This is an anonymous poem. The tone-color is a bit repetitive, and Claudin de Sermisy wrote it in a different polyphonic way for each chorus and verse. This version was noticed by Roland de Lassus, and he based one of his numerous parodic masses.
“Messe pilons l’orge” (ref. ACJ 19 0685) is not very difficult to learn. Be careful to the opposition between the chorus and the verse highlighted by the musical writing and the meaning of the juxtaposed texts. Francis Poulenc reused this tone-colour in “Huit Chansons françaises” with a new polyphony.
