Mass | Definition, History & Types

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Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. </div> <div class="label mt-20 mb-10">Select Citation Style</div> <select class="js-citation-format-select form-select"> <option selected value="mla">MLA</option> <option value="apa">APA</option> <option value="chicago">Chicago Manual of Style</option> </select> <div class="citation font-serif border rounded p-15 mt-20" data-authors="The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica" data-title="mass" data-published-date="11 Oct. 2007" data-url="https://www.britannica.com/art/mass-music" > <div class="citation-text"></div> </div> <button class="js-copy-citation-button mt-20 btn btn-xs btn-outline-blue border shadow-sm pr-10" > <em class="material-icons md-icon ml-n10 my-n5 mr-5" data-icon="file_copy"></em> <span class="js-citation-status-text">Copy Citation</span> </button> </div> </div> </div> <div> <button class="js-share-modal-button js-modal btn btn-sm btn-link gtm-topic-tool font-weight-bold btn-link" data-modal="[data-topic-id=368115] .md-share-modal"> <em class="material-icons mr-5 ml-n10 my-n5 md-icon" data-icon="share"></em> Share </button> <div class="md-share-modal size-lg d-none qa-share-modal"> <div class="md-modal-body"> <div class="h2 font-serif d-flex align-items-center pb-15 border-bottom"> <em class="material-icons text-blue mr-10" data-icon="share"></em> Share </div> <div class="label my-20">Share to social media</div> <div class="md-social-toolbar-circle d-flex align-items-start inverted" data-value="share" title="mass" data-url="https://www.britannica.com/art/mass-music" > <a class="social-icon facebook justify-content-center d-flex align-items-center align-self-center" data-provider="facebook" href="https://www.facebook.com/BRITANNICA/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span>Facebook</span></a> <a class="social-icon x justify-content-center d-flex align-items-center align-self-center" data-provider="x" href="https://x.com/britannica" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span>X</span></a> </div> <div class="label pt-20 mt-20 mb-5 border-top">URL</div> <a class="font-serif text-truncate d-inline-block" href="https://www.britannica.com/art/mass-music">https://www.britannica.com/art/mass-music</a> </div> </div> </div> <div> <button class="js-feedback-modal-button js-modal btn btn-sm btn-link gtm-topic-tool font-weight-bold btn-link" data-modal=".md-feedback-modal"> <em class="material-icons mr-5 ml-n10 my-n5 md-icon" data-icon="message"></em> Feedback </button> </div> <div> <button class="qa-external-website-modal-button js-modal btn btn-sm btn-link gtm-topic-tool font-weight-bold btn-link" data-modal="[data-topic-id=368115] .md-websites-modal"> <em class="material-icons md-icon ml-n10 mr-5" data-icon="link"></em> External Websites </button> </div> </div> <div class="md-feedback-modal size-lg d-none"> <div class="md-modal-body"> <div class="h2 font-serif pb-15 border-bottom"> Feedback </div> <form method="post" action="/submission/feedback/368115"> <div class="my-20"> Corrections? 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The term most commonly refers to the mass of the Roman Catholic church, whose Western traditions used texts in Latin from about the 4th century to 1966, when the use of the <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="vernacular" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/vernacular" data-type="MW">vernacular</a> was <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="mandated" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/mandated" data-type="MW">mandated</a>. The <span id="ref285693"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Anglicanism" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Anglican</a> mass, commonly called communion service, contains the same elements but has usually been sung in the English translation from the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Book-of-Common-Prayer" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">Book of Common Prayer</a>. The <span id="ref285694"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Lutheranism" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true"></a>Lutheran mass consists of the first two elements of the Roman mass, the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Kyrie-religion" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">Kyrie</a> and the Gloria. In modern times other Protestant churches have borrowed freely from musical masses for their own liturgical uses and for special music. (For the Eastern traditions <em>see</em> <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/Byzantine-chant" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Byzantine chant</a>; <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/Armenian-chant" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Armenian chant</a>; <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/Ethiopian-chant" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Ethiopian chant</a>; <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/Coptic-chant" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Coptic chant</a>; <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/Syrian-chant" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Syrian chant</a>.)</p><span class="marker MOD1 mod-inline"></span><span class="marker PREMOD2 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph"><em>The Ordinary.</em> The <span id="ref285695"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/Ordinary-of-the-Mass" class="md-crosslink ">Ordinary of the mass</a> employs texts that remain the same for every mass. Those sung by the choir are, in the Latin mass, the Kyrie, Gloria, <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb" data-term="Credo" href="https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/Credo" data-type="EB">Credo</a>, Sanctus (sometimes divided into Sanctus and Benedictus), and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Agnus-Dei-liturgical-chant" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">Agnus Dei</a>, although the intonations of Gloria and Credo are sung by the celebrant.</p><span class="marker MOD2 mod-inline"></span><span class="marker PREMOD3 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">The earliest musical settings of the mass were plainchant (one voice part, in free rhythm) melodies. From the 9th to the 16th centuries some plainchants were expanded by means of tropes; <em>i.e.,</em> the grafting of new music and new texts onto the original chants.</p><a class="link-module shadow-sm d-block qa-quiz-module" href="/quiz/sound-check-musical-vocabulary-quiz" data-link-module-iframe-link=""> <img loading="lazy" src="https://cdn.britannica.com/30/254330-131-1B200240/young-girl-playing-trumpet.jpg" alt="Young girl wearing a demin jacket playing the trumpet (child, musical instruments, Asian ethnicity)" class="rounded-sm mr-15" width="70" /> <div class="line-clamp clamp-5"> <div class="module-title bg-green">Britannica Quiz</div> <div class="font-weight-semi-bold mt-5">Sound Check: Musical Vocabulary Quiz</div> </div> </a><span class="marker MOD3 mod-inline"></span><span class="marker PREMOD4 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph"><span id="ref285696"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/organum" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Organum</a>, the simultaneous combination of more than one <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/melody" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">melody</a>, was developed in about the 9th century. The <em><span id="ref205669"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Winchester-Troper" class="md-crosslink ">Winchester Troper</a>,</em> a manuscript from about the 11th century, contains 12 Kyries and 8 Glorias in two-part organum; the notation, however, cannot be deciphered. In the 12th and 13th centuries further developments of organum took place in the <em>Magnum Liber Organi.</em></p><span class="marker MOD4 mod-inline"></span><span class="marker PREMOD5 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">In about 1300, polyphonic cycles of the Ordinary (having two or more sections musically related to one another) appeared. The French composer <span id="ref205670"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Guillaume-de-Machaut" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Guillaume de Machaut</a> (d. 1377) wrote the first complete Ordinary cycle, the <em><span id="ref205671"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Messe-de-Notre-Dame" class="md-crosslink ">Messe de Notre Dame</a>.</em></p><span class="marker MOD5 mod-inline"></span><span class="marker PREMOD6 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">The <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="secular" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/secular" data-type="MW">secular</a> music style of the 14th century <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="manifested" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/manifested" data-type="MW">manifested</a> itself in Ordinary settings, which at that time were rarely based on plainsong melodies. The music is basically in <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/descant" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">descant</a> or treble-dominated style: a melodically and rhythmically elaborated upper part over two slower moving parts, usually for instruments.</p><span class="marker MOD6 mod-inline"></span><span class="marker PREMOD7 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">In the 15th and 16th centuries numerous composers chose the Ordinary as a chief means of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/musical-expression" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">musical expression</a>. Masters of the 15th century were the Englishman <span id="ref205672"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-Dunstable" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">John Dunstable</a> and the Burgundian <span id="ref205673"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Guillaume-Dufay" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Guillaume Dufay</a>. Both applied the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/cantilena" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">treble-dominated style</a> of plainsong. Dufay brought to completion the developments of cantus firmus mass, in which each section of the Ordinary is based on a precomposed melody, or <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/cantus-firmus" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">cantus firmus</a> (<em>q.v.</em>), usually either a plainchant melody or a secular <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/song" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">song</a>. The celebrated Flemish composer <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Josquin-des-Prez" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">Josquin des Prez</a> (d. 1521), among his several other <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="innovations" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/innovations" data-type="MW">innovations</a>, perfected the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/parody-music" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">parody</a> mass: the borrowing and free elaboration of two or more parts of another sacred or secular <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="composition" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/composition" data-type="MW">composition</a> within a new setting of the Ordinary texts. He also standardized the use of melodic imitation by having each voice begin in turn with the same motif.</p><div class="module-spacing"> <DIV class="marketing-INLINE_SUBSCRIPTION marketing-content" data-marketing-id="INLINE_SUBSCRIPTION"><style> .student-promo-banner-wrapper { container-type: inline-size; margin-bottom: 15px; } @container (min-width: 475px) { .student-promo-banner { flex-direction: row; } .student-promo-banner-img-wrapper { margin-bottom: 0; margin-right: 10px; justify-content: flex-start; } .student-promo-banner-text-wrapper { text-align: left; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 10px; } .student-promo-banner-button-wrapper { margin-right: 0; } }</style> <div class="student-promo-banner-wrapper"> <div class="student-promo-banner d-flex flex-column align-items-center bg-blue rounded p-20"> <div class="student-promo-banner-img-wrapper mb-20 mr-0 d-flex justify-content-center"> <img class="rounded" style="max-width: 100px; min-width: 80px" src="https://cdn.britannica.com/marketing/BlueThistle.webp" /> </div> <div class="student-promo-banner-text-wrapper ml-0 mb-10 text-center text-white"> <div class="h2 mb-10">Get Unlimited Access</div> <div class="h4 font-weight-semi-bold">Try Britannica Premium for free and discover more.</div> </div> <div class="student-promo-banner-button-wrapper d-flex justify-content-center align-items-center ml-auto mr-auto"> <a class="btn btn-m btn-orange" href="https://premium.britannica.com/premium-membership/?utm_source=premium&utm_medium=inline-cta&utm_campaign=black-friday-2024">Subscribe</a> </div> </div> </div> </DIV></div><span class="marker MOD7 mod-inline"></span><span class="marker PREMOD8 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">The works of the Italian composer Giovanni da <span id="ref205674"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Giovanni-Pierluigi-da-Palestrina" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true"></a>Palestrina (d. 1594) summarize the techniques of his era. His style was later termed the <em><span id="ref205675"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/stile-antico" class="md-crosslink ">stile antico</a>,</em> the ancient polyphonic style, in contrast to the <em><span id="ref205676"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/stile-moderno" class="md-crosslink ">stile moderno</a>,</em> the 17th-century modern solo style. In the 17th century these two styles are found, sometimes even <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="juxtaposed" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/juxtaposed" data-type="MW">juxtaposed</a>, in the Ordinary of the mass settings, along with the use of the concertato principle: one or more solo voices or instruments, in running scale passages, that contrast with the whole <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/chorale" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">choral</a> and instrumental ensemble. In such settings the text is separated into smaller units to permit varied settings and instrumental interludes.</p><span class="marker MOD8 mod-inline"></span><span class="marker PREMOD9 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">In the 18th century, the Neapolitan <span id="ref205677"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Alessandro-Scarlatti" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Alessandro Scarlatti</a> continued the operatic approach, as did Haydn and Mozart. Beethoven’s <em><span id="ref205678"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Missa-Solemnis" class="md-crosslink ">Missa Solemnis</a></em> (completed 1823) flows from the contemplation of the liturgy, as does J.S. Bach’s <em><span id="ref205679"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Mass-in-B-Minor" class="md-crosslink ">Mass in B Minor</a></em> (1724–46), but neither was meant to accompany it.</p><span class="marker MOD9 mod-inline"></span><span class="marker PREMOD10 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">Near the beginning of the 19th century in Germany there arose a renewed interest in plainchant and 16th-century <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/polyphony-music" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">polyphony</a>, ideals that in 1868 initiated the <span id="ref205680"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Cecilian-movement" class="md-crosslink ">Cecilian movement</a> for reform in Roman Catholic <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/liturgical-music" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">liturgical music</a>. But composers still wrote settings for orchestra, chorus, and soloists, notable examples being <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Franz-Liszt" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">Franz Liszt</a>, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Charles-Gounod" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">Charles-François Gounod</a>, and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Anton-Bruckner" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">Anton Bruckner</a>.</p><span class="marker MOD10 mod-inline"></span><span class="marker PREMOD11 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">In 20th-century style are the Ordinary settings of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Igor-Stravinsky" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">Igor Stravinsky</a>, the Hungarian <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Zoltan-Kodaly" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">Zoltán Kodály</a>, the French composer <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Francis-Poulenc" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">Francis Poulenc</a>, and the British composers <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ralph-Vaughan-Williams" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">Ralph Vaughan Williams</a>, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Benjamin-Britten" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">Benjamin Britten</a>, and William Walton. A kind of troped Ordinary is the American <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Leonard-Bernstein" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">Leonard Bernstein’s</a> <em><span id="ref205681"></span>Mass.</em></p><span class="marker MOD11 mod-inline"></span><span class="marker PREMOD12 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph"><em>The Proper.</em> The <span id="ref205682"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Proper-of-the-mass" class="md-crosslink ">Proper of the mass</a> includes the scriptural texts that change daily with the liturgical calendar. The Proper texts sung by the choir, with the participation of soloists, are the Introit, Gradual, Alleluia or Tract, Sequence, Offertory, and Communion.</p><span class="marker MOD12 mod-inline"></span><span class="marker PREMOD13 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">As with the Ordinary, the earliest settings are in plainchant, and troping also existed in the Propers. The <em>Winchester Troper</em> includes 3 Introits, 53 Alleluias, 19 Tracts, and 7 Sequences in undecipherable note-against-note organum. Around 1200, two of the composers of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Notre-Dame-de-Paris" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">Notre-Dame Cathedral</a>, Paris, Léonin and Pérotin, wrote the <em><span id="ref205683"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Great-Book-of-Organa" class="md-crosslink ">Magnus Liber Organi</a></em>, a <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="compilation" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/compilation" data-type="MW">compilation</a> including settings of 59 Graduals and Alleluias in two to four voices. Some pieces have an unmeasured melismatic (many notes per syllable) upper voice over prolonged notes of the chant; others have measured, regular, recurring rhythmic patterns in all of the voices.</p><span class="marker MOD13 mod-inline"></span><span class="marker PREMOD14 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">Around 1430 Dufay reawakened interest in settings of the Proper. Much later, collections of polyphonic Proper settings for the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/church-year" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">liturgical year</a> are found in the German <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Heinrich-Isaac" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">Heinrich Isaac’s</a> <em><span id="ref205684"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Choralis-Constantinus" class="md-crosslink ">Choralis Constantinus</a></em> (begun 1550, completed 1555 by Ludwig Senfl) and in the German Georg Rhau’s publications for the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Lutheranism" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">Lutheran Church</a> in 1539 and 1545.</p><span class="marker MOD14 mod-inline"></span><span class="marker PREMOD15 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">Within the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Roman-Catholicism" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">Roman Catholic Church</a>, the liturgical reforms of the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Council-of-Trent" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">Council of Trent</a> (1545–63) gave new <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="impetus" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/impetus" data-type="MW">impetus</a> to Proper settings. Starting with Giovanni Contino in 1560, numerous Italian composers wrote settings of the Proper. In 1605 and 1607 appeared the two books of the English composer <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/William-Byrd" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">William Byrd’s</a> <em>Gradualia,</em> a collection of polyphonic Propers for major feasts.</p><div class="one-good-fact-module"> </div><span class="marker MOD15 mod-inline"></span><span class="marker PREMOD16 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">Systematic development of the Propers in music was rare from the Baroque era on. </p><span class="marker MOD16 mod-inline"></span></section> <span class="marker end-of-content"></span><span class="marker after-article"></span></div> <div id="chatbot-root"></div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="ai-dialog-placeholder"></div> </div> </div> <aside class="col-md-da-320"></aside> </div> </div> </div> </div> </article></div> </div></div> </div> </main> <div id="md-footer"></div> <noscript><iframe src="//www.googletagmanager.com/ns.html?id=GTM-5W6NC8" height="0" width="0" style="display:none;visibility:hidden"></iframe></noscript> <script type="text/javascript" id="_informizely_script_tag"> var IzWidget = IzWidget || {}; (function (d) { var scriptElement = d.createElement('script'); scriptElement.type = 'text/javascript'; scriptElement.async = true; scriptElement.src = "https://insitez.blob.core.windows.net/site/f780f33e-a610-4ac2-af81-3eb184037547.js"; var node = d.getElementById('_informizely_script_tag'); node.parentNode.insertBefore(scriptElement, node); } )(document); </script>  <script> window.ap3c = window.ap3c || {}; var ap3c = window.ap3c; ap3c.cmd = ap3c.cmd || []; ap3c.cmd.push(function() { ap3c.init('ZO4siT4cLwnykPnzZWJtd3Byb2Q', 'https://engage.email.britannica.com/'); ap3c.track({v: 0}); }); ap3c.activity = function(act) { ap3c.act = (ap3c.act || []); ap3c.act.push(act); }; var s, t; s = document.createElement('script'); s.type = 'text/javascript'; s.src = "https://engage.email.britannica.com/app.js"; t = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; t.parentNode.insertBefore(s, t); </script> <script class="marketing-page-info" type="application/json"> {"pageType":"Topic","templateName":"DESKTOP","pageNumber":1,"pagesTotal":1,"pageId":368115,"pageLength":1012,"initialLoad":true,"lastPageOfScroll":false} </script> <script class="marketing-content-info" type="application/json"> [] </script> <script src="https://cdn.britannica.com/mendel-resources/3-130/js/libs/jquery-3.5.0.min.js?v=3.130.14"></script> <script type="text/javascript" data-type="Init Mendel Code Splitting"> (function() { $.ajax({ dataType: 'script', cache: true, url: 'https://cdn.britannica.com/mendel-resources/3-130/dist/topic-page.js?v=3.130.14' }); })(); </script> <script class="analytics-metadata" type="application/json"> {"leg":"D","adLeg":"D","userType":"ANONYMOUS","pageType":"Topic","pageSubtype":null,"articleTemplateType":"LARGE","gisted":false,"pageNumber":1,"hasSummarizeButton":false,"hasAskButton":false} </script> <script type="text/javascript"> EBStat={accountId:-1,hostnameOverride:'webstats.eb.com',domain:'www.britannica.com', json:''}; </script> <script type="text/javascript"> ( function() { $.ajax( { dataType: 'script', cache: true, url: '//www.britannica.com/webstats/mendelstats.js?v=1' } ) .done( function() { try {writeStat(null,EBStat);} catch(err){} } ); })(); </script> <div id="bc-fixed-dialogue"></div> </body> </html>

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Mass | Definition, History & Types | Britannica