ABSTRACT
One of the frustrating things about dealing with the actual repertory of the papal singers in the early 16th century is our inability to connect any specific pieces with specific occasions. A Mass in the papal chapel in the presence of the pontiff in the 16th century was extremely elaborate, and was governed by strict procedures embodied in the papal ceremonial and entrusted to the care of the papal master of ceremonies. The pope’s participation in a papal Mass, even when he did not celebrate, was an active one, and this constitutes the element of the papal ceremonial with real effect on musical performance. In 1517, de Grassis had occasion to mention the Feast of the Assumption, not because it was a papal ceremony, but for purely personal reasons. In fact, one of de Grassis’s major concerns is that the music intended to accompany liturgical actions last for precisely the length of the action.
