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One of the many striking typographical features of Morales’s two mass books is the imitation of decorative features that appeared in a mass anthology published 28 years earlier: the Liber Quindecim Missarum (Rome: Andrea Antico, 1516). Whereas the opening illustration in Antico’s book depicts a kneeling Antico presenting his book to Pope Leo X, the corresponding page in Morales’s second book shows Morales presenting his volume to Pope Paul III. Similar designs were to appear in such later Spanish prints as Sebastián de Vivanco’s Liber Magnificarum (Salamanca: Artus Taberniel, 1607) and Juan Esquivel de Barahona’s Liber primus missarum (Antwerp: Artus Taberniel, 1608). But this was by no means the limit of Morales’s influence upon an entire generation of Spanish composers that followed him. Indeed, Morales’s motets were to provide a generation of composers with the richest musical yarn with which to weave their own masses.
Morales’s twenty-one masses have earned him a reputation as a composer of masses, much more so than any of his contemporaries. One of the many remarkable features of Morales’s masses is that none were modelled on motets composed by Spanish composers. Instead, he chose models written by Jean Mouton (?1459-1522), Jean Richafort (c. 1480-c. 1547), Philippe Verdelot (1470/80-before 1552), Nicolas Gombert (c. 1495-c. 1560), and Josquin Desprez (c. 1440-1521). Morales was especially influenced by Josquin, and even his masses based upon plainsong make frequent and sophisticated references to the great Franco-Flemish master. Yet it would be hasty to suggest that Morales’s love and knowledge of the music of the Franco-Flemish masters made him turn his back on his native Spain. For when it came to secular models, Morales based no fewer than three of his masses on the following Spanish melodies: Desilde al caballero, La Caça, and Tristezas me matan. The second of these makes frequent reference to Mateo Flecha’s ensalada La Caça.
The publication of no less than sixteen masses in one year demands to be recognized as a monumental achievement, yet it was Morales’s set of sixteen in all of the eight ecclesiastical tones that were to win him immediate, wide, and enduring popularity. It seems truly amazing that in 2003, when we celebrate the 450th anniversary of Morales’s death, that there is no complete recording of this set of splendid pieces. Some of the Magnificats were reprinted more than ten times in the sixteenth century, and manuscript copies were distributed throughout the world. Today, early manuscript copies of the Magnificats may be found in such diverse centres as New York, Pastrana, Puebla (Mexico), Paris, London, Munich, Rome, Coimbra, Florence, Madrid, Rostock, Toledo and Vienna. The Magnificats began to appear in printed editions in 1542 with the publication of five works setting in polyphony both the odd and even verses of the Marian canticle, as was the exclusive practice of the papal chapel. Everywhere else this Vespers canticle was sung in alternatim, that is with alternating verses of plainsong and polyphony. It was only in 1545 that all eight (=sixteen) Magnificats appeared as a coherent set. Here, they were divided into eight Magnificats setting the even verses and eight Magnificats setting the odd verses, one for each of the eight ecclesiastical tones. The intervening verses for each setting would have been sung in plainchant. The authors of the Revised New Grove article on Morales see this division as «an extraordinary step» and «a dismaying act perpetrated by the composer on some of his greatest music». Indeed, they go so far as to call the division of eight works into sixteen works an act of «mutilation».
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