| The musical style of these songs varies from simple, syllabic melodies to elaborately flowing compositions modelled on melismatic plainchant. |
| The main theme of this movement is the Dies Irae from the medieval plainchant. |
| In its earliest recorded form, plainchant, the monophonic music of the Western Church, varies from extreme simplicity to great complexity. |
| The majority of Obrecht's masses are constructed round either plainchant melodies or secular songs. |
| The construction of the second movement is descended from plainchant graduals and hymns. |
| These rendered plainchant in unison, either as a body or antiphonally across the choir. |
