I’ve been thinking about my mass again. It may well have been the single most amazing performing experience of my life. So many things came together at the last minute. The things that didn’t quite come together were subsumed in the cumulative effect of the emotional journey. I still find myself thinking randomly gracious thoughts to the amazing Chiara Quartet, Therees Hibbard, and the indefatigable UNL Chamber Singers for going above and beyond all bounds to rehearse the music outside of their normal rehearsal time. To have the whole experience culminate in the University giving a musician the prize for the outstanding dissertation for the first time in the history of the award was almost too much to imagine. As I look back, I’m especially proud that I kept to the Ockeghem ideal of hiding the artifice deeply within a convincing musical texture. I think it’s time for someone to mount another performance.
Here are the links to the premiere with the basic descriptions of the movements.
I. Kyrie
Solists and choir sing in different time signatures at the same time
II. Gloria
A Triple fugue gradually unfolds in which each subject is in a different time signature. Ultimately, all three subjects interlock at the climax.
III. Credo
A series of canons (exact, inversion, and mensuration are all used) that begin at the octave with each successive canon at an smaller interval until we reach the unison. (Of course, the crucifixus is set as a canon at the tritone).
IV. Sanctus
Just mostly fun with some juxtaposed time signatures
V. Agnus Dei
No imitative counterpoint here, but each part functions in a different prolation.
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