THE STYLE OF WALTER FRYE AND AN ANONYMOUS MASS IN THE LUCCA CHOIRBOOK

The anonymous mass found on fos. 22(r)-24(v) of the Lucca Choirbook (Lucca, Archivio di Stato, MS 238 and associated fragments) is a fascinating work, despite the bad damage it has suffered. Its Kyrie shares an unusual structure with only one other mass, Walter Frye's Nobilis et pulcra, and it is the only three-voice work of certain English provenance outside Frye's oeuvre that utilizes a low contratenor. Its contrapuntal style, dotted with apparent melodic cliches common to Frye, is also noticeably indebted to the composer. It seems clear that it was written by a composer with thorough familiarity with Frye's style and quite probably by Walter Frye himself. If this is the case, it adds yet another mass to the corpus of sacred works by Frye found in manuscripts from the Burgundian territories around Bruges. Perhaps it is time to reconsider the possibility of an association between the composer and the region.