: tacet E DIII
Bassus: DI tacet DII
Sanctus Pleni (a3) Osanna Benedictus (a2) Osanna

Tenor: AI+AII no. c.f AI+AII tacet AI+AII
text an d context: obrecht s M i s s a d e s a n c t o d o n at i a n o

Agnus I Agnus II Agnus III

Tenor: AI+AII no c.f. AI+AII
19
22/03/11 08:19
While these three plainsongs from the office of St. Donatian woven into Obrechts
mass clearly identify the saintly object of praise and pleading, the relevance of the two
remaining cantus firmi can be understood only in relation to the commemorative
purpose of the work. A Dutch devotional song known solely by virtue of its inclusion
in this mass, Gefft den armen gefangen umb Got, appears in the second Kyrie; the text
requests alms for the poor prisoner, and thus recalls the charitable projects of Donaes
de Moor. Finally, the Et resurrexit section of the Credo includes the entire text and tune
of the antiphona maiore, O clavis David. The so-called O antiphons (all begin with the
exclamation O) served as the antiphons to the Magnificat at vespers during the final
week of Advent; the text of this particular chant is drawn from the books of Revelation
and Isaiah, and gives voice to the soul, who implores Christ for deliverance from the
chains of prison while sitting in darkness and the shadow of death. The presence of this
plainsong, which had no place in the liturgy of the saints day or in the office for the
Dead, offers a vivid example of the composers ingenuity and purposefulness in choosing
pre-existent material primarily on the basis of textual content uniquely suited to the
occasion.33
The particulars of the placement and treatment of these two unusual cantus firmi
will be taken up below, but worth emphasizing is their shared topos of prison; Obrecht
here accomplishes a deft juxtaposition of the literal and the spiritual senses of exegesis.
By first introducing the image of the worldly prison (sung in the vernacular at the
conclusion of the Kyrie) and then shifting focus to the spiritual prison confining the soul
awaiting salvation (sung in Latin in the Et resurrexit), Obrecht leads the reader/
performer/listener from the literal to the spiritual sense of the words meaning.
The composer clearly chose the pre-existing melodies and texts on which to base
the Missa de Sancto Donatiano with the function of the mass as a memorial commission
in mind; invoking the intercessory power of a patron saint on behalf of a deserving dead
citizen is here the paramount purpose played by the extra-ordinary insertions within
the polyphonic web. But choosing these particular cantus firmi was only the initial step
in the creative processdeciding the details of where and how to use them posed
Obrecht the more intricate and interesting compositional challenge.
Sources
Before embarking on a closer consideration of the manner in which the five cantus firmi
are treated within the Missa de Sancto Donatiano, some attention must be paid to the
way in which the only two extant sources of the mass transmit these texts and melodies.
Given the genesis of the mass as a private commission for an individuals anniversary
commemoration, the use of plainsong melodies and texts specific to a local saint, and
the unusually occasion-specific combination of Dutch song and liturgically anomalous
chant, it is not surprising that only two manuscript copies of the work survive: much
about the mass would have made little sense beyond the environs of Bruges.
The earlier of the two sources is Vatican City, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana Ms.
Cappella Sistina 35 [VatS 35], copied for the Papal Chapel between 1487 and 1490; the
The connection between these two cantus firmi was first made by Strohm, Music in Late Medieval Bruges, 146-47.
33
jaf_3_1.indd 20 22/03/11 08:19

folios containing this mass probably date from 1488, thus raising the possibility that
Obrecht himself introduced his composition to Italy when he came to Ferrara in
December 1487.34 Even so, the Italian scribe responsible for copying the mass into VatS
35 omitted all extra-ordinary texts in the Kyrie and Gloria (that is, the proper texts of
the antiphon and responsory directed to St. Donatian as well as the Dutch song), and
left out the entire proper text of the responsory for Donatian in the Credo while retaining
the text of O clavis David (which, as a universally-known chant, would have been familiar
to him). Somewhat surprisingly, he did include parts of the text of the antiphon O beate
pater Donatiane in the Sanctus, and the entirety of both statements of this text in the
Agnus Dei, despite the fact that the calendar of saints at the Papal Chapel did not include
Donatian.
Despite this scribes omission of much of the proper text, he seems to have copied
from an exemplar preserving details of the local plainsong origins of cantus firmi missing
from the later source, Jena, Thringer Universitts- und Landesbibliothek Ms. 32 [JenaU
32]: particular details (ligatures and repeated notes) of the melody of O sanctissime presul
found in VatS 35 more closely correspond to the chant melody as preserved in the
fragmentary antiphoner from Bruges than the version transmitted in the later, Jena
source.35 JenaU 32, however, includes considerably more (though not all) of the proper
texts for the five cantus firmi; it was copied by a German scribe for the church of All
Saints in Wittenberg between 1500 and 1520, which may explain the retention of the
Dutch song text.36
The process of reconstructing the text underlay for the cantus firmi in Obrechts
mass thus entails completing their texts with the help of the printed Breviarium Brugense
of 1520, and adjusting the sometimes capricious text underlay in the manuscripts of
polyphony with the help of contemporaneous sources of local plainsong. Only by so
doing can we begin to retrieve a text underlay that approximates to the way in which
the singers familiar with the chant would most likely have sung the text at the memorial
for Donaes de Moor. And insofar as attempts to argue for conscious design in the
juxtaposition of ordinary and proper texts in polytextual masses presume that we are
reasonably certain what words and phrases were meant to combine with one another in
performance, this process of reconstruction is essential. I have shown elsewhere just
how divergent text underlay can be in the hands of a scribe copying chant for local
liturgical practice as opposed to one attempting to deal with unfamiliar texts included
in a polyphonic mass;37 the ramifications of this difference will be discussed below, as
we consider more closely the questions of why and how the composer used these
particular pre-existent melodies and texts.
34
For the most recent study of VatS 35, see the detailed codicological study by Adalbert Roth, Die Entstehung des ltesten
Chorbuches mit polyphoner Musik der ppstlichen Kapelle: Citt del Vaticano, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Fondo
Cappella Sistina, Ms. 35, in Gestalt und Entstehung musikalischer Quellen im 15. und 16. Jahrhundert, ed. Martin
Staehelin, Wolfenbtteler Forschungen, Bd. 83, Quellenstudien zur Musik der Renaissance 3 (Wiesbaden, 1998), 43-63.
35
Discussed in Bloxam, Sacred Polyphony and Local Traditions, 149-57.
36
For more on the sources, see <http://obrechtmass.com/explore/jena.php>.
37
See in particular Example 6.1 in Bloxam, Sacred Polyphony and Local Traditions, 152-53.
jaf_3_1.indd 21 22/03/11 08:19

Obrecht as Exegete
The Dutch devotional song and the four plainchants embedded within the Missa de
Sancto Donatiano share no distinguishing melodic characteristics, nor do their modes
unite them.38 Musical unity Obrecht achieved through the use of a head-motifa duet
of six bars duration that begins all five sections of the ordinary. As suggested in general
ways above, Obrecht surely chose each of these cantus firmi primarily for their textual
content, in part for their familiarity to the community he knew would experience this
music, but mostly for their special significance to the function of the foundation the
mass was created to fulfill.
Because the mass formulary for the feast of St. Donatian relies on the chants and
readings from the commune sanctorum, the saints name was neither said nor sung until
the priest intoned the collect. Nor were the worshippers identified as supplicants before
the saint until that point in the ritual. By calling upon the tenorista to sing out the well-
known suffrage antiphon O beate pater Donatiane at the outset of the Kyrierequiring
him, in effect, to become the voice of the community begging forgiveness for our sins
(pro impietatibus nostris)Obrecht makes both the saint and the worshippers present
within the ritual immediately following the introit. In a move analogous to opening the
wings of the altarpiece to reveal Donaes and Adriane with their patron saints at the
commencement of the service (see Plate 1), the composer thus reveals the saint and the
supplicants at the outset of the polyphony. Both altarpiece and mass serve to make the
saint present, the altarpiece by vivid visualization of the imposing bishop, with mitre
and cross, the mass with the tenors attention-getting exclamation (O) and sounding
of the saints name. Both altarpiece and mass make the human community of worshippers
presentthe altarpiece by depicting the donors in prayer, representing the community,
and the mass by allowing their voices to be heard in the first person plural of the
antiphons plea.
The altarpiece, however, is not focused on St. Donatianthe attention of both
saints and donors is drawn, as is ours, to the central panel and its fine rendering of the
Lamentation scene, showing Christs supreme sacrifice. Likewise, Obrechts first
introduction of St. Donatian by means of a carefully chosen plainsong cantus firmus
that beseeches the saints help occurs within the larger canvas of the Kyrie, focused on
God the Father and Christ (Lord, have mercy; Christ, have mercy). Indeed, insofar as
the mass ritual was interpreted by medieval commentators as a re-enactment of Christs
sacrifice and victory, the use of cantus firmi that make the saint present throughout the
mass emphasizes his role as a witness to the sacrifice, as does the altarpiece.39
38
O clavis David, O sanctissime presul, and Confessor Domini Donatianus are mode 2 chants, while O beate pater
Donatianus and Gefft den armen gefangen umb Got are in mode 8 and mode 7, respectively. The composer is inclined
to transpose chants, either in their entirety (as he does with Confessor Domini Donatianus, which centers on a rather
than d) or in part (as he does with Gefft den armen gefangen umb Got, which the altus initially presents on g before
the tune migrates to c in the bassus of Kyrie II ). In O sanctissime presul, the verse is transposed up a fifth when the
chant migrates from bassus to tenor in the Credo. Statements of O beate pater Donatiane center on g until the outset
of Agnus Dei I, when the tune appears on d; its final iteration in Agnus Dei II then returns to g.
39
For a fine introduction to the pervasive understanding of the medieval mass as rememorative drama, see Osbourne
B. Hardison, 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 (Baltimore, 1965), 35-44. This allegorical explication of the ritual was developed
in a steady stream of mass commentaries ranging from Amalar of Metz in the ninth century through Guillaume
Durand at the end of the thirteenth century. The fourth book of Durands mammoth Rationale divinorum officiorum,
jaf_3_1.indd 22 22/03/11 08:19

Means employed by the composer to make the saint audibly present in the Kyrie
include the strategic placement of rests and cadences as well as the manipulation of voice
range. For example, Obrecht inserts a rest in the tenor line between pater and Donatiane
in Kyrie I, thereby allowing a short duet following the cadence on g at the conclusion
of pater to set up another cadence on d which signals the sounding of the saints name
(see <http://obrechtmass.com/examine/kyriei.php>, bb. 6-17).40 In the Christe, the
antiphons opening invocation (O beate pater) sounds twice in the tenor voice, which
enters in dramatic fashion as the highest sounding voice each time (see <http://
obrechtmass.com/examine/christe.php>, bb. 28-52).41 The repetition is in diminution
(from C to D), imparting to the conclusion of the Christe a certain sense of urgency.42
Obrecht presents a brilliant synthesis of materials in the final Kyrie, in which no
fewer than three different textual strands and two pre-existing melodies are heard
simultaneously. This is, however, no chaotic welter of competing components; the
composer dexterously weaves the threads in and out of the texture to enable their
individual content and combined message to be understood. Thus he commences with
only three voices, the tenor immediately beginning his now-familiar suffrage antiphon
O beate pater Donatiane. When the altus enters, the ear is immediately arrested by the
guttural Dutch consonant g, so foreign in this Latin context, that announces the
vernacular devotional song, Gefft den armen gefangen um Got! (Give to the poor
prisoners for Gods sake!). Here the mode of address is the commanding second person,
suggesting the voice of Donaes urging those living to follow his generous example of
almsgiving to those in debtors prison. The Dutch text projects easily through the long
melismas of the Kyrie and likewise carries over the words of the antiphon, its precedence
ensured by the composers strategic use of range and rests in the cantus firmus-bearing
parts (see <http://obrechtmass.com/examine/kyrieii.php>).43 By the conclusion of the
Kyrie, therefore, Obrecht has audibly conjured the revered citizen whose commemorative
mass this is, his name saint, and the worshipping community.
The supplicatory content of the Kyrie vanishes at the outset of the Gloria that
follows, with its succession of brief laudatory declarations. In keeping with this change
of focus, the cantus firmus here dwells on praising Donatians devotion as a young child;
in the overall narrative trajectory of the mass, the Gloria initiates the embedded vita of
the saint that will culminate in the sequence. Obrecht withholds the entrance of the
devoted to a detailed allegorical explanation of every segment of the mass liturgy, became the most influential mass
commentary in the late medieval period; between 1459 and 1501 at least forty-four printed editions appeared (for an
introduction to the importance of Durand, see James F. White, Durandus and the Interpretation of Christian Worship,
in Contemporary Reflections on the Medieval Christian Tradition: Essays in Honor of Ray C. Petry, ed. George H. Shriver
(Durham, NC, 1974), 41-52. In Obrechts time, then, clerics and laymen alike experienced the mass as a dramatic re-
enactment of Christs life, passion, death, and resurrection, in which the Blessed Virgin and the saints participated
according to the feast day.
40
For a modern print edition see Kyrie I, bb. 6-17 in New Obrecht Edition 3, 1-2.
41
For a modern print edition see Christe, bb. 28-52 in New Obrecht Edition 3, 2-3. The high range of the tenor has
prompted the editor to place the tenor part in the altus position, apparently for the comfort of mixed choirs and ease
of score-reading. Unfortunately, this decision completely obscures Obrechts intended effect: to move the tenor into
the higher part of his range so as to project the text over the superius and altus lines in this section.
42
Also worth noting is Obrechts decision to maintain a four-voice texture based on a cantus firmus in the Christe, a
subsection of the ordinary more often treated as a free duet or trio in mass settings of the period. Obrecht writes 4
Christe settings based on cantus firmi with some frequency; here the motivation may stem from a desire to establish
Donatians close alliance with Christ (as an exemplar of Christian virtue and intercessor for sinners) through textual
and musical combinations at the first opportunity in the mass service.
43
For a modern print edition see Kyrie II in New Obrecht Edition 3, 4-5.
jaf_3_1.indd 23 22/03/11 08:19

tenor cantus firmus to mesh with the last in the series of short exclamations in praise of
God the Father, Glorificamus te, thereby directing the joyful text of the Gloria at this
juncture to both God and one of his chosen elect. Imitation serves to clinch an aural
connection between ordinary and proper text units: Obrecht, who seldom resorts to this
texture in this mass, here uses it to link cantus firmus segments with phrases of ordinary
text. Thus the music to which the saints name is set is prefigured by the bassus offering
thanks to the Lord, effectively directing thanks to Donatian as well (see <http://
obrechtmass.com/examine/etinterra.php>, bb. 32-36).44 In similar fashion, the concept
of Divine Law central to the second phrase of the responsory text (He proved to be
spiritually a diligent follower of Divine Law) is made to coincide with the identification
of God the Father Almighty as King of Heaven (Rex celestis, Deus Pater omnipotens),
thus confirming the theology of Divine Law as enacted by the supreme ruler, God (see
<http://obrechtmass.com/examine/etinterra.php>, bb. 53-56). 45
A sonically satisfying shared initial hard consonant sound may have contributed
to the composers decision to synchronize the beginning of the Qui tollis section with
the beginning of the responsory verse, Cumque sacre. Within this latter part of the
Gloria the proper text of the plainsong cantus firmus and the text of the ordinary run
for the most part in separate channels, though it may be more than mere coincidence
that the mention of the Holy Spirit in the text of the respond interlaces with the brief
mention of the same at the conclusion of the ordinary text (see <http://obrechtmass.
com/examine/quitollis.php>, bb. 154-61).46 Obrecht preserves the medieval responsorial
form of the plainsong cantus firmus, bringing back the repetendum of the respond
(beginning with Divine legis) after the verse; he then subjects the verse and consequent
repetendum to diminution, bringing the Gloria to an exuberant conclusion.
While the cantus firmus employed in the Gloria extols Donatians virtues as a
young child, that chosen for the Credo situates the saint among the elect with the angels
in heaven. What might seem a vast lacuna in the narrative of the saints life between
Gloria and Credo is in fact bridged by the concentration of readings and plainsongs
heard between these polyphonic settings of ordinary items (see Appendix B). While the
collect, gradual, and Alleluia are general in nature, praising or beseeching Donatian as
a Confessor Bishop, the epistle reading confirms the saints place among the great priests
favoured by God, and the gospel summarizes the Lords charge to his chosen
representatives as they go out into the world to do His work. Most important for
spanning the narrative gap between Donatians infancy and his posthumous glory is the
sequence Dies nobis reparatur, which summarizes the miracles worked by the saint in
chronological order. By the beginning of the Credo, therefore, the narrative progression
through Donatians life has reached the point that he can be properly celebrated as a
most holy priest of Christ (sanctissime presul Christi), able to intercede on behalf of
Donaes de Moor.
44
For a modern print edition see Gloria, bb. 32-36 in New Obrecht Edition 3, 7.
45
For a modern print edition see Gloria, bb. 53-56 in New Obrecht Edition 3, 8. On the theology of Divine Law, see
Thomas Aquinas, Summa theologica Ia IIae, qu.90, article 4; see also Thomas Slater, Moral Aspect of Divine Law, in
The Catholic Encyclopedia 9 (New York, 1910), <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09071a.htm> (accessed 5 September
2010).
46
For a modern print edition see Gloria, bb. 154-61 in New Obrecht Edition 3, 12.
jaf_3_1.indd 24 22/03/11 08:19

At the opening of the Credo, Obrecht plays adroitly with his listeners expectations
by postponing and disguising the entrance of the cantus firmus, O sanctissime presul
Christe (see <http://obrechtmass.com/examine/patrem.php>, bb. 1-28).47 Near the end
of the head-motif duet the tenor enters earlier than expected (before the cadence) and
with an active line quite unlike a long-note cantus firmus. Superius, altus, and tenor
reach a cadence on a in b. 14, at which point the tenor abruptly sounds a long note
enduring three tempore, inviting the listener to hear this as the entrance of the cantus
firmus. It is the bassus, however, who sneaks in with the true cantus firmus, in lively
rhythms doubled at the tenth above by the altus. This notably unusual manner of
introducing the cantus firmus clearly plays off the text of the Credo itselfthe composer
sets up the subterfuge entrance of the plainsong cantus firmus to coincide with the
ordinary phrase et invisibilium (and invisible).48
Because the plainsong model of this cantus firmus survives, it is possible to fine-
tune the text underlay of the cantus firmus to better reflect what the singers present at
De Moors commemoration would likely have done (shown in <http://obrechtmass.com/
examine/patrem.php>, bb. 14-28).49 In so doing, a telling conjunction of proper and
ordinary text units is revealed: the saints name is sounded beneath the ordinary phrase
Jesus Christ only-begotten Son of God (Iesum Christum, Filium Dei unigenitum), an
alignment that gives sonic affirmation to Donatians privileged status as a saint, a holy
person whose life exemplified Christs teachings.
The Et incarnatus segment of the Credo, which here encompasses Christs
incarnation, birth, passion, death, and burial, is set apart as a duo for the upper voices.50
Imitation is here used as a musical analogue for the generative process: the technique is
reserved for text phrases having to do with Jesus being made incarnate through the
agency of the Holy Spirit and from the Virgin Mary (see <http://obrechtmass.com/
examine/etincarnatus.php>, bb. 64-72).51 Musically speaking, that part of the Creed
focused on the Incarnation is remarkably downplayed (the phrase et homo factus est,
for example, is not made solemn through the use of longer note values). Rather, the
dramatic musical effect of textural expansion to four parts moving slowly and
homophonically is reserved for the Resurrection clause, an emphasis surely motivated
by the commemorative purpose of this mass. Obrecht ensures that this passage is made
even more significant and personal by entwining the O-antiphon O clavis David with
the ordinary text in the upper parts and the text and tune of the responsory verse in the
bassus. Affirmation of Christs resurrection and ascension thus combine with the
communal plea for Donatians intercession and, most movingly, with the prayer for
rescue from the prison of death. The special import of this segment of the Credo is
further intensified by the shift of modal center herewhereas the Credo has heretofore
focused on g, the Et resurrexit emphasizes d.
47
For a modern print edition see Credo, bb. 1-28 in New Obrecht Edition 3, 13-14; note, however, that the text underlay
provided therein does not reflect the improvements enabled by the discovery of the plainsong model discussed below,
and incorporated within the digital score available on the website.
48
Wegman, Born for the Muses, 171, provides a detailed description of the unusual opening of this Credo, but does not
suggest a textual inspiration for it.
49
Bloxam, Sacred Polyphony and Local Traditions, 152-55.
50
Curiously, this duet is omitted in VatS 35 and the text crowded into the section following. Perhaps this modest setting
of et homo factus est did not suit the purposes of the Papal Chapel, for whose use this manuscript was copied.
51
For a modern print edition see Credo, bb. 64-72 in New Obrecht Edition 3, 17.
jaf_3_1.indd 25 22/03/11 08:19

Obrecht distributed the cantus firmus in such a way that the final section is built
upon the verse of the responsory, whose text continues in the vein of communal
supplication to Donatian. Just as the interlacing of ordinary and proper texts in the
Et resurrexit bound together Christs triumph over death with De Moors hope for
redemption, so does the Creeds concluding declaration of faith in the coming
resurrection of the dead and life everlasting fuse with the communal entreaty to
Donatian. That death and resurrection are the central concern of this concluding part
of the Credo is captured and confirmed in sound as well: the musical space is gradually
collapsed over the course of the phrase Et expecto resurrectionem to a very low octave
on g, from which a sudden ascending burst of minims on mortuorum, covering the
interval of a tenth in one bar, seems to catapult the dead out of the grave (see <http://
obrechtmass.com/examine/etunam.php>, bb. 180-88).52
The singers entrusted with the performance of Obrechts Credo thus stand in for
the community, bringing the fore-mass to a conclusion by expressing hope for
resurrection at the Last Judgment (for both De Moor and themselves) and entreating
Donatian to intervene on their behalf.53 The composer thus actively moulds the content
at this important juncture in the ritual to fit the nature of the occasion for which it was
created.
With the beginning of the sacramental part of the ritual, the focus of the ceremony,
and hence its textual content, changes. The offertory chant delivers the words of God
himself, drawn from Psalm 88, offering a general blessing of the Confessor Bishop. Next,
the priest again quietly invokes the saint as a general type in the secret, a prayer that
concludes the oblation rites.
The celebrant in the preface then exhorts the worshippers to join their voices with
the celestial choir to begin the Sanctus. For his setting of the angelic hymn, Obrecht
chose to return to the suffragia communa antiphon for St. Donatian on which the Kyrie
was primarily based; as a plainsong that begins with the laudatory invocation of the saint
and continues to beseech his intercession, it accomplishes a dual task (see <http://
obrechtmass.com/examine/sanctus.php>, bb. 6-24).54 First, this cantus firmus now
serves to place Donatian quite audibly among the exclamations of praise; the unusual
tactic of beginning a passage of strict imitation at the proper text Donatiane, pium
Dominum Iesum between bassus and tenor after both parts are already underway seems
to underscore the saints presence by giving double emphasis to both the text and chant
melody at this point.55 And second, the imploring content of the latter part of the
antiphon maintains the presence of the community in need of Donatians intercession
within a part of the mass otherwise focused exclusively on the praise of God. A rare
instance of harmonic colouringthe contrapuntally unnecessary superius b7 signaled
at bb. 13 and 18seems intended to lend a plaintive quality to the sounding of the saints
name.
52
For a modern print edition see Credo, bb. 180-88 in New Obrecht Edition 3, 21-22.
53
See Bonnie J. Blackburn, For Whom Do the Singers Sing?, in Early Music 25 (1997), 593-609, for a broad and beauti-
ful consideration of this question in relation to the motet repertory.
54
For a modern print edition, see Sanctus, bb. 6-24 in New Obrecht Edition 3, 23.
55
Neither source for the mass includes the text from the antiphon on which the bassus melody is based in bb. 14-23, but
the deliberate resumption of the ordinary text in the bassus on precisely the note that ends the passage of imitation
between tenor and bassus in VatS 35 (a source whose text underlay is meticulous) suggests a deliberate omission of
the proper text in the bassus at some point in the works transmission.
jaf_3_1.indd 26 22/03/11 08:19

The three-voice Pleni, without cantus firmus, is loosely imitative in the opening
superius/altus duet, and employs several scalar ascents spanning as much as an eleventh.
An impression of exuberance is further captured in the concluding drive to the cadence,
accomplished by means of an ascending ostinato figure in the superius.
In a striking juxtaposition to the conclusion of the Pleni, motion almost ceases
with the opening of the Osanna: all four voices proceed in virtual homophony in long
notes values. The communal antiphon O beate pater Donatiane reappears as the tenor
cantus firmus, here commencing immediately to mingle with the long O of Osanna.
The solemnity of this moment of the Sanctus receives confirmation in the treatment of
the cantus firmus, which here receives the most chant-like presentation, both visually
and aurally, of its seven appearances in the mass (see <http://obrechtmass.com/examine/
osanna.php>).56
Obrechts motivation for this impressively solemn opening for the Osanna is best
understood in relation to the progress of the mass ritual. Upon concluding the preface,
the celebrant begins the quiet prayers comprising the Canon of the mass as the singers
begin the Sanctus. Late medieval custom dictated that the Elevation of the Host occur
during or at the conclusion of the first Osanna (the Benedictus thus serving to greet
the now-present Christ), and indeed, the style of Obrechts Osanna calls to mind the
convention for polyphonic elevation motets.57
If we imagine the intimate space of the De Moor chapel, with the white-robed
priest standing before the altar with his back to the assembled worshippers and raising
the Host aloft for all to see, we realize that the Host would have been viewed against the
painted image of the crucified Christ dead in his mothers arms. 58 This visual
synchronization perfectly captured the symbolic import of this central ritual moment.
Late medieval commentators on the mass, as well as mass tracts for laymen from the
period, consistently view the time around the consecration and Elevation of the Host as
an opportunity for meditating upon the Passion story; indeed, some saw the very act of
elevating the Host as symbolic of Christs being raised on the Cross.59 Furthermore, after
the Elevation the celebrant stood with arms extended to represent, as Guillaume Durand
explains, the crucified Christ.60
Not only was the attention of those present drawn to the elevated Host in front
of the Lamentation sceneit would have appeared at this moment that the fixed gazes
of the donors and their patron saints on the altarpiece wings were also contemplating
56
For a modern print edition see Sanctus, bb. 65-99 in New Obrecht Edition 3, 26-27.
57
On the Elevation in the later medieval period, see douard Dumoutet, Le Dsir de voir lHostie et les origins de la devo-
tion au Saint-Sacrement (Paris, 1926), 54-73, and Miri Ruben, Corpus Christi: The Eucharist in Late Medieval Culture
(Cambridge, 1991), 12-163. The style of Elevation pieces is explored in Bonnie J. Blackburn, The Dispute about Harmony
c. 1500 and the Creation of a New Style, in Thorie et analyse musicales 1450-1650: Actes du colloque international
Louvain-la-Neuve, 23-25 septembre 1999, Musicologica Neolovaniensia, Studia 9, ed. Anne-Emmanuelle Ceulemans
and Bonnie J. Blackburn (Louvain-la-Neuve, 2001), 13-37.
58
Just this moment in the ritualthe Elevation of the Host in a chapel before a small altarpieceis seen in Illustration
7D in James W. McKinnon, Representations of the Mass in Medieval and Renaissance Art, in Journal of the American
Musicological Society 31 (1978), 21-52 at 41 (drawn from a fragmentary Flemish Book of Hours of c. 1492, London,
British Library, Add. 25698).
59
See Dumoutet, Le Dsir de voir lHostie, 56; advice for laymen contemplating the Elevation is found in Langfordes
Meditations in the Time of the Mass, in Tracts on the Mass, ed. J. Wickham Legg, Henry Bradshaw Society 27 (London,
1904), 23-25, and The Lay Folks Mass Book or the Manner of Hearing Mass, ed. Thomas Frederick Simmons (London,
1879, repr. 1968), 38-43.
60
Noted by Hardison, The Mass as Sacred Drama, 65.
jaf_3_1.indd 27 22/03/11 08:19

both Bodies of Christ, one in the form of bread, the other the painted image. If the
Elevation was in fact prepared or accompanied by the singing of Obrechts Osanna, then
the prayer asking for Donatians intercession, surely audible within the polyphony at this
point, would impart yet another dimension to the experience of this moment, drawing
special attention to the richly robed figure of Bishop Donatian on the left wing of the
triptych, now seen as a solemn witness observing the ritual enacted at the altar before
him.61
In contrast to the sonorous solemnity of the Osanna, Obrechts Benedictus
setting is intimate, a lightly imitative duet for the upper voices. This is a characteristic
approach for the period, and suggests a certain sensitivity to the emotional contour of
the ritual itself, encouraging a few quiet moments of introspective personal prayer after
the dramatic climax of the Elevation. The frequent use of imitative texture for this
segment of the Sanctus may, like other passages in the texts of the Gloria and Credo
concerned with concepts of succession, have been suggested by the text itself: Blessed
is He who comes in the name of the Lord.
With the conclusion of the prayers of the Canon accomplished during the
Benedictus and final Osanna, the Agnus Dei soon followed upon the heels of the
recitation of the Pater noster and the offering of the Pax Domini. Obrechts decision to
base the Agnus Dei on the same cantus firmus used in the Sanctusthe suffrage antiphon
O beate pater Donatianemay in part reflect their relative temporal proximity and a
desire to musically unite these two polyphonic sections of the eucharistic celebration.
But in fact this cantus firmus serves a rather different purpose within the Agnus Dei:
whereas it introduced a dimension of entreaty to the Sanctus and Osanna not otherwise
present in these texts of exuberant praise, in the Agnus Dei it serves to intensify the
threefold plea to the Lamb of God by lacing into it a prayer that likewise asks loving
Lord Jesus for the forgiveness of sins, but through the intercession of Donatian.
In Agnus Dei I, as in the Christe, Obrecht places the tenor high in his range,
consistently above the altus and rising even over the superius for key words (Donatiane;
Iesum); in Agnus Dei III, the tenor settles back into his usual place to sing the final
plea to St. Donatian. One last, rare moment of plangent modal inflection occurs with
the superius b7 at b. 106, carefully placed at the beginning of the concluding plea for
peace, dona nobis pacem (see <http://obrechtmass.com/examine/agnusdei3.php>,
bb.104-17).62
Beatus servus, the communion chant for a Confessor Bishop that follows the
Agnus Dei, returns to general praise for an unnamed saint:
Blessed is that servant whom the Lord when he comes shall find watching: verily I say to
you that he shall make him ruler over all his goods.
The effect of this plainsong on the worshippers gathered before De Moors altarpiece at
the conclusion of his annual memorial mass can only be surmised, but its evocation of
the blessed servant watching and waiting for the final coming of the Lord resonates
61
This ritual climax of the mass of St. Donatian, re-created before the image of the altarpiece that once adorned the De
Moor chapel, can be viewed at <http://obrechtmass.com/mass.php#>.
62
For a modern print edition see Agnus Dei, bb. 104-17 in New Obrecht Edition 3, 32.
jaf_3_1.indd 28 22/03/11 08:19

perfectly with the image of both St. Donatian and Donaes de Moor in perpetual vigil on
the wing of the triptych.
Before the celebrant concluded the ceremony with the Ite missa est formula, he
offered the postcommunion prayer. This text, in the communal first person, not only
makes explicit the ultimate salvific goal of the eucharistic ritual in which those present
have participated, but also affirms St. Donatians intercessory role in achieving that aim:
We humbly beseech you, almighty and merciful God: that our holy participation in this
mystery may, through the intercession of St. Donatian, your confessor and priest, cleanse
us of all sins, protect us and lead us to the kingdom of heaven.
At the conclusion of the commemorative mass for Donaes de Moor, as stipulated

in the foundation document, the ministers and singers moved to the merchants grave
near the choir of the Sint-Jacobskerk, where they chanted the penitential Psalm 129, De
profundis, from the office of the Dead.
Another Unnamed Honoree?
That many of the decisions made by Obrecht in the course of creating the Missa de Sancto
Donatiano were shaped by what he knew to be its function as a commemorative mass
for a specific person is beyond doubt. Certain musical aspects suggest the composer also
paid subtle tribute to an esteemed older colleague, effectively making his mass do double
duty.
At several points within the Missa de Sancto Donatiano, Obrecht quotes or
paraphrases passages from Johannes Ockeghems Missa Ecce ancilla Domini, most
notably at the outset of the Kyrie (in which the first seven notes of the bassus correspond
precisely to the opening of the bassus in Ockeghems mass), and at the beginning of the
Osanna (in which the first five bars of the Osanna from the Missa Ecce ancilla Domini
are quoted in full).63 In addition to these and other recollections of Ockeghems mass,
the very style of the Missa de Sancto Donatiano emulates that of the older composer.64
Obrecht probably met the first chaplain of the French king during the latters
travels in Flanders during August 1484.65 Certainly Ockeghems music exerted a
considerable influence on Obrecht, ranging from overt quotation of song tenors as
cantus firmi to more veiled allusions.66 But why did Obrecht choose to quote here from
Ockeghems Missa Ecce ancilla Domini in particular? On the face of it, there was no
63
Andrew B. Wathey, Isoperiodic Technique in Cantus Firmus Organization, c.1400-c.1475 (Research Paper, St.
Edmund Hall, Oxford, 1979), 31-32, as cited in Wegman, Born for the Muses, 169-71. At some point early in his com-
positional process Obrecht must have realized that that the first four tenor pitches in Ockeghems Osanna (drawn
from within the final Ecce ancilla Domini segment of the antiphon Missus est angelus Gabriel which serves as
Ockeghems cantus firmus) matched those of the antiphon O beate pater Donatiane, with which he chose to underpin
the Kyrie, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei. For more on Ockeghems mass, see <http://obrechtmass.com/explore/ecce.php>;
the score of Obrechts Osanna, opening with the quote from Ockeghems mass, can be seen and heard at
<http://obrechtmass.com/examine/osanna.php>.
64
Noted by Wegman, Born for the Muses, 171-74.
65
Ibid., 83-84.
66
Barton Hudson, Obrechts Tribute to Ockeghem, in Tijdschrift van de Koninklijke Vereniging voor Nederlandse
Muziekgeschiedenis 37 (1987), 3-13.
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special Marian emphasis on the occasion for which Obrecht composed the mass for St.
Donatian.
Once again, ritual and theological context suggest an answer. The placement of
the most striking quotation at the beginning of the Osanna not only harnesses this
laudatory acclamation in praise of Ockeghem, but also incorporates a Marian component,
albeit a subtle one, within that part of the ritual focused on the Transubstantiation.
Ockeghems festal focus in his Missa Ecce ancilla Domini was of course the Annunciation
(Behold, the handmaid of the Lord being Marys reply to the angel Gabriel, as related
in the Gospel of Luke, that precipitated the miracle of Incarnation). The potent
correspondence between Transubstantiation and Incarnation was widely noted by
medieval theologians: just as the Incarnation was accomplished without loss of Marys
virginity through the power of the Holy Spirit, thus making God physically present on
earth, so the Transubstantiation of the Host was effected by the descent of the Holy Spirit
over the altar, transforming the bread without external alteration into the Body of Christ.
Popular eucharistic miracle tales relating the appearance of the Christ Child in place of
the Host at the moment of Consecration captured the analogy for a wider audience.67
Obrechts forthright quotation of Ockeghems Missa Ecce ancilla Domini at the
outset of the very segment of the ordinary that accompanied the Consecration and
Elevation of the Host thus functioned, for those able to recognize the reference, as a
sonic symbol of Mary and the Incarnation at this critical juncture of the ceremony.
Indeed, the Lamentation altarpiece before which the celebrant raised the Host would
have visually captured Marys essential role for everyone watching: the painted figure of
the blue-robed woman holding the head of the crucified Christ cradled in her arms
dramatically identifies her as the mother from whose body He came, and into whose
arms His dead body was returned.
The Will of a Widow
Adriane de Vos surely gazed with considerable empathy at this forlorn figure of the
mourning Virgin during her husbands memorial mass. Was she also able to appreciate
how the composers sensitive choice and treatment of cantus firmi so perfectly
encapsulated the final wishes and notable legacy of Donaes de Moor?
In fact, the chronology leading up to the creation of Obrechts Missa de Sancto
Donatiano offers compelling reason to believe that Adriane played a significant role in
helping shape the composers approach to her husbands commemorative mass. How
intimately Obrechts selection and treatment of cantus firmi connect with the merchants
charitable concernsproviding for the poor and imprisonedis striking. Obrecht,
however, probably never knew Donaes de Moor. The merchant left Bruges for Middelburg
in the spring of 1483 and died in exile on 9 September 1483; at this time Obrecht was a
young man busy with his first position as zangmeester for the Guild of Our Lady in
Bergen op Zoom, some sixty kilometers to the east. He may have visited Bruges in
August 1484 in order to meet Ockeghem while en route to Cambrai to accept the position
of magister puerorum at the cathedral there; he certainly did visit the city two or three
67
Rubin, Corpus Christi, 135-39.
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times between February 1485 and October 1485, when he arrived to assume the post of
succentor at the collegiate church of Sint-Donaas.68 Thus, whenever the composer came
by his knowledge of De Moors particular virtues as a good citizen, it occurred at least
one year, and perhaps more than three, after the merchants death. Adriane, to whom
fell the responsibility of establishing the foundation for this mass, is the most likely
person to have shared such information about her husband with the composer of the
required discant. Perhaps she even sang for him the Dutch song Gefft den armen
gefangen umb Got. Although we cannot know the extent of their interaction, Obrecht
clearly created his mass with a deep awareness of the specific contextssocial, ritual,
and theologicalthat gave meaning to the occasion.69
The composers star was on the rise when Adriane requested the Missa de Sancto
Donatiano from Obrecht. His reputation, which by 1487 extended beyond Bruges all the
way to Italy, surely prompted the widow to turn to him for a solemn mass in discant,
just as the reputation of the Bruges painter now known as the Master of the St. Lucy
Legend attracted the couples patronage when they desired an altarpiece to grace their
private chapel. The skill with which the composer worked his notes and the painter his
oils once commanded Adrianes admiring attention as it does ours today, but we need
not be content to admire and analyze the object alone. As the art historian Shirley
Neilsen Blum observed at the outset of her exploration of northern triptychs, without
knowledge of the environment for which an object was made we are left with a painting
that may be physically intact but is conceptually always a fragment.70 Approached as
free-standing objects, polyphonic mass settings like Obrechts Missa de Sancto Donatiano
will remain conceptual fragments; they can become part of a larger whole only when
matters of function and context are harnessed as integral components in their analysis.
By so doing, we stand to gain a more thorough understanding not only of their interior
details but, ultimately, of what they once meant to the people who made and used them.
68
Wegman, Born for the Muses, 83-84 and 133-37.
69
Wegman, Born for the Muses, 169-74, argues that this mass represents a creative identity crisis for Obrecht in which
he abandoned old habits, in particular the signature rational cantus firmus treatments. Much of what is unusual about
this mass, however, may be due to its dual functions as a public homage to a layman, and a private homage to an older
composer. In its comparative brevity and lack of rigid devices, the Missa de Sancto Donatiano may have been faster
and easier to conceive, requiring less in the way of pre-compositional planning than stricter layouts and procedures.
70
Shirley Neilsen Blum, Early Netherlandish Triptychs: A Study in Patronage (Berkeley, 1969), 7.
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Appendix A. Excerpt from foundation act regarding the mass for St. Donatian
Bruges, Rijksarchief, Inv. No. 88 (Archief Sint-Jacobskerk Brugge), No. 888, fols. 27r-28r
(drawn from a transcription kindly provided by Vronique Roelvink)
... jaerlicx eeuwelike gheduerende snavents up Sinte Donaes avent ende in sghelycx up den dach
van Sinte Donaes ten zeven hueren beghinnende te doen luden de meeste clocke gheheeten Jacop
... ende die alleene eene halve huere lanc gheduerende ende daer naer up de zelve clocke beyaerden
zonder verlaten oec een halve he [sic] huere gheduerende tot dat de clocke achte ghesleghen zyn
zal ... Item altoos jaerlicx upten vornoemden dach van Sinte Donaes zo zullen wy ende alle onse
vornoemde naercommers ghehouden zyn te zoen zynghen eene solempnele messe van Sinte
Donaes in discante inde vornoemde cappelle met eenen priestre dyakene ende subdyakene altoos
snuchtens ten zeven hueren ofte daer omtrent metter meester orghele ende metten ghesellen
vander musike vander zelver kerke Ende zullen doen beyaerden de messe lanc gheduerende ...
ende zullen als dan de priestre metten dyaken ende subdyaken ghegheerent ende de priester
metter cappe gaen naer de messe ten grave voors.[vorscreven] ende aldaer lesen den psallem de
profundis metten collecten als boven ... Item zullen oec betalen jaerlicx de musichienen vander
zelver kerke de welke moeten zyn tot zesse personen in ghetale of meer of waeren gheene
musichiene inde vors.[vorscreven] kerke dan zo zalt bewaren de cantre aldaer met zynen kindren
ende zullen jaerlicx wy ende onse voornoemde naercommers gheven vor de vornoemde messe
te zynghene in discante zeventien grooten Item den orghelare oec jaerlicx van te spelene up de
groote orghele ter vornoemder messe drie grooten ende den blazeren eenen grooten comt tsamen
viere grooten.
jaf_3_1.indd 32 22/03/11 08:19

Appendix B. Mass formulary for the natale of St. Donatian (October 14)
Manuscript and printed sources consulted:
Bruges, Grootseminarie Mss. D7 and D8. Gradual of St. Donatian compiled between 4 December
1468 and c. 1483. Contains plainsong and texts for the introit, gradual, Alleluia, offertory and
communion.
Bruges, Grootseminarie Ms. 48/3. Missal of the hospital of Sint-Marie-Magdalen, dated 1454.
Contains the incomplete sequence text.
Missale parvum secundum usum venerabilis ecclesiae Cameracensis (Paris: Simon Vostre, 1507).
Contains texts of the collect, epistle, complete sequence, gospel, and postcommunion. (The
cathedral of Cambrai included St. Donatian in its sanctorale, and apparently adopted the
formulary used in Bruges).
Missale ad vsum ecclesie Tornacensis (Antwerp: Cristoffel van Ruremunde, 1540). Contains the
preface text and tone. (Bruges was in the diocese of Tournai, and lacking a source of the preface
from Bruges itself, this missal from the diocesan seat provides the closest source).
Extracts from the Bible are drawn from the Vulgate. For the locations of the prints, see the
RELICS database (<http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/b/bib/bib-idx?c=relics>).
FORE-MASS
Introit (for Confessor Bishop) (mode 1) (Eccl. 45:30, Ps. 131:1)
Statuit ei Dominus testamentum pacis et principem fecit eum: ut sit illi sacerdotii dignitas in
eternum. V. Memento Domine David et omnis mansuetudinis eius.
KYRIE
GLORIA
Collect
Omnipotens sempiterne Deus tuorum corona fidelium: da nobis famulis tuis in hac beati
Donatiani confessoris tui atque pontificis solemnitate mentis et corporis gaudium: ac illo iugiter
intercedente pacis augmentum et sine fine cum angelis triumphum.
Epistle (After Eccl. [Sir.] 44:16-27, 45:3-20)
Lectio libri Sapientie. In diebus illis: Ecce sacerdos magnus qui in diebus suis placuit Deo et
inventus est iustus: et in tempore iracundie factus est reconciliatio. Non est inventus similis illi
qui conservavit legem Excelsi. Ideo iureiurando fecit illum Dominus crescere in plebem suam.
Benedictionem omnium gentium dedit illi et testamentum suum confirmavit super caput eius.
Agnovit eum in benedictionibus suis: conservavit illi misericordiam suam: et invenit gratiam
coram oculis Domini. Magnificavit eum in conspectu regum: et dedit illi coronam glorie. Statuit
illi testamentum eternum et dedit illi sacerdotium magnum: et beatificavit illum in gloria fungi
jaf_3_1.indd 33 22/03/11 08:19

sacerdotio et habere laudem in nomine ipsius et offerre illi incensum dignum in odorem
suavitatis.

Gradual (for Confessor Bishop) (mode 4) (Ps. 20:4-5)
Domine prevenisti eum in benedictionibus dulcedinis: posuisti in capite eius coronam de lapide
pretioso. V. Vitam petiit et tribuisti ei longitudinem dierum in seculum seculi.

Alleluia (mode 1) (Ps. 109:4)

V. Iuravit Dominus et non penitebit eum: Tu es sacerdos in eternum secundum ordinem
Melchisedech.

Sequence
1. Dies nobis reparatur solennis letitie.

Qua Donatiano datur corona iusticie.
2. Hunc patronum patri novum partus unus edidit
Qui creari modo pari septenos non credidit.
3. Hic futurus vas honoris et exemplum ceteris.
Decus vite sanctioris addit annis teneris.
4. Aquis absorptus vivus manet sed obortus clamor plangit mortuum.
Dum stat in mota natans super eum rota effertur post triduum.
5. O quam pulchrum renovavit in eo spectaculum
qui Moysen conservavit in aquis infantulum.
6. Cetus Ionam devoratum reddit terre sospitem
marna prebens famulatum novum fovet hospitem.
7. Presul remis consecratus acceptus omnibus et moribus ornatus equitatis stans in via.
Martham foris exhibebat per ministerium sed ocium querebat intus idem quod maria.
8. Nunc in bonis consummatus est a Deo commendatus signis et miraculis.
Demon aqua buliente quos cecavit hic repente lumen reddit oculis.
9. Miles sancto preces sternens se precantem dire spernens cecatur continuo.
Ex flagello culpam noscens quod negabat mori ignoscens per hunc videt denuo.
10. Vota reddunt pro salute duo peralytici.
Gloriantes de virtute tam potentis medici.
11. Filiorum iugulatrit atque viri dum peccatrix flet in ferro scelera.
Sancto Dei provoluta culpa ferroquam solute domum redit libera.
12. Ipse pedes compedite a functura natium separavit.
Que procedens expedite de salute gaudium reportavit.
13. Unius prece nos a fece mundi dues exue.
Et post mortem redde sortem salutis perpetue. Amen.
Gospel (Luke 10:1-9)
In illo tempore: Designavit Dominus et alios septuaginta duos: et misit illos binos ante faciem
suam in omnem civitatem et locum quo erat ipse venturus. Et dicebat illis: Messis quidem multa:
operarii autem pauci. Rogate ergo Dominum messis: ut mittat operarios in messem suam. Ite:
ecce ego mitto vos: sicut agnos inter lupos. Nolite portare sacculum neque peram neque
calciamenta et neminem per viam salutaveritis. In quamcumque domum intravertis primum
dicite: Pax huic domui. Et si ibi fuerit filius pacis: requiescet super illam pax vestra: sin autem ad
jaf_3_1.indd 34 22/03/11 08:19

vos revertetur. In eadem autem domo manete: edentes et bibentes: que apud illos sunt. Dignus
est enim operarius mercede sua. Nolite transire de domo in domum. Et in quamcumque civitatem
intraveritis et susceperint vos manducate que adponuntur vobis: et curate infirmos qui in illa
sunt et dicite illis: Adpropinquavit in vos regnum Dei.
[Sermon]
CREDO
EUCHARIST
Offertory (for Confessor Bishop) (mode 2) (Ps. 88:25)
Veritas mea et misericordia mea cum ipso: et in nomine meo exaltabitur cornu eius.
Secret
Preface
Vere dignum et iustum est equum et salutare: nos tibi semper et ubique gratias agere: Domine
sancte pater omnipotens eterne Deus: per Christum Dominum nostrum: per quem maiestatem
tuam laudant angeli adorant dominationes tremunt potestates: celi celorumque virtutes ac beata
seraphim socia exultatione concelebrant. Cum quibus et nostras voces ut admitti iubeas
deprecamur supplici confessione dicentes:
SANCTUS
Eucharistic prayers
Pater noster
AGNUS DEI
Communion (for Confessor Bishop) (mode 3 transposed to a) (Matt. 24:46-47)
Beatus servus quem cum venerit Dominus invenerit vigilantem: amen dico vobis super omnia
bona sua constituet eum.
Postcommunion
Supplicantes te rogamus omnipotens et misericors Deus: ut huius participatio sancta

mysterii intercedente beato Donatiano confessore tuo atque pontifice nos a peccatis
omnibus mundet et muniat et ad celestia regna perducat.
Ite missa est
jaf_3_1.indd 35 22/03/11 08:19

Abstract
This essay is the fifth and final segment of the multi-media project The Sounds of Salvation:
A Re-creation of the Mass for St. Donatian by Jacob Obrecht, a collaboration between
the author and Stratton Bull, the Artistic Director of Cappella Pratensis. Building on
Reinhard Strohms 1985 discovery linking Obrechts polyphony to the foundation of a
commemorative mass for a Bruges fur merchant, this project began with a filmed re-
creation of the mass service in which Obrechts ordinary settings were resituated within
the local liturgy for St. Donatian and the historical context of the event explored in on-
location interviews (CD/DVD, FineLine Classical, FL72414, 2009). This was followed
by a lecture/concert tour with workshops, and the creation of a website with film
clips, animated and annotated scores, and content pages expanding on the historical
background of the occasion (<http://obrechtmass.com/home.php>). In a co-authored
essay (this Journal 2 [2010], 111-25) Bull and Bloxam then described and reflected on the
challenges and rewards of their collaboration.
Here, the threads of the project are drawn together in an analysis of Obrechts
Missa de Sancto Donatiano that places the determining role of the works function at
the centre of the analytic process. After establishing the social context of the occasion
for which the polyphony was created, the analysis begins with an examination of the
specific ritual framework of plainsongs, prayers, and readings for the mass within which
Obrechts ordinary setting was experienced. It then explores the profound impact that
the social context , the ritual framework, and the theology expressed in that ritual had
on the inner musical workings of Obrechts polyphony, and how Obrechts music in turn
interacted with the dramatic narrative of the commemorative ceremony. By considering
his choice and treatment of pre-existent material (four plainsongs, a Dutch song, and a
quotation from Ockeghems Missa Ecce ancilla Domini) as well as details of counterpoint
and text-setting, the analysis reveals how profoundly Obrechts compositional decisions
were informed by the social and ritual function his polyphony was meant to serve.
Links to the website enable readers to see and hear animated scores of the plainsong and
polyphony of the Mass for St. Donatian, as well as view clips from the re-creation of the
ceremony.
jaf_3_1.indd 36 22/03/11 08:19

Obrecht's Missa de Sancto Donatiano in Context

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A Will and a Widow

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The Ritual Framework

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Cantus Firmi: Plan and Purpose

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AII Donatiane pium Dominum Iesum pro impietatibus nostris deposce.

DII Defende nos continua intercessione et ab hostili animarum et corporum impugnacione.

DIII Exaudi preces coram te fusas et suscipe vota ad te suspirantium.

Kyrie I Christe Kyrie II

Et in terra Qui tollis

Patrem Et incarnatus est (a2) Et resurrexit Et unam sanctam

Sanctus Pleni (a3) Osanna Benedictus (a2) Osanna

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At the conclusion of the commemorative mass for Donaes de Moor, as stipulated

Another Unnamed Honoree?

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The Will of a Widow

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Manuscript and printed sources consulted:

Introit (for Confessor Bishop) (mode 1) (Eccl. 45:30, Ps. 131:1)

Epistle (After Eccl. [Sir.] 44:16-27, 45:3-20)

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1. Dies nobis reparatur solennis letitie.

Gospel (Luke 10:1-9)

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Offertory (for Confessor Bishop) (mode 2) (Ps. 88:25)

Communion (for Confessor Bishop) (mode 3 transposed to a) (Matt. 24:46-47)

Supplicantes te rogamus omnipotens et misericors Deus: ut huius participatio sancta

Ite missa est

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