The Armed Archangel: Johannes Regis, Missa L’homme armé

Regis’s Mass based on the song L’homme armé is one of the very first in a series of L’homme armé works stretching across musical generations – and the only one whose origins are clearly understood. Written for the celebration of the feast of St. Michael at Cambrai Cathedral in 1462, the Mass is a tour de force setting multiple plainchant cantus firmi and featuring Regis’s brilliant and unique sense of sonority.