Summer Festival of Sacred Music at St. Bart's Continues 8/10

The Summer Festival of Sacred Music at St. Bart's continues on Sunday, August 10 at 11 am with a service featuring Josquin's Missa L'Homme Armé Sexti Toni. Josquin des Prez (c. 1450-1521) is regarded to be the central figure in the Franco-Flemish school and the first master of the high Renaissance style of polyphonic vocal composition. He served as music director for the chapel of the Duke of Ferrara in Italy and the collegiate church of Notre Dame in Condé-sur-l'Escaut on the border between France and Belgium near his birthplace.

His Missa L'Homme Armé Sexti Toni was published in 1502 and is the second cantus firmus mass of Josquin's to employ this tune. The term Sexti Toni denotes that the mass is written in the sixth mode. L'Homme Armé, was a very popular song from the 15th century, a hit tune as it were, and was used by very prominent composers from the 15th and 16th century such as Dufay, Obrecht, Ockeghem and Palestrina. Its simplicity and well balanced melodic line made it attractive to these composers. Unlike Josquin's earlier L'Homme Armé Mass, in which the cantus firmus only appears in the tenor voice, the cantus firmus appears in all voices in the Sexti Toni Mass. Josquin's well developed compositional virtuosity is demonstrated in this mass, with advanced canonic writing as well as the use of retrograde.

St. Bartholomew's Choir will be conducted by William K. Trafka. The choir will also offer Josquin's epic Qui habitat, an elaborate 24-voice motet.

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