ABSTRACT
Scholars have created theories to describe the origin, process, and evolution of the imitation mass (also known as the parody mass) from the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries.1 Often discussions focus on two points: (1) how much material is borrowed-one, two, or all of the voices of the model-and (2) the style of the model. For instance, Ludwig Finscher describes the development of the imitation mass as an evolutionary process spanning two centuries. His theories concentrate on the progressive, additive quality of the amount of borrowing from the model, focusing on masses from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. To illustrate this process, he creates discrete categories based on specific types of borrowing evolving over time.2 Lewis Lockwood suggests that a change in the type of model used for these masses around 1500 was the catalyst that led to the full-fledged imitation mass, rather than there being an evolutionary process based on the amount borrowed from the polyphonic model. This new style model, the four-part imitative motet, grew out of a process of simultaneous composition: individual lines of text were set in somewhat discrete imitative complexes or in short homorhythmic passages in a simultaneous manner, rather than in the oldfashioned line-by-line linear style. He concludes that a composer using such a model was forced to borrow individual motives and vertical units rather than single lines.3 These theories became the main criteria used to determine and understand the development leading to the mature imitation mass.
