Felipe - are you arware that most English masses of this period do not include the kyrie? This owing to the fact that in Sarum usage the kyrie was always retained in plain chant, even when the rest of the mass was polyphony. If I were in your situation, I would follow this tradition. There is a certain dramatic beauty in the calculated movement from chant to polyphony. I have experienced this as being quite breathtaking.

In the Sarum Rite, the Kyrie was not only plain chant but also on many days it was troped, as in the following:

Orbis factor, Rex aeterne, eleison.
Kyrie Eleison.

Pietatis fons immense, eleison.
Kyrie Eleison.

Noxas omnes nostras pelle, eleison.
Kyrie Eleison.

Christe qui lux es mundi dator vitae, eleison.
Christe Eleison.

Arte laesos daemonis intuere, eleison.
Christe Eleison.

Conservans te credentes confirmansque, eleison.
Christe Eleison.

Patrem tuum teque flamen utrorumque, eleison.
Kyrie Eleison.

Deum scimus unum atque trinum esse, eleison.
Kyrie Eleison.

Clemens nobis adsis paraclite ut vivamus in te, eleison.
Kyrie Eleison.

This troped Kyrie Orbis factor gave the name to the Missa Orbis Factor, Mass XI of the Kyriale. The troped Kyrie Lux et origo lucis, summe Deus gave the name to the Mass I, Missa Lux et origo lucis for Eastertide.

Here is the Kyrie Orbis factor as sung by Ensemble Organum:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmkhk9Z8Lu4

Tomjaw,

Fascinating--a couple of mentions of Kyrie Rex splendens (Mass VII in the Liber).
I'm surprised there was a Sarum Gradual in 1580. Wouldn't Graduals have been replaced by the Book of Common Prayer in Elizabeth's Church of England? Were the remaining Roman recusants printing Sarum Graduals? I can understand that Pius V's Missale Romanum (1572) might have had only limited circulation in England at that date.

For the original poster, M Jackson Osborne's suggestion of using a chant Kyrie seems to me the way to go.

If you're going the "troped" route, Kyrie IV is troped in Cantus Selecti, which can be readily accessed from the CMAA.

The mode of the Tallis is (approximately) Mode V (or VI, depending upon your viewpoint). The consistent use of semitone leading tone argues against it being in Mode VII (or VIII). Given the mixed modalities of the parts of the various Masses in the Kyriale, I wouldn't worry too much about which Kyrie to use, as long as it "feels" right.

CHGIFFEN!

STUNNING VIDEO..

Thank you.

The Sarum rules specified certain kyries (with their tropes) to be sungen at different times and seasons of the year. Though it's a nice theoretical idea, I really don't think that the issue of matching modality is of importance here. As someone above pointed out, even the Gregorian mass cycles are not in the same mode throughout. The English composers eschewed the kyrie in their masses precisely because they regarded kyrie, because of its trope, to be a part of the proper. This, of course, means choosing a particular kyrie for a particular event based on its trope. Which one might have been sung for a nuptial mass someone else may be able to answer.

And, an aside -
Speaking of troped kyries, most here probably know that the typical kyrie in many German lands was Fons bonitatis. It is interesting to trace this kyrie from its original version, to its troped version, and then to a (macaronic) German chorale which retains the chant melody almost verbatim, whilst the text is merely a German translation of the trope. This is the basis (as many will be aware) of Bach's great pedaliter kyries in Clavier-Ubung (BWVs 669-771). It is still to be found, in English translation, in most American Lutheran hymnals, and is commonplace, as well, throughout Lutheran Europe. It's a very beautiful hymn, which could well be used in Catholic worship.

I'll put the text and tune up here later.

Those who play the Bach versions would profit well from taking note of how these organ chorales reflect the respective texts. Particularly, the manner in which the climaxes mirror the text in the third (plenum) setting is nothing short of profoundly, jaw-droppingly awesome, ascending to that astounding high Bb for departing this world with gladness, followed by a calculated descent and relaxation of energy. Taking careful note of this will forever influence how you play these pieces.

(There is also a very fine organ version of these by Scheidemann.)

Hi all,

Thanks for the great responses!

I’m well aware that Masses from Tallis’s day and before did not include polyphonic Kyrie settings. :) I have, of course, considered the “historical preservation” angle but wanted to know if there was any particular polyphonic Kyrie that stuck out to anyone here as being an especially apt “fit”.

Granted, given the distinctness of this particular piece’s musical language, that’s a rather tall order! I know of no other piece quite like it: in many ways it’s a “meeting point” between the “endless polyphony” of pre-Protestant England with the new, more austere, Protestant musical language, but it somehow feels different from both of those styles even so.

As a sidenote, while it’s a piece I’ve always liked, I’ve observed that it’s not everyone’s “cup of tea”. In fact, I was rather (pleasantly!) surprised when the groom picked this one over Palestrina “brevis” in F—whose Gloria we sing at most choral weddings at my current parish.

here's the one i set a few years back.

There's the Taverner Kyrie "Le Roy" in an edition by our own CHGiffen.