[+] Strunk, Oliver. "Origins of the L'homme armé Mass." Bulletin of the American Musicological Society 2 (1936): 25-26. Reprinted in Oliver Strunk, Essays on Music in the Western World, 68-69. New York: W. W. Norton, 1974.
The Missa L'homme armé by Jacob Obrecht is a parody of Busnois's mass on the same theme. Obrecht's mass quotes the tenor exactly as does Busnois, and even Obrecht's free sections correspond to the other composer's mass. These similarities are, however, contrasted by Obrecht's use of new canons, more extensive use of imitation, and new harmonic schemes. The relations between these masses supports the theorist Aron's notion that Busnois had written the model and that Obrecht's work is a tribute to the "authority" of that model. Morton's chanson setting of L'homme armé also gives credence to Busnois as the author of the model, since his work is almost entirely a borrowing of the "Tu solus altissimus" section of Busnois's mass.
Works: Obrecht: Missa L'homme armé; Busnois: Missa L'homme armé; Morton: L'homme armé.
Sources: Busnois (?): L'homme armé; Busnois: Missa L'homme armé.
Index Classifications: 1400s
Contributed by: Mary Ellen Ryan
