A ‘Parody’ on Josquin's Inviolata in Barcelona 1967: An Unknown Mass by Philippe Verdelot?

Abstract

Preserved anonymously and without title in Barcelona 1967 is a unique six-voice polyphonic Mass which to a large extent ‘parodies’ Josquin's famous setting of the Marian sequence Inviolata, integra et casta es Maria. It was copied along with other works apparently imported from northern Italy to the court of the duke of Calabria in Valencia in the early 1540s, the supposed provenance of the choirbook, and bears every indication of having been written by a skilled Franco-Flemish hand c.1520–3. More particularly, the counterpoint, richly woven texture and sonority have much in common with music attributed to Philippe Verdelot, especially in works he composed from c.1518 through to his time in Florence up to 1527. This article draws upon several works by Verdelot for stylistic comparison, including an eight-voice Inviolata setting now attributed to him, as well as music by his contemporaries, and also shows how the composer of the Mass was skilled in manipulating Josquin's themes, and contrapuntal textures and structures, thus demonstrating his debt to the master.