Hyperion Records

The Missa Trahe me post te, which was published in Rome by Ascanio Donangeli in 1592, is a parody Mass freely based on Victoria's motet of the same name. Until the last movement the Mass uses only five voices (SAATB) and it is not until the Agnus Dei that the music utilizes the full six-part texture and canonic procedures of its model. In the Agnus Dei there is a double canon at unison between respectively the first and second alto and the first and second tenor, both canons starting at the same time. This movement is based very closely on the music of the last two-thirds of the motet. Because of the consummate skill with which these complicated technical devices are used, the Mass, like the motet, sounds spacious and melodious.

from notes by Jon Dixon © 1994