Short Masses (of the highest quality!)
  • Palestrina
    Posts: 364
    Summers in my part of the world are truly oppressive... very hot and humid!

    Does anyone have any recommendations of very high quality (Latin-texted) Mass settings that are very short?

    My initial instinct was to see what was being doing in Mexico, Guatemala and Brazil in the 1500s and 1600s... surely they needed to get through things without everyone passing out from the heat too? More than happy to showcase obscure composers provided their work is if the highest quality!
  • irishtenoririshtenor
    Posts: 1,295
    Have you tried Christoph Dalitz's Missa Tribus Vocibus? It's fairly short and very nice.
  • rogue63
    Posts: 410
    Terry Short Mass in C. Lovely; I've used it with my choristers.

    Terry_Mass_C.pdf
    414K
  • Daniel Bennett PageDaniel Bennett Page
    Posts: 833
    Casciolini “Student” Mass
    Faure Messe Basse
    Viadana Missa Domenica
  • Jeffrey Quick
    Posts: 2,045
    What are your forces and preferred style? If you want to do Renaissance, di Lasso Octavi toni/Venatorum/Jager was made for just such purposes.

    If you have fewer, most unison masses are pretty compact, though the Benedictus is sometimes dilatory. Try Rheinberger Op. 62. Warning: it's a landsmesse, so the Gloria text is not complete. I have a completion up on IMSLP. Willan St. Teresa is also worthwhile though not exciting, and the music makes a better effect if you don't try to push the tempo. I'm working on a unison mass for St. Sebastian, but the Gloria isn't done.
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,368
    ...oppressive... very hot and humid!
    Ah! So you, too, live in Houston! We must have lunch at the Black Labrador sometime.

    As for brief masses, at the risk of being trite there are the Hassler masses, notably no 2.
    Byrd - mass for three voices.
    Thanked by 1tomjaw
  • Aristotle EsguerraAristotle Esguerra
    Posts: 1,185
    With brevity and modest range requirements being my overarching criteria for our Pontifical Solemn Masses here, may I suggest the following:

    • Messe secunda (3vv), Michael Haller
    • Missa Brevis for Three Voices, Stephanie Martin
    • Missa brevis (4vv), Andrea Rota
    • Missa prima (3vv), Giovanni Matteo Asola
    • Missa prima (3vv), Michael Haller
    • Missa secunda (3vv), Giovanni Matteo Asola
    • Missa secunda (4vv), Hans Leo Hassler
  • ViolaViola
    Posts: 392
    Lotti Missa brevis
  • Palestrina
    Posts: 364
    To answer questions above, I’m looking for SATB (and divisi also possible) Masses... they needn’t be easy. As long as they’re very beautiful.
  • Richard MixRichard Mix
    Posts: 2,767
    One of my mentors remarked that he could never have introduced polyphonic Sanctuses if not for Victoria's conciseness. For those of us in congregational Ordinary positions, OT 5C ("In the year that King Uzziah died") presents an opportunity and the problem of finding an Offertory-length Sanctus. Mozart and Victoria are alike too short, Obrecht too long, neither Beethoven nor Monteverdi entirely to Goldilock's liking. Often I've fallen back on Brahms' Missa Canonica, WoO 18.
  • tomjaw
    Posts: 2,704
    Missa Dixit Maria, Hassler is similar in length to the longer chant settings...
    Byrd Mass for 3 Voices is also quite short.

    Both are very beautiful.
    Thanked by 1rich_enough
  • SalieriSalieri
    Posts: 3,177
    If you wouldn't mind something orchestral, the early Mozart Missae Brevis are really nice, and rather short (some only 15 minutes duration for the whole thing, K, Gl, Cr, S, B, Ag.); and most only need two violins and continuo.
  • BruceL
    Posts: 1,072
    Lassus Missa Octavi Toni. Gloria isn't the best, though.
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