Brumel was at the center of the changes that were taking place in European music around 1500, in which the previous style of highly differentiated voice parts, composed one after another, was giving way to smoothly flowing, equal parts, composed simultaneously. These changes can be seen in his music, with some of his earlier work conforming to the older style, and his later compositions showing the polyphonic fluidity which became the stylistic norm of the Josquin generation.
Masses Brumel is best known for his
masses, the most famous of which is the twelve-voice
Missa Et ecce terræ motus. Techniques of composition varied throughout his life: he sometimes used the
cantus firmus technique, already archaic by the end of the 15th century, and also the
paraphrase technique, in which the source material appears elaborated, and in other voices than the tenor, often in imitation. He used paired imitation, like Josquin, but often in a freer manner than the more famous composer. A relatively unusual technique he used in an untitled mass was to use different source material for each of the sections (mass titles are taken from the pre-existing composition used as their basis: usually a
plainchant,
motet or
chanson: hence the mass is without title). Brumel wrote a ''Missa
l'homme armé, as did so many other composers of the Renaissance: appropriately, he set it as a cantus firmus mass, with the popular song in long notes in the tenor, to make it easier to hear. All of his masses, with the exception of the highly unusual twelve-voice Missa Et ecce terræ motus'', are for four voices. During the 16th century the most famous of Brumel's masses was his
Missa de beata virgine, a
paraphrase mass using elaborations of various plainchant melodies. According to Heinrich Glarean, writing in 1547, it was written in competition with Josquin, who simultaneously wrote his own
Missa de Beata Virgine, and the two works are similar in style. Brumel's
Missa pro defunctis for four voices, a late work, is notable for being the first
polyphonic requiem setting to include the
Dies Irae. Brumel's setting uses
alternatim polyphony (sections of plainchant alternate with sections in polyphony). In addition, this is one of the earliest polyphonic requiems to survive: only Johannes Ockeghem's
Requiem is earlier.
Motets, chansons, and instrumental music –
Fors seulement", a 4-voice chanson with two texts by Brumel Brumel also wrote numerous motets, chansons, and some instrumental music. His style in these also evolved throughout his life, with his earlier works showing the irregular lines and rhythmic complexity of the
Ockeghem generation, while the later ones used the smooth imitative polyphony of the
Josquin style as well as the
homophonic textures of the current Italian composers of popular songs (for example
Tromboncino, who was in Ferrara at the same time as Brumel). One peculiar feature of Brumel's style is that sometimes he uses very quick syllabic declamation in
chordal writing, anticipating the
madrigalian fashion of later in the 16th century. This appears sometimes in the "Credo" sections of his masses – logically, since that section has the longest text, and if set similarly to the other sections to the mass, it can be disproportionately long. After Josquin des Prez, Brumel is considered one of the greatest composers of his generation. During his life,
Ottaviano Petrucci published a book of his masses, and a number of other composers wrote pieces commemorating him after his death. His impressive 12-voice
Missa et ecce terræ motus survives from a part-book used for performance by
Lassus in Munich around 1570, long after Brumel's death. ==Works==