Victoria’s
Missa Dum complerentur is a six-part parody Mass based on his five-part motet of the same title. It was published in his first book of Masses in Venice in 1576 by Angelo Gardane and later in Rome in 1583 by Angelo’s brother Alessandro in a second book of Masses. The Mass contains much new material but makes considerable use of the opening counterpoints of the motet, and the pealing Alleluias which conclude the motet appear and are elaborated upon in the Amens of the Gloria and Credo. The Mass text does not present the same opportunities for word-painting that Victoria seizes on so effectively in the homophonic passages of the motet, but he uses the extra voice to create a six-part texture of great richness and harmonic variety and also adds an extra part, as was often done in Masses of the period, for the second Agnus Dei, enabling him to bring the work to a close with music of great spaciousness and sonority perfectly fitting the final appeal, ‘dona nobis pacem’.
from notes by Jon Dixon © 1996
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