If you've ever read anything in the Faith section of my bloggery, you'll probably realise that I'm not Roman Catholic. So, why have I written a Mass? Well, I wrote it because I sing in choirs and wanted to try my hand at
composing a choral work. Being lazy, taking the Mass as a subject meant
that I didn't have to look far for words to set to music.
Masses are a large part of the choral repertoire and, putting the religious element aside (if you must), they can be immensely enjoyable for choirs to sing and audiences to hear.
Many of our great composers (e.g., Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Dvořák, Fauré, Hayden, Mozart, to mention but a few) have written masses. Even Lloyd-Weber wrote a Requiem (admitting he didn't know what the words mean). And now there's this one (but I do know what the words mean)!
- The words of the Ordinary Latin Mass are used; these should be familiar to any choir which has performed other such religious works. I have tried to make the music expressive of the sense of the words. You will find serenity and pathos, joy and sorrow, fireworks and darkness, hope and thankfulness.
- It is scored for SATB, with piano as the only accompanying instrument, and with no necessity for soloists.
- The solo parts are undemanding and could be sung by individuals from the choir or alternatively, with one possible exception (Credo in Spiritum Sanctum), by the appropriate section of the choir.
- The lines are for the most part lyrical, making them relatively easy to learn and to sing with confidence.
- Great effort has been made to keep each part within an accessible range for amateur voices. Alternative notes are suggested where this may be a bit of a stretch (for the tenors!).
Now, I do all my composition with a magnificent piece of open-source musical notation software called MuseScore, which can also play (using midi sounds) what you write. However, it can't sing words and its voicing of voices amounts to oohs and aahs which, to my ears at least, was somewhat distracting to listen to. So, I've voiced the choir parts as a string quartet (Soprano: violin, Alto: violin, Tenor: viola, Bass: cello) which, along with the piano accompaniment, makes the work much more pleasant to listen to as simply a piece of music.
Bon appétit!
