Scaramella mass (Reconstruction)

About this publication

Does musicology become disconnected from its roots with reconstructing what has not been handed down by sources or is the circumferential route along derived information defensible here? Fabrice Fitch has made a serious attempt with his reconstruction of the two missing voices in Jacob Obrecht’s Scaramella mass.

Jacob Obrecht’s Missa Scaramella (ca. 1458–1505) may be considered a lost masterpiece by one of the greatest of the astonishing generation of composers active ca. 1500. It is transmitted uniquely in a set of four partbooks now housed in Kraków’s Biblioteka Jagiellońska (formerly in Berlin, Former Preußische Staatsbibliothek, Ms. Mus. 40634), of which two, containing the discantus and tenor, are now lost. Against the material contained in the surviving altus and tenor partbooks, it has been possible to reconstruct the work in its entirety.

About the editor

Composer and musicologist Fabrice Fitch (Royal Conservatoire of Scotland) led the reconstruction of the Missa Scaramella. Fitch has published widely on Renaissance polyphony, with special emphasis on the music of Johannes Okeghem, Jacob Obrecht, and Alexander Agricola. His most recent monograph is Renaissance Polyphony (Cambridge University Press, 2020). Fitch’s own compositions are focused on small ensembles and soloists, and on close collaboration with performers.