Missa Papae Marcelli - The Tudor Consort

The Tudor Consort is excited to present Palestrina’s legendary Mass for the first time since 2001.

In the mid-16th century, the Roman Catholic Church convened the Council of Trent, to consider and respond to issues of the Protestant Reformation. One of the issues discussed was the ‘lasciviousness and impurity’ of Mass settings based on popular secular melodies, and the difficulty of understanding the text clearly amidst such highly intricate polyphony. In reaction to the Council, Palestrina composed the Mass; the simple and declamatory style (known as imitative polyphony) of the Missa Papae Marcelli is a direct response to the latter injunction, which has led to the legend that Palestrina ‘saved polyphony’ from being banned by the Council.

The mass is named after the short-lived Pope Marcellus II, who clocked in at a mere 22 days as Pope, making him the 6th shortest reigning Pontiff.

This is Palestrina’s most famous mass, and has been studied for centuries as a prime example of Renaissance polyphony, with its vocal interplay. The legend of this Mass has even inspired an opera - Hans Pfitzner’s Palestrina (1917).

This performance will take the form of a liturgical reconstruction, a practice developed by our founding director Simon Ravens. Rather than performing the Mass movements one after the other, they will be set within the original framework of Gregorian chant, in this case the Propers for the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Pre-concert talk at 7pm, concert at 7.30pm. School age children come free.