A Josquin substitution

Abstract

The Benedictus of Josquin's famous Missa L'homme armé super voces musicales consists of three duos for bassus, altus and superius voices, respectively ('Benedictus/Qui venit/In nomine Domini'). But in the copy of the mass preserved in a manuscript in the Frankfurt Stadt- und Universitätsbibliothek, Josquin's Benedictus has been replaced by a four-voice setting that uses a modified version of Josquin's cantus firmus. This peculiar 'substitution', rare in music of this period, forms part of the prehistory of the German Josquin Renaissance. © The Author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press; all rights reserved.