The Armed Man

The secular song the Armed Man was popular with the great composers of Renaissance era polyphony (masses, motets, etc.). There is a deeper meaning there. That music was a school. The symbol of the Armed Man was a reference to the armor of God, an armour of light. The cantus firmus in such music is symbolic of many things, as well the lines of music woven around it. Most all the great names of that music composed their own Armed Man mass. Three of the greatest are readily available from the Naxos label (each of which recordings given the highest rating by the Penguin Guide to Classical Music, all three in fact being given 'Rosettes': by that publication's rating system the equivalent of a 12 on a scale of 1 to 10 in both performance and sound).

Ockeghem - Missa L'homme armé

Dufay - Missa L'homme armé

Josquin - Missa L'homme armé

The Ockeghem disc comes with one of the most sublime motets (and performances) you can hear, by Josquin, called: Memor esto verbi tui.

And, no, these aren't 'Roman Catholic' things. All three are of the northern school, first of all, which had little connection to the Papacy; but, beyond that, even the set words of these works aren't infected with bad theology. The northern school, by the way, at its height is more stark and desolate than the later, and more southern, style of Palestrina and Victoria of greater fame...