STRAVINSKY AT MASS -
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,414
    I'm sure that, in addition to Renaissance ordinaries, many here have done Classical and, perhaps, even Romantic ones. Has anyone done Stravinsky's mass at mass? Or, any other settings that would qualify as examples of a truly modern or XX. century compositional idiom? (Merely 'Contemporary', whether pop or Proulx, does not count.)
  • Charles in CenCA
    Posts: 2,416
    Not the movements, MJO.
    However, I did inherit a parish choir where the Alleluia was adapted from his Symphony of Psalms. I thought it was cool, tho' not appropriate. I confess to having programmed Igor's "Pater Noster" a couple of times over the last four decades as well.
  • HolyGhostCappella
    Posts: 23
    Stravinsky's Mass and Paert's Berliner Messe are on my list of "to-do's" - We have done several motets by Paert (Da Pacem Domine and The Beatitudes) with a pretty good reception from the congregation.
  • Richard R.
    Posts: 776
    I once heard the Stravinsky Mass performed as part of an Anglican liturgy somewhere in England, at one of the Cambridge colleges, I think. I was a little stunned, but thoroughly enjoyed myself. Perhaps imagining the reaction in any Catholic parish I've ever known...
  • IanWIanW
    Posts: 762
    The Stravinsky Mass was the liturgical course-work at Spode Music Week a few years ago. We sang it at Mass at the end of the week, with orchestration arranged for available instruments by jeremy White, the Week's Chair. It worked very well, but that's not surpsising as clergy and congregation were all professional or amateur musicians!

    This year the liturgical course work is another modern mass setting, by Roxanna Panufnik. Apart from the end of the week, daily masses are usually a mixture of chant and polyphony. The other main vocal course-work, the Montverdi Vespers, is also liturgical, but it will be performed in concert.

    If anyone's interested in attending (it's in the UK, from 14th - 21st August), contact me at ian at ianw dot me dot uk, and I'll send them the course brochure as a pdf (the web-site hasn't been updated yet - Music week has largely sustained itself by word of mouth for the last 56 years).
  • Rebecca Bridget C-
    Posts: 79
    We've sung Stravinksy's Ave Maria as a communion meditation in the past. Stravinsky composed versions in both Slavonic and Latin; we chose the Latin. This isn't quite as revolutionary as using his ordinary, since it is unaccompanied and is quite tame compared to his other compositions, but.... it was still Stravinsky :-)
  • mahrt
    Posts: 517
    We sing the Pater Noster on occasion; it is quite simple and very effective. It is actually pretty straight-forward Russian church music.

    Years ago, we had a doctoral student at the university prepare the Stravinsky Mass for a concert; he wanted to perform it liturgically and offered it to us, and we accepted. Our choir sang the Gregorian propers an the visitors sang the Stravinsky with the proper instrumentation. The chapel is 1950's modernist architecture with quite live acoustics. It added up very nicely and it was a memorable occasion.

    Dean Applegate's Cantores in Eccesia in Portland sing the Poulenc Mass, and I think it has been very well received.

    I heard the Vaughan Williams Mass in G Minor at Westminster Cathedral in London quite recently; it suited the liturgy very well. It was actually written for Westminster Cathedral.

    I believe that Westminster Cathedral has a Mass of Panufnik which was written for them. I was in London one Sunday and this Mass was programmed; I went, eager to hear it, but there was a last-minute change of plan. There were some thirty concelebrants of the Mass, young priests from mainland China, with Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor as principal celebrant; the Mass setting was the big Rheinberger. I do not know if the change was made to suit the tastes of the Chinese priests or the cardinal.
  • IanWIanW
    Posts: 762
    We have also sung the Poulenc and VW g minor liturgically at Spode. Both were effective, and the VW in particular very moving. The Poulenc is difficult. Interestingly, you can hear the origins of parts of Poulenc's Gloria in the earlier work.

    A suggestion for the CMAA - wouldn't the Colloquium be an opportunity to explore the liturgical use of such near-contemporary repertoire?
  • JDE
    Posts: 588


    Maybe a setting by Kevin Allen, for example? Maybe that's something to explore for next year's Sunday Mass.
Add a Comment