Lupus Hellinck

The vocal media of this composer included masses, motets, chorales, chansons, and Flemish songs. He was the master of the chapel at Notre Dame in Bruges, and later at St. Donatian. Hellinck's primary medium was the mass, of which he composed 13 in the parody style. He often employed music that he himself had already written, particularly from his corpus of motets. Enigmatically he combined the parodied melody with different counterpoints. His copying method was especially apparent in his Agnus Dei(s) with the exception of the Missa 'In te Domine speravi'. The Agnus Dei for this mass was completely new. Traditionally the Order of the Mass followed the format of Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei. This was the format Hellinck used as well. Masses composed by Hellinck show the direct influence of Josquin Deprez while his motets reflect the character of Gombert. The chorales composed by Hellinck were qualitatively in the motet style characterized by the chorale melody in the tenor with little rhythmic variation between (usually three) other voices. ~ Keith Johnson