This discography is divided into two parts. Part I lists the all works attributed to Ockeghem. This list is based on the one published by Martin Picker (see reference below); it was published in 1988.
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During the early 1590s, (or, more likely, his publisher) added two further works to a collection of masses - his Liber primus - that had originally been published in 1554. The first of the two additional masses added in the 1591 edition is the well-known Missa pro defunctis, or Requiem Mass, while the second is a six-voice work that goes by the title Missa sine nomine (not to be confused with the composer's many four- and five-voice masses by the same name). The Missa sine nomine is a parody mass, each of its sections taking a pre-existing polyphonic set of motives and themes as a starting point; the source of these underlying melodic fragments seems to be an anonymous motet titled Cantabo Domine. While it is possible that the mass had been in existence for some time before the 1591 publication, it seems far more likely that the work, like its companion the Missa pro defunctis, had only recently been composed. (The mass also appears in the 1591 reissue of the Liber quintus, originally published in 1590.)The usual Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus (with Benedictus), and Agnus Dei are present. As per tradition, the opening Kyrie is cast in three sections. The six voices enter in two groups of three, the bottom three setting up a three-layered, subtly imitative structure that the others will duplicate - this basic polyphonic cell, drawn from the Cantabo Domine motet, recurs throughout the movements.
The texture is thinned to just four voices for the following Christe, while a brief try at homophony ushers in the second Kyrie eleison. Soon the rising filled-in fifth motive that appeared three times (more if we count rhythmic alterations) in the first Kyrie returns in full imitative regalia.The first line of the Gloria text (and, for that matter, the Credo text) is not set to music, as the singers would normally be expected to chant it as a kind of introduction to the polyphony. The Gloria falls into two sections of nearly equal length.
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The same motivic layers that began the Kyrie are at work here and that the bass entry is again imitated by an upper voice.These same two generative ideas are brought back to begin the lengthy, four-section Credo (laid out in 6, 4, 4, and 6 voices). The second section (beginning with the text 'Crucifixus etiam pro nobis') makes striking use of the filled-in fifth that appeared to such good effect in the second Kyrie; the idea is again initiated by the bass.A comparison of the opening gesture of the Sanctus to those of the previous three sections reveals just how flexibly can deploy the same basic material. The appended Benedictus begins with a wonderfully drawn-out imitation of the upper neighbor-note idea.provides polyphony for the two traditional Agnus Deis, the first setting the text 'Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world: have mercy upon us,' the second replacing the final four words with the plea, 'Grant us peace.' Parts/Movements. Kyrie.
Gloria. Credo. Sanctus.
Agnus Dei 1. Agnus Dei 2Appears On.
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