Advice on a polyphonic Mass setting that is relatively easy to learn?
  • ProfKwasniewskiProfKwasniewski
    Posts: 247
    This April we are hosting a Cardinal who will be celebrating a Solemn Pontifical Mass. We would like the choir to sing a beautiful polyphonic setting, but it cannot be harder than Palestrina's Missa Brevis, given the singers are our disposal. And yet we would like to try something other than Palestrina's Missa Brevis. Any recommendations?
  • Kathy
    Posts: 5,513
    I asked the same question here some years back, though without the Cardinal, and was given the excellent advice to try Lassus' Missa Octavi Toni. Really nice, not too challenging.
  • Protasius
    Posts: 468
    Missa tertia by Hans Leo Hassler seems to be manageable.
  • OrganistRob320OrganistRob320
    Posts: 164
    Byrd for Four or Five voices. Sounds beautiful and is rather easy on the voice.
  • Chris Garton-Zavesky
    Posts: 6,902
    Byrd, 3-voices
  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,482
    Byrd, seconded and thirded.
    No objections?
    The motion carries: try Byrd.
  • amindthatsuits
    Posts: 860
    I had Lassus/Lasso/whatever recommended by a tenured musicologist down South who ALSO runs a volunteer schola.
  • amindthatsuits
    Posts: 860
    Just look up Laasus to see if I was being too flippant, and he has almost as many variant spellings as Okeghem!

    Kenneth
  • DougS
    Posts: 793
    We untenured musicologists just give out all kinds of bad advice, I guess! :-)
  • CHGiffenCHGiffen
    Posts: 5,199
    he has almost as many variant spellings as Okeghem!

    So does Byrd/Bird/Burd/Birde/Byrde/Burde. No Byrd has more!
    Thanked by 1tomboysuze
  • MaryAnn Carr WilsonMaryAnn Carr Wilson
    Posts: 1,738
    Victoria Missa "O quam gloriosum" is joyous, tidy in form length and use of motivic material, and it's fairly stepwiswe.

    Whichever you choose, I might suggest skipping the credo. It's one third of learning time for most any mass, and it's nice to have the congregation chant one of their parts. Just a thought.
    Thanked by 2canadash mmeladirectress
  • hartleymartin
    Posts: 1,447
    I concur with Victoria's Mass "O Quam Gloriosum". Not difficult, very beautiful.

    I also agree that if you are going to have a sung creed, stick with a plainchant setting that you know. I feel that there is actually a good case of reciting the creed in spoken voice since it is meant to be a statement of individual faith done collectively.
  • Kathy
    Posts: 5,513
    I thought Lhassus was a mango drink with yogurt.
    Thanked by 1CHGiffen
  • amindthatsuits
    Posts: 860
    Ha ha. No, of course, I think any advice by any experienced person is wonderful. I was saying that someone who knows the century well AND manages a volunteer schola of normal abilities (i guess)has recommended lassus. I thought the discussion was brought down on Byrd a little bit fast. Love Byrd/Byrde/Bird. I have a loop on Rhapsody.com with maybe seven or eight albums that I put on when I am at home. I just thought it could be broadened out a little bit.

    And good to know on the spellings on Byrd because I got confused from different reference sources and thought just my memory was wrong. And people think that Shakespeare with his four spellings is somehow sketchy.

    Kenneth
  • SamuelDorlaque
    Posts: 318
    Also, look at Palestrina's "Missa: Aeterna Christi munera" & Hans Leo Hassler's "Missa Secunda."
  • rich_enough
    Posts: 1,050
    Previous discussion here with many helpful suggestions.
    Thanked by 1ProfKwasniewski
  • rich_enough
    Posts: 1,050
    Masses on CPDL not mentioned in either discussion:

    Missa in D - G. A. Bernabei

    Missa Quand'io pens'al martire – Lasso

    Missa Sine Nomine – Viadana
    Thanked by 1ProfKwasniewski
  • hartleymartin
    Posts: 1,447
    If you can get the rights to it, there are a couple of nice masses for 2 voices

    Mass in Mi, Mass in Re and Mass in Fa by Bevenot.

    Missa in Honorem Regina Pacis

    The last is very mediaeval with a lot of open 5ths. (Sounds a bit like snake-charmer music at times)
  • ProfKwasniewskiProfKwasniewski
    Posts: 247
    Thank you, everyone, for the great suggestions.

    I'm inclining to Palestrina's Missa Aeterna Christi munera.
  • tomboysuzetomboysuze
    Posts: 289
    Also, give a look at Kevin Allen's "Missa Rex Genitor" - it's lovely. And there are tons of practice videos. Order from CC Watershed; (for 3 equal voices)
    http://www.ccwatershed.org/purchase_3_voice_Mass/

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Jgqbo2GD5s&feature=player_embedded
  • tomboysuzetomboysuze
    Posts: 289
    PS - I wanted to also note the Hans Leo Hassler setting - Missa Secundus.
    I tried to attach it, but the file is too big.
    You can find it here: http://www3.cpdl.org/wiki/index.php/Missa_Secunda_(Hans_Leo_Hassler)

    It is very joyful and interesting.
  • Mark P.
    Posts: 248
    Andrea Gabrielli Missa brevis and Viadana Missa L'hora passa--both very short and of a high musical caliber.
  • R J StoveR J Stove
    Posts: 302
    Here is an eminently singable two-voice Mass setting - very few awkward vocal leaps - from Oreste Ravanello, originally published in the early 20th century, with a fairly straightforward organ part that doesn't require (though it can be used with) pedals:

    http://javanese.imslp.info/files/imglnks/usimg/4/43/IMSLP250031-PMLP405221-ravanello.pdf

    If you want something that sounds a bit more recent than the Palestrina-Victoria-Lassus-Byrd repertoire, but that won't antagonize anyone, I can't see how you could go wrong with this composition.
  • CHGiffenCHGiffen
    Posts: 5,199
    Here's a direct PDF link to the Hassler Missa Secunda at CPDL mentioned above.
    Thanked by 1tomboysuze
  • edward.yong
    Posts: 30
    Gabrieli and Viadana didn't intend their settings to be sung acappella, so they really need at the very least organ continuo. if you can muster up the forces, ask a local recorder quartet to double the voice parts.

    I've found Lassus' Missa Entre Vous Filles to be both easy and pleasant on the ears.
  • Mark P.
    Posts: 248
    I've sung both the Gabrielli and Viadana a cappella many, many times.
  • edward.yong
    Posts: 30
    they're both perfectly singable acappella, just as they can be played on kazoos, but they weren't meant for that...
    Thanked by 1R J Stove
  • hartleymartin
    Posts: 1,447
    My college's choir generally sings them a capella, but if we are struggling to sing it well, the choirmaster doubles on organ.
  • R J StoveR J Stove
    Posts: 302
    Tonight, at Midnight Mass here in suburban Melbourne, I am meant to be singing in an ad hoc choir which will be performing (with organ) a Latin Mass for Saint Catherine by Lorand Kilbertus, whoever Lorand Kilbertus might be. Whole piece would appear to consist of unison vocal writing, and looks harmonically attractive: Langlais with the strongest Gallic asperities removed. I pass on this information for whatever it might be worth.
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