“Now, My Tongue, the Mystery Telling” Singing of the Sacrament with Josquin des Prez (1440/45–1521)

The King at supper sits, the twelve as guests He greets;
Clasping Himself in His hands, the food Himself now eats.

— Ancient Eucharistic Hymn
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​Readers of this column might recall from the April 2021 issue (“Music Inspired by the Diet of Worms: Luther’s Favorite Composers”) that among Luther’s favorite composers was the Franco-Flemish master, Josquin des Prez (ca. 1440/45–1521), who died 500 years ago, the same year as the Diet of Worms. In honor of the quincentennial of his passing, this column will focus on his last published Mass, the Missa Pange Lingua.

Luther’s trip to Rome (1510), the furthest he ever traveled in his lifetime, took him through many important cathedral towns, including Milan and Innsbruck. While he almost certainly never heard the music of Josquin prior to 1510, his eventual admiration for the music of Josquin probably began with hearing compositions by Josquin in Milan and Rome, cities where Josquin served the church with his rich talent as a composer, and where his choral repertoire has yet to cease. In Innsbruck, where the music of Josquin was frequently performed in the court of Maximilian, Luther was probably impressed with the music of Josquin and the acoustical properties of the cathedrals. By 1531 Luther made his famous comment of Josquin, “all of whose compositions flow freely, gently, and cheerfully, [and] are not forced or cramped by rules. . . .” And by 1551, just five years after Luther’s death, Josquin was considered to be among the “immortals” of revered composers (Robin A. Leaver, Luther’s Liturgical Music, 32, 51, 85).
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Josquin’s final published Mass, Missa Pange Lingua, is a paraphrase mass, i.e., a mass in which each voice imitates the music of a pre-existent chant. In this particular case, Josquin drew upon the music of the following chant with a text by St. Thomas Aquinas (adapted from the Latin hymnist, Fortunatus) for the Corpus Christi Festival (the Thursday following Trinity Sunday), with its trademark procession of the Body of Christ through the streets of Europe.

1 Now, my tongue, the mystery telling
of the glorious body sing,
and the blood, all price excelling,
which the Gentiles' Lord and King,
in a Virgin's womb once dwelling,
shed for this world's ransoming.

2 Given for us, and condescending
to be born for us below,
he, with us in converse blending,
dwelt the seed of truth to sow,
till he closed with wondrous ending
his most patient life of woe.

3 That last night, at supper lying,
'mid the Twelve, his chosen band,
Jesus, with the law complying,
keeps the feast its rites demand;
then, more precious food supplying,
gives himself with his own hand.

4 Word-made-flesh, true bread he maketh
by his word his flesh to be,
wine his blood; which whoso taketh
must from carnal thoughts be free:
faith alone, though sight forsaketh,
shows true hearts the mystery.

5 Therefore we, before him bending,
this great sacrament revere:
types and shadows have their ending,
for the newer rite is here;
faith, our outward sense befriending,
makes our inward vision clear.

6 Glory let us give and blessing
to the Father and the Son,
honour, might, and praise addressing,
while eternal ages run;
ever too his love confessing,
who, from both, with both is One. Amen. (translation composite)

​With this simple chant in his mind and his composer’s pen in hand, Josquin wrote this Mass based on the imitative style that later flowered under Palestrina, Byrd, and Tallis. In contrast to the later classical styles, which generally set the melody in the upper voice and often relegated the lower voices to accompaniment material, Josquin treated all voices as equals. In the following performance of the Kyrie by a small ensemble (typical of the performance practice in Josquin’s day), notice how the composer begins with a musical paraphrase of the chant and gradually builds a lush choral tapestry.

Lord, have mercy upon us.
Christ, have mercy upon us.
Lord, have mercy upon us.

The Kyrie alone—barely three minutes of music—demonstrates not only why this Mass is so revered among singers, but also why the Renaissance period is widely known as “the singer’s era.” In the florid lines of Renaissance polyphony, each vocalist can revel in the text and contribute to the musical interdependence, but at the same time he can hear not just his own part, but the whole that he is a part of.

Readers who wish to explore the entire Mass are invited to scroll down a bit further to enjoy a wonderful interpretation by The Tallis Scholars. For those who prefer to explore this heady music in small doses, I would like to skip ahead to the Agnus Dei.

Most of the movements of this Mass begin with literal quotations from the Pange Lingua chant, but the entire tune does not appear until near the end, in the last section of the Agnus Dei, when the superius (the highest voice) sings it in its entirety, in long notes. Here Josquin briefly returns to the cantus firmus style of the middle 15th century, where one voice holds (tenere) the melody, complemented by the other voices. The 1539 publisher even added the hymn's text under the notes at this point in the score to alert the reader to this unique musical reference to the original chant. Using the image below the text, perhaps you can find the melody in the following video?

Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world, have mercy on us.
Lamb of God, You take away the sins of the world, have mercy on us.
Lamb of God, You take away the sins of the world, grant us peace.

Lutheran readers might be thinking that they probably won’t be attending a Corpus Christi Festival any time soon, at least in the Medieval sense of the feast. The Lutheran confessors are clear – as are the words of Christ Himself – that the Body of Christ is intended to be consecrated, distributed, and received, with no room for so-called “Communion with the eyes.” The editors of Lutheran hymnals, then, are quite right to retain five stanzas of this Latin hymn, all of which encourage sacramental piety and are fitting for any celebration of the Lord’s Supper.

​The following recording contains all six stanzas of the hymn (please see the complete text of the chant above), so enjoy or ignore the fifth stanza as your faith tradition dictates. As for the five “Lutheran” stanzas, the hymn endures and enriches our hymnody with its focus on the dual mystery of the incarnation and the ongoing mystery of His sacramental presence among us. As the eucharistic text quoted at the head of this article describes so beautifully, the King is at once the host (hostia = sacrifice) and the main entrée—O great mystery for human tongues to tell!

Extra Choral Credit: Hearing the Entire Missa Pange Lingua

If you are still reading this column, then I charitably assume that you stuck around to listen to the entire Missa Pange Lingua. Notice how Josquin uses imitation frequently in the Mass, with the musical material changing according to the text, usually by phrases of the text. The polyphonic sections stand in contrast to several homophonic passages (i.e., in textual unison). Especially notable is the setting of et incarnatus est in the Credo, where the words "he became incarnate by the Holy Ghost from the Virgin Mary" (10:15 in the following video) is set to the complete melody from the original hymn which contains the words "Sing, O my tongue, of the mystery of the divine body,” thereby linking the incarnate Body to the eucharistic Body.

The full text of the Ordinary of the Mass is readily available online or perhaps in your hymnal. And rest assured that Josquin will not let you down, nor will Peter Phillips and The Tallis Scholars in this recording. Starting times for each movement are given below. As you listen, I encourage you to hear the initial theme of each section, and then, as additional voices enter, to enjoy the tapestry of glorious choral music, each voice veritably weaving its way to heaven—freely, gently, and cheerfully, as befits an enduring “master of the notes.”

1	Kyrie	0:00
2	Gloria	2:58
3	Credo	7:19
4	Sanctus	14:22
5	Agnus Dei	22:21