ABSTRACT
The five- and four-voice masses begin, like the shorter votive antiphons, with the time signature , but in all except the Plainsong mass some form of triple time is employed later for contrast. This chapter discusses the five masses are very varied, even in length, for Mater Christi is a scaled-down version of a festal setting, while the mean mass is much more compact. The masses Mater Christi and Small devotion were derived partly from votive antiphons of Taverner's own composition, the latter from O Christe Jesu pastor bone, or its original O Wilhelme. Le roy Kyrie is built on a square, that is, a type of cantus firmus originally extracted from a polyphonic composition and particularly associated with music for the Lady Mass. The mass alludes only briefly to the music that originally referred to Wolsey.
