A Mass of Fools -- and its modern counterpart

In the Middle Ages it was common for the time from Christmas to the New Year to be treated as a time of reversing normal structures and procedures.  Masters and servants changed places, and in the monasteries or cathedrals the younger monks and clerics took control away from the senior abbots and bishops.

When the normal order was reversed, it was also expected that normal events were parodied and satirized in the process.  We know from historic documentation that the Mass was often given in a parodied form, especially on the Feast of Fools (December 26).  There is one text of such a parody mass extant, and it is called the Officium Lusorum (Mass of Gamblers).  This text, without music, is found in the famous Carmina Burana manuscript which later provided the text for Carl Orff's famous cantata in the 20th century.

Now, I've been fascinated by the music of the mediaeval period ever since I was a student, and I've often read or heard of these Fools' Masses without having any idea what they might have sounded like.  That gap in my experience has just been filled.

I recently bought a 7-CD collection from the French ensemble Millenarium, highlighting all kinds of different styles of secular music from the Middle Ages.  One entire disc is devoted to a conjectural reconstruction of a Mass of Fools, using the Officium Lusorum text as a basis for reconstruction.

All I can say is I have never heard anything like this in my life before!  Okay, with one exception -- which I'll get to later. 

The Feast of Fools was also known as the Feast of the Ass -- and so the performers in the Fools' Mass at certain times bray, bellow, or bleat like animals.  There are outrageous parodies of singing style with ridiculous tremolo effects, strained vocal sounds, and the like.  Some parts of the Mass are given in complete and normal style, which only highlights the ridiculous sounds produced in other parts.  The second part of the Mass uses the famous "Song of the Ass" whose tune is well known today as a Christmas hymn in many churches.  On occasion, one can hear laughter and applause, which seem to indicate a live performance (although that is not specifically stated in the booklet).  That's a live concert I would have loved to attend! 

What marks the music as typical of the Middle Ages is that all the singing is in the form of single, unharmonized melodies.  This type of singing, known as "monody" (single voice), was the only kind widely used.  Only as the mediaeval period worked towards its end did any attempt at vocal harmony become widespread.

Thanks to Millenarium for producing (over a period of years) this extraordinary anthology of secular music of the Middle Ages. It is certainly going to find an honoured place in my CD collection. And I expect to get a few good laughs every time I listen to the Officium Lusorum!

And what was that one piece I've heard which seems to grow out of the same tradition?  It was actually written in the 1930s -- and I'm not referring to Orff's masterpiece, much as I enjoy it!  It seems plain to me that Swiss composer Arthur Honegger must have been very familiar with the research done into these Fools' Masses and all the aspects of these outrageous parodies.  In his oratorio Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher ("Joan of Arc at the Stake") a key section is called "Joan given up to the Beasts".  Here, Joan's trial proceeds exactly like a parody from the Feast of Fools with the Ass singing his song to the tune of the mediaeval "Song of the Ass", the sheep as a jury, and the pig (Porcus) as judge -- a wicked pun on the name of Bishop Pierre Cauchon of Beauvais, who judged Joan ("cochon" is the French name for a wild pig).  The music proceeds with parodies of court procedure and religious ritual all thrown in, with all the characters switching back and forth between debased Latin and modern French (the main language of the work) and with the electronic ondes martenot supplying the ass's braying!