THE GENRE OF THE MASS IN THE ENGLISH PRE-REFORMATION MUSICAL CULTURE: CHARACTERISTICS AND DEVELOPMENT FEATURES

Svirskaya Ekaterina Vasilievna

The article examines the genre of the mass in the English pre-reformation musical culture, examines the stages of its formation and development from the end of the XV to the middle of the XVI century. To observe the transformations of individual aspects of the genre, significant musical samples created before the Reformation were considered, and the main directions of the genre's development were identified. The aim of the study was to identify the characteristic features of the English Mass in the context of the cultural and historical background of the era. The work addresses the issue of the influence of the political and religious environment on the formation of musical language, as well as highlights key compositional techniques. As a hypothesis, it is suggested that, despite the initial formation of the cyclic form in England, in the 16th century the Mass did not become a defining genre in British music, but has a number of specific characteristics. The results of the study show that the English Mass in many aspects developed differently from the continental samples and represents an important contribution to the history of musical art.

Keywords:English Church Music, Renaissance Polyphony, Tudor Mass, Lady Mass, Mass-parody, intertextuality, Faburden, L'homme arme, cantus fitmus