Performers: Pascal Bertin (countertenor), Jean Nirouet (countertenor), Akira Tachikawa (countertenor), Raphaël Boulay (tenor), Edmund Brownless (tenor), Christophe Einhorn (tenor), Antoine Guerber (tenor), Philippe Balloy (bass), Jacques Bona (bass)
Playing time: 64'
Recording date: September 1992
Reissued in Virgin Veritas VBDS 5 61818-2 (2 CDs)
Dufay's four mature cantus firmus masses are the Missa Se la face ay pale, the Missa L'homme armé, the Missa Ecce ancilla Domini, and the Missa Ave Regina cælorum. Of these, the Missa Ecce ancilla Domini is the shortest and most melodically intricate. (To this list should now probably be added the Missa Resvellies vous and maybe the Missa Puisque je vis and others.)
This is a full service setting of Dufay's mass, but instead of using chant as in most other such performances, polyphonic settings of the Propers De anglelis Dei officium (composed during the same time period) are used. In fact, this particular Propers setting is tentatively attributed to Dufay. The Propers setting is in the same style as Dufay's hymns, basically simple harmonizations of the chant theme. In other words, they are simpler than the Ordinary setting, but more complicated than plainchant.
A recording of Dufay's final mass by a related ensemble:
A recording of Dufay's prominent Missa "Se la face ay pale" in a similar full-service interpretation:
Two recordings of Dufay's simpler integrated Propers-Ordinary settings:
Some other recordings of the present mass:
A recording devoted to other examples from the body of hymns from which the present Propers is taken:
Finally, a recording devoted to mass movements by Dufay:
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To FAQ references to this recording.
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Todd M. McComb