| Messe de Nostre Dame (Mass of Our Lady) is a polyphonic mass composed before 1365 by the French poet, composer and cleric Guillaume de Machaut (circa 1300-1377). One of the great masterpieces of medieval music and of all religious music, it is the earliest complete setting of the Ordinary of the Mass attributable to a single composer. The Messe de Nostre Dame consists of 5 movements, the Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Agnus Dei, followed by the Dismissal Ite Missa Est ("Go, you are envoyed"). As well as composing new music for the Mass, Machaut also selected appropriate chants for each section, each chant he selected being for the feast in honor of the Virgin Mary. Machaut's Messe de Nostre Dame is for four voices rather than the more common three. Machaut added a contratenor voice that moved in the same low range as the tenor, sometimes replacing it as the lowest voice. |
| Messe de Nostre Dame - 4th movement Messe de Nostre Dame - 5th movement |
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