Your favorite Latin polyphonic Mass for Christmas?
  • Patricia Cecilia
    Posts: 400
    The church where I am choirmaster/DM (Anglican, not Ordinariate) always uses what I would call a 'small polyphonic Mass' with string quartet for the Christmas Eve liturgies. Our favorites are the Charpentier Messe de Minuit, the Victoria Missa O magnum mysterium, and the Healey Willan Mass in E major (based on Corde natus). (I have created tactful string parts/doublings for the Victoria and Willan, and set the 1928 BCP [and the MR3 Gloria, another story] to Corde natus.) We the musicians would be happy to do the Charpentier every year, or rotate these three, but that's not what is wanted by the pastor.

    So I ask: what is your favorite small Latin polyphonic Mass for Christmas? In addition to the parameters above, I would explain that we have a one-manual tracker in a loft that will hold no more than 16 singers and the string quartet/quintet. I play the flute and we have on occasion hired an additional flutist (i.e., for the Charpentier, so we can have alternating sections with violins/flutes/both), but that's it. Also, I have to cut down the introduction to the Kyrie in the Charpentier for time's sake, so a long-drawn-out Mass or one with lots of instrumental interludes (other than in the Agnus Dei) will not work.

    I look forward to your suggestions.
    Patricia
    Thanked by 1JBumgard
  • CHGiffenCHGiffen
    Posts: 5,193
    You might take a look at Missa Conditor Alme Siderum by Giovanni Animuccia (it's at CPDL). It's SATB a cappella.

    Chuck
  • Mark P.
    Posts: 248
    Missa sext toni of Johann Ernst Eberlin. Three-part strings, organ, choir and soloists. Charming and italianate. See http://www.carus-verlag.com/index.php3?selSprache=1&BLink=KKArtikel&ArtikelID=25811
  • BenBen
    Posts: 3,114
    I've always loved Missa Secunda by Hans Leo Hassler. I can't get CPDL to load at the moment (Don't worry Chuck, it's probably just my computer), but I'm almost sure it's there too. It's not strictly a Christmas themed Mass, but it's quite nice nonetheless, and not too long. The whole Mass is only 18 pages, including the credo.
  • BenBen
    Posts: 3,114
    Just got it to work. It's on CPDL: http://www0.cpdl.org/wiki/index.php/Missa_Secunda_(Hans_Leo_Hassler)
  • CHGiffenCHGiffen
    Posts: 5,193
    Here's the correct link to the Hassler Missa Secunda, and yes, it's quite nice.
  • matthewjmatthewj
    Posts: 2,700
    Missa Sancti Nicolai of Haydn?
  • mahrt
    Posts: 517
    The Byrd Four-Part Mass is great; the Three-part is quite economical
  • SamuelDorlaque
    Posts: 318
    Look at Palestrina's "Missa Dies Sanctificatus," based on his motet of the same name. The text is from the Alleluia verse for the Mass of the Day. Time spent learning Palestrina is always time well-invested. The music "wears-well" - and singers seem to remember music by Palestrina better than that of many other composers.
  • Ruth Lapeyre
    Posts: 341
    Some of Mozart's smaller Orchestra Masses are very nice, take a look at the Organ Solo Mass http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sxl-puuO7QA. This Mass is pretty short too and can be sung with 12 to 16 singers with very small string section. I'll put in a vote for Hassler's Missa Secunda too, it is very nice. The Sparrow Mass by Mozart http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEcVuKhUV94 can be sung with as little as 12 singers and a string quartet with Organ. Brixi's charming Missa Pastoralis in D Major
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVUS6lZIkjM
  • JacobFlahertyJacobFlaherty
    Posts: 331
    Perhaps a little dramatic, but I really like Antonio Diabelli's Pastorale Messe in F. It's very Austrian and has some beautiful parts. Has anybody ever heard of it? I will look for a recording of my parish choir back home singing it. (I sang it twice as a boy soprano and twice as a young Tenor...)

  • JacobFlahertyJacobFlaherty
    Posts: 331
    I also love Mozart's Missa Brevis in F. I sang the Soprano solos twice as a boy and sang the Mass once or twice more as a Tenor. Great memories walking to Midnight Mass in the falling snow as I was preparing to sing this. The following link (at least the Kyrie) is a bit faster than I'm use to or prefer, but it definitely contains the spirit.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TS7U-NI_R9k
  • Felipe Gasper
    Posts: 804
    Check out Morales, Missa “Quaeramus cum pastoribus”. Based on a motet of the same name by Mouton. A bit long, but if you’re doing Charpentier that shouldn’t be an issue.
  • Mark P.
    Posts: 248
    Then there's the "Missa ad Praesepe" written for the choir of Westminster Cathedral by George Malcolm. Anglicans seem to love this Latin setting for choir and organ. See http://www.kevinmayhew.com/missa-ad-praesepe.html.
  • Andris Amolins
    Posts: 154
    Mozart Missa brevis in B-flat (KV 275), it is easier than KV 192. Also very nice - Joseph Gruber "Weihnachtsmesse". With our previous organist we sang every piece of J. Gruber we could get hands on.
  • Ruth Lapeyre
    Posts: 341
    JIF Yes the Diabelli is lovely, we did it about 9 years ago. In fact I was going to suggest to Father that we do it again this year.
  • Patricia Cecilia
    Posts: 400
    Thank you all for the recommendations; you've given me plenty to consider (and nice listening as well). JIF, Andris, the Mozart Bb and F are two of our favorite Easter Masses :-)
  • Charles in CenCA
    Posts: 2,416
    Speaking of Hans Leo: Missa super Dixit Maria
    Thanked by 1Patricia Cecilia
  • SalieriSalieri
    Posts: 3,177
    Mozart Missa Brevis in G K 49. Its for SATB choir strings and continuo. (I just did the Gloria at a wedding about a month ago, so it's on my mind.) The choral score is on CPDL, and the old Breitkopf full score is on IMSLP, but you'll have to transcribe the string parts. If you live near a university you might be able to take a look at the new Barenreiter Mozart Edition, which it much nicer looking than the old score (no 'C' clefs in the vocal parts which makes checking for mistakes in the vocal score easier).

    The Monteverdi Missa da cappella would also be nice for festive liturgies. There is Palestrina's Missa O Magnum Mysterium as well. Its in a Dover edition of some of Palestrina's Masses and Motets (It also has P.'s motet O Magnum), which is well worth getting.
    Thanked by 1Patricia Cecilia
  • Patricia Cecilia
    Posts: 400
    Charles--big LOL here--my schola learned "Dixit Maria" four years ago and has never had the opportunity to sing it, so when I saw the Mass in the Anglican church files, I had a big laugh at 'coincidences' and showed it to my alto soloist, who said, "I remember that...it's the same five note theme over and over again. We did it years ago and we all went bonkers." She and one of my sopranos used to sing in a local facsimile group--they got together once a month to sight-read stuff from facsimiles from the Duke and Chapel Hill libraries--so sure, to them this was relatively easy and boring, although I think it's a lovely little Mass. But apparently, even the volunteer amateurs in the choir thought it way too easy. This must have been over a decade ago, since I've been there 11 years and we haven't done it since I've been there.

    I'm off to multitask (iron and listen to all the lovely things you've all sent).

  • lautzef
    Posts: 69
    We often do the Stefano Bernardi Missa 'Il bianco e dolce cigno.' This is a four-part polyphonic mass, with mass parts that are not too long. It has moderate ranges, so anybody can sing it (no high As in soprano or tenor, no low Ds in the bass!!) and it is not difficult. The music is very peaceful and to me seems really appropriate to a celebration of a birth in a humble place, while expressing a quiet joy that comes right through. For the same reasons we often use it at Easter - it is very redolent of the same spirit as 'Salve festa dies" and 'Resurrexi,' which we always sing as well (Salve for a prelude). I can't think of a better mass setting to bring the mind back to where it should be on these occasions.

    We sing practically everything a capella, but I could imagine a very quiet and well-mannered accompaniment contributing to the music.

    Thanked by 1Patricia Cecilia
  • CHGiffenCHGiffen
    Posts: 5,193
    The sweet music of the Arcadelt madrigal "Il bianco e dolce cigno" hardly belies the contrasted poignant joy and deep sorrow of the text:
    Il bianco e dolce cigno
    cantando more, ed io
    piangendo giung' al fin del viver mio.
    Stran' e diversa sorte,
    ch'ei more sconsolato
    ed io moro beato.
    Morte che nel morire
    m'empie di gioia tutto e di desire.
    Se nel morir, altro dolor non sento,
    di mille mort' il di sarei contento.

    The white and sweet swan
    dies singing, and I,
    weeping, reach the end of my life.
    Strange and different fate,
    that he dies disconsolate
    and I die a blessed death,
    which in dying fills me
    full of joy and desire.
    If in dying, were I to feel no other pain,
    I would be content to die a thousand deaths a day.

    What an interesting choice for a parody Mass setting this is, by Stefano Bernardi, based, as it is, on the Arcadelt madrigal.
  • DougS
    Posts: 793
    Bernardi must have had a sense of humor since this is a metaphor for orgasm.
  • Charles in CenCA
    Posts: 2,416
    Doug, you're scaring the home-school moms! The code word is supposed to be "The little death."
  • DougS
    Posts: 793
    Me and my big mouth!
  • CHGiffenCHGiffen
    Posts: 5,193
    DougS ... I didn't want to say it myself, lol.
    Thanked by 1DougS
  • DougS
    Posts: 793
    Not to get all esoteric, but I think it does bring up the interesting and quite varied practice of basing masses on secular works. My personal favorite is a Credo by the obscure Trecento composer Antonio Zacara da Teramo that he based on his "Deus Deorum, Pluto," an ode to the god of the underworld!
  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,215
    Home-school moms? Hey, you're scaring me: we don't want Google to start classifying this site as R-rated when you go talking about, uh, the throes of passion.
    :-)
    Thanked by 2DougS ContraBombarde
  • Jeffrey Quick
    Posts: 2,086
    I think the home-school moms know a little bit about this; they ARE moms!
    Quick, let's take a poll in our parishes, "How many of you are intimately familiar with the text of Il bianco e dolce cigno, and think of it whenever you hear any of the madrigal's motives?"
    Thanked by 1E_A_Fulhorst
  • Steve CollinsSteve Collins
    Posts: 1,022
    My favorite is Marsh's "Choral Mass in Honor of the Infant Jesus". It was the first Ordinary our little parish choir learned after Vatican II - the English version by Carrol Thomas Andrews. I do have a copy of the original in Latin now, and we sang all but the Gloria and Credo for both Christmas Midnight Mass and Epiphany. It's very complimentary with the Missa de Angelis parts. It can be sung SA, SAT, or SATB - the Credo is melody only.

    Later this year, we learned Richard Terry's "Short Mass in C". Now that I compare the two side by side, there are similarities. This Mass uses the Missa de Angelis intonation of the Gloria, and Credo III goes will with it. It's available for free download on CPDL. It is melody only, though.

    Contact me if you're interested in the Marsh.
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,414
    Mine is nothing exotic or obtuse.
    Anything by Taverner (that's TaveRner!)
    Any mass by Monteverdi
    Vaughan Williams' g-minor mass.
    These would be the top three'

    I do not at all like those silly and shallow French masses based on noels.
    No! The occasion calls for the substance and sublime profundity of the likes of my three choises above: music written for solemn and joy-filled but sober ritual .
    Thanked by 1CHGiffen
  • Ruth Lapeyre
    Posts: 341
    I must say Jeffrey this stuff is fun to teach, it makes music history more interesting if you get my drift and yes I was a mother who homeschooled her children! :) I love seeing the look on my student's faces when they realize just where some of this beautiful classical music came from, originally. It gives them a better appreciation of why the Church would be, shall we say, irritated at the time.
  • nunsense
    Posts: 7
    Messe de Minuit by Charpentier!
  • JacobFlahertyJacobFlaherty
    Posts: 331
    Hello all! I found a 2002 recording of my parish choir singing Antonio Diabelli's Pastorale Messe in F with orchestra at our Christmas Midnight Mass. I think the recording is really good considering the Sopranos are all boys and girls in the grades 5-8 with a few high school girls thrown in, too. The men in the choir are the Tenors and Basses from the parish. Forgive my young Tenor solo voice!!!

    The 'Et incarnatus est' section was written in a lengthened fashion, as it was customary in Diabelli's Austrian parish (maybe all parishes?) to obviously kneel on Christmas but also to incense the creche.

    I need some technical assistance. I have it on a CD. I was trying to save it to my computer somehow and then upload it to you. Any ideas?
  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,215
    If you have an mp3 file and can upload it to a website somewhere (even a file-storage site like box.com), you can post a link here on the forum.
  • Carl DCarl D
    Posts: 992
    I can host the files on my site music.dierschow.com if you like, and can even produce different formats. Send me an email for instructions... Carl@dierschow.com.
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