The principal source of the work is a nearly-complete copy in the Bavarian State Library, Mus. Ms. 1, described on the title page as Missa: / Et ecce terre motus / Duodecim vocu(m): / Anthonio / Brumel / autore. The volume contains 60 folios, comprising only this work, and was copied under the aegis of Orlande de Lassus for a performance possibly around 1568. No earlier sources exist, and no later sources contain the whole mass. Unfortunately the last half of the volume shows some signs of damage, and while the Mass is complete (give or take a note) up to the end of the Benedictus, the last few folios containing a single 12-part setting of Agnus Dei... miserere nobis have badly rotted. A 6-part setting of the same text and ascribed to Brumel is purported to be part of the Mass, but is found in a separate manuscript and is stylistically a foreign work in several ways; it sheds no light on the incomplete 12-part setting.

Only 5 of the 12 parts, usually the ones placed in the middle of the page, are undamaged. The worst damage is found on the last folio, containing the final 15 breves of the 6 contratenor/tenor parts. Fortunately in the preceding pages there are usually 10 or 11 parts extant at any point; the fragmentary parts are easily aligned since the score was laid out in choirbook format, so that every double page contains exactly the same duration of music notated in each part. In addition a structural canon based on the “Et ecce terræmotus” cantus firmus is present between the Tenor Secundus, the Bassus Tertius a fifth below and the Discantus Tertius a fourth above. The most intricate canon in the Mass, it is initially pitched gg-e-g-a-gg and rises step by step on each repetition until the tenor reaches the original pitch heard in the Kyrie on d'.

At this point, we lose almost all of the 7 incomplete parts, however two of these are canonic and trivial to restore. The remaining 5 parts, as well as 20 or so measures in the preceding music, have been furnished in the flamboyant style typical of Brumel’s part-writing evident in the rest of the Mass, taking into account the considerable imitation between parts and the harmonic limitations imposed by the three-part canon.

In the Scorch version hosted on this website, note durations have been quartered and a suggested tempo for the tempus diminutum has been indicated. Each measure as scored corresponds to a long, equal to three breves in the original notation. The whole movement is 60 breves long, which thus reduces to a mere 20 measures. Ligatures and colouration are shown by means of continuous and broken square brackets above the noteheads, with the exception of the final of the Bassus Primus part, where the lower of the two notes is coloured. The textual underlay in the source indicates what words should be sung at approximately what point in the music, without specifically assigning syllables to ntoes. The italicised underlay is therefore completely speculative.

The PDF version for the Werner Icking website is deliberately less specific in detail – there is little additional underlay; note durations are as in the original, but without ligature or colouration marks.

In detail:
Folio 56, verso: this contains measures 1 to 4 of the Discantus and Bassus parts. There is no substantial damage; however one note is damaged on the recto, in the preceding Benedictus, and is missing from the Contratenor Primus.

Folio 57: the top 2 parts on each side of the folio are damaged, corresponding to Contratenor I & II in measures 1 to 4 on the recto and Discantus I & II in measures 5 to 10 on the verso. Incidentally most of the parts are written on two staves on each folio, with the first stave indented; the exceptions tend to be the slower-moving voices carrying the canon or providing the real bass, which usually consist of a single stave per folio.
Contratenor Primus: only the extreme right ends of two staves are extant, with no clefs or music. The only notations are the custos marks (indicating the pitch of the first note of the following stave).
Contratenor Secundus: at the end of the first stave the last two notes of measure 2 and the first six notes of measure 3 are extant, followed by a custos indicating the following note in measure 3 is d'. On the second stave six noteheads are implied by the stems only, and there are gaps for only two notes or rests; the first five and last three notes of measure 4 are extant. The placement of the custos gives a clue as to the possible note durations that can fit into the gaps. Also, Lassus’s scribe is fairly precise in drawing the stems to identical lengths, so the actual note pitches may be deduced by closely examining where the stem finishes.
Discantus Primus: of two staves comprising six measures, only 9 notes are extant at the start of the second stave, corresponding to the fourth note of measure 8 through to the first note of measure 9.
Discantus Secundus: the first three notes in measures 5 and 6 are extant on the first stave, along with the whole of the second stave (from the fourth note of measure 8 onward).

Folio 58: there is very little damage on the recto, which is confined to a few notes and rests at the top of the page, in the first stave of the Contratenor Primus. The situation on the verso varies from the occasional missing note in the Discantus I and II, Bassus I and III parts, to a missing phrase in Discantus II: measure 13 from the fifth note to the end of the bar.

Folio 59, recto: this corresponds to measures 11 to 15 in the Contratenor and Tenor parts.
Contratenor Primus: two notes and a rest are extant at the start of the second of two staves, which would fit somewhere in the neighbourhood of measures 13 and 14.
Contratenor Secundus: only the second stave is extant, the first note of which corresponds to the third last note of measure 13. The two noteheads following are missing but easily corrected.
Tenor Tertius: much of the second stave is damaged, so some missing noteheads are implied by the stem, such as the last three notes of measure 13 and the fourth and fifth notes of measure 15.

Folio 59, verso: this contains measures 16 to 20 of the Discantus and Bassus parts.
Discantus Primus: no music extant.
Discantus Secundus: three notes, the custos, and some text are extant on the first stave, and all of the second stave is undamaged. This allows placement of two of the notes from the first stave, starting with the last note of measure 17; the third note cannot be aligned as it is an isolated d' which would appear to be somewhere in measure 15 or 16.
Discantus Tertius: complete to the end.
Bassus Primus: a whole measure (18) appears to be missing, at the start of the second stave, which is missing its clef. It is almost certain however that this section consists of a long rest (i.e. three breves), so that no music has actually been lost from this part.
Bassus Secundus: complete to the end.
Bassus Tertius: no music extant except a vague hint of the clef and one of the long notes. As noted above, this part is canonic and so is easily completed; with the exception of the antepenultimate note the canon is strict.

Folio 60, recto: this corresponds to measures 16 to 20 in the Contratenor and Tenor parts.
Contratenor Primus: no music is extant. Part of a stave including a clef and a fragment of text is visible.
Contratenor Secundus: a group of five notes is extant on the second stave; there is then a gap with the words miserere nobis underneath a damaged portion, the final is extant, placed directly above the last syllable. The group can be placed fairly well at the end of measure 18.
Contratenor Tertius: complete to the end.
Tenor Primus: one of the reiterated notes on b at the start of measure 18 is missing and another damaged, but otherwise the part is essentially complete.
Tenor Secundus: the last three breves are missing, which include the final as the last notation found is the rest at the end of measure 19.
Tenor Tertius: a group of eight notes is extant on the first stave (one of presumably two) and can be assigned to most of measure 16 and the start of measure 17; a note or two on either side are easily found by implication.

Use these links to view the score, or download the Agnus Dei in MIDI format.

Philip Legge

Melbourne, October 2003
(minor revision 21 April 2004 regarding version for Werner Icking Archive)