In contrast to the long-held view that the cyclic mass originated in polyphonic settings, it has recently been demonstrated by Leo Schrade that unified cycles of plainchant masses existed for several hundred years before the first documented polyphonic mass. The argument can be strongly made, however, that these early plainchant masses were unified far more by liturgical considerations than by musical ones. An exception to this may be six plainchant masses found in the Cypriot manuscript, in which each mass is unified by general similarities of melodic style and use of a single mode. Although this concept may not have originated with these works, if the 1413 dating of the Cypriot manuscript is correct, then these six masses predate any known complete polyphonic mass cycles.

Index Classifications: 1300s, 1400s

Contributed by: Sherri Winks