the Ockeghem Requiem is appropriately austere for a setting of the Mass for the Dead; indeed, the lack of polyphonic settings of the requiem until the late 15th century was probably due to the perception that polyphony was not sober enough for such a purpose. Portions of the work, especially the opening Introit, are written in the treble-dominated style reminiscent of the first half of the 15th century, with the chant in the topmost voice (superius) and the accompanying voices singing mostly in parallel motion in a fauxbourdon-like manner. Within each movement there are subsections for two or three voices which provide contrast with the fuller four-voice textures that surround them and provide a sense of climax, a procedure typical of Ockeghem. The closing movement, the Offertory, is the most contrapuntally complex, and may have been intended as the climax of the entire composition. Precise dating of the Requiem has not been possible. Richard Wexler proposed 1461, the year of Charles VII's death, a monarch to whom Ockeghem owed a debt of gratitude and for whom he would likely have composed a requiem. If this date is correct, Ockeghem's Requiem could have predated the lost one of Dufay, the date of which is also speculative. Another possibility is that Ockeghem may have composed it instead for the death of Louis XI in 1483, or even towards the end of his own life; poet Guillaume Crétin alludes to the composition of a possibly recent requiem in his Déploration, written on the death of Ockeghem. References Fabrice Fitch, Johannes Ockeghem: Masses and Models. Paris: Honoré Champion Éditeur, 1997. Gustave Reese, Music in the Renaissance. New York: Norton, 1954. Leeman L. Perkins: "Jean de Ockeghem", Grove Music Online, ed. L. Macy (Accessed March 9, 2006), (subscription access) Fabrice Fitch: "Requiem, 2", Grove Music Online, ed. L. Macy (Accessed March 9, 2006), (subscription access) Meinolf Brüser, liner notes to CD Musikproduktion Dabringhaus und Grimm (MDG) 605, Lamentations: Festa – Ockeghem – Gombert. 2004. Richard Wexler: "Which Franco-Netherlander Composed the First Polyphonic Requiem Mass?" Netherlandic Studies I, p. 71-6. Lanham (Maryland), 1982. Notes Compositions by Johannes Ockeghem Renaissance music Ockeghem