Missa Fortuna desperata

Obrecht based his Missa Fortuna desperata on a once-popular secular song (chanson) at one time attributed to Antoine Busnois. Probably written in the late 1480s, this was one of Obrecht’s first mature mass settings for four voices, where he transforms and expands the music of the original three-voice piece with exceptional resourcefulness. Fifteenth-century listeners who knew the original chanson would surely have been struck by Obrecht’s powerful literal quotations from it in the second “Kyrie” and first “Agnus”—a daringly secular note in the most solemn of sacred works. His basslines are interesting for the way they begin to direct the harmony, especially at cadences; a harmonic bass became increasingly important during the 16th century. The Mass survives in five sources, which are all incomplete in some way, with most lacking the Latin text fully laid out beneath the music. Despite its fine musical qualities and importance in Obrecht’s output, the Mass is not well known, and has seldom been recorded.