The Toulouse Mass is a polyphonic 14th-century musical setting of the Mass

Mass (music)

The Mass, a form of sacred musical composition, is a choral composition that sets the invariable portions of the Eucharistic liturgy to music...

 found in a manuscript in the municipal library of Toulouse

Toulouse

Toulouse is a city in the Haute-Garonne department in southwestern FranceIt lies on the banks of the River Garonne, 590 km away from Paris and half-way between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea...

. It was not composed by a single individual, but is presumed to have been compiled and performed as a unit. The present location of Toulouse does not necessarily mean it was composed there.

It is not completely clear whether the Mass portions included in the manuscript were intended as a complete polyphonic setting of the Mass, or merely represent isolated movements. They were inscribed in empty spaces in a manuscript that otherwise contains plainchants and texts. The manuscript is also missing a polyphonic Gloria in excelsis Deo

Gloria in Excelsis Deo

"Gloria in excelsis Deo" is the title and beginning of a hymn known also as the Greater Doxology and the Angelic Hymn. The name is often abbreviated to Gloria in Excelsis or simply Gloria.It is an example of the psalmi idiotici "Gloria in excelsis Deo" (Latin for "Glory to God in the highest")...

 and Credo

Credo

A credo |Latin]] for "I Believe") is a statement of belief, commonly used for religious belief, such as the Apostles' Creed. The term especially refers to the use of the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed in the Mass, either as text, Gregorian chant, or other musical settings of the...

. However, it does include a note identifying a motet

Motet

In classical music, motet is a word that is applied to a number of highly varied choral musical compositions.-Etymology:The name comes either from the Latin movere, or a Latinized version of Old French mot, "word" or "verbal utterance." The Medieval Latin for "motet" is motectum, and the Italian...

 on Ite, missa est following the Sanctus

Sanctus

The Sanctus is a hymn from Christian liturgy, forming part of the Order of Mass. In Western Christianity, the Sanctus is sung as the final words of the Preface of the Eucharistic Prayer, the prayer of consecration of the bread and wine...

 and Agnus Dei (which appear adjacently in the manuscript). The manuscript also has part of a tenor line from a Credo that appears in both the Ivrea Codex

Ivrea Codex

The Ivrea Codex is a parchment manuscript containing a significant body of 14th century French polyphonic music....

 and Apt Codex, as well as the Barcelona Mass

Barcelona Mass

The Barcelona Mass is a polyphonic mass written around 1360. Together with the Messe de Nostre Dame by Guillaume de Machaut and those of Toulouse, Tournai and the Sorbonne, it is one of the earliest preserved complete polyphonic musical settings of the Ordinary of the Mass...

, so perhaps that movement was used as well. It is also possible there never were supposed to be a Gloria or Credo with the Mass; some plainchant Masses omit them.

The Mass was composed somewhat after the Tournai Mass

Tournai Mass

The Tournai Mass is a polyphonic setting of the mass from 14th-century France. It is preserved in a manuscript from the library of the Tournai Cathedral.-Background:...

, the earliest known such Mass. It is in "song style," where only one voice has a text, and has three voices; as opposed to the "simultaneous style" of the Tournai Mass. Some of the pieces seem to have been adapted from motets, however.

• The Kyrie
  Kyrie
  Kyrie, a transliteration of Greek κύριε , vocative case of κύριος , meaning "Lord", is the common name of an important prayer of Christian liturgy, which is also called the Kýrie, eléison ....
  
   is found in the Ivrea Codex as well, and a trope on it is in the Apt Codex.
• The Sanctus
  Sanctus
  The Sanctus is a hymn from Christian liturgy, forming part of the Order of Mass. In Western Christianity, the Sanctus is sung as the final words of the Preface of the Eucharistic Prayer, the prayer of consecration of the bread and wine...
  
   has a contratenor and cantus in the same range and with the same rhythmic formulas, which implies that it may have been a three-voice motet with one of the texts removed.
• The Agnus Dei uses the trope Rex immense pietatis (King of infinite mercy), and is the clearest use of "song style" in the Mass.
• The motet on Ite, missa est uses the text Laudemus Jesum Christum (Let us praise Jesus Christ). Unlike ordinary motets, it has only one line with text (thus the "song style"). It also resembles a four-voice motet with a part missing, perhaps omitted in order to match the style of the other pieces.

Recordings

• Schola Cantorum of the Church of St. Mary the Virgin: Charpentier, Messe pour le Samedy de Pasques; Delalande; Messe de Tournai; Messe de Toulouse. Musical Heritage Society, 1979.
• Ensemble médiéval de Toulouse: La Messe de Barcelone / La Messe de Toulouse. Ariane 1988
• Ensemble Organum: Missa Gotica. ZigZag 2009

External links

• Toulouse Mass at La Trobe University Medieval Music Database