Cappella Nova - The Complete Works of Robert Carver Volume Two

ROBERT CARVER
(c.1484/5 - AFTER 1568)

Mass for six voices
(ed. Kenneth Elliot)

1. Gloria - 5.30
2. Credo - 7.15
3. Sanctus - Benedictus - 9.39
4. Agnus Dei - 6.55


Mass L'Homme armé for four voices
(ed. Kenneth Elliot)

5. Gloria - 7.33
6. Credo - 8.56
7. Sanctus - Benedictus - 9.53
8. Agnus Dei - 9.54

Carver's Mass for six voices of about 1515 is constructed on the familiar pattern of clearly-defined sections for different combinations of voices. Those in six parts for full choir are weighty and sonorous, freely contrapuntal, but occasionally introducing imitative detail between the voices, and only very occasionally more solidly structural imitation. Individual parts are always beautifully shaped, constantly crossing within a wide range, and eminently singable, in spite of occasional harmonic constraints, and the overall effect is one of much sensuous sonority And in the very last measures of the final Agnus Dei there is a wonderfully effective use of imitation at the same pitch. Those sections for smaller combinations of solo voices (from two to four) are more elaborate often much more so, with the characteristic demisemiquaver figure resembling an ornamental turn - and introduce more imitative effects. One recurring feature in the three-part solo sections is that of lightly duetting and interweaving upper voices producing very subtle dissonances over a stationary bass, already noted^† in what I believe to be Carver's roughly contemporary motet Gaude fiore virginali. (Ex. 1) It is a cyclic Mass in that each movement opens with similar music, but the presence of other material common to one or two movements might suggest that it is a parody Mass perhaps based on one of Carver's own earlier motets, now lost.

Carver's Mass L'Homme armé for four voices of about 1520 follows the time-honoured practice of basing a musical composition on a pre-existing melodic 'scaffolding', as it were - in this case the famous French popular song much set by fifteenth- and sixteenth-century European composers. Carver was in fact the only British composer to use it as the basis for the composition of a Mass. The text is set in the usual series of well-defined sections for four voices (full) alternating with those for three and two (solo). And while those for four are freely decorative, the solo sections are again often much more elaborate and contain imitative effects of detail between the voices. The basic melody (cantus firmus) is not always present, but it does appear in different voices and at different pitches from time to time, and is subjected to various rhythmic transformations. A typical example comes at the end of the Sanctus, where the tune is sung in a triple-time cross-rhythm 'with' the other duple-time voices, but is then turned into another triple-time cross-rhythm 'against' the other voices - and that (partially) backwards. (Ex. 2) But perhaps the most spectacular rhythmic effect occurs in the final Agnus Dei (the traditional place for a composer's display of notational cunning and technical virtuosity) where the cantus firmus is presented in our equivalent of ⁹₄ with the other three parts simultaneously in ³₂, ⁴₂, and ⁶₄ It all sounds perfectly natural, and in the way of countless such canonical tricks from Dufay to Bach (and beyond) - Tovey aptly called it "harmless cryptography" - satisfies the eye of performer and connoisseur alone- What is remarkable about this Mass, apart from its marvellously consistent vocal style, is its sheer exuberance of musical ideas and their imaginative development. As it is not linked with a particular day in the liturgical year, the Mass is therefore suitable for performance on any important feast day.