Missa Tournai

The Missa Tournai or the Tournai Mass is the earliest surviving complete mass set to music. It comprises six movements, each of which are for three voices. There are wide disparities in style and notation between the movements, and there does not appear to be a systematic underlying musical structure such as a common cantus firmus. For this reason, the Mass is believed to have been composed independently by several musicians over a period of fifty or more years, only later being compiled by a scribe to be performed as a whole. The name derives from the fact that the manuscript is located at Tournai cathedral in France.

The first known mass to have been conceived of and composed as a single unified work is the Messe de Nostre Dame by Guillaume de Machaut, and it is likely that he used the Missa Tournai as a model.

The Mass Structure

• The Kyrie is written in Franconian notation, and is typical of mid-to-late 13th century practice.
• The Gloria has freer rhythmic interplay than the Kyrie, similar to later Ars Nova developments. It probably dates from the period 1325-1350.
• The Credo is in a simple contrapuntal style, and is found in three other manuscripts.
• The Sanctus, like the Kyrie, is Franconian in style and notation.
• The Agnus Dei is also Franconian.
• The motet to the text Ite missa est ends the mass.