Missa Sine nomine

The Missa Sine nomine is a setting of the Ordinary of the Mass by Renaissance composer Josquin des Prez. It is a work of his maturity, probably dating from the period after he returned to Condé-sur-l'Escaut in 1504. It is one of Josquin's only masses not to be based on pre-existing material, and like the Missa ad fugam, it is a canonic mass.

The circumstances of its composition are unknown. Since its first appearance was in Ottaviano Petrucci's third book of Josquin's masses (Fossombrone, 1514), and since it then also appeared in later manuscript copies, it is presumed that it was relatively recently composed at the time of publication; in addition stylistic characteristics suggest it was a late work. Josquin wrote only two canonic masses, the Missa ad fugam and the Missa sine nomine; they seem to stand at opposite ends of his career, and in the latter work he seemed to revisit some of the compositional problems he tackled in his early work in order to solve them a different way.

As in most musical settings of the mass Ordinary, it is in five parts:
Kyrie
Gloria
Credo
Sanctus
Agnus Dei